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NATURAL 
SCIENCE 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


VOL.  XV. 


EDINBUEGH  &  LONDON 

YOUNG    J.    PENTLAND 

1899 


Tm-5    i 


EDINBURGH  :    PRINTED   FOR   YOUNG   J.    PENTLAND,    II    TEVIOT   PLACE,    AND 
38    WEST    SMITHFIELD,    LONDON,    E.C. ,    BY   R.   AND   R.   CLARK,    LIMITED. 


CONTENTS. 


Anderson,  R.  J.,  Some  Considerations  concerning  Symmetry 

Barrett-Hamilton,  G.  E.  H.,  Notes  on  the  Habits  of  the  Northern  Fur  Seal 

Bather,  F.  A.,  The  Fauna  of  the  Sound 

,,  ,,        A  Zoologist  on  the  Principles  of  Science 

Bedford,  F.  P.,  Stray  Impressions  of  the  Marine  Invertebrates  of  Singapore  and 
Neighbouring  Islets  ..... 

Beer,  Rudolf,  On  the  Multinuclear  Cells  of  some  Grasses 

Bennett,  Alfred  W.,  The  Flora  of  the  Alps     . 

Bonney,  T.  G.,  The  Original  Rock  of  the  South  African  Diamond 

Dawson,  Charles,  and  S.  A.  Woodhead,  Problem  of  Honeycomb 

Duncker,  Georg,  Variation-Statistics  in  Zoology 

Herrera,  A.  L.,  A  Theory  of  Sleep      .... 

Keegan,  P.  Q.,  The  Comparative  Chemistry  of  our  Forest  Trees 

,,  ,,        Trees  in  Winter  .... 


Kyle,  H.  M.,  An  Extension  of  the  Method  of  treating  Variations, 
and  certain  Conclusions    ..... 


with  Example 


Licorish,  R.  F.,  Mr.  F.  W.  Headley  on  Evolution      . 

,,  ,,       The  Influence  of  the  Nervous  System  in  Organic  Evolution 

Massee,  Geo.,  The  Cereal  Rust  Problem — Does  Eriksson's  Mycoplasma  exist  in 

Nature  ?     . 

Meteorology  and  Ethics  ....... 

Moore,  Spencer,  Suggestions  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Australian  Flora 
Sherborn,  C.  Davies,  Lacepede's  "Tableaux  des  Mammiferes  et  des  Oiseaux  " 
Tayler,  J.  Lionel,  The  Scope  of  Natural  Selection       .... 

White,  Philip  J.,  Excavations  on  Puffin  Island  .... 

Woodward,  A.  Smith,  The  Supposed  Existing  Ground-Sloth  of  Patagonia  . 


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47002 


NATURAL    SCIENCE 


Natural  Science        ^? 


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.^ 


A  Monthly  Review  of  Scientific  Progress 

July  1899 

NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

The  Animal  Mind. 

In  the  June  number  of  Natural  Science,  we  had  occasion  to  remark  that 
comparative  psychology  is  the  most  anarchic  department  within  the 
naturalist's  province.  This  is  due  to  several  causes :  in  part  to  the 
fact  that,  as  we  said,  this  field  is  often  a  happy  hunting-ground  for  the 
crank,  in  part  to  a  lamentable  want  of  agreement  in  the  use  of  psycho- 
logical terms,  and  in  part  to  the  lack  of  any  co-ordinated  body  of 
critical  and  adequately-trained  opinion  on  the  subject.  The  average 
press  critique  of  a  work  on  the  instincts  and  intelligence  of  animals 
reveals  the  fact  that  there  are  comparatively  few  men  to  whom  an 
editor  can  appeal  with  confidence  that  they  have  a  sufficient  back- 
ground of  knowledge  to  enable  them  to  realise  the  true  nature  of  the 
problems  which  are  discussed.  The  more  popular  and  superficial  the 
interpretation  in  a  work  under  review,  and  the  more  closely  it  accords 
with  the  current  prejudices  of  those  who,  without  special  study,  think 
they  understand,  not  only  mental  products,  but  (a  far  more  difficult 
matter)  the  subtle  processes  by  which  they  are  reached,  the  more  likely 
is  it  to  be  hailed  as  the  expression  of  the  "  plain  common  sense  view 
of  the  question." 

Two  articles  are  devoted  to  comparative  psychology  in  the  May 
number  of  the  Psychological  Review :  one  by  Prof.  Wesley  Mills  on 
"  The  Nature  of  Animal  Intelligence,  and  the  Methods  of  investigating 
it " ;  the  other  by  Prof.  E.  Thorndike  on  "  The  Instinctive  Eeaction  of 
Young  Chicks."  The  main  object  of  the  former  writer  is  to  criticise 
some  of  the  previous  work  of  the  latter.  The  monograph  by  Prof. 
Thorndike  thus  criticised  was  reviewed  in  these  pages  by  Prof.  Lloyd 
Morgan,  who  urged,  inter  alia,  that  the  method  adopted  by  its  author, 
that  of  placing  starving  cats  in  cramped  cages,  was  unsatisfactory. 
This,  too,  is  the  burden  of  much  of  Prof.  Wesley  Mills'  criticism.  And 
so  far  he  is  on  safe  ground — ground  which,  as  an  independent  observer, 
he  knows  well.  But  when  he  deals  with  psychological  criticism  the 
plane  of  his  analysis  is  so  different  from  Prof.  Thorndike's,  that  little 
of  value  comes  out  of  his  discussion.  He  will,  we  think,  enlist  the 
sympathies  of  the  uninstructed,  rather  than  those  of  serious  students  of 

1 NAT.  SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.   89.  I 


2  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july 

psychology.  He  has  himself  published  observations  of  interest  and 
value — modestly  asserting  that  he  "  has  recorded  more  experiments 
(not  to  mention  scores  which  he  has  not  described)  than  all  other 
investigators  together,  if  we  except  those  working  on  insects."  But 
in  analysis  and  interpretation  he  has  not  shown  himself  strong.  It 
is  questionable  whether  his  discussion  of  imitation  and  memory,  for 
example,  have  any  real  bearing  upon  Prof.  Thorndike's  contentions. 
Indeed,  at  one  point  he  seems  to  dimly  realise  this,  for  he  says :  "  To 
be  sure,  there  is  a  sort  of  deliberate,  studied,  high-class  imitation 
possible  to  man,  but  beyond  the  reach  of  animals."  But  he  does  not 
appear  to  grasp  the  fact  that  it  is  just  the  occurrence  in  animals  (save, 
perhaps,  the  Primates)  of  such  imitation  which  Prof.  Thorndike  ques- 
tions. Speaking  of  "  free  floating  ideas,"  Prof.  Mills  says :  "  The 
believer  in  evolution  will  demand  that,  in  this  and  other  cases,  in 
which  qualities  man  possesses  are  denied  to  animals,  there  be  the 
clearest  proofs  given.  The  burden  of  proof  lies  with  those  who  deny 
them."  With  this  assertion  many  psychologists  entirely  disagree ;  and 
Prof.  Wesley  Mills'  ipse  dixit,  without  adequate  discussion,  will  not 
lead  them,  we  imagine,  to  alter  their  opinion.  It  is  strange  that  Prof. 
Lloyd  Morgan's  name  should  be  mentioned  as  that  of  one  who  holds 
the  view  "  that  we  must  always  adopt  the  simplest  explanations  of  an 
animal's  action,"  seeing  that  in  his  "  Introduction  to  Comparative 
Psychology"  (p.  54),  he  urges  that  the  simplest  explanation  is  not  that 
which  we  should  necessarily  accept. 

Prof.  Thorndike's  article  deals  with  young  chicks.  His  observa- 
tions tend,  on  the  whole,  to  confirm  those  of  previous  investigators,  but 
add  some  interesting  facts.  The  newly-hatched  birds  were  found  to 
peck  at  small  (2  mm.)  squares  of  coloured  paper  on  backgrounds  of 
white  and  black.  The  observations  are  not  sufficient  in  number  to 
justify  conclusions  as  to  colour  preference ;  but  they  suffice  to  estab- 
lish the  fact  that  the  patches,  either  from  their  colour  or  their  light 
intensity,  afford  the  requisite  stimulus  to  the  pecking  response.  Mr. 
Thorndike  found  that  chicks  from  ten  to  twenty  days  old  ate  bees 
greedily,  "  first  mashing  them  down  on  the  ground  violently  in  a  rather 
dextrous  manner."  It  is  probable,  however,  that  they  would  not  have 
touched  them  had  they  been  stung  then  or  at  an  earlier  stage  in  their 
experience.  He  makes  a  point  here  against  Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan,  who 
states  that  a  young  bird  dropped  a  bee,  shook  his  head,  and  wiped  his 
bill  on  the  ground,  "  probably  because  he  had  tasted  the  poison."  This 
statement,  indeed,  hardly  seems  to  accord  with  Lloyd  Morgan's  own 
later  observations  of  the  eating  of  wasps  and  bees  by  young  birds  of 
several  kinds.  Other  noteworthy  facts  which  Prof.  Thorndike  records, 
are  that  young  chicks  placed  in  water  will  swim,  and  that,  prior  to 
experience,  they  will  not  leap  down  from  a  height  of  39  inches,  though 
they  will  do  so  at  once  from  a  height  of  10  inches  or  less,  and  after 
some  hesitation  from  heights  of  16,  22,  and  27  inches.      In  general 


1899]  THE  ANIMAL  MIND  3 

Prof.  Thorndike  thinks  that  too  much  stress  has  been  laid  on  the 
definiteness  of  instinctive  response,  saying  that  the  same  stimulus  does 
not  always  produce  exactly  the  same  effect  in  all  individuals.  But 
much  depends  on  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  "  the  same  stimulus."  It 
is  at  least  possible  that  some  part  of  the  difference  in  response  is  due 
to  slight  difference  in  the  stimuli  and  the  "  situation."  But  there  are, 
no  doubt,  also  differences  in  the  individual  characters  of  the  birds  (as 
all  observers  will  be  ready  to  admit)  which  lead  to  divergences  of 
behaviour  under  quite  similar  circumstances.  In  any  case  the  obser- 
vations which  Mr.  Thorndike  here  describes  were  well  worth  placing 
on  record. 


The  Art  of  Self-Defence. 

In  the  struggle  for  existence  plants  have  specialised  along  the  line  of 
passive  resistance.  It  is  by  this  method,  as  Professor  Stahl  showed 
long  since,  in  his  famous  essay  on  "  Pflanzen  und  Schnecken,"  that 
many  are  saved  from  snails  whose  appetite  is  spoiled  by  the  bitters 
and  alkaloids  which  many  plants  contain,  and  in  half  a  dozen  other 
ways.  Dr.  Bokorny  has  worked  out  the  same  idea  in  reference 
to  fungi,  pointing  out  that  there  are  many  common  vegetable  sub- 
stances which  are  almost  fungus -proof,  and  that  is  saying  a  good 
deal.  In  his  essay  {Biol.  Centralbl.  xix.  1899,  pp.  177-185)  he  shows 
how  the  self-preservation  of  plants  against  fungi  is  secured  by  stuffs 
like  tannin,  oxalic  acid,  ethereal  oils,  the  lupulit  of  hops,  and  so  on. 
He  gives  his  thesis  greater  solidity  by  a  table  of  the  more  important 
vegetable  substances,  their  occurrence,  and  their  relation  to  bacteria 
and  other  fungi.  It  must  of  course  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  indica- 
tion of  a  secondary  advantage  should  in  no  wise  be  allowed  to  make  us 
more  sluggish  in  trying  to  find  out  the  primary  physiological  import  of 
these  results  of  metabolism. 


Trustees  of  the  British  Museum. 

No  one  need  quarrel  with  the  latest  election  to  the  Honourable  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum,  in  the  places  of  the  late  Baron 
Ferdinand  Eothschild  and  Charles  Drury  Fortnum.  The  Hon.  Walter 
Eothschild  is  a  keen  zoologist  on  a  spacious  plan,  and  one  who  has 
never  allowed  the  interests  of  his  own  admirably  worked  museum  at 
Tring  to  conflict  with  the  friendship  he  so  frequently  displays  for  the 
Natural  History  Museum.  Sir  Henry  Howorth  is  known  to  our  readers, 
not  merely  as  a  learned  historian  of  human  and  pre-human  times,  but 
as  an  enthusiast  on  matters  of  museum  arrangement  and  equipment. 
A  little  keenness  is  a  welcome  leaven  in  a  body  of  men  appointed  for 
the  most  part  for  any  reason  other  than  interest  in  museum  matters. 


4  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [jult 

The  Scaly  Squid. 

Some  four  years  ago  Professor  Joubin  of  Eennes  astonished  the 
scientific  world  by  the  announcement  that  the  Prince  of  Monaco 
had  obtained  from  the  stomach  of  a  sperm  whale  the  trunk  of  a 
large  cephalopod  covered  with  scales.  Some  light  has  been  thrown 
upon  this  curious  structure  in  a  recent  paper  by  Dr.  Einar  Lonnberg 
in  the  results  of  "  Svenska  expeditionen  till  Magellanslandern." 
This  author  describes  a  very  complete  example  of  Onychoteuthis  ingens, 
in  which  the  pallial  surface  had  a  peculiar  warty  appearance.  In 
transverse  section  there  were  visible,  between  the  muscular  layers 
and  the  epidermis,  large  flat  papillae,  some  4  mm.  in  diameter  by 
1  mm.  thick.  In  the  spirit  specimens  the  skin  had  sunk  down 
between  the  papillae,  giving  the  surface  of  the  body  the  appearance  of 
irregular  tiles  paving  an  old-fashioned  street.  On  microscopic  ex- 
amination each  papilla  is  found  to  be  made  up  of  a  parenchymatous- 
looking  mass  of  connective  tissue.  Dr.  Lonnberg  points  out  that 
if  the  integument  were  removed,  as  had  been  done  in  Joubin's 
specimen  by  the  digestive  action  of  the  cachalot,  the  papillae  would 
present  the  appearance  of  the  scales  described  by  that  author. 
Regarding  the  function  of  this  organ  Lonnberg  suggests  that  it  may 
be  an  adaptation  "  to  hydrostatic  pressure  when  the  animals  descend  to 
great  depths ; "  and  he  mentions  that  a  gelatinous  subcutaneous  struc- 
ture has  been  observed  in  other  deep-sea  cephalopods,  such  as  Allo- 
posus  by  Joubin,  and  in  large  species  of  Ommastrcphes  by  Steenstrup. 


Echinoderms  at  the  British  Museum. 

Under  the  new  Director,  additions  and  improvements  continue  to  be 
introduced  at  the  Natural  History  Museum,  London,  with  no  less 
rapidity  than  in  the  days  of  Sir  William  Flower.  The  gallery  devoted 
to  recent  echinoderms  and  worms,  which  groups  are  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  F.  J.  Bell,  has  for  some  little  time  been  changing  for  the  better. 
Several  examples  of  the  softer-bodied  forms,  such  as  cannot  be  dis- 
played in  the  dry  state,  are  now  beautifully  mounted  in  spirit,  while, 
in  the  case  of  the  holothurians,  the  form  and  colouring  of  the  living 
animal  is  shown  by  a  series  of  sketches  of  the  liviDg  holothurian  of 
Ceylon,  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  late  Dr.  Ondaatje.  There 
are  two  charming  water-colours,  we  believe  by  Mr.  C.  Berjeau,  of  the 
rosy  feather-star  and  the  holothurian,  Cticumaria  crocea.  Similar 
drawings  adorn  the  coral  gallery,  and  are  a  vast  improvement  on  the 
usual  class  of  wall-diagrams  one  sees  in  museums.  Dried  holothurians 
are  not  forgotten,  for,  as  every  schoolboy  knows,  they  form  an  im- 
portant article  of  diet  in  the  far  East  under  the  name  of  Trepang ; 


1899]         ECHINODERMS  AT  THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM  5 

and  we  have  heard  that  it  is  proposed  to  devote  rather  more  attention 
to  the  economic  aspects  of  zoology  than  has  hitherto  been  the  custom 
at  the  Natural  History  Museum.  Consequently  the  seeker  after  new 
delicacies  can  now  see  in  this  gallery  a  series  of  specimens  of  Trepang, 
purchased  in  the  Canton  fish-market,  and  presented  by  George 
Tradescant  Lay,  Esq. ;  he  can  learn  their  zoological  and  their  vernacular 
names,  the  character  of  the  food  afforded  by  each,  and  the  market 
price.  A  table-case  with  dark  red  velvet  ground  and  buff  labels  (not 
unlike  those  in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum)  is  a  pleasing  experiment 
in  museum-installation,  and  undoubtedly  shows  off  the  tests  of  sea- 
urchins  and  star-fish  to  great  advantage.  Some  exceedingly  choice 
specimens  are  mounted  under  glass  shades  fixed  on  the  table-cases. 
There  are  Diadema  saxatile,  a  sea-urchin  with  unpleasantly  long  spines, 
presented  by  Dr.  J.  Anderson ;  two  finely  preserved  brittle-stars, 
Pectinura  metadata,  brought  from  New  Zealand  by  H.M.S.  Challenger ; 
and  a  monster  Echinus  cscidentus  from  Plymouth,  presented  by  C. 
Stewart,  Esq. 


Accessions  to  the  Natural  History  Museum. 

An  innovation  that  is  of  practical  value,  and  that  should  increase  the 
interest  of  the  public,  is  the  assignment  of  one  of  the  alcoves  in  the 
central  hall  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  to  the  exhibition  of 
specimens  recently  acquired.  In  this  way  those  familiar  with  the 
Museum  are  less  likely  to  overlook  important  accessions  in  the  vast 
mass  of  accumulated  material,  while  those  whose  familiarity  is  less 
than  it  should  be  will  have  their  sluggish  interest  aroused  by  the 
mere  statement  that  what  they  are  looking  at  is  "  something  new,"  for 
in  this  respect  all  men  are  Athenians.  Hitherto  the  exhibits  in  this 
alcove  have  been  confined  to  zoological  specimens,  perhaps  because  the 
Director  is  also  keeper  of  the  Zoological  Department.  The  following 
have  been  on  view :  Fish,  mollusca.  and  other  invertebrata,  from  Lake 
Tanganyika,  collected  by  Mr.  J.  E.  S.  Moore,  illustrating  the  marine 
origin  of  the  fauna  and  its  antique  character.  Fish  from  the  river 
Congo,  described  by  Mr.  Boulenger  (Annales  Mies.  Congo),  and  presented 
by  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  Lcpidosiren 
paradoxa,  collected  in  the  Paraguayan  Chaco  by  Mr.  J.  Graham  Kerr. 
A  collection  of  rare  birds  from  Patagonia  and  Argentina,  presented  by 
Dr.  F.  P.  Moreno,  director  of  the  La  Plata  Museum.  The  splendid 
Hexactinellid  sponges  from  Japan,  to  which  we  have  previously 
referred.  A  male  Cervus  sica  manchuricus  in  full  summer  coat, — a 
splendid  specimen,  presented  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  And  a  large 
specimen  of  the  Tarpon  fish,  Mcgalops  thrissoides,  captured  off  Florida 
by  Mr.  Otis  A.  Mygatt,  and  presented  by  H.E.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales. 


6  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july 

Bryozoa  and  Bipolarity. 

Sir  John  Murray  may  take  heart  again.  His  attempt  to  explain 
the  similarity  between  the  north  and  south  temperate  faunas  has 
been  met  by  more  that  one  specialist  (even  among  those  quoted  in 
support  of  his  argument)  by  a  denial  of  the  similarity,  at  all  events 
to  the  extent  assumed  by  the  bipolar  hypothesis.  But  now  comes 
a  lady  to  defend  the  knight.  Miss  Edith  M.  Pratt,  of  Owens 
College,  Manchester,  has  been  studying  some  collections,  chiefly  of 
Bryozoa,  made  on  the  shore  of  the  Falkland  Islands  {Manchester 
Memoirs,  vol.  xlii.  No.  13,  14th  December,  1898).  After  a  careful 
analysis  of  the  distribution  of  the  genera,  she  concludes  that  the 
results  "  as  far  as  Bryozoa  are  concerned,  seem  to  support  Murray's 
theory."  "  Each  genus  represented  in  the  collection  occurs  fossil,  and 
also  occurs  in  the  north  and  south  temperate  zones,  as  well  as  in  the 
tropics ;  in  fact  most  of  the  genera  are  cosmopolitan.  Many  of  the 
species  are  represented  in  the  Tertiary  deposits.  This  shows  that  the 
changes  of  climate  and  the  altered  conditions  of  life  have  not  affected 
their  '  Tertiary  '  structure  ;  as  many  of  these  forms  occur  only  in  the  two 
temperate  zones,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  they  have  retained 
their  common  ancestral  structure.  The  fact  of  many  of  the  species 
occurring  in  the  deep  sea  hardly  supports  Ortmann's  theory  [that  an 
exchange  of  polar  forms  can  take  place  through  the  deep  sea],  for 
many  of  them  occur  at  very  great  depths  only  in  the  temperate 
regions ;  in  the  tropics  they  occur  in  shalloiv  water.  Their  presence  in 
the  deep  sea  is,  I  think,  the  result  of  accident." 

It  is  pleasing  to  find  some  attention  paid  to  distribution  in  former 
geological  periods;  but  does  Miss  Pratt,  or  can  Sir  John  Murray, 
suppose  that  what  took  place  in  Tertiary  times  has  much  bearing  on 
the  question  ?  It  cannot  seriously  be  maintained  that  there  was  any 
appreciable  difference  of  world-temperature  so  recently  as  the  Tertiary ; 
certainly  there  was  no  approach  to  a  universal  climate  in  those  days. 
We  have  to  go  back  a  good  deal  farther  before  our  facts  can  bear  any 
relation  to  the  primal  temperature  of  the  globe.  If  there  be  a 
similarity  between  the  present  polar  faunas,  we  do  not  see  how  any 
identity  of  species  can  be  due  to  events  that  took  place,  if  at  all, 
in  early  Palaeozoic  ages.  As  for  certain  cases  of  distribution  being 
"  the  result  of  accident,"  what  can  Miss  Pratt  mean  ?  It  is  too  easy  a 
way  of  explaining  inconvenient  facts. 

Miss  Pratt  also  studies  the  distribution  of  Anthomedusae,  Porifera, 
Polychaeta,  Gephyrea,  Mollusca,  Echinoderma,  Crustacea,  and  Tunicata. 
Out  of  twenty-four  species,  three  have  been  recorded  from  north  and 
south  temperate  regions  only ;  one  from  north  and  south  temperate 
regions  and  the  tropics ;  one  from  tropics  and  southern  hemisphere ; 
and  all  the  rest  from  the  southern  hemisphere  only.  These  facts 
scarcely  show  a  striking  similarity  between  the  temperate  faunas  of  the 


1899]  BRYOZOA  AND  BIPOLARITY  7 

northern  and  southern  hemispheres.  But,  whatever  conclusions  may 
be  drawn,  the  paper  at  least  is  one  that  does  credit  to  the  Zoological 
Laboratory  of  Owens  College. 


More  about  "  Bipolarity." 

Dk.  Arnold  E.  Ortmann  of  Princeton,  who  pointed  out  in  1894  that 
the  facts  in  regard  to  the  distribution  of  Crustacea  did  not  fit  in  with 
the  "  Bipolarity  hypothesis,"  has  some  further  remarks  to  make  on 
the  subject.  He  has  been  waiting,  he  says,  for  some  definite  expression 
of  results  from  those  who  have  been  working  at  the  "  Hamburger 
Magelhaensischen  Sammelreise,"  and  he  is  disappointed.  Perhaps 
Dr.  Pfeffer's  lecture  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  German  Zoological 
Society — which  he  has  promised  to  send  us  as  soon  as  possible — may 
afford  further  light  on  the  problem  to  which  we  recently  referred  in 
our  summary  of  Professor  D'Arcy  Thompson's  paper.  The  onus  probandi 
seems  to  lie  with  the  upholders  of  the  hypothesis,  but  we  wish  that 
Dr.  Ortmann  would  send  us  something  more  satisfactory  than  his 
recent  note  (Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii.  1899,  pp.  214-216),  which  makes  only 
one  point,  namely,  that  seven  authors  who  have  recently  dealt  with 
the  question  are  all  on  his  side.  It  seems  absurd  to  lose  good-humour 
on  such  a  question,  and  even  if  Dr.  Ortmann  feels  that  he  has  ground 
for  irritation  it  is  a  mistake  to  make  this  apparent.  The  proper 
safety-valve  is  an  article  in  Natural  Science. 


Natural  Science  in  Australia. 

The  Eeport  of  the  seventh  meeting  of  the  Australasian  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  is  a  bulky  volume  of  1160  pages,  which 
is  full  of  interesting  material,  and  affords  abundant  evidence  of  the 
activity  of  scientific  life  in  Australia.  The  President,  Professor  A. 
Liversidge,  who  also  edits  the  Eeport,  dealt  in  his  address  mainly 
with  some  of  the  recent  advances  in  physics  and  chemistry.  Among 
the  reports  and  papers  more  especially  bearing  upon  natural  science, 
we  may  notice  those  on  glacial  boulders  in  Central  Australia,  and  on 
vernacular  names  of  Australian  birds ;  Captain  Hutton's  address  on 
Early  Life  on  the  Earth  (previously  referred  to  in  our  columns) ;  Dr.  C. 
J.  Martin's  address  on  the  history  of  the  relations  between  morphology 
and  physiology  during  the  last  fifty  years ;  Mr.  F.  Manson  Bailey's 
"  few  words "  on  the  flora  of  the  Torres  Straits ;  Mr.  J.  F.  Bailey's 
beautifully-illustrated  paper  on  the  plants  of  the  rabbit-infested  country 
in  the   Bulloo  Paver  district ;   Mr.  A.  J.    Campbell's  memoir  on   the 


8  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july 

nests  and  eggs  of  the  honey- eaters ;  Mr.  W.  J.  Eainbow's  observations 
on  the  long  range  of  vision  in  spiders  of  the  families  Citigradae  and 
Attidae.  But  this  gives  a  mere  hint  of  the  interest  of  the  volume. 
The  president  notes  that  the  length  of  the  journey  often  involved  in  a 
visit  to  a  meeting  of  the  Association  necessarily  tells  on  the  attendance 
of  members,  and  has  led  to  the  substitution  of  biennial  for  annual 
sessions,  and  he  counsels  the  establishment  of  local  scientific  societies 
which  would  tend  to  increase  the  roll  of  working  members.  At  the 
same  time,  that  the  plan  of  meeting  biennially  is  a  success  as  regards 
quality  is  evident  from  the  stimulating  and  wholesome  contents  of  this 
Report. 


The  Colouring  Matter  of  Blue  Coral. 

Prof.  Liversidge  has  made  a  series  of  experiments  on  the  blue 
pigment  of  Heliopora  coerulea  on  material  obtained  by  the  Funafuti 
Expedition.  His  results  are  interesting,  although  they  do  not,  un- 
fortunately, throw  much  light  upon  the  nature  or  relations  of  this  very 
curious  pigment.  He  finds  that  "  dead "  coral  after  treatment  with 
hydrochloric  acid  yields  a  black  pigment  which  dissolves  in  formic, 
acetic,  and  lactic  acids  to  form  a  bright  blue  solution.  The  pigment 
is  slightly  soluble  in  absolute  alcohol,  but  quite  insoluble  in  ether. 
The  residue  after  ignition  is  bulky,  and  contains  much  phosphoric 
acid,  iron,  lime,  and  magnesia.  Curiously  enough  Prof.  Liversidge 
found  that  pieces  of  "  live "  coral,  or  coral  which  had  been  gathered 
while  growing,  although  of  a  distinct  slaty  blue  colour,  did  not  yield 
blue  solutions,  but  merely  pale  green  ones.  The  pigment  itself  was 
also  of  a  pale  chlorophyll  green  tint.  The  paper  concludes  with  a  list 
of  other  blue  or  greeu  colouring  matters  in  animals.  In  connection 
with  these  we  would  draw  the  author's  attention  to  the  asserted 
occurrence  of  the  mineral  vivianite  in  the  skeleton  of  Belonc  and  some 
other  forms. 


Zoology  in  Brazil. 

The  December  number  of  the  Boletin  of  the  Para  Museum  bears 
witness  to  the  continued  energy  of  the  zoologists  and  botanists 
attached  to  that  institution  ;  the  greater  portion  of  the  present  issue 
being  (as  has  so  frequently  been  the  case  with  its  predecessors)  from 
the  pen  of  the  learned  director,  Dr.  E.  Goeldi.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  item  in  the  fasciculus  is  the  article  on  the  fishes  of 
Amazonia  and  the  Guianas,  in  the  course  of  which  a  number  of  new 
species  recently  described  by  Mr.  Boulenger  are  referred  to.  And 
attention  may  here  be  specially  directed  to  the  exceeding  excellence  of 


1899]  ZOOLOGY  IN  BRAZIL  9 

execution  and  beauty  of  coloration  characterising  the  double  plate 
by  which  this  article  is  illustrated.  Our  only  regret  is  to  find  no 
mention  of  the  habits  of  the  various  species  of  fishes  referred  to, 
although  there  is  not  improbably  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  omission. 

That  the  habits  of  animals  are  not  overlooked  is  amply  demon- 
strated in  the  article  headed  "  A  Senda  Amazonica  du  '  Caure.'  "  This 
deals  Math  a  beautiful  little  kind  of  nest,  containing  a  single  egg,  which 
had  long  been  attributed  to  Falco  rufigularis,  the  "  Caure "  of  the 
Brazilians.  Struck  with  its  resemblance  to  the  nest  of  the  Oriental 
Collocalia  nidifica,  Dr.  Goeldi  came,  however,  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
must  be  the  work  of  one  of  the  Tree-Swifts.  And  actual  observation 
lias  proved  the  truth  of  the  conjecture  ;  the  real  builder  being 
Panyptila  cayanensis. 

Other  articles  deal  with  the  natives  of  Brazil,  with  the  spiders  of 
the  country,  and  with  the  flora  of  Amazonia.  A  plate  illustrating  two 
species  of  monkey  belongs  to  an  article  issued  with  an  earlier  part. 


According  to  the  Fancy  of  the  Speller. 

An  attempt  has  often  been  made  by  embryologists  to  distinguish 
between  those  processes  of  development  which  appear  to  express  an 
adherence  to  the  mode  established  in  the  long  evolution  of  a  race 
(palingenetic  processes),  and  those  which  appear  to  express  readjust- 
ments or  new  departures  adapted  to  conditions  of  relatively  more  recent 
date  (kainogenetic  processes).  Thus  it  might  be  said  that  the  develop- 
ment of  a  paired  (epiphysial)  upgrowth  from  the  fore-brain  was  a 
palingenetic  process,  while  the  particular  fate  of  these  upgrowths  or  of 
one  of  them  (which  is  very  diverse  in  different  types)  is  kainogenetic. 
There  are  some  to  whom  the  distinction  seems  of  paramount  importance, 
there  are  others  who  deny  its  legitimacy  altogether,  while  a  third  posi- 
tion is  that  of  those  who  recognise  the  distinction  as  an  attempt  to 
discriminate  the  relative  age  of  the  establishment  of  a  developmental 
process,  but  find  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  establish  this  in  practical 
detail. 

But,  supposing  the  distinction  be  admitted  as  legitimate,  what  is  its 
proper  terminology  ?  Keeping  to  the  one  root,  Kaivos  =  new,  we  find, 
as  Dr.  Ernst  Mehnert  points  out  (Anat.  Anzeig.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  29-31), 
cenogenesis,  kenogenesis,  cenegenie,  caenogenese,  and  ciinogenese.  Our 
acumen  is  not  sufficiently  specialised  to  distinguish  between  the  last 
two,  but  what  about  the  others,  in  regard  to  which  Mehnert  writes,  in 
response  to  the  hot  irons  of  criticisms,  with  some  forcefulness  ?  As 
/cevos  means  empty  or  worse,  as  coenum  or  caenum  means  dirt  or  worse, 
as  the  announcement  of  a  book  on  caenogenesis  provoked  the  most 
violent  astonishment  ("  heftigstes  Staunen  "),  as  the  author,  whose  work 


io  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july 

was  discussed  in  the  last  volume  of  Natural  Science,  had  dictionaries 
sent,  if  not  hurled,  at  him,  we  think  that  he  was  right — for  this  is  an 
age  of  compromise — in  sticking  to  kainogenesis,  and  he  seems  to  have 
Gegenbaur  and  other  great  authorities  on  his  side.  But  to  those  who 
believe  that  kainogenesis  is  a  term  for  an  empty  conception,  the  reading 
cenogenesis  will  doubtless  seem  preferable,  for  the  German  lexicon  states 
that  tcevos  means  (1)  leer,  (2)  vergebens,  (3)  eitel,  (4)  miissig,  (5)  aus- 
geleert.  But,  after  all,  the  gist  of  the  matter  is  rather  that  we  should 
be  sure  that  there  is  such  a  distinction  as  that  between  kainogenetic 
and  palingenetic,  before  we  become  excited  in  regard  to  our  spelling  of  it. 


Flora  of  Sand  Dunes. 

The  flora  of  sand  dunes  has  always  been  of  great  interest  to  botanists 
from  the  number  of  peculiar  species  which  it  offers,  and  also — especi- 
ally more  recently — from  its  remarkable  oecological  importance.  The 
climatic  and  soil  conditions  under  which  it  exists  are  so  extreme  in 
character,  and  vary  so  continually,  that  it  offers  a  suitable  field  for  the 
study  of  many  problems  dealing  with  the  interaction  of  plants  and 
their  environment.  Partly  from  this  reason,  and  partly  because  of  the 
absence  of  any  complete  study  of  dunes  beside  fresh  water,  Dr.  H.  C. 
Cowles  of  Chicago  University  has  just  published  (Bot.  Gaz.  xxvii.  1899, 
Feb.  to  May,  Fig.  26)  an  elaborate  account  of  the  general  relation- 
ships of  the  dune  vegetation  of  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  This 
paper  is  the  first  of  a  series  on  the  subject,  and  treats  of  the  geogra- 
phical aspect.  The  extent  of  the  whole  area  considered  is  great,  but 
most  attention  is  paid  to  the  south-east  coast  of  the  lake,  where  the 
dune  formation  attains  its  maximum  development — being  largely  due 
to  the  action  of  north-west  winds. 

In  comparing  those  dunes  to  these  familiar  to  observers  in  Europe 
the  resemblances  are  much  more  conspicuous  than  the  differences.  It 
is  remarkable  how  well  many  of  the  descriptions  might  be  applied  to 
the  dunes  around  the  British  coast,  if  only  the  names  of  the  species  of 
plants  were  replaced  by  those  of  their  European  equivalents.  Thus  on 
the  beach,  where  we  should  find  CaJrile  maritima,  Dr.  Cowles  records  C. 
americana.  On  the  loose  dunes  of  both  continents  Ammophila 
arundinacca  is  the  dominant  and  most  important  sand-binding  grass. 
The  plant  associations  in  both  cases  include  those  of  the  xerophytic 
ridges,  the  intermediate  swamps,  and  the  mesophytic  woods.  In  this 
country  Salix  repens  fringes  the  travelling  dune,  in  Michigan  it  is 
replaced  by  S.  glaucophylla  and  S.  adenophylla ;  here  Pinus  sylvestris 
and  Bctula  alba  are  the  dominant  trees  on  the  fixed  dunes,  there  it 
is  Pinus  banlisiana,  Betida  papyrifera,  Thuya  occidentalis,  Fraxinus 
americana,  etc.      Many  of  the  observations  made  by  Dr.  Cowles  with 


1899]  FLORA  OF  SAND  DUNES  n 

regard  to  the  movement  of  dunes  have  their  correlatives  in  this 
country.  In  this  as  in  other  ways  the  paper  claims  as  much  attention 
from  European  students  as  from  those  in  America.  The  author 
suggests  the  problem  offered  by  the  presence  of  so  many  maritime  and 
salt-loving  species  along  the  shores  of  a  fresh-water  lake,  but  reserves 
his  explanation  for  a  future  paper,  where  he  will  particularly  consider 
the  oecological  adaptations  of  the  plants.  The  paper  is  profusely 
illustrated  by  process-blocks  from  photographs  which,  although  they 
have  undoubtedly  suffered  in  reproduction,  yet  add  greatly  to  the 
interest  and  value  of  the  work,  and  aid  in  rendering  it  one  of  the 
most  important  oecological  studies  which  has  yet  appeared  in  the 
United  States. 


Galway  Natural  History  Museum. 

We  have  from  time  to  time  given  accounts  of  local  museums,  and 
our  contemporary  the  Irish  Naturalist,  following  our  example,  has  in 
its  June  number  a  description  of  the  Natural  History  Museum, 
Queen's  College,  Galway,  by  Prof.  E.  J.  Anderson.  From  this 
interesting  account  we  select  two  paragraphs : — 

"Metropolitan  museum  authorities  have  sought  to  give  a  natural 
character  to  their  collections,  which  one  seeks  for  in  vain  amongst  the 
average  stuffed  animals  with  their  sleepless  eyes  and  too  cowering  or 
too  rigid  pose.  The  example  so  well  set  has  been  followed  here. 
One  case  represents  a  tug-of-war  between  an  owl  and  a  stoat,  the 
rope  is  represented  by  a  rat.  Another  shows  the  platypus  at  home 
with  the  avenues  to  his  burrow  by  water  and  land ;  a  third  shows  a 
peregrine  and  a  slain  rabbit ;  a  fourth,  a  number  of  water  birds  with 
scenery ;  a  fifth,  the  hornbill  at  home  ;  a  sixth,  a  fox  interested  in 
a  woodcock ;  a  seventh,  an  owl  giving  portions  of  a  dead  bird  to  its 
young ;  and  eighth,  a  stoat  with  water  birds,  water,  a  dace,  and  a 
water  -  beetle ;  a  ninth  —  a  spicier  with  a  humming  bird  in  his 
clutches." 

"  Proximity  to  the  sea  makes  it  possible  to  secure  quite  a  number 
of  living  specimens.  ...  I  note  on  a  window,  as  I  write,  a  good 
many  invertebrate  types,  living  and  well,  sea-anemones  and  starfish, 
nereids  and  periwinkles,  crabs  and  tunicates,  crickets  and  spiders.  In 
one  tank  are  frogs  and  fresh-water  mussels,  in  another  tadpoles." 


Botanical  Biography. 

We  are  glad  to  note  the  issue  as  a  separate  publication  of  the  first 
supplement  to  Messrs.  Britten  &  Boulger's  Biographical  Index  of  British 


12  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [jult 

and  Irish  Botanists.  It  includes  the  botanists  who  died  between 
January  1,  1893,  and  December  31,  1897,  and  also  several  who  were 
omitted  from  the  original  Index,  comprising  together  about  250  entries. 
There  are  a  few  well-known  names,  such  as  Babington  of  Cambridge, 
Huxley  (whose  claim  as  a  botanist  rests  on  a  paper  on  gentians), 
Williamson,  the  expositor  of  the  plants  of  the  coal-measures,  Bentley 
of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  his  one-time  associate  author  Trimen 
of  Ceylon ;  but  the  great  majority  are  not  widely  known,  and  many 
are  to  hand  only  as  the  result  of  painstaking  research.  By  recording 
so  many  of  these  obscure,  but  often  extremely  useful  workers,  the 
authors  of  this  Index  have  rendered  a  lasting  service  to  Botany,  and 
we  shall  hope  for  a  regular  recurrence  of  the  supplement  as  time  and 
botanists  pass. 


A  New  Found  Trilobite  from  Newfoundland. 

The  trilobite  which  Dr.  G.  F.  Matthew  has  recently  described  in  the 
Bulletin  Nat.  Hist.  Soc.  New  Brunswick  (vol.  iv.  No.  17,  1899)  is  of 
considerable  size.  The  head  shield  is  more  than  six  inches  wide, 
and  the  movable  cheek  with  its  greatly  produced  genal  spine  is  about 
seven  inches  long.  Its  principal  interest  appears  to  consist  in  its 
supplying  "  a  new  link  between  the  Cambrian  of  Europe  and  that  of 
America."  For  certain  Cambrian  trilobites  discovered  in  Sardinia, 
Bornemann  founded  the  genus  Mctacloxicles,  characterised  by  a  conical 
glabella  as  distinguished  from  the  club-shaped  glabella  of  the  older 
genus  Paradoxicles.  The  glabella  is  conical  in  Dr.  Matthew's  new 
species  from  the  Lower  Cambrian  beds  of  Newfoundland,  and  he 
describes  it  under  the  name  Metadoxicles  magnificus.  But  he  urges 
that  it  is  a  more  primitive  member  of  the  genus  than  the  Sardinian 
species,  and,  moreover,  that  Paradoxides,  though  older  in  name,  is  not 
older  in  nature  than  Metadoxidcs.  He  gives  reasons  for  supposing  that 
trilobites  migrated  from  New  Brunswick  through  Newfoundland  to 
Southern  Europe.  To  emphasise  his  views  on  the  succession  in  time 
of  various  species,  at  the  close  of  his  article  he  proposes  to  divide  the 
genus  Mctadoxides  into  three  sub-genera,  the  first  and  eldest  being 
Catadoxides,  with  the  new  magnificus  for  its  exemplar.  The  late 
Henri  Milne  Edwards  refused  to  accept  the  separation  of  Olenus  from 
Paradoxides  as  a  needless  new-fangled  addition  to  overburdened 
nomenclature.  We  can  imagine,  therefore,  how  charmed  he  would 
have  been  to  be  confronted  not  only  with  Olenus  and  Protolenus,  and 
Olenellus  and  Olcnopsis,  but  also  with  Catadoxides,  Metadoxicles,  Ana- 
doxides,  the  three  sub-genera  or  infant  progeny  of  Metadoxicles,  with 
the  second  child  endearingly  named  after  its  parent. 


1899]  A  TRILO BITE  FROM  NEWFOUNDLAND  13 

Mexican  and  Central  American  Squirrels. 

In  the  first  volume  of  the  Proc.  Washington  Acad.  (pp.  15-106),  Mr. 
E.  W.  Nelson  attempts  a  revision  of  the  species  of  squirrels  inhabiting 
Mexico  and  Central  America.  In  these  days  of  "  scrappy  "  papers,  it 
is  always  refreshing  to  meet  with  anything  of  the  monograph  type ; 
and  a  welcome  should  therefore  be  extended  to  this  communication, 
even  if  we  fail  to  accept  all  its  conclusions. 

The  most  generally  interesting  part  of  the  paper  deals  with  the 
degree  of  development  of  the  fur  of  these  rodents,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  climate  they  inhabit.  "  The  effect  of  climate,"  writes  the 
author,  "  on  the  character  of  the  pelage  is  so  marked,  that  it  is  possible 
to  tell  with  considerable  certainty  whether  a  species  belongs  to  the 
tropics  or  to  the  higher  mountains.  Tropical  species  have  thin 
pelage,  short  thin  under-fur,  and  coarse,  stiff,  or  almost  bristly  dorsal 
hairs ;  those  of  the  Transition  and  Boreal  zones  have  thick,  soft 
pelage,  with  long  dense  under-fur.  .  .  .  Species  of  the  hot  coasts  of 
Central  America  are  characterised  by  peculiarly  coarse,  shining,  bristly 
dorsal  hairs.  Seasonal  differences  in  pelage  are  usually  slight,  since 
there  is  no  area  of  heavy  snow-fall  or  long-continued  cold  weather 
except  in  the  Sierra  Madre  of  Durango  and  Chihuahua.  Individual 
variation,  on  the  other  hand,  is  often  excessive,  and  renders  some 
species  extremely  difficult  to  describe/' 

This,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  zoology  in  its  highest  and  best  sense. 
With  regard  to  the  descriptive  portion  of  the  paper,  it  must  suffice  to 
say  that  while  the  author  finds  it  necessary  to  split  up  the  genus  into 
a  number  of  groups,  it  is  satisfactory  that  these  are  regarded  in  the 
light  of  sub-genera  rather  than  distinct  genera. 


Spinning  at  Dawn. 

Dr.  Emil  A.  Goeldi,  the  enthusiastic  director  of  the  museum  in  Para, 
tells  an  interesting  story  of  an  early  rising  spider — Epdroidcs  bahicnsis 
Keyserling  by  name.  The  spinner  was  common  in  his  garden,  but 
the  web  defied  discovery  until  Goeldi's  son  Walther,  a  boy  of  seven, 
sat  up  to  detect  the  trick.  The  fact  is  that  the  spider  makes  its  web 
in  the  early  hours,  and  rolls  it  up  and  decamps  after  the  sun  rises. 
Penelope-like  it  destroys  its  web  daily,  but  not  without  result  to  man 
as  well  as  to  itself,  for  it  catches  the  minute  winged  males  of  the 
destructive  Coccidae,  of  Borthesia  americana  in  particular.  After 
retiring  under  the  shade  of  a  leaf  the  spider  investigates  the  insects  in 
its  rolled  up  net,  and  spends  the  hot  hours  in  digesting  them.  Its 
behaviour  reminded  Goeldi  of  a  southern  bird-catcher  hastily  gathering 
his  roccolo  together  as  the  dawn  breaks,  but  with  this  difference  that 


14  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july 

the  spider  "  does  not  stop  to  pull  out  the  captives,  wring  their  necks, 
and  throw  them  into  a  bag.  It  gathers  up  its  net  and  postpones  the 
work  of  revision  until  it  gets  home."  This  interesting  paper  will  be 
found  in  Zoologischcs  Jahrbuch,  xii.  (1899),  pp.  161-169,  1  pi.  and  1  fig. 


E  pur  si  muove 


We  could  not  find  a  finer  instance  of  the  progress  of  science — which 
it  is  part  of  the  function  of  our  journal  to  record — than  Dr.  (now  Sir) 
J.  Burdon  Sanderson's  Croonian  Lecture,  delivered  to  the  Royal  Society 
of  London  on  March  16,"  On  the  relation  of  motion  in  animals  and 
plants  to  the  electrical  phenomena  which  are  associated  with  it." 

The  progress  to  which  we  refer  might  be  best  indicated  by  a 
summary  of  the  actual  results  and  suggestive  hints  to  which  the  lecture 
gives  expression,  but  it  seems  more  picturesque  and  not  less  important 
to  cite  the  first  two  paragraphs,  for  they  indicate  as  it  were  graphically 
the  strides  of  modern  physiology  to  which  the  baronet's  genius  has 
given  so  much  force. 

"Jn  a  Croonian  Lecture  which  I  delivered  to  the  Eoyal  Society  in 
1867 — more  than  thirty  years  ago — I  exhibited  a  number  of  diagrams 
of  graphic  records  in  evidence  of  the  mechanical  relations  which  I  then 
sought  to  establish  between  the  movements  of  the  heart  and  those  of 
respiration  in  the  higher  animals. 

"  I  have  to-day  to  bring  before  you  results  which  have  also  been 
obtained  by  a  graphic  method,  which  however  differs  from  the  other  in 
that  the  records  are  written  by  light,  and  not  by  pen  on  paper ;  that 
the  time  taken  in  recording  is  measured  in  thousandths  of  seconds,  not 
tenths ;  and  finally,  that  the  events  recorded  are  not  the  movements  of 
the  chest  or  heart,  but  the  electrical  changes  which,  as  will  be  shown, 
are  found  to  associate  themselves  with  all  manifestations  of  functional 
activity  in  living  organisms,  whenever  these  take  place  under  conditions 
which  admit  of  their  being  investigated." 


A  Complementary  Male. 

Many  years  ago  Darwin  discovered  a  little  creature  living  on  the 
barnacle,  Scalpellum  vulgarc,  which  he  at  first  regarded  as  a  parasite 
and  afterwards  as  a  "  complementary  male."  In  other  cases,  as  is  well 
known,  he  found  a  similar  dimorphism, — minute  complementary  males 
fixed  to  the  hermaphrodite  barnacles,  and  in  some  rare  species  to 
females.  Since  Darwin's  work  there  has  been  little  if  any  re-investiga- 
tion of  the  complementary  male  of  Scalpellum  vulgare,  but  it  has  recently 


1899]  A  COMPLEMENTARY  MALE  15 

found  a  careful  student  in  Mr.  A.  Gruvel  {Arch.  Biol.  xvi.  1899,  pp. 
27-47,  1  pi.).  In  Hoek's  Challenger  Report  there  is  some  account  of 
the  complementary  male  of  Sc.  regiuni,  which  is  said  to  have  two  ganglia, 
a  functionless  stomach,  and  cement  glands,  but  not  much  else.  In  the 
species  studied  by  Gruvel  the  male  is  also  very  simple.  It  has  two 
ganglia  and  an  eye,  but  no  digestive  canal  nor  specialised  vascular  and 
respiratory  apparatus.  It  is  little  more  than  an  independent  testicle 
endowed  with  a  minimum  of  individuality. 

Mr.  Gruvel  finds  it  difficult  to  admit  that  similar  eggs  fertilised  by 
spermatozoa  of  the  same  origin  produce  larvae  destined  to  give  rise, 
some  to  hermaphrodites  and  others  to  these  pigmy  males.  And  so  he 
has  thought  out  a  theory  which  may  render  the  affair  less  mysterious, 
though  we  are  not  at  all  confident  that  it  does.  Cirripeds  are  usually 
protandrous,  i.e.  the  spermatozoa  ripen  before  the  ova.  The  sperms  are 
shed  first,  and  accumulate  in  the  interpallial  space.  By  and  by  the  ova 
pass  into  the  ovigerous  sac,  and  are  there  fertilised ;  as  they  develop, 
the  gaps  in  the  sac  are  closed,  and  the  whole  is  detached  from  the 
genital  atrium  to  be  fixed  to  the  ovigerous  frenum.  Thereafter  there 
emerge  belated  ova  which  have  a  poor  chance  of  being  fertilised  by  the 
spermatozoa  of  the  hermaphrodite.  And  Gruvel's  theory  is  that  these 
are  fertilised  by  the  spermatozoa  of  the  complementary  male,  which  are 
usually  longer  of  developing  than  those  of  its  bearer,  and  that  from 
these  ova  thus  fertilised  complementary  males  are  produced. 


Is  Fertility  Inherited  ? 

In  the  sixth  of  his  valuable  memoirs  entitled  "  Mathematical  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Theory  of  Evolution,"  Prof.  Karl  Pearson,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Miss  Alice  Lee  and  Mr.  Leslie  Bramley-Moore,  brings  forward 
evidence  to  show  that  fertility  is  inherited  in  man,  and  fecundity  in  the 
horse,  "  and  therefore  probably  that  both  these  characters  are  inherited 
in  all  types  of  life  " — in  all  likelihood  according  to  the  Galtonian  rule. 
We  have  only  seen  the  abstract  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Poyal  Society 
(lxiv.  1899,  pp.  163-167),  but  that  is  enough  to  show  the  interest  and 
importance  of  this  inquiry,  especially  in  connection  with  "  reproductive 
or  genetic  selection  " — a  term  (which  seems  to  us  unfortunate)  used  to 
describe  "  the  selection  of  predominant  types  owing  to  the  different 
grades  of  reproductivity  being  inherited,  and  without  the  influence  of  a 
differential  death-rate." 

Mr.  Pearson  points  out  that  the  problem  of  whether  fertility  is  or 
is  not  inherited  is  one  of  very  far-reaching  consequences.  "  The 
inheritance  of  fertility  and  the  correlation  of  fertility  with  other 
characters  are  principles  momentous  in  their  results  for  our  concep- 
tions  of  evolution ;    they   mark    a   continual   tendency  in   a  race  to 


1 6  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [july  1899 

progress  in  a  definite  direction,  unless  equilibrium  be  maintained  by 
any  other  equipollent  factors,  exhibited  in  the  form  of  a  differential 
death-rate  on  the  most  fertile." 

He  seeks  to  force  biologists  to  face  a  dilemma.  If  the  above  prin- 
ciples are  accepted,  then  the  biologist  "  must  look  upon  all  races  as 
tending  to  progress  in  definite  directions — not  necessarily  one,  but 
possibly  several  different  directions,  according  to  the  characters  with 
which  fertility  may  be  correlated — the  moment  natural  selection  is 
suspended ;  the  organism  carries  in  itself,  in  virtue  of  the  laws  of 
inheritance  and  the  correlation  of  its  characters,  a  tendency  to  pro- 
gressive change."  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  biologist  does  not  accept 
the  principles,  then  he  must  be  prepared  to  meet  the  weight  of  evidence 
in  the  memoir.  But  is  it  not  fair  to  remark  that  this  evidence  relates 
to  two  highly  artificial  cases — man  and  the  race-horse  ? 


Living  Fossils. 

Whether  Mr.  J.  E.  S.  Moore  is  correct  or  not  in  his  interesting  hypo- 
thesis that  Lake  Tanganyika  represents  an  old  Jurassic  sea,  and  that 
many  of  the  molluscs  in  it  are  long-lived  relicts  of  Jurassic  fauna,  he 
must  get  credit  for  his  careful  and  enthusiastic  endeavours  to  make 
good  his  case.  We  believe  that  there  are  some  who  are  in  no  way 
convinced,  and  it  was  with  interest  therefore  that  we  read  Mr.  Moore's 
continuation  of  his  previous  studies  on  the  molluscs  of  this  great  lake 
{Quart.  Joum.  Micr.  Sci.  xlii.  1899,  pp.  155-201,  8  pis.),  in  which  he 
deals  with  forms  called  Tanganyika  rufofilosa,  S}jckia  zonata,  Nasopsis 
nassa,  and  Bt/thoceras  howesii,  which  he  found  on  the  picturesque 
shores,  or  dredged  from  the  deep  waters. 

His  conclusion,  on  which  it  would  be  unfair  to  throw  doubt  without 
detailed  criticism,  is  that  all  the  evidence  which  has  been  collected 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  halolimnic  Gastropods  invariably  points 
to  the  vast  antiquity  of  these  forms.  "First  we  have  the  wide  dis- 
similarity of  their  empty  shells  from  those  of  any  living  types ;  next 
their  rigid  isolation  to  a  solitary  great  lake,  which,  judged  from  what- 
ever standard  we  may  choose  to  adopt,  is  unquestionably  of  an  enor- 
mous age.  Next  we  have  the  wonderful  similarity  of  the  halolimnic 
shells  now  living  in  Tanganyika,  to  those  which  have  been  left  fossilised 
at  the  bottom  of  the  old  Jurassic  seas ;  and  lastly,  there  are  the 
morphological  characters  of  the  halolimnic  animals  themselves,  whereby 
they  become  mentally  depicted  like  nothing  so  much  as  the  incom- 
pletely developed  embryos  of  numerous  living  oceanic  types." 


ORIGINAL    COMMUNICATIONS. 

Notes  on  the  Habits  of  the  Northern  Fur  Seal. 
By  G.  E.  H.  Barrett-Hamilton. 

Introduction. 

There  is  probably  no  species  of  wild  mammal  to  whose  life-history  so 
much  attention  has  been  paid  as  the  Northern  Fur  Seal  (Otaria  ursina). 
For  about  a  century  and  a  half  a  source  of  wealth  to  large  and 
powerful  companies,  it  was  after  the  first  discovery  of  its  breeding 
haunts  by  the  ill-fated  Vitus  Bering  in  1742,  the  object  of  a  slaughter 
as  indiscriminate  as  it  was  inimical  to  the  permanent  interests  of 
those  who  took  part  in  it.  In  later  years,  however,  when  a  diminished 
herd  plainly  foreshadowed  the  fatal  effect  of  this  foolish  destruction  of 
valuable  animals,  every  effort  has  been  made  to  preserve  the  seals, 
and  they  have  been  for  some  time  the  objects  of  the  most  careful  study 
on  the  part  of  the  governments  who  own  their  breeding  haunts,  a 
study  which  culminated  in  the  appointment  of  the  International  Com- 
missions of  1891-93  and  1896-97. 

Volumes  upon  volumes  have  been  devoted  to  the  Northern  Fur 
Seal ;  of  these,  very  many  are  blue-books,  or  government  publications, 
a  large  portion  of  which  are  of  too  patriotic  a  nature  to  be  safely  relied 
upon  by  scientific  men.  Some  other  accounts  of  the  seals,  which 
cannot  be  included  in  the  above  category,  have  been  tinged  with  a 
depth  of  poetical  imagination  obviously  intended  for  popular  rather 
than  scientific  reading,  so  that  the  Commission  of  1896-97  found  much 
to  correct  or  supplement  in  our  knowledge  of  even  the  most  simple 
features  of  the  life-history  of  the  animal.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  I 
think  I  need  no  excuse  for  putting  together  a  brief  account  of  the 
observations  which  I  made  during  my  visits  to  the  rookeries.  In  doing 
so  I  shall  entirely  exclude  all  matter  relating  to  the  commercial  or 
diplomatic  questions  at  issue,  and  I  hope  my  notes  may  be  taken  as  a 
perfectly  unbiassed  account  of  what  came  under  my  own  notice. 

Before  I  go  further,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  I  assume  that  all 
naturalists  are  acquainted  with  the  general  facts  of  the  life-history  of  the 

2 NAT.   SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.   89.  I  7 


18  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

Fur  Seal,  so  graphically  described  by  Mr.  H.  W.  Elliott :  how  the  herds 
which  spend  the  winter  months  in  the  warmer  waters  of  the  Pacific 
south  of  their  island  homes,  move  gradually  northwards  in  the  early 
part  of  the  year,  and  in  spring,  land  on  the  rookery  shores,  the  females 
to  give  birth  to  their  young,  the  old  males  to  commence  a  jealous 
watch  over  their  hardly-won  harems,  which  they  only  forsake  when 
hunger  and  fatigue  or  the  valour  of  a  rival  forces  them  to  leave  their 
posts ;  how  the  young  males,  unable  to  face  their  seniors  and  win  for 
themselves  places  on  the  coveted  rookery  beach,  while  away  the 
summer  in  sleep  and  frolic  on  their  own  hauling-grounds,  whence  the 
sealers  take  their  toll  of  skins ;  how  the  seals  remain  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  rookeries  until  the  cold  gales  of  autumn  warn  them  to 
again  depart  southward.  Such,  in  broad  outline,  is  the  natural  history 
of  the  Fur  Seal,  and  with  such  general  matters  of  common  knowledge 
I  have  here  nothing  to  do.  It  will  be  my  business  rather  to  attract 
attention  to  certain  of  the  less  known  features  of  what  I  may  call  the 
social  life  of  the  animal. 

I  assume  also  a  knowledge  of  such  sealing  terms  as  bull,  cow, 
bachelor,  pup,  harem,  rookery,  and  hauling-ground.  Any  further 
technical  terms  which  it  may  be  found  necessary  to  use  will  be  ex- 
plained as  the  occasion  arises. 

It  must  be  clearly  remembered,  however,  that  my  visit  to  the 
rookeries  was  paid  at  a  time  when  the  numbers  of  the  seals  had  ad- 
mittedly decreased  since  the  date  of  the  descriptions  of  some  of  the 
older  authorities,  as,  for  instance,  those  of  Mr.  H.  W.  Elliott.  Hence, 
if  what  I  saw  does  not  always  quite  closely  correspond  with  the  observa- 
tions of  older  naturalists,  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  one  or  the 
other  of  us  is  in  the  wrong.  It  may  be  that  both  they  and  I  are  right, 
and  that  the  differences  which  it  is  our  duty  to  record  actually  existed 
and  are  due  to  the  prevalence  of  different  conditions  on  the  rookeries 
at  different  times,  consequent  on  their  disturbance  by  man. 

My  Experience. 

My  personal  experience  of  the  Northern  Eur  Seal  was  gained  in 
the  two  breeding-seasons  of  1896  and  1897,  during  which  I  actually 
lived  in  turn  on  every  island  where  there  is  any  important  rookery  at 
the  present  time.  On  one  island  or  another  I  had  the  seals  under  my 
observation  almost  throughout  the  duration  of  their  summer  stay  on 
land.  My  movements  were  as  follows : — In  1896  1  gained  my  first 
introduction  to  the  seals  at  the  small  rookery  on  Eobben  Island  (in 
the  Okhotsk  Sea),  which  I  examined  on  July  11.  In  the  same  year  I 
spent  July  19  to  August  10  on  Bering's  Island,  and  August  11  to 
25  on  Copper  Island,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Bering's  Sea.  I 
spent  September  1  to  October  4  on  St.  Paul  Island  (including  two 
days  at  sea  among  the  pelagic  sealers  in  the  United  States  Revenue 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  19 

cutter  "  Rush "),  and  October  4  to  2  2  on  St.  George  Island,  thus 
missing  only  the  earlier  part  of  the  season  of  1896.  In  order  to 
complete  my  knowledge,  and  to  be  able  to  observe  the  seals  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  breeding-season,  I  reached  Bering's  Island  in  1897,  on 
June  19,  and  remained  there  until  August  2,  when  I  sailed  for  Copper 
Island,  and  landed  there  on  the  following  day.  On  August  19  1  left 
Copper  Island  in  an  unsuccessful  search  for  seal  rookeries  on  the 
Kamchatkan  coast,  and  did  not  again  return  to  the  seal  islands.  Dur- 
ing my  stay  on  the  islands  I  personally  examined  and  walked  over 
the  whole  extent  of  all  the  rookeries,  with  the  exception  only  of  one 
or  two  of  the  lesser  ones  on  the  Commander  Islands,  which  I  had 
to  be  content  to  observe  through  my  binoculars,  either  because  they 
are  inaccessible  from  the  land  side,  or  because  I  had  not  permission  to 
approach  them  more  nearly. 

Enumeration  of  Seal  Islands. 

The  islands  whither  the  seals  resort  for  breeding  purposes  are  now 
all  well  known,  and  it  is  unlikely  that  the  most  diligent  search  can 
add  to  their  number.  They  are  the  Commander  and  Pribilof  Islands 
in  Bering's  Sea,  certain  of  the  more  Northern  Kuril  Islands,1  Eobben 
Island  (in  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk),  and  possibly  one  or  two  other  small 
rocks  2  and  islets  in  the  same  sea.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the 
presence  of  the  seals  on  these  islands,  apparently  scattered  at  random 
throughout  the  North  Pacific,  and  their  absence  from  many  others 
equally  suitable  for  their  purpose,  such  as  the  Aleutians,  depends 
entirely  on  the  former  presence  or  absence  thereon  of  man.  The  Com- 
manders and  Pribilofs  are  the  only  large  uninhabited  islands  in  the 
North  Pacific,  and  there  are  no  rookeries  on  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
which,  although  affording  very  suitable  conditions,  are  inhabited  through- 
out their  extent. 


What  Guides  the  Seals  in  their  Choice  of  an  Island  or  Rookery. 

A  glance  at  Sir  John  Murray's  map  {Geographical  Journal,  August 
1898)  to  illustrate  the  annual  range  of  the  surface  temperature  of 
the  ocean  will  show  that  the  question  of  temperature  has  had  no  very 
great  influence  on  the  choice  of  the  seals  of  islands  on  which  to  bring 
up  their  young.  Whereas  the  Pribilof  and  Commander  Islands  lie  in 
regions  where  the  surface  temperature  is  cold,  and  has  an  annual 
variation  of  only  20°  F.,  the  corresponding  figure  for  the  Northern  Kuril 
Islands  is  30°,  while  the  little  rookery  at  Eobben  Island  lies  close  to 
the  border  line  of  regions  where  the  annual  variation  amounts  to  35° 
and  40°  F.  respectively.     Again,  whereas  in  the  event  of  a  backward 

1  Shnednoi,  Raikoke,  and  Mushir. 

2  St.  Iona  and  the  Shantai  Islands. 


JUJ  (  ■  A  R  Y  1  ij 


20  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [JULY 

spring  the  seals  must  await  the  dispersal  of  the  ice  before  they  can 
land  on  the  colder  shores  of  the  Pribilofs  and  Bobben  Island,  the 
ice-free  Commanders  are  always  ready  to  afford  them  a  safe  resting- 
place.  It  is  obvious  then  that  what  they  chiefly  want  are  un- 
inhabitable islands  which  are  free  from  ice  and  snow  by  the  time 
at  which  they  wish  to  land.  On  such  islands  breeding  seals  are  not 
at  all  particular  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  they  lie  upon,  pro- 
vided only  that  it  is  not  a  sandy  beach.  Such  a  beach  seems  to  cause 
them  some  annoyance,  probably  because  the  particles  of  sand  (especi- 
ally in  wet  or  windy  weather)  stick  in  their  fur  and  irritate  their  eyes. 
The  non-breeding  seals  or  bachelors  have,  however,  no  such  aversion 
to  sandy  beaches,  and  are  frequently  to  be  found  hauling  up  on  such, 
especially  on  the  great  sandy  bays  of  St.  Paul  Island.  In  the  latter 
case,  however,  it  may  be  that  they  haul  up  on  sand  not  because  they 
like  it,  but  because  all  other  suitable  areas  are  occupied  by  breeding 
seals,  and  hence  forbidden  ground  to  the  bachelors. 

The  only  rookery  where  I  saw  breeding  seals  hauling  up  on 
sand  is  that  of  Eobben  Island,  and  here  the  shingle  which  composes 
the  beach  becomes  in  some  places  gradually  finer,  so  that  it  is  actually 
of  the  consistency  of  coarse  sand.  In  addition  to  Eobben  Island  there 
are  one  or  two  sandy  spots  frequented  by  breeding  seals  at  St.  Paul's, 
but  these  are  small  and  chiefly  brought  into  prominence  by  the  ravages 
of  the  parasitic  worm  ( Uncinaria)  among  the  pups  born  on  these  flat 
sandy  surfaces. 

Elsewhere  the  rookeries  and  their  situations  are  as  varied  as  they 
could  well  be.  Thus  on  St.  Paul  Island  the  seals,  finding  flat  areas 
gently  sloping  up  from  the  sea,  have  overrun  whole  acres  of  the 
island,  even  ascending  the  sides  of  hills,  which  lie  at  a  distance  of 
several  hundred  yards  from  the  beach,  and  reducing  the  whole  area 
occupied  by  the  rookeries  to  a  bare  expanse  of  stone  and  clay,  long- 
since  worn  quite  clear  of  grass  or  vegetation  by  their  constant  passage 
over  it.  St.  George  Island  is  more  mountainous,  and  here  the  seals  are 
forced  to  occupy  more  rocky  ground,  only  advancing  up  the  cliff-sides 
where  the  nature  of  the  ground  permits  their  easy  ascent.  On 
Bering's  Island  one  rookery  is  on  a  great  reef,  while  the  other  is  on 
a  narrow  beach  at  the  foot  of  a  low  but  unscaleable  cliff.  Lastly, 
we  have  the  opposite  extreme  in  mountainous  Copper  Island,  where 
the  high  sheer  precipices  leave  the  seals  no  choice  but  to  occupy  the 
narrow  beaches,  small  inaccessible  bays,  and  projecting  reefs,  which 
alone  intervene  between  the  island  and  the  sea.  Yet  even  here,  when 
opportunity  offers,  they  climb  up  the  gulleys  formed  by  streams  which 
have  here  and  there  cut  a  channel  for  themselves  through  the  cliffs  on 
their  way  to  the  sea,  and,  as  at  Palata,  wear  out  for  themselves  a  bare 
parade  ground  above  the  level  of  the  shore.  Naturally  the  best  sites 
for  rookeries  are  sheltered  bays  where  projecting  reefs  shield  the  young- 
pups  from  the  violence  of  a  heavy  surf  and  form  pools  where  they  can 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  21 

play  and  learn  to  swim  in  safety.  Such  bays  are  to  be  found  on 
Copper  Island  at  Gavarushkaya  and  Sikatchinskaya,  while  parts  of 
the  great  northern  rookery  of  Bering's  Island  are  fairly  well  protected 
from  storms.  Thus  on  shore  all  sorts  of  ground  seem  suited  to  their 
wants,  except,  as  already  noticed,  flat  sandy  areas,  and  beaches  in  the  too 
close  proximity  of  overhanging  cliffs.  Here  landslips  have  been  known 
to  occur,  burying  and  killing  a  number  of  the  cows,  as  at  Palata  in 
Copper  Island ;  while  at  Orilli  Kamen,  another  Copper  Island  rookery, 
I  found  the  skeletons  of  three  unfortunates  (one  of  which  at  least  was 
a  bull)  under  a  great  boulder  which  had  fallen  down  from  the  cliff 
above  the  rookery  and  crushed  them.  But  perhaps  their  most  favourite 
haunts  are  cliffs  where  the  slope  is  not  very  steep  and  large  boulders 
lie  plentifully  strewn  on  the  face.  Here  they  ascend  often  to  a 
height  of  a  hundred  feet  or  more,  easily  traversing  places  where  a  man 
could  hardly  climb.  Such  cliffs  are  very  numerous  at  St.  Paul 
Island,  and  here  seals  may  be  found  asleep  in  all  sorts  of  strange 
retreats  on  the  cliff-sides,  whence,  if  unexpectedly  disturbed,  they 
will  often  jump  blindly  down  a  steep  incline,  facing  a  fall  that 
would  kill  a  man.  The  little  pups,  too,  are  very  fond  of  lying  asleep 
with  their  heads,  or  sometimes  their  whole  bodies  in  holes,  under  rocks. 
When  disturbed  they  rush  in  hot  haste,  "  baaing "  lustily,  in  any 
direction  in  which  at  the  time  their  nose  happens  to  be  turned,  not 
looking  in  the  least  to  see  whither  their  precipitate  flight  will  lead 
them. 


Robben  Island — Comparison  of  Mr.  Elliott's  Observations. 

My  first  acquaintance  with  the  Fur  Seal  was  gained  at  Eobben 
Island,  and  a  mere  glance  at  the  little  rookery  there  was  sufficient  to 
show  that  neither  is  the  animal,  as  a  whole,  deserving  of  the  reputa- 
tion for  intelligence  with  which  Mr.  W.  H.  Elliott  has  clothed  it,  nor 
is  the  cow  the  sweet-tempered,  dove-like  creature  which  the  same 
writer  has  described.  Not  only  were  the  bulls  exceedingly  active  and 
constantly  engaged  in  rushing  blindly  hither  and  thither,  utterly  regard- 
less as  to  whether  they  trampled  the  cows  or  pups  under  their  flippers, 
but  the  cows,  although  they  sat  huddled  closely  together  as  if  in  a  state 
of  affectionate  good-fellowship,  were  constantly  snapping  at  each  other 
in  a  bad-tempered  manner,  and  savagely  resented  the  approach  of  all 
pups  except  their  own.  A  dead  pup  which  I  picked  up  at  some  little 
distance  from  the  rookery  showed,  on  examination,  that  it  had  received 
a  bite,  probably  from  a  cow,  on  the  head,  where  the  punctures  made 
by  two  canine  teeth  were  plainly  visible  in  the  thick  skin.  The 
greater  part  of  the  head  was  in  a  rotten  and  putrid  condition  as  if  a 
fatal  erysipelas  had  set  in  as  a  result  of  the  bite. 


22  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 


Variability  of  Seals. 

A  point  which  at  once  strikes  a  visitor  to  a  seal  rookery  is  the 
great  variability  in  the  colour  and  size  of  the  animals.  There  are 
indeed  limits  to  such  variation,  but  within  these  limits  the  Fur  Seal  of 
almost  all  ages  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  a  most  variable  species. 
The  same  is  true  also  of  skulls  of  the  animal,  and  differences  can 
easily  be  found  in  specimens  from  the  same  rookery  such  as  would,  if 
they  were  constant  and  each  confined  to  specimens  from  particular 
localities,  undoubtedly  warrant  their  division  into  several  distinct 
species. 

Observations  on  the  Rookery. 

It  was  one  of  my  objects  to  observe  the  first  landing  of  the  seals 
on  the  islands,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  test  for  myself  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  Mr.  Elliott's  wonderfully  graphic  description  of  their  habits  at 
this  season.  Accordingly  I  endeavoured  to  reach  the  islands  at  as 
early  a  date'  as  possible  in  1897,  and  actually  arrived  at  the  North 
rookery  of  Bering's  Island  on  June  20,  or  very  soon  after  the  appear- 
ance of  the  first  seals.  I  then  visited  the  South  rookery  of  the  same 
island,  and  pitched  my  tent  there  on  June  23,  with  the  intention 
of  remaining  for  at  least  a  week.  Finding,  however,  that  the  state  of 
things  at  the  South  rookery  was  not  exactly  what  I  needed  for  the 
study  of  the  seals,  I  left  it  on  June  26,  proceeding  by  dog-sledge  to 
the  North  rookery,  where  I  arrived  on  June  29.  Here  I  remained 
four  days,  during  which  almost  my  whole  time  was  spent  in 
watching  the  seals,  chiefly  at  the  part  of  the  rookery  known  as  Kishot- 
chnaya.  I  was  informed  that  there  had  been  present  on  June  16, 
13  bulls,  110  cows,  37  pups,  and  5  bachelors.  On  June  20  I  found 
the  1 3  bulls  thus  disposed  : — 

5  with  a  mass  of  at  least   175   cows  and  a  number  of  newly-born 
pups. 

1  with  6  cows  and  3  pups. 

2  with  2  cows  each. 
1  with  1  cow. 

1  lying  asleep  near  the  bachelors. 

2  alone  to  the  south  of  the  main  patch  of  cows. 

1  alone  in  another  position  near  the  main  patch  of  cows. 

At  this  date  I  take  it  that  the  rookery  showed  the  condition  in 
miniature  which  a  well-regulated  rookery,  of  whatever  size,  should 
show  at  the  height  of  the  season — that  is  to  say,  there  were  a  certain 
number  of  strong  bulls  which  had  appropriated  to  themselves  large 
harems,  in  this  case  averaging  over  thirty-five  females  each  :  there  were 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  23 

other  bulls  who  had  to  be  content  with  harems  containing  from  one 
to  six  females  each,  while  there  were  yet  again  other  bulls  which 
were  as  yet  unable  to  get  among  the  breeding  females  at  all,  and 
which  represented  the  "  idle "  or  "  reserve "  bulls  of  the  Pribilof 
Islands. 

Several  points  struck  me  in  connection  with  the  habits  and  dis- 
position of  the  bulls  during  the  earlier  parts  of  the  season  : — There 
were  at  the  North  rookery  no  bulls  anxiously  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
the  cows  on  the  shore-line.  The  best  stations  were  evidently  not  on 
the  shore-line,  but  at  the  places  where  the  patches  of  first -arriving 
cows  were  massed  together,  and  it  was  to  these  patches  and  not  to  the 
sea  that  the  attention  of  the  still  unoccupied  bulls  was  directed. 
Many  of  the  bulls,  both  of  those  which  possessed  harems  and  those 
which  did  not,  were  asleep,  and  were  not  displaying  that  almost  cease- 
less activity  which  a  perusal  of  the  writings  of  Mr.  H.  W.  Elliott 
would  lead  one  to  expect. 

The  cows  were  not  received  by  the  bulls  at  the  shore-line,  but 
seemed  to  come  in  unnoticed  and  quietly  joined  one  or  other  of  the 
patches  of  their  sisters  who  had  already  arrived.  Sometimes  a  cow 
was  delayed  in  her  progress  up  the  beach  by  the  unwelcome  attentions 
of  one  or  other  of  the  wandering  half-bulls  which  had  not  yet  gained 
a  harem,  but  such  delay  was  seldom  of  long  duration,  as  the  cows 
were  very  persistent  in  their  movements  and  resented  as  angrily  as 
they  dared  all  attempts  of  the  half-bulls  to  stop  them. 

The  rookery  in  its  first  beginnings  did  not  consist  of  a  large 
area  of  loosely  scattered  bulls  and  cows,  but  of  the  above  described 
densely  crowded,  although  small,  patches.  It  is  thus  interesting  to 
note  the  passage  by  a  large  rookery  early  in  the  season,  although 
in  the  reverse  order,  through  the  stages  exhibited  by  one  which  is 
in  the  course  of  being  exterminated.  The  former  starts  as  a 
number  of  detached  and  crowded  patches,  which  in  the  end  coalesce 
and  fuse  to  form  one  rookery ;  the  latter  musters  in  the  early  part 
of  the  season  in  exactly  the  same  manner,  but  the  patches  may 
never  grow  large  enough  to  coalesce  and  fuse.  In  spite  of  the 
crowded  condition  of  these  patches,  the  cows  were,  as  at  Eobben  Island, 
constantly  quarrelling  with  and  snapping  at  each  other.  The  bachelors, 
no  doubt  owing  to  the  great  proportion  of  old  and  unoccupied  bulls 
present,  were  hauled  up  in  one  lot  by  themselves,  and  amongst  them 
were  several  of  the  large  half-bulls,  which  later  in  the  season  were 
acting  as  masters  of  harems  on  the  breeding-grounds. 

The  bachelors  appeared  to  be  ready  to  stampede  had  they  been 
approached  too  closely,  but  the  bulls  and  cows  could  not,  I  think,  have 
been  moved  except  by  force.  The  bulls  roared  at  us  and  were  very 
threatening,  but  would  not  leave  their  cows  to  attack  us.  All 
the  bulls  appeared  to  be  in  good  health,  but  in  a  variable  state  of 
fatness. 


24  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

As  the  season  advanced  and  the  area  of  ground  occupied  by  the 
rookery  increased,  it  was  obvious  that  the  small  harems  seen  by  me  on 
June  20  were  merely  the  nuclei  of  larger  gatherings,  which  gradually 
increased  and  swelled  so  much  as  to  coalesce  and  form  the  rookery  as 
seen  in  its  completed  aspect.  Thus  those  bulls  which  were  at  first 
obliged  to  sit  outside  the  harems  were  for  the  most  part  absorbed  in 
the  breeding-grounds,  and,  as  at  the  Eeef  section  of  the  rookery, 
the  bachelors  found  no  difficulty  whatever  in  wandering  among 
the  cows. 

By  the  29th  June  the  females  had  so  increased  in  numbers  as  to 
be  quite  out  of  the  control  of  the  bulls,  and  they  were  then  able  to 
make  their  way  to  or  from  the  sea  with  little  or  no  interruption. 
Many  of  them  lay  in  loosely  scattered  patches  with  no  bull  to  attend 
on  them. 

Yet  the  strange  thing  was  that,  although  in  several  cases  the 
harems  of  individual  bulls  grew  to  such  unwieldy  proportions  that  the 
bulls  were  powerless  to  prevent  the  cows  from  leaving  them  or  from 
joining  other  bulls,  there  were  all  the  time  other  bulls  which,  either 
from  the  position  which  they  had  selected  or  from  other  reasons,  were 
never  able  to  secure  a  harem.  Their  desire  was  evidently  to  occupy 
some  particular  position  already  commanded  by  a  stronger  bull.  This 
being  impossible,  they  sat  or  slept  out  of  reach  of  their  enemy,  and 
made  no  attempt,  as  a  rule,  to  collect  a  harem  for  themselves. 

Occasionally,  however,  one  of  these  solitary  bulls  would  become 
infuriated,  and,  charging  down  upon  the  harems,  would  seize  a  female 
and  run  away  with  her.  The  female,  however,  thus  captured  invari- 
ably, as  far  as  I  could  see,  returned  to  her  old  place  at  the  first 
opportunity. 

Although  not  possessing  harems,  these  bulls  were  by  no  means 
idle,  for  they  often  had  a  single  cow  with  them,  which  no  doubt  had 
been  dissatisfied  with  her  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  master  of  her 
own  particular  harem,  and  had  sought  another  lord.  The  visits  of  such 
cows  to  these  outlying  bulls  appeared  to  be  of  a  merely  temporary 
nature,  and  I  think  they  returned  to  their  own  harem  when  satisfied 
by  the  accomplishment  of  their  object  in  leaving  it. 

Some  of  the  harems  which  I  kept  under  close  observation  for 
several  days  will  illustrate  these  points. 

There  were  at  the  south  end  of  Kishotchnaya  during  the  early  part 
of  the  season  four  bulls  by  themselves;  one  of  these  had  on  the  29th 
June  about  sixty-three  females  and  another  twenty ;  while  not  far  from 
them  sat  three  younger  bulls,  one  alone  and  the  other  two  with  three 
females. 

The  following  table  shows  the  increase  in  the  two  larger  harems 
from  day  to  clay  : — 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL 


25 


June  29. 

June  30. 

July  1. 

July  2. 

July  3. 

P.M. 

2.30 

P.M. 

6.15 

A.M. 

10.40 

P.M. 

3.15 

P.M. 

6.30 

A.M. 

10.35 

A.M. 

11.55 

P.M. 

12.10 

Harem  I.,  number  of  cows 
Harem  II.,       ,,             ., 

63 
20 

64 

24 

56 
24 

63 

24 

64 
34 

90 
42 

69 
52 

89 
72 

Total  number  of  cows  in  the 
two  harems 

83 

88 

80 

87 

9S 

132 

121 

161 

Now,  although  these  harems  thus  increased  from  day  to  day,  so 
that  in  four  days  the  number  of  cows  was  about  doubled,  and  the  cows, 
being  in  the  proportion  of  (on  the  3rd  July)  eighty  to  the  bull,  were 
completely  out  of  control  and  free  to  move  about  as  they  wished,  yet 
during  all  that  time  there  were  bulls  hovering  round  the  outskirts  of 
the  harems,  some  of  which  were  masters  of  no  cows,  and  none  of 
which  had  succeeded  in  collecting  a  greater  number  than  three  each. 
Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  fact  that  it  is  the  cows,  and  not  the 
bulls,  which  have  the  real  control  of  the  harem-system.  Over  these  161 
cows  the  bulls,  in  spite  of  all  their  bluster,  had  the  flimsiest  of  nominal 
dominion,  and  the  cows  were  always  able  to,  and  frequently  did,  leave 
their  harems  to  dally  with  cowless  bulls  on  the  outside.  Yet,  whether 
their  number  was  80  or  160,  as  long  as  they  chose  to  sit  massed 
together  on  the  ground  which  had  been  appropriated  by  the  two  stronger 
bulls,  no  weaker  rivals  could  approach  to  within  a  distance  of  1 0  yards 
from  them.  The  master  of  the  harem  had  no  control  over  its  occu- 
pants, but  he  was  absolute  lord  of  the  ground  on  which  they  sat. 

An  almost  better  illustration  of  this  was  to  be  seen  at  the  South 
rookery,  where,  later  in  the  season,  there  were  often  200  cows  on 
shore  with  two  bulls.  Yet  (as  on  the  26th  July,  when  there  were 
287  cows  on  the  beach)  the  division  of  the  cows  into  harems  was  a 
very  unequal  one,  the  smaller  bull  being  only  able  to  keep  a  very  few 
cows,  while  the  larger  one  claimed  the  greater  part  of  the  rookery. 
But  the  cows  could  pass  over  to  the  smaller  bull's  ground  as  often  as 
they  liked,  and  he  probably  was  father  to  a  great  many  more  of 
the  pups  born  in  1898  than  those  of  the  half-dozen  cows  over  whom 
he  claimed  control. 

At  the  same  rookery  on  the  28th  July,  when  there  were  over  190 
cows  on  shore,  the  whole  of  this  number  was  greedily  claimed  by  the 
larger  bull,  while  the  smaller  bull  was  forced  to  sit  apart  outside  the 
patch  of  massed  pups  which  lay  just  outside  the  rookery.  True  he 
sometimes  threatened  to  make  descents  on  his  rival's  harem,  but  he  had 
no  cows  that  he  could  really  call  his  own  until  they  themselves  took 
the  initiative  and  went  out  to  join  him. 

Thus  the  inequality  of  the  two  harems  at  the  North  rookery  kept 
increasing  until  there  came  a  time  when  the  newly-arriving  cows  began 


26 


G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON 


[JULY 


to  lie  in  scattered  groups  outside  the  main  mass,  and  thus  permitted 
the  weaker  bulls  to  form  new  harems  out  of  the  reach  of  the  two  strong 
old  bulls. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  bulls  and  cows  on  the 
western  portion  of  Kishotchnaya  outside  of  the  two  larger  harems : — 


June.  29 

June  30. 

July  1. 

July  2. 

July  3. 

P.M. 

2.30 

P.M. 

o.i  r, 

A.M. 

10.40 

P.M. 

3.15 

P.M. 

6.30 

A.M. 

10.35 

A.M. 

11.55 

P.M. 

12.10 

Total  number  of  cows  in  the 
two  larger  harems  (as  before) 

Number  of  other  bulls  in  this 
section        .... 

Number  of  outlying  cows 

83 

4 
1 

88 

4 
5 

80 

87 

98 

3 

1 

132 

4 
3 

121 

3 
16 

161 

i 
18 

A  fact  which  came  under  my  observation  in  connection  with  the 
bulls  and  half-bulls  was  the  fact  that  several  of  those  which  had  a 
regular  station  on  the  rookery  occasionally  absented  themselves  from 
it.  Thus,  one  bull  at  Kishotchnaya  was  absent  from  his  place  during 
the  earlier  part  of  the  1st  July.  In  the  evening  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  see  him  return.  At  1.20  p.m.  on  the  2nd  July  this  same 
bull — a  grey  one,  and  therefore  probably  of  no  great  age — left  his 
place  in  the  rookery,  and  passed  out  to  a  position  less  than  100  yards 
away  on  the  reef.  Here  he  slept  until  3.20  p.m.,  when  he  awoke, 
deliberately  returned  to  his  place  on  the  rookery,  and  scattered  the 
other  bulls  who  attempted  to  face  him. 

In  1896,  too,  I  had  observed  the  same  phenomena.  Thus  on 
July  23,  whilst  some  of  the  isolated  patches  of  seals  at  the  section 
of  the  North  rookery  known  as  the  Eeef  were  under  my  observation,  I 
saw  a  very  black-looking  bull  coming  across  the  sands  towards  the 
rookery  from  the  west,  and  apparently  from  the  sea.  When  this  bull 
approached  the  rookery  more  closely  several  of  the  others  began  to 
make  demonstrations  against  him,  rushing  out  for  some  distance  from 
their  harems  to  meet  him.  At  first  the  intruder  seemed  to  be 
frightened  by  the  show  of  hostility  with  which  his  arrival  was  greeted, 
and  slackening  his  pace,  sat  down  as  if  to  rest  and  think  things  over 
before  approaching  within  fighting  distance.  Thus  I  got  a  snap-shot 
of  him.  He  was,  however,  only  taking  his  own  time  about  his  own 
business,  and  presently  he  went  deliberately  into  what  he  evidently 
considered  his  own  place,  the  other  bulls  retiring  before  him.  From 
the  first  his  action  was  deliberate,  and  he  made  for  one  particular  part 
of  the  rookery  as  if  he  had  known  it  all  his  life.  These  roving  habits 
on  the  part  of  a  full-grown  rookery  bull  were  so  unlike  anything  of 
which  I  had  read  previously,  that  they  gave  me  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
before  an  explanation  was  forthcoming.  At  first  I  was  inclined  to 
attribute    them   to   possible    disturbances   of  the   rookery    during   the 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  27 

course  of  driving  the  seals,  by  which  this  bull  had  been  driven  into 
the  sea  (as  I  have  seen  many  others  during  the  course  of  a  drive  on 
the  very  same  ground),  and  had  not  returned  for  some  hours.  But 
later  in  the  season  on  the  Pribilofs,  on  the  little  undisturbed  rookery  of 
Ardiguen,  there  was  under  the  observation  of  our  whole  party  a  bull 
who,  after  having  held  his  own  place  valiantly  before  all  comers 
throughout  the  season,  at  leugth  retired  to  the  sea  for  rest  and  food. 
But  to  our  surprise  we  saw  him  returning  fat  and  sleek  after  a  few 
days'  absence,  and  during  the  rest  of  my  stay  on  the  island  he  con- 
tinued his  assiduous  attentions  to  his  now  attenuated  harem,  varied  only 
by  occasional  visits  to  the  sea.  It  appears,  then,  that  there  is  a  good 
deal  more  latitude  and  deviation  from  their  habits  on  the  part  of  bulls 
than  one  would  have  supposed  from  reading  the  earlier  accounts,  and 
there  can  be  no  question  that  some  of  the  bulls  which  frequent  the 
rookeries  of  the  Commander  Islands  come  and  go  to  and  from  the  sea 
and  their  harems  even  at  the  height  of  the  breeding-season,  but  that 
others  (as  noticed  at  the  Pribilof  Islands)  only  assume  these  wandering- 
habits  at  or  near  the  close  of  that  period.  I  never  saw  a  bull  that  I 
was  certain  was  a  really  old  one  behave  in  this  irregular  fashion,  and 
the  old  yellow-looking  bulls  of  the  central  massed  portions  of  the 
rookery  never  left  their  places  even  for  an  instant,  so  far  as  I  could 
see.  It  may  be,  therefore,  that  the  irregularity  occurs  only  among 
the  younger  bulls,  and  is  due  to  the  system  of  management  of  the 
rookeries,  whereby  the  number  of  spare  bulls  has  been  diminished,  so 
that  young  animals  have  no  difficulty  in  gaining  harems  for  themselves 
at  an  age  when  their  strength  would  certainly  have  been  insufficient  to 
have  enabled  them  to  do  so  in  a  state  of  nature.  At  all  events,  such 
wandering  habits  are  normally  those  of  the  larger  bachelors  and  half- 
bulls,  who,  when  unable  to  gain  access  to  the  harems,  pass  a  restless  life 
on  their  outskirts,  varied  with  occasional — in  the  case  of  the  younger 
animals  frequent — visits  to  the  sea.  To  these  habits  the  two  bulls  of 
the  little  South  rookery  of  Bering's  Island  reverted  at  the  end  of  July 
(1897),  first  becoming  restless  and  moving  about  a  good  deal  before 
they  left  the  rookery  for  good. 

On  the  13  th  July,  on  which  date  the  North  rookery  was  visited  by 
Dr.  Stejneger,  Professor  D'Arcy  W.  Thompson,  and  others,  it  was  found 
that  there  had  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  of  the  seals,  both 
in  the  case  of  the  females  and,  what  struck  me  more,  in  that  of  the  bulls. 
The  western  section,  which  had  never  contained  more  than  six  bulls 
and  179  cows  on  any  previous  occasion  on  which  we  had  visited  it, 
now  included  a  number  of  cows  which  was  variously  estimated  at  from 
500  to  700  individuals.  With  these,  from  seven  to  ten  bulls  were 
noticed  by  the  various  observers.  The  area  occupied  by  the  seals  had 
greatly  increased,  and  the  harems  which  had  been  previously  under 
observation  were  now  indistinguishable  ;  the  places  of  the  two  bulls  were, 
however,  occupied,  if  not  by  the  same  animals,  by  similar  or  identical 


28  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

ones.  All  around  their  stations  were  new  harems,  which  had  been 
formed  by  late  arriving  cows,  attended  on  by  bulls  which  had  previ- 
ously possessed  only  a  few  cows  each. 

At  the  Eeef  or  eastern  section  a  very  similar  state  of  things  pre- 
vailed, and  on  the  13th  July  not  only  was  the  number  of  cows  on 
shore  vastly  greater  than  on  any  previous  occasion  in  that  year,  but 
the  bulls  had  also  increased  in  numbers  in  a  manner  for  which,  I  con- 
fess, I  was  totally  unprepared. 

A  point  which  struck  me  very  forcibly  in  regard  to  the  new  bulls 
on  this  day  was  that  they  were,  in  my  opinion,  all  young  bulls,  that  is, 
they  were  blacker  or  greyer,  as  well  as  smaller,  than  the  bulls  which 
I  saw  during  my  earlier  visits  to  the  rookery,  in  the  centre  of  the 
thickest  masses  of  females. 

The  new  bulls  did  not  show  the  yellowish  colour  of  the  older  bulls  ; 
they  did  not  accompany  the  old  bulls  to  the  rookery  early  in  the 
season  when  they  arrived  to  await  the  coming  of  the  cows ;  and  they 
would  not  at  that  time  have  dared  to  approach  within  many  yards  of 
these  old  bulls.  It  was  evident,  in  fact,  that,  like  the  cows  and 
bachelors,  these  young  bulls  continue  to  arrive  at  the  rookery  until  the 
height  of  the  season,  and  that  they  do  not  accompany  the  older  bulls, 
which  arrive  before  and  await  the  arrival  of  the  cows. 

I  am  unable  to  state  the  time  at  which  the  old  bulls  left  the  North 
rookery  of  Bering's  Island,  for  in  1896  I  was  not  there  early  enough 
to  recognise  them  individually,  and  it  was  unfortunate  that  in  1897 
neither  Dr.  Stejneger  nor  I  were  able  to  visit  the  North  rookery  after 
the  16  th  July,  on  which  date  I  could  recognise  many  of  the  bulls 
which  I  had  seen  on  the  rookery  ground  earlier  in  the  season.  At 
what  time  they  took  their  departure  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  did  so  at  the  same  time  as  did 
the  bulls  of  Copper  Island,  that  is  to  say,  at  about  the  first  week  of 
August. 

Behaviour  of  the  Bulls. 

The  following  notes  will  give  some  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  tasks 
which  the  bulls  have  to  perform : — 

At  Kishotchnaya,  in  the  harems  which  I  kept  specially  under 
observation,  a  large  half-bull  was  observed  in  coitu  at  3  p.m.  on  the 
29th  June.  Afterwards  the  cow  and  bull  did  not  separate,  but  con- 
tinued to  sit  near  each  other,  and  at  3.55  p.m.  the  act  of  copulation 
was  repeated,  on  this  occasion  in  from  6  to  8  inches  of  water.  I  then 
left  the  rookery,  and  returned  at  6.15  p.m.,  at  which  time  I  found 
(apparently)  the  same  animals  for  the  third  time  in  coitu,  on  this  occa- 
sion in  water  in  which  both  could  swim ;  the  operation  took  place 
largely  when  the  animals  were  floating  side  by  side  in  the  water. 

At  about  the  same  time  (viz.  6.40  to  6.55  p.m.)  another  half-bull 
and  cow  were  observed  in  coitu  in  a  depth  of  from   2   to   3   feet  of 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  29 

water.  On  its  termination  the  animals  swam  away  in  different 
directions. 

On  the  30th  June  the  bull  whose  harem  is  numbered  II.  in  the 
table  on  p.  25,  was  observed  in  coitu  twice  during  the  space  of  about 
one  hour,  the  first  time  at  about  6.34  p.m.  He  was  afterwards  active 
until  about  7.33  p.m.,  when  he  again  performed  the  act. 

On  the  1st  July  the  same  bull  was  observed  in  coitu  twice  during 
a  period  of  six  hours,  that  is  to  say,  at  12.9  p.m.  to  12.14  p.m.,  and 
again  at  12.33  p.m.  until  12.41|-  p.m. 

On  the  2nd  July  he  was  observed  in  coitu  four  times  during  a 
period  of  four  hours,  viz.  at  12.35  p.m.  until  12.37|-  p.m.,  at  1.30  p.m. 
until  1.35|-  p.m.,  at  2.5  p.m.  until  2.12  p.m.  (in  the  latter  case  apparently 
futilely),  and  at  3.31  p.m.  to  3.391  P#M< 

During  a  period  of  thirteen  hours,  in  which  on  various  occasions  the 
two  bulls  were  under  observation,  each  was  observed  in  coitu  eight 
times. 

If  each  bull  kept  up  the  same  rate  during  a  whole  month  of 
twenty-eight  days,  it  is  obvious  that  he  could  accommodate  a  harem  of 
over  200  cows.  The  rate  is,  however,  as  shown  by  the  above  notes, 
not  constant,  and  it  happened  that  the  periods  of  greatest  activity  of 
the  two  animals  did  not  always  coincide.  This  I  put  down  to  the 
varied  times  at  which  the  cows  came  into  heat,  and  from  the  notes  which 
I  was  able  to  make  it  seems  nearly  certain  that  the  cows  are  covered 
more  than  once  each.  The  action  of  bull  1  during  six  hours,  in 
which  he  was  observed  in  coitu  no  less  than  six  times,  led  me  to 
believe  that,  in  the  case  of  several  at  least  of  the  acts  which  I  then 
observed,  it  was  the  same  cow  which  was  covered  ;  but  of  this  I  cannot 
be  certain,  it  being  extremely  difficult  to  keep  any  one  cow  under  obser- 
vation in  a  crowded  harem. 

On  the  South  rookery  of  Bering's  Island  the  two  bulls  are  known 
to  have  been  present  from  about  the  5th  July  to  the  1st  August,  a 
period  of  only  about  twenty -six  days.  Their  departure  at  about  the 
latter  date  may  be  assumed  to  have  been  due  to  either  of  two  facts — 
viz.  either  there  were  then  no  females  requiring  their  services,  or  else 
their  power  of  accommodating  the  females  was  finished  for  the  season. 
That  the  latter  was  the  true  reason  seems  almost  certain,  from  the  fact 
that  there  was  a  newly-born  pup  with  its  mother — probably  a  three- 
year-old  cow  with  her  first  pup — on  the  rookery  beach  when  I  visited 
it  on  the  2nd  August,  and  also  from  the  fact  that  it  is  in  the  last  week 
in  July  or  the  first  week  in  August  that  the  large  old  bulls  of  the 
Copper  Island  rookeries  leave  their  harems  and  retire  to  the  beaches 
north  and  south  of  the  breeding-grounds  and  elsewhere. 

We  know  that  these  two  bulls  at  the  South  rookery  had  between 
them  a  lot  of  at  least  530  cows,  or  2  6  5  cows  each.  If  each  of  these 
cows  were  covered  only  once  during  the  twenty-six  days,  it  would  be 
necessary  for  each  bull  to  satisfy  about  ten  cows  every  twenty-four 


o 


o 


G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [JULY 


hours  throughout  his  season,  and  a  very  much  greater  number  if  any 
large  proportion  of  the  cows  received  a  second  service. 

On  this  rookery  there  appears  to  have  been  only  one  bachelor 
large  enough  to  assist  the  bulls,  but  he  was  not  larger  than  a  big  cow, 
and  does  not  seem  to  have  exerted  himself  much  :  only  on  one  occasion 
was  the  presence  of  three  bulls  (the  third  being  probably  the  large 
bachelor)  reported  by  the  natives. 

These  two  South  rookery  bulls  were  neither  of  them  apparently 
very  old :  but  one  of  them  was  a  pretty  large  dark  bull,  with  a  light 
wig;  the  other,  a  smaller  bull,  was,  as  has  already  been  stated, 
only  permitted  by  his  rival  to  remain  at  or  near  the  edge  of  the 
rookery. 

On  the  24th  July  both  these  bulls  appeared  to  be  active,  and  each 
was  observed  in  coitu  at  3  p.m. 

On  the  25th  July  the  smaller  bull  was  noted  to  be  looking  thin, 
and  was  seen  in  coitu  at  11.30  a.m.  He  seemed  to  spend  most  of  his 
time  in  sleep,  whereas  the  larger  bull  was  more  active,  and  constantly 
examined  his  harem  as  if  to  find  a  cow  in  heat. 

On  the  28th  July,  at  3  a.m.,  Mr.  Volokitin  (the  Russian  in  charge 
■of  the  rookery)  noticed  only  one  bull  on  the  rookery. 

By  the  29  th  July  the  two  bulls  had  begun  to  go  into  the  water 
and  to  follow  the  females  to  the  outlying  rocks  on  the  reef,  and  on  the 
30th,  when  I  examined  the  rookery  at  8.30  a.m.,  there  were  no  adult 
seals  on  shore,  and  no  bulls  to  be  seen  anywhere.  Mr.  Volokitin  told 
me  that  one  bull  was  on  the  beach  on  the  1st  August,  but  there  were 
none  to  be  seen  when  I  visited  it  on  the  2nd  August. 

If  the  bulls  were  vigorous,  the  bachelors,  down  to  the  smallest  of 
them,  were  equally  so.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  season  no  bachelors 
were  observed  at  the  South  rookery,  but  at  the  North  rookery,  as  I  have 
already  said,  I  found  them,  when  I  first  arrived  there,  lying  in  a  pod 
by  themselves  apart  from  the  breeding  seals.  As  the  season  approached 
its  height,  and  the  number  of  cows  so  increased  and  spread  over  the 
ground  as  to  render  the  task  of  the  bulls  who  tried  to  restrain  their 
movements  a  hopeless  one,  the  bachelors  began  to  mix  amongst  the 
females  and  to  wander  about  among  them  much  as  they  pleased.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  I  was  able  to  satisfy  myself  of  the  correctness 
of  the  observations,  often  described,  of  those  who  have  seen  the  young 
bachelors  covering  the  cows. 

My  attention  was  first  drawn  to  this  at  4.35  p.m.  on  the  30  th 
June,  by  hearing  the  strange  voice  of  a  bachelor,  neither  quite  like  a 
cow  nor  quite  like  a  bull,  at  the  Eeef  section  of  the  North  rookery.  I 
found  that  this  proceeded  from  a  small  bachelor  who  was  trying  to 
cover  a  female,  obviously  in  heat.  Another  and  smaller  bachelor  also 
tried  to  cover  the  female,  and  then  a  bigger  one  coming  by  drove  the 
small  one  away,  and  amused  himself  with  the  female  until  5.3  p.m.  She 
then  escaped  from  him,  being  evidently  satisfied,  but  he  pursued  her  and 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  31 

tried  to  prevent  her  leaving,  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  a  mature 
bull  would  have  done.  These  proceedings  went  on  in  water,  in  which 
both  animals  were  practically  afloat,  and  occurred  at  the  edge  of  the  patch 
of  seals  lying  nearest  to  the  land,  and  not  far  from  the  large  bulls.  The 
female  was  obviously  in  heat,  since  she  allowed  the  bachelors  to  play 
with  her.  Several  other  small  bachelors  were  constantly  loitering  about 
while  the  larger  one  was  in  coitu. 

On  the  same  day  I  saw  another  quite  small  bachelor  trying  to 
mount  a  female  at  another  part  of  the  same  rookery,  but  she  seemed 
to  object,  and  a  bull  eventually  drove  him  off.  Later  on  I  saw  the 
bachelor  in  the  shallow  water  annoying  other  females. 

Such  occurrences  I  afterwards  saw  frequently,  the  bachelors  being 
in  some  cases  actually  smaller  than  the  cow  they  attempted  to  cover, 
and  only  recognisable  by  their  voice  and  for  other  reasons.  In  all 
such  cases  the  bachelors  behaved  exactly  as  would  have  a  large  bull 
under  the  same  circumstances,  trying  to  keep  the  cows  close  to  them  in 
order  to  be  able  to  cover  them  again.  In  some  cases  I  saw  cows  which 
were  certainly  in  heat  escape  from  bachelors  and  pass  right  under  the 
bull's  nose  without  being  covered,  the  bull's  attention  being  too  much 
taken  up  with  other  cows  to  notice  them. 

The  same  thing  went  on  also  at  Kishotchnaya,  where  I  first 
noticed  it  also  on  the  30th  June.  On  the  2nd  July  I  watched  the 
harems  of  the  two  large  bulls  at  Kishotchnaya  (already  alluded  to)  con- 
tinuously from  11.55  a.m.  to  4.8  p.m.,  and  during  this  time  the  bull 
numbered  I.  was  observed  in  coitu  twice  and  the  bull  numbered  II. 
four  times.  Yet  during  a  good  part  of  that  time  a  young  and  quite 
small  bachelor  was  among  the  fifty-two  odd  cows  of  which  the  latter 
bull's  harem  was  on  that  day  composed.  At  1.26^-  p.m.  this  young- 
bachelor  was  covering  one  of  the  cows,  my  attention  being  attracted  to 
the  fact,  as  on  the  previous  days,  by  the  peculiar  voice  of  the  bachelor. 
The  affectionate  way  in  which  the  cow  treated  the  bachelor  made  it 
certain  that  she  was  in  heat,  yet  although  the  bull  came  up  close  to 
them,  and  even  "  nosed  "  the  bachelor,  the  latter's  presence  and  actions 
did  not  seem  to  arouse  his  suspicions,  and  the  bull  paid  no  other 
attention  whatever  to  him.  Presently  the  cow  left  the  bachelor,  and 
at  1.30  p.m.  the  bull  covered  her  himself,  finishing  at  1.35^-  p.m. 
Meanwhile  the  little  bachelor  was  in  a  state  of  great  excitement  and 
displayed  a  very  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  proceedings,  several 
times  jumping  up  on  the  side  of  the  bull.  The  bull,  however,  as 
before,  paid  absolutely  no  attention  to  him.  At  2.5  p.m.  this  bull 
was  again  seen  in  coitu,  and  meanwhile  another  cow  "  nosed "  him 
a  little.  At  2.13  p.m.  this  latter  cow  was  mounted  by  apparently  the 
same  young  bachelor  right  under  the  bull's  nose.  The  bull  paid  no 
attention  whatever  to  this  poaching  in  his  harem,  but  moved  to 
the  other  end  of  his  domain,  while  the  little  bachelor  went  on  riding 
the  cow  until   2.21  p.m.      The  behaviour  of  the  cow  to  the  bachelor 


32  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

showed  that  she  was  evidently  in  heat ;  the  cow  and  bachelor  were  of 
about  the  same  size. 

The  extraordinary  thing  about  it  all  is  that  this  bull  (and  so,  too, 
in  the  case  of  other  bulls)  had  no  objection  whatsoever  to  allowing 
young  bachelors  to  enter  his  harem  and  cover  his  cows.  Had,  however, 
one  of  the  large  outlying  half-bulls  approached  the  harem,  or  even 
moved  about  in  its  neighbourhood,  the  bull  would  have  been  very 
excited,  and  would  have  roared  incessantly,  and  have  gone  out  to 
attack  the  half-bull.  The  mere  sight  of  copulation,  however,  going  on 
near  a  bull  does  not  excite  his  interest  in  the  least  so  long  as  it  does 
not  occur  in  ground  which  he  claims  for  his  own. 

At  the  South  rookery  I  did  not  see  anything  of  this  sort  going  on, 
and  the  larger  of  the  two  bulls  was  much  more  careful  in  keeping  the 
bachelors  out.  All  of  the  latter  that  I  saw  were,  however,  with  one 
exception,  very  small  ones,  and  mixed  with  the  cows  at  the  southern 
edge  of  the  rookery. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  sexual  feelings  of  even  the  smallest 
bachelors  are  very  strongly  developed,  and  I  can  thoroughly  indorse 
the  remarks  of  Mr.  F.  W.  True  on  this  subject  (see  his  Eeport  for 
1895).  Even  the  small  male  pups  have  the  testes  in  a  very  forward 
state  of  development,  and  by  the  29th  July,  at  the  South  rookery,  I 
saw  the  little  black  pups  acting  to  each  other  in  a  way  that  made  it 
certain  that  their  sexual  feelings  had  already  made  themselves  felt. 

With  regard  to  the  mutual  relationship  of  males  and  females,  there 
is  little  to  be  said  that  has  not  been  already  included  under  some 
other  heading  in  this  article.  That  the  cows  are  as  little  "  dove-like  " 
in  their  dealing  with  the  bulls  as  with  their  own  sex,  I  am  able  to 
state  from  personal  observation,  and  I  have  seen  an  offended  female 
bite  a  bull  savagely  and  then  leave  him  and  go  to  another  harem. 
For  a  short  time,  however,  during  the  breeding-season,  a  feeling  which 
almost  appears  to  amount  to  affection  exists  between  bull  and  cow,  and 
is  best  observed  in  the  cases  where  a  single  bull  and  cow  are  to  be 
found  sitting  by  themselves.  They  are  then  for  a  short  time  insepar- 
able, but  after  the  sexual  feeling  has  been  satisfied  they  become  as 
snappish  to  each  other  as  before.  Such  pairs  of  breeding  animals  are 
more  frequently  to  be  observed  at  the  end  of  the  season,  when  the 
older  seals  have  left  the  rookeries  and  the  young  bulls  and  cows  come 
on  to  the  breeding-ground.  The  harems  are  then  small,  and  frequently 
consist  of  one  cow  only. 

I  have  already  quoted  observations  tending  to  show  that  the 
animals  do  not  separate  until  copulation  has  taken  place  more  than 
once.  A  young  bull  and  cow  noted  at  Zapadnie  rookery  on  the  7th 
August  were  still  together  and  inseparable  on  the  9  th.  As  the  season 
goes  on,  the  cows  forsake  the  beach  in  constantly  increasing  numbers 
for  the  water  in  its  neighbourhood,  while  the  bulls  retire  to  sandy  or 
shingly  beaches,  where  they  can  haul  up  free  from  domestic  worries. 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  33 

The  rookery-ground  is  then  largely  occupied  by  pups  and  young 
•  breeding  animals  of  both  sexes. 

The  following  detailed  observations  made  on  the  South  rookery 
will,  I  think,  be  found  of  interest.  It  is  of  course  impossible  to  give 
a  complete  set  of  continuous  observations  for  the  whole  season,  since 
there  were  other  rookeries  to  be  visited,  entailing  long  and  often 
tedious  journeys,  in  which  I  was  greatly  dependent  upon  wind  and 
weather.  Thus,  on  one  occasion,  it  took  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Stejneger  and 
myself  six  days  to  make  the  journey  of  21  miles  by  sea  to  the  South 
rookery  from  Nikolski,  and  during  five  of  these  days  we  were  camped 
on  the  beach  under  our  boat  waiting  for  favourable  weather.  My 
notes  have,  however,  been  supplemented  in  many  cases  by  observations 
made  on  other  rookeries,  especially  on  the  Kishotchnaya  section  of  the 
North  rookery,  where  I  spent  several  days  (29th  June  to  3rd  July)  in 
close  observation  of  the  seals. 

My  first  visit  to  the  South  rookery  began  late  on  the  23rd  June 
and  ended  on  the  26  th  June.  There  were  then  no  bulls  at  the  rookery 
and  no  bachelors.  On  the  morning  of  the  24th  there  were  sixteen 
females  on  shore,  and  their  number  was  shortly  afterwards  increased 
by  the  arrival  of  three  more  from  the  sea,  making  nineteen  in  all  on  the 
beach.  With  these  were  eleven  pups,  and  there  was  in  addition  a  small  lot 
of  about  fifteen  seals  playing  in  the  surf  outside  the  rookery.  During  my 
stay  at  the  rookery  the  number  of  seals  rapidly  increased  from  41  to  89. 

The  females  at  the  South,  rookery  might  at  this  time  have  been 
divided  into  three  classes,  that  is,  those  who  were  on  shore,  the  majority 
of  whom  had  pupped  or  were  about  to  do  so  very  shortly,  those  who 
spent  their  time  in  the  surf  outside  the  rookery,  and  a  very  small 
number  of  females  who  belonged  neither  to  one  nor  the  other  of  the 
above  classes,  but  were  engaged  in  reconnoitring  the  beach  with  a 
view  to  shortly  landing.  The  members  of  this  last  class  frequently 
landed  for  a  short  time  and  then  went  into  the  sea  a°ain. 

It  was  very  evident  that  the  numbers  of  the  females  in  the  surf, 
as  well  as  of  those  on  the  beach,  were  constantly  being  added  to,  chiefly 
during  the  night.  When  a  female  arrived  first  she  appeared  to  join  the 
ranks  of  those  playing  in  the  surf.  With  them  she  remained  for  an 
unknown  period,  and  then  came  in  to  reconnoitre  the  rookery,  probably 
landing  several  times  in  a  temporary  manner  before  finally  doing  so 
for  the  purpose  of  pupping.  Probably,  however,  had  there  been  a 
number  of  bulls  on  the  rookery,  such  females,  having  once  thus  landed, 
would  not  have  been  allowed  to  leave  again  so  easily. 

Mothers  and  Pups. 

The  females  on  shore,  certainly  those  who  had  pupped,  seemed 
to  move  about  very  little,  and  my  observations  of  them  lead  me  to 
believe  that  they  do  not  leave  their  pups  for  quite  a  considerable  time 

3 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   89. 


34  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

after  they  have  been  born.  Each  female  who  has  a  pup  lies  quite  close 
to  it  for  some  days.  If  she  moves  her  position  she  carries  the  pup 
with  her,  usually  holding  it  by  the  back  of  the  neck,  but  sometimes 
lower  down  the  back.  If  the  pup  moves  from  her  it  is  caught  and 
pulled  back  to  its  mother's  side.  It  is  no  wonder  then,  after  such  a 
close  association  between  mother  and  pup  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
season,  if  later  on  they  can,  and  do,  recognise  each  other  among  the 
multitudes  of  seals  occupying  a  rookery. 

On  one  occasion  (26th  June,  at  the  South  rookery)  I  saw  a  cow 
who  had  quarrelled  with  another  cow,  and  had  been  defeated,  retire 
out  of  the  pod  of  massed  seals  carrying  her  pup  with  her,  holding  it 
by  its  back  near  the  tail.  Another  cow  seized  the  pup  by  its  neck, 
and  a  tug-of-war  ensued  before  the  mother  got  off  with  it.  Finally, 
before  she  got  quite  clear  another  cow  carefully  smelt  the  pup, 
evidently  with  a  view  to  be  sure  that  it  was  not  her  own.  On 
another  occasion  (at  Kishotchnaya,  on  the  2nd  July)  I  felt  almost 
sure  that  a  cow  whom  I  saw  moving  her  pup  did  so  in  order  to  save 
it  from  the  ponderous  tramplings  of  a  bull. 

The  little  new-born  pups  are  the  source  of  constant  squabbling 
among  their  mothers,  and  any  attempt  at  familiarity  on  the  part  of  a 
stranger  is  at  once  resented  in  the  most  savage  manner. 

Few  points  are,  indeed,  more  striking  in  the  character  of  the  Fur 
Seal  than  the  spirit  of  inconsistency  which  causes  the  cows  to  lie  so 
closely  huddled  together  on  the  beach  that  one  of  them  can  hardly 
move  without  disturbing  two  or  three  of  her  neighbours,  and  all,  one 
would  think,  must  be  imbued  with  the  most  friendly  and  sociable 
dispositions ;  yet  the  slightest  stir  or  familiarity  on  the  part  of  a 
neighbour  is  resented  with  a  fierce  snap,  and  if  a  pup  ventures  to 
approach  a  strange  female  in  mistake  for  its  mother  it  is  at  once 
seized,  savagely  shaken,  and  thrown  away — even  killed — much  as  a 
terrier  treats  a  rat.  Yet  Mr.  H.  W.  Elliott  has  devoted  some  space  to 
a  description  of  the  meek  and  dove-like  character  of  these  female  seals  ! 

Not  only  is  any  familiarity  on  the  part  of  their  own  species 
resented,  but  I  have  seen  a  female  hold  a  regular  sparring  match  with 
a  glaucous-winged  gull  (Zarus  glaucescens,  Naum.)  who  wished  to 
make  a  meal  off  some  recent  placenta,  and  the  little  blue  foxes  which 
sat  as  close  to  the  seals  as  they  dared  were  constantly  being  chased 
away  if  they  ventured  to  approach  a  little  too  close  to  the  rookery. 
Sometimes  they  pay  for  their  impudence  with  their  lives,  and  I  have 
several  times  seen  a  blue  fox  chased  away  by  a  cow  who  thought  it  had 
approached  too  near  to  the  rookery.  In  1896,  I  found  at  Zapadni, 
Copper  Island,  the  carcase  of  a  young  blue  fox  which  had  evidently  been 
recently  killed  by  some  cow  or  bachelor,  whose  seeming  meekness  it  had 
trusted  too  much,  and  had  received  in  return  a  fatal  bite  in  the  neck. 

The  newly -arriving  females  were  treated  with  equal  want  of 
courtesy.     Their  desire  always  seemed  to  get  right  into  the  middle  of 


1899] 


THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL 


35 


the  mass  of  seals  already  on  shore,  but  whenever  a  new-comer  approached 
the  edge  of  a  rookery  she  was  received  with  such  a  series  of  snaps 
that  in  one  case  at  least  I  saw  a  female  go  right  round  the  mass  two 
or  three  times  before  she  could  get  in.  When  such  a  seal  has  at  last 
got  into  the  rookery  her  progress  to  a  resting-place  is  one  constant 
series  of  fights,  as  she  scrambles  over  the  backs  of  her  sleeping  sisters, 
and  finds  her  course  disputed  by  each  one  in  her  way. 

At  this  early  part  of  the  season  the  number  of  cows  on  shore  did 
not  seem  to  be  appreciably  affected  by  the  weather,  and  I  do  not 
believe  they  will  under  any  circumstances  leave  their  newly-born  pups. 

So  too  at  Kishotchnaya  from  the  29th  June  to  the  3rd  of  July  the 
cows  were  constantly  arriving  in  large  numbers,  yet  during  that  time 
there  was  never  any  great  number  of  them  in  the  sea,  only  about 
enough,  in  fact,  to  account  for  the  newly-arrived  females.  I  do  not 
wish  to  say  that  the  cows  never  left  their  pups,  but  I  am  certain  that 
very  few  did  so,  and  the  number  going  to  sea  was  always  very  much  less 
than  that  of  those  coming  from  the  water.  At  this  time  they  have 
little  or  no  fear  even  of  a  man,  and  can  be  approached  and  photographed 
at  any  near  range.  Those  cows  who  pup  late  in  the  season  stick 
equally  close  to  their  pups,  and  I  found  a  young  cow  at  Palata  on  the 
9  th  August  who  stood  up  to  me  as  boldly  as  a  bull,  and  allowed  me 
to  photograph  her  and  her  pup  at  a  distance  of  only  a  few  feet. 

Exactly  how  long  the  cows  stay  thus  on  shore  after  they  have 
pupped  it  is  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  impossible  to  say, 
but  a  small  amount  of  light  is  thrown  upon  the  question  by  the  move- 
ments of  one  of  the  South  rookery  cows,  whose  back  was  marked  with 
flesh-coloured  spots  in  such  a  manner  that  she  was  always  easily 
recognisable.  This  cow  hardly  moved  her  position  during  the  three 
days  of  my  first  visit  to  the  rookery : — 


24th  June, 

morning  .          .          .          . 

24th 

5) 

6  P.M.       .           .           .           . 

25th 

)) 

morning  .          .          .          . 

25th 

11 

6  P.M.       .           .           .           . 

26th 

)) 

morning  . 

24th 
25th 

July 

3  to  4.15  p.m. 

26th 

)> 

... 

27th 
27th 

morning  .          .          .          . 
about  3.30  p.m. 

28th 

ii 

morning  . 

28th 

ii 

6.15  p.m. 

29th 

ii 

10.8  A.M. 

29th 

ii 

12.15  p.m. 

29th 

)> 

3  P.M.          .             .             .             . 

29th 

)> 

6  P.M.          .             .             .             . 

30th 

ii 

...               .                    .                    .                    . 

2nd  August       .... 

First  seen. 

Asleep  with  pup  in  same  place. 

Asleep    a    yard    or    two   from    former 

position. 
Asleep  with  pup  in  same  place. 
Still  asleep  in  much  the  same  place. 
Not  noted. 

Asleep  near  same  position. 
Not  noted. 

Asleep  near  old  position. 
"Went  away  with  some  stampeded  seals. 
Absent. 

Again  ashore  near  old  position. 
Asleep  with  other  cows  on  rock  to  south 

of  rookery. 
Asleep  on  small  rock  near  rookery. 
Asleep  on  rookery  near  old  place. 
Ditto. 
Not  seen. 
Ditto. 


36  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

Probably  the  cows  do  not  leave  their  pups  until  the  latter  are 
capable  of  moving  about  by  themselves,  and  refuse  to  be  controlled  by 
their  mothers.  The  young  pups  grow  with  great  rapidity.  At  first 
they  are  very  weak  and  feeble-looking,  but  they  seem  to  feed  a  good 
deal  during  the  first  few  days  of  their  life,  and  already,  on  the  26th 
June  at  the  South  rookery,  there  was  a  distinct  difference  visible 
between  the  pups  which  had  seen  a  week  or  ten  days  of  life  and  the 
little  thin  new-born  ones.  By  the  30th  June,  at  the  North  rookery, 
a  few  of  the  little  pups  were  independent  enough  to  begin  to  collect 
together  in  little  pods,  and  on  the  previous  day  I  had  seen  one 
swimming  in  the  shallow  water  on  Kishotchnaya  reef.  A  fortnight 
later,  on  the  13th  July,  the  pups  lay  outside  the  harems  of  the  reef 
in  black  patches,  giving  the  rookery  quite  a  new  appearance,  and 
causing  its  outline  to  look  very  irregular. 

I  think  these  little  podding  pups  may  fairly  be  taken  as  an  indication 
of  the  time  each  mother  stays  on  shore  with  her  pup  after  its  birth,  as 
well  as  an  index  to  the  number  of  females  on  shore.  I  do  not  think 
any  female  left  her  pup  until  about  the  29th  June,  and  that  it  was  not 
until  ten  or  twelve  days  later  that  any  appreciable  number  of  them 
did  so.  I  believe  also  that  for  some  days  after  the  female  has  thus 
parted  from  her  pup  for  the  first  time  she  does  not  go  to  any  distance 
from  the  rookery,  but  contents  herself  with  short  excursions  to  the 
outlying  rocks,  reefs,  or  kelp-patches,  where  she  washes  or  plays  away 
the  hours,  and  probably  also  feeds.  This  is  borne  out  by  my  observa- 
tions both  at  Kishotchnaya  and  the  Eeef  as  well  as  at  the  South 
rookery. 

At  the  latter  rookery  (from  July  24  to  30,  1897)  we  could 
always  account  for  so  many  seals  that  it  is  extremely  unlikely  that 
any  great  number  of  them  travelled  to  a  distance  from  the  rookery  in 
search  of  food.  Yet  that  they  were,  feeding  I  know  for  a  fact,  having 
on  more  than  one  occasion  seen  them  spewing  up  undigested  portions 
of  their  meals  while  on  shore.  Taking  this  fact  into  consideration,  as 
well  as  the  fact  that  seals  are  usually  to  be  observed  by  vessels  coasting 
between  Nikoski  to  the  south-west  of  Copper  Island,  when  at  a  distance 
of  from  3  to  1 0  miles  from  the  shore,  and  that  in  that  region  fish  are 
abundant,  as  evidenced  by  the  abundance  of  birds,  I  believe  that  the 
nursing  Fur  Seal  mother  gets  her  food  for  some  little  time  after  the 
birth  of  her  pup  at  no  great  distance  from  the  shore,  and  only  lengthens 
her  excursions  as  the  pup  grows  older. 

In  the  end,  however,  when  at  last  she  does  leave  her  pup  to  travel 
to  the  distant  feeding-grounds  at  sea,  she  remains  there  so  long,  either 
sleeping  or  playing,  that  when  she  returns  to  the  rookery  her  udder  is 
distended  with  milk  and  her  stomach  empty. 

On  these  occasions  the  seal-mother  very  often  finds  a  little  ravenous 
and  half-starved  pup  noisily  awaiting  her  arrival  and  eagerly  demand- 
ing his  dinner  from  all  the  other  mothers  he  meets.      These,  one  and 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  37 

all,  snap  at  him  with  great  severity,  and  so  lie  goes  on  until  his  own 
mother,  landing  on  the  beach,  at  once  commences  "  baaing  "  for  him, 
and  the  pup,  if  he  is  within  hearing,  recognises  her  voice  and  answers 
the  call,  and  the  meeting  of  mother  and  child  is  obviously  one  of  mutual 
recognition  and  great  pleasure.  Sometimes,  however,  the  foolish  pups 
stray  away  to  other  ground,  where  their  mothers  have  great  difficulty 
in  finding  them,  or  perhaps  do  not  find  them  at  all,  and,  as  no  other 
mother  will  take  pity  on  them  and  feed  them,  their  little  starved 
carcases,  pressed  flat  by  the  flippers  of  their  comrades,  sadden  the  eyes 
of  the  visitor  to  the  rookery. 


Food. 

It  is  a  strange  thing  that  scarcely  anything  can  be  found  in  the 
stomachs  of  the  seals  on  shore,  whether  males,  females,  or  any  but  the 
youngest  pups.  The  reason  seems  to  be  a  twofold  one,  namely  that 
the  seals  commonly  feed  at  such  a  great  distance  from  the  rookery  that 
their  stomachs  are  empty  by  the  time  they  return  to  shore,  and  secondly, 
that,  even  if  they  feed  at  no  great  distance  from  the  rookery,  they 
seem  to  prefer  to  sleep  off  the  effect  of  a  heavy  meal  on  the  surface  of 
the  water,  which  they  find  no  doubt  a  far  softer  and  pleasanter  bed 
than  the  hard  rocks  on  shore.  Thus  even  the  older  pups,  if  killed  on 
shore,  are  usually  found  to  have  empty  stomachs,  and  to  get  one  with 
a  full  stomach  a  search  must  be  made  among  those  asleep  in  the  water 
off  the  rookery. 

The  habit  of  feeding  far  out  at  sea  is  adhered  to  with  strange 
persistence  by  the  fur  seals,  insomuch  so  that  the  pelagic  sealers 
have  found  them  plentiful  at  sea  in  August  off  the  Commander  Islands, 
in  localities  distant  from  100  to  nearly  200  miles  from  the  rookeries. 
Yet,  except  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  rookery  beaches  them- 
selves, seals  are  rarely  to  be  seen  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  islands, 
except  perhaps  in  one  or  two  favoured  localities  where  fish  seem  to  be 
abundant.  At  the  Saranna  river,  which  enters  the  sea  at  a  distance 
of  about  seven  miles  from  the  north  rookery  of  Bering's  Island, 
great  numbers  of  salmon  are  caught  annually,  yet  it  is  said  that  the 
seals  never  interfere  with  the  salmon  and  are  never  seen  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  river's  mouth. 

It  is  not,  however,  an  invariable  rule  that  seals  killed  on  shore 
have  empty  stomachs,  for  on  5th  August  1896,  while  examining  the 
bodies  of  some  bachelors  which  lay  on  the  killing-ground  and  had  been 
killed  during  the  course  of  a  drive  on  the  previous  day,  I  opened  seven 
stomachs,  of  which  one  alone  was  empty,  the  remainder  being  more  or 
less  full  of  a  pink  soup-like  and  nauseous-smelling  liquid,  in  which 
were  many  eyes  and  a  few  beaks  of  squid,  also  a  few  strips  of  white 
flesh,  either  of  fish  or  squid.  One  stomach  contained  a  bit  of 
salmon,  and  there  were  pieces  of  what  looked  like  seaweed  in  others  ; 


38  G.  E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

but  it  was  difficult  to  tell  exactly,  as  the  contents  of  the  stomachs 
were  somewhat  decomposed.  This  observation  is  of  interest  in  view  of 
the  statement  by  Dr.  Stejneger  (Eeport  p.  69)  that  he  "was  informed 
that  once  on  the  South  rookery  a  flock  of  bachelors  was  so  full  of 
octopods  that  they  vomited  up  quantities  of  these  mollusks  while 
being  driven." 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  stomachs  are  almost  empty,  containing 
only  a  little  mucus,  bile,  a  pebble  or  two,  some  parasitic  worms,  and, 
perhaps,  some  fish  bones  or  beaks  of  squid.  These,  the  remnants 
of  the  last  meal  devoured  by  the  animal,  are  usually  regurgitated  on 
the  rookery  grounds,  whence  a  collection  of  fish  bones  may  be  made 
such  as  will  give  a  clue  to  the  food  of  the  seals,  and  in  which  the 
Pacific  pollak  was  found,  as  on  the  Pribilof  Islands,  to  play  an  im- 
portant part.  At  sea  the  contents  of  the  stomachs  are  very  different, 
and  Mr.  Lucas  and  I  found  many  full  ones  (12  out  of  26  examined) 
when  cruising  on  the  U.S.  Ee venue  cutter  "  Rush "  among  the 
pelagic  sealers  in  Bering's  Sea.  On  this  occasion  I  thought  I  noticed 
a  connection  between  the  full  stomachs  and  the  empty  milk-glands, 
and  empty  stomachs  (or  those  containing  only  a  few  fish  bones)  and 
full  milk-glands,  seeming  to  show  that  the  mother-seals  go  to  the  sea 
with  their  milk-glands  quite  empty  and  then  eat  largely  and  sleep  until 
their  milk-glands  are  again  full,  which  occurs  about  the  time  that 
their  meal  has  been  digested. 

Not  only  do  the  seals  cast  up  fish  bones  on  the  rookeries  but  deposit 
there  parasitic  worms  and  excrement  and  urine  in  great  quantities,  so 
that  the  rookeries  are  by  no  means  pleasant  places  to  tramp  over :  the 
rocks  are  often  slippery  and  the  odour  always  characteristic.  Add  to 
which  the  fact  that  on  the  Commander  Islands  at  least  the  seals  are 
infested  by  great  quantities  of  a  small  dark  fly,  and  it  may  well  be 
imagined  that  it  is  often  pleasanter  to  look  at  the  seals  from  a  distance 
than  to  walk  among  them. 

I  think  it  is  to  the  urine  that  must  be  attributed  the  growth  of 
yellow  grass  (Poa  sp.  ?)  which  first  appears  on  ground  formerly  occupied 
by  seals  but  deserted  by  them.  Such  grass  had  to  me  very  much  the 
appearance  of  that  which  springs  up  on  the  bare  places  where  rabbits 
have  been  feeding  on  a  lawn. 

Summary  of  Statistical  Results. 

My  statistical  results  show  the  following : — Assuming  that  the 
total  number  of  pups  on  the  South  rookery  from  the  24th  to  30th  July 
was  530,  that  there  was  no  appreciable  increase  in  their  number  in 
that  time,  and  that  there  were  no  pupless  females  on  the  rookery, 
then  there  were  on  the  beach  during  a  series  of  twenty  observations  a 
number  of  females  which  varied  from  less  than  1  to  over  59  per  cent 
of  the  whole,  and  which  was,  within  those  limits,  exceedingly  variable, 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  39 

the  average  number  on  shore  at  any  one  time  being  about  24  per 
cent,  and  the  consequent  average  number  of  absentees  from  the  beach 
about  76  per  cent. 

An  almost  equally  variable  number  of  females,  whose  minimum 
was  about  17  and  maximum  about  68,  with  an  average  of  over  37  per 
cent,  was  always  to  be  found  on  the  reef  or  on  the  rocks  close  to  the 
rookery.  As  the  pups  also  frequented  these  rocks  in  numbers,  except 
at  high  tide,  and  were  there  met  and  suckled  by  their  mothers,  I  am 
of  opinion  that  these  seals  may  be  regarded  as  also  having  been  on 
the  rookery  beach,  and  that  the  two  lots  together  must  be  regarded  as 
equivalent  to  the  counts  of  seals  made  at  any  rookery  (and  there  are 
many  such  on  the  Pribilofs)  where  the  beach  is  not  protected  by 
outlying  reefs  or  rocks.  In  other  words,  it  seems  that  the  percentage 
to  be  added  to  the  number  of  seals  on  shore,  in  order  to  account 
for  the  total  number  belonging  to  the  rookery,  must  be  different  accord- 
ing as  the  rookeries  are  protected  or  not.  In  the  former  case  it  would 
be  much  more  than  in  the  latter. 

Adding  the  number  of  seals  found  on  the  beach  to  those  on  the 
reef  and  neighbouring  rocks,  it  is  seen  that,  although  the  items  are  so 
variable  themselves,  the  total  is  more  constant,  never  falling  below 
about  26  per  cent,  or  rising  above  about  85  per  cent,  and  with  a 
pretty  constant  average  of  about  62  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the 
variability  of  the  numbers  of  seals  on  shore  or  on  the  reef  was  due  to 
the  movement  of  the  seals  from  one  locality  to  another,  and  not  to 
their  departure  from  the  rookery. 

Besides  this  average  of  about  62  per  cent  of  seals  which  were 
never  absent  from  the  vicinity  of  the  rookery,  and  the  numbers  of 
which  were  ascertained  in  all  cases  by  actual  count,  there  was  a  further 
number  who  were  never  far  away  and  always  in  sight.  The  numbers 
of  these  could  only  -in  a  few  cases  be  obtained  by  actual  count,  and 
must  be,  therefore,  regarded  as  estimated  only.  The  figures  are,  how- 
ever, as  likely  to  be  under  as  over  the  mark.  The  numbers  of  these 
seals  were  also  variable,  falling  once  to  nearly  2  per  cent,  and  rising 
to  above  62  per  cent,  and  having  an  average  of  about  21  per  cent. 

Combining  these  figures,  I  find  that  there  was  no  occasion  on 
which  I  could  not  account  for  over  65  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
cows,  that  on  one  occasion  I  could  account  for  over  90  per  cent  of 
them,  but  that  these  figures  must  be  regarded  as  extremes,  the  average 
number  of  cows  accountable  for  during  a  series  of  sixteen  observations 
being  about  83  per  cent,  and  the  average  percentage  of  absentees 
being,  consequently,  about  17. 

There  would  appear  at  first  sight  to  have  been  a  slight  increase  in 
the  number  of  absentees  while  my  observations  were  being  conducted, 
but  a  closer  look  at  my  figures  1  shows  that  there  was  no  day  on  which 
there  were  not  at  one  time  or  another  at  least  83  per  cent  of  the  seals 

1  Which  are  too  long  to  be  printed  here. 


40  G.    E.  H.  BARRETT-HAMILTON  [july 

accountable  for,  and  hence  only  17  per  cent  away.  The  chief  change 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  fewer  cows  seemed  to  be  lying  on  the  beach 
than  before,  but  these  lay  on  the  rocks  or  reef  or  in  the  sea  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  rookery. 

There  are,  I  think,  only  two  deductions  which  can  fairly  be  made 
from  the  above  figures,  and  these  are  either — 

1.  All  the  females  had  pups,  and  in  that  case  there  was  no  day 
up  to  the  1st  August  on  which  a  percentage  of  more  than  seventeen 
left  the  rookery  for  any  length  of  time,  or — 

2.  If  the  percentage  of  females  at  all  times  absent  from  the  rookery 
is  to  be  here  applied  as  on  the  Pribilofs,  the  obvious  deduction  is  that 
there  was  an  unknown  and  somewhat  considerable  percentage  of  the 
females  which  were  without  pups,  and  which,  hanging  about  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  rookery,  made  up  the  numbers  of  seals  which  were 
daily  to  be  seen. 

Movements  of  the  Pwps. 

The  movements  of  the  pups  seemed  to  coincide  with  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  tide.  At  low  tide  they  followed  their  mothers  out  on 
the  reef,  and  slept  with  them  on  the  outlying  rocks.  The  rising  tide, 
however,  caused  the  swell  to  break  over  these  rocks,  and  even  to  send 
a  small  breaker  right  across  the  reef.  The  pups  always  retired  to 
the  shore  before  this  breaker,  and  on  the  day  of  our  most  successful 
count  (29th  July,  at  6.15  p.m.),  out  of  a  total  of  529  pups  counted 
by  myself,  and  527  by  Dr.  Stejneger,  only  three  were  in  the  water  or 
off  the  beach. 

On  these  well-protected  rookeries  the  pups  learn  to  swim  rapidly, 
and  although  up  to  the  30  th  of  July  there  were  no  pups  at  the  south 
rookery  who  dared  face  the  surf  or  the  waters  of  the  deep  sea,  there 
were  on  that  date  370  out  of  530  who  were  capable  of  swimming 
about  in  the  shallow  water  on  the  reef.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  they  here  learn  to  swim  by  following  their  mothers  out  on  to  the 
reef,  where  the  rising  tide  cuts  them  off,  and  they  are  then  forced  to 
use  their  nippers.  One  little  pup  which  Dr.  Stejneger  and  I  watched 
on  the  29th  of  July  had  evidently  never  tried  to  swim  before.  It 
was  cut  off  by  the  advancing  tide  while  sitting  with  its  mother  on  a 
small  rock  on  the  reef.  As  the  tide  advanced,  the  pup  tried  to  balance 
itself  on  the  top  of  the  rock  in  a  seemingly  most  uncomfortable  posi- 
tion. Presently  the  cow  moved  off,  and  the  pup  had  to  follow  her 
into  the  shallow  water,  but  it  was  only  after  some  time,  and  when  it 
was  teased  by  some  other  pups,  that  it  dared  to  put  its  head  under 
the  water,  and  when  it  did  do  so  it  swam  excellently. 

On  the  30th  July  a  good  many  pups  at  the  South  rookery  were  still 
afraid  to  go  into  the  shallow  water,  as  I  saw  when  I  went  down 
amongst  them  to  remove  some  dead  carcases.  They  must,  however, 
have  progressed  pretty  rapidly  in  their  swimming-  lessons  ;  for,  whereas 


1899]        THE  HABITS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  FUR  SEAL  41 

up  to  the  29th  July  the  smallest  number  noted  on  shore  at  any  one 
time  was  217,  on  the  30th  July,  at  8.30  A.M.,  there  were  only  160; 
and  on  the  2nd  August  only  about  70. 

On  unprotected  rookeries,  like,  say,  Sabatcha  Dira  of  Copper 
Island,  the  pups  are  prevented  by  the  constant  surf  from  learning  to 
swim  until  they  are  bold  enough  to  face  the  breakers,  and  so  they  learn 
to  swim  slightly  later.  Still,  at  Sabatcha  Dira,  on  the  7th  August,  I  saw 
a  pup  accompanying  his  mother  with  ease  and  confidence  among  the 
heavy  breakers  then  coming  in.  But  this  was  an  exceptional  pup ; 
the  vast  majority  were  afraid  to  face  the  surf  at  all. 

As  soon  as  the  pups  begin  to  swim  they  amuse  themselves  by 
playing  with  pieces  of  seaweed,  and  no  doubt  anything  nourishing 
which  they  come  across  finds  its  way  to  their  stomachs.  This  is  no  doubt 
a  preparation  for  their  winter  feeding  at  sea.  The  earliest  date  on  which 
I  saw  a  pup  playing  with  kelp  was  on  the  29  th  July  at  the  South 
rookery.  On  the  same  day  I  saw  a  pup  follow  his  mother  nearly  out 
to  the  breakers  before  he  allowed  her  to  leave  him.  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  pups  must,  in  the  first  instance,  gain  a  great  deal  of 
their  first  knowledge  of  where  their  food  may  be  found  by  thus  follow- 
ing their  mothers  away  from  the  rookeries. 

By  the  middle  of  August  (first  noted  on  August  10,  1896)  the 
pups  show  signs  of  moulting  and  assuming  their  grey  coat,  their 
heads  especially  presenting  a  very  patchy  appearance.  Later  in  the 
season  it  is  a  frequent  sight  to  see  pups  playing  with  sea  weed  or 
anything  else  which  may  come  in  their  way,  and  in  shallow  water  I 
have  seen  them  nibbling  at  something  at  the  bottom ;  and,  on  August 
17,  1896,  at  Copper  Island,  I  saw  a  pup  with  something  in  its  mouth 
which  looked  remarkably  like  a  fish.  On  the  6th  September  1896 
I  shot  a  puffin  (Fratercula  comiculata)  on  St.  Paul  Island,  which, 
unfortunately,  fell  into  the  sea  out  of  my  reach.  Some  pups  which 
happened  to  be  playing  near  at  hand  seemed  to  take  an  interest  in  it, 
and  sniffed  at  it,  but  I  did  not  actually  see  them  bite  it.  Again,  at 
the  landing-place  at  St.  Paul  Island,  a  pup  was  seen  by  me 
pulling  at  a  rope  on  September  20,  1896.  This  happened  again  on 
the  24th.  On  that  day  when  I  was  standing  at  the  same  landing- 
stage,  a  pup  came  swimming  by  without  seeing  me,  and  finding  one 
end  of  the  same  rope  floating  in  the  water,  he  began  to  pull  and 
play  with  it  like  a  puppy  dog.  Presently  I  began  to  pull  the  rope  in 
towards  me,  and  had  actually  brought  him  in  a  bit,  before  he  noticed 
my  presence,  and  took  to  his  flippers  with  a  surprised  hiss. 


Excavations  on  Puffin  Island. 

"  The  place  of  tombs, 
Where  lay  the  mighty  bones  of  ancient  men." 

By  Philip  J.  White,  M.B.,  Professor  of  Zoology  in  the  University 
College  of  North  Wales,  and  Director  of  Puffin  Island  Biological 
Station. 

"  And  we  will  row  to  that  little  island  of  which  I  cannot  say  the  name, 
I  like  it  so  much,  it  looks  so  lonely,  just  broken  off,  as  it  were,  from 
Anglesea." 

The  Isle  of  Glannauch,  Ynys  Seiriol,  Ynys  Lenach,  Priestholm,  or 
Puffin  Island,  to  which  Edna  Lyall  thus  refers  in  one  of  her  novels, 
are  names  which  have  been  given,  from  time  to  time  in  the  course  of 
history,  to  the  small  island  lying  like  a  watch-dog  at  the  eastern  end 
of  the  Menai  Straits.  For  upwards  of  a  decade  this  island  has  been 
closely  associated  with  biological  inquiries  of  various  kinds,  and  the 
descriptions  and  illustrations  of  it  have  rendered  it  familiar  to  many 
who  have  neither  set  foot  upon  it  nor  seen  it. 

Like  some  other  islands  of  which  we  know,  Puffin  Island  has  its 
saint.  Professor  Herdman,  in  one  of  his  clever  sketches,  represents 
this  saint,  Seiriol  by  name,  as  seated  on  the  rocky  shore  of  the  island, 
contemplating  with  complacency  and  evident  approval  a  small  party 
of  zoologists  trawling  from  a  boat.1  No  doubt  the  mystic  was  inter- 
ested in  the  biological  features  of  the  island  and  its  surroundings  in  so 
far  as  his  earthly  wants  were  concerned,  but  more  than  this  it  would  be 
venturesome  to  surmise.  However,  as  so  much  good  biological  work 
had  been  done  under  his  auspices,  as  it  were,  I  felt  that  it  was  only 
right  and  proper  that  some  effort  should  be  made  to  investigate  the 
ancient  seat  of  his  activities.  Mr.  Harold  Hughes,  who  has  been 
associated  with  me  in  the  work  of  excavation,  about  which  I  shall 
presently  speak,  has  examined  the  scanty  records  relating  to  the 
island,  and  has  furnished  us  with  a  most  interesting  history.2  I  can 
but  touch  on  it  here,  and  perhaps  cull  a  few  lines  from  his  narrative. 
In  the  early  years  of  the  sixth  century  Seiriol  erected  his  cell  on  the 

1  Fifth  Puffin  Island  Report,  1892.  2  Puffin  Report,  1894  and  1895. 

42 


july  1899]  EXCA  VATIONS  ON  PUFFIN  ISLAND  43 

island,  and  took  up  his  abode  there  with  his  religious  brethren.  These 
monks  or  religious  brethren,  and  those  who  followed  them  through  the 
centuries,  were  known  as  the  "  Canons  of  the  Isle  of  Glannauch," 
becoming  eventually  "  Canons  regular  of  the  Order  of  St.  Augustine." 
The  life  of  these  monks,  as  recorded  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis  in  his 
Itinerary  of  Archbishop  Baldwin  through  Wales  in  1188,1  was  a  simple 
one.  He  says :  "  There  is  an  island,  of  moderate  size,  adjoining  and 
almost  united  to  Anglesey,  inhabited  only  by  hermits,  living  by  the 
labour  of  their  hands  and  serving  God.  This  is  remarkable  that, 
when  any  discord  arises  among  them  by  the  influence  of  human 
passions,  all  their  provisions  are  devoured  and  destroyed  by  a  species 
of  small  mice  with  which  the  island  abounds,  but,  when  the  discord 
ceases,  they  are  no  longer  troubled.  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  if  the 
servants  of  God  sometimes  disagree,  seeing  that  Jacob  and  Esau  con- 
tended  in  the  womb  of  Rebecca ;  by  contention  Paul  and  Barnabas 
parted  from  one  another;  the  disciples  of  Jesus  strove  as  to  which  of 
them  should  be  the  greatest :  for  these  are  the  temptations  of  human 
infirmity.  Nevertheless  virtue  often  by  infirmity  is  made  perfect,  and 
faith  is  increased  by  tribulation.  It  is  said,  moreover,  this  island  is 
called  in  Welsh,  Ynys  Lenach,  or  the  Ecclesiastical  Island,  on  account 
of  many  saints  whose  bodies  are  buried  here,  and  no  woman  enters 
this  island." 

What  the  mice  referred  to  above  were  we  cannot  say,  but  no  doubt 
we  shall  find  some  traces  of  them,  unless  they  were  merely  creatures 
of  the  imagination.  The  only  rodent  remains  that  we  have  hitherto 
found  are  those  of  the  rabbit  and  common  rat.  This  rat  was  very 
abundant  on  the  island,  until  a  few  years  ago,  when  it  was  exterminated. 

The  island  seems  to  have  been  a  crown-land  up  to  1654,  when  it 
was  sold  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  one  J.  Moore.  In  the  grant  this  note 
occurs — "  I  know  not  of  what  compase  the  saide  Ilelande  is,  nor  the 
comodities  thereof.  This  is  the  furst  pticular  made  by  me  of  the 
p'rmises  for  this  sale  29  Ap  1564."  Later  the  island  passed  into  the 
possession  of  the  Bulkeley  family,  in  whose  hands  it  remains  to  the 
present  day. 

The  excavations  made  by  us  have  been  chiefly  in  the  vicinity,  and  to 
the  east  of  the  old  tower  standing  about  mid-island.  Several  ecclesias- 
tical buildings  appear  to  have  been  erected  from  time  to  time,  and 
this  tower  formed  part  of  the  priory  which  was  in  existence  in  the 
twelfth  century.  Bound  the  tower,  but  at  ground  level,  there  are 
walls,  some  of  which  belonged  to  the  priory,  while  others  evidently 
surrounded  portions  of  the  burial-ground. 

In  1893  I  made  the  first  excavation,2  a  trench  some  fifteen  feet  in 
length,  by  three  feet  wide,  and  about  thirty  yards  north-east  of  the 
tower,  at  a  spot  said  to  have  been  part  of  the  cemetery.3     The  limestone 

1  Po\vel's  Latin  edition,  1804.  2  Puffin  Peport,  1892  and  1893. 

3  Hopps,  Archmologia  Cambrensis,  vol.  xv.  1869. 


44  PHILIP  J.   WHITE  [july 

was  reached  at  a  depth  of  three  feet.  In  the  mould,  which  consisted 
first  of  a  layer  of  black  earth,  then  of  a  layer  of  brownish  earth,  and 
lastly  of  a  layer  of  brownish  clay,  there  were,  especially  in  the  first 
layer,  numerous  bones  and  teeth  of  the  ox,  sheep,  boar,  rat,  and  rabbit, 
but  no  human  bones  were  found. 

I  then  made  a  shorter  and  wider  trench  about  fifteen  yards  north- 
east of  the  tower.  The  soil  here  was  about  four  feet  in  depth.  As  in 
the  first  trench,  there  was,  to  begin  with,  a  layer  of  black  earth, 
followed  by  a  layer  of  sea-sand,  below  which  there  was  a  layer  of 
brown  clay.  In  the  layer  of  black  earth  there  were  numerous  frag- 
ments of  human  bones  and  teeth,  and  fragments  of  the  bones  and 
teeth  of  the  animals  found  in  the  first  trench.  Immediately  above  the 
layer  of  sand  a  human  skeleton  was  discovered  with  the  feet  pointing 
to  the  east.  On  passing  through  the  layer  of  sand  two  skeletons 
were  found,  lying  side  by  side,  on  the  same  level  and  a  few  inches 
apart,  imbedded  in  the  brownish  clay.  It  was  therefore  clear  that  the 
burials  had  been  made  in  two  layers,  one  superficial  and  the  other 
deep.  In  the  latter  no  injured  bones,  or  bones  out  of  position,  were 
found ;  whereas,  in  the  former,  besides  the  skeleton,  there  were  many 
odd  and  injured  bones,  thus  indicating  that  this  layer  had  been  used 
more  than  once  for  purposes  of  burial. 

The  next  and  principal  excavation  was  made  conjointly  with  Mr. 
Hughes,  immediately  to  the  east  of  the  tower,  on  the  spot  probably 
occupied  by  the  sanctuary  of  the  priory.  We  also  excavated  in  the 
floor  of  the  tower  itself.  We  commenced  digging  at  the  entrance  of 
the  tower,  and  worked  outwards  between  two  parallel  walls  extending 
eastwards  from  its  sides.  On  removing  about  two  and  a  half  feet  of 
debris,  we  came  upon  a  wide  stone  forming  the  fore  part  of  the 
threshold  of  the  doorway.  Deeper  and  to  the  east  of  this  stone,  and 
passing  through  layers  of  charcoal,  burnt  materials,  and  lime,  to  the 
depth  of  about  eight  inches,  the  thick  walls  of  an  enclosure,1  about 
five  feet  square,  were  exposed.  Further  examination  proved  this  to  be 
an  ancient  tomb.  Beneath  some  rough  sea-worn  slabs,  and  covered 
with  shingle  from  the  shore,  lay,  with  his  feet  to  the  east,  the  skeleton 
of  a  man.  As  he  was  a  large  man,  and  as  the  enclosure,  so  far  as  its 
length  went,  was  relatively  short,  he  had  been  buried  with  the  knees 
drawn  up.  Sir  William  Turner,  to  whom  I  sent  the  skeleton  for 
examination,  describes  it  as  that  of  a  man  in  the  later  stage  of  middle 
life,  with  a  well-developed  muscular  system,  a  hyper-brachycephalic 
skull,  and  a  good  sized  brain.  Is  it  possible  that  these  remains, 
occupying  as  they  do  the  most  important  ecclesiastical  site  of  the 
island,  can  be  those  of  Seiriol  "  the  Bright,"  of  whom  Matthew  Arnold 
sings  in  his  "  East  and  West "  ?  If  so,  this  place  of  sepulchre  might 
mark  the  position  of  his  early  cell,  because,  as  old  records  show,  holy 
men  were  occasionally  buried  in  the  oratory  where  they  were  wont  to 

1  Puffin  Island  Reports,  from  1894  to  1897. 


1899]  EXCA  VATIONS  ON  PUFFIN  ISLAND  45 

worship.  Whether,  however,  the  remains  were  those  of  our  saint  or 
not,  they  are  evidently  those  of  a  man  of  note  in  his  day  and 
generation. 

Proceeding  eastward  with  our  excavations  beyond  the  enclosure 
first  spoken  of,  we  exposed  a  somewhat  roughly  constructed  sepulchral 
cist  beside  the  wall  on  the  left  hand  side,  and  resting  upon  the  rock. 
When  the  covering  slabs  were  removed  a  number  of  odd  and  broken 
bones  belonging  to  several  individuals  were  seen,  and  beneath  these 
lay  two  skeletons,  one  above  the  other.  Immediately  to  the  right  of 
this  cist,  and  behind  a  rude  headstone,  another  skeleton  was  found, 
and  to  the  right  of  this  yet  another.  These  skeletons  were  not  enclosed 
in  any  way,  and  like  those  in  the  cist,  their  feet  were  directed  to  the 
east. 

Beyond  these  skeletons  we  have  just  found  a  low  sandstone  wall 
extending  transversely  between  the  two  main  walls  within  which  our 
work  at  present  lies.  We  have  not  traced  it  fully  as  yet,  and  what 
lies  on  its  further  side  we  have  still  to  discover.  In  the  debris  within 
and  without  the  tower  several  worked  building  stones  were  unearthed. 
Here  and  in  the  upper  mould  of  the  two  other  excavations,  smoking 
pipes,  dating  from  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  modern  times,  were 
brought  to  light,  as  were  also  fragments  of  Elizabethan  bottles  and 
comparatively  recent  gun  flints. 

In  a  small  excavation  which  was  made  at  the  south-west  extremity 
of  the  island  some  fragments  of  pottery,  apparently  Elizabethan, 
were  found,  and  beneath  these  a  number  of  sea-shells  and  burnt  bones, 
while  in  the  sandy  soil  to  the  north-west  of  the  biological  station,  at  a 
depth  of  two  feet,  a  prehistoric  flint  was  discovered. 

The  story  of  the  island,  from  the  time  when  this  flint  was  used  to 
the  time  when  the  biological  station  was  established,  is  a  long  one. 
We  shall  endeavour  to  spell  this  story  out,  but  in  this  short  paper  I 
have  merely  tried  to  indicate  some  points  in  connection  with  our  task, 
which  so  far  has  been  by  no  means  a  fruitless  one. 


Mr.   F.  W.  Headley  on  Evolution. 

By  R  F.  Licorish,  M.D. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Headley  is  to  be  congratulated,  from  the  Lamarckian  point 
of  view,  on  the  soundness  of  his  conclusions  as  to  the  course  of  organic 
evolution  as  expressed  in  the  May  number  of  this  Journal.  And  yet, 
strange  to  say,  I  have  to  protest  against  his  interpretation  of  Lamarck 
as  stated  therein.  Lamarck  never  stated,  nor  did  he  intend  others  to 
believe,  that  evolutionary  changes  are  brought  about  by  means  so 
simple  as  implied  by  Mr.  Headley  when  he  states  in  his  article :  "  The 
idea  that  the  crawling  of  bees  or  other  insects  over  plants,  or  anything 
in  the  environment,  can  have  produced  flowers,  is  too  great  a  strain  on 
the  credulity  of  an  ordinary  man,"  as  an  illustration  of  Lamarckian 
views.  He  says,  "  or  anything  in  the  environment,"  yet  farther  on  in 
the  article  (page  362)  he  makes  the  environment  play  a  somewhat 
different  role,  and  he  attempts  rightly  enough,  so  far  as  the  explanation 
goes,  to  explain  how  it  works.  He  says  :  "  The  environment  offers 
to  animals  all  that  they  require,  and  lets  them  take  what  they  want  in 
any  way  they  choose."  Now  that  is  so,  and  it  applies  with  equal  force 
to  plants.  We  should  remember  that  the  environment  of  plants 
includes  all  conditions  capable  of  acting  on  them  above  the  surface  of 
the  earth  as  well  as  beneath  it.  What  Lamarck  contended  for  was 
that  plants  are  modified  chiefly  through  their  nutritive  processes,  and 
we  can  well  assume  that  flowers  were  so  evolved ;  changes  in  the 
nutritive  processes  leading  to  change  in  reaction  to  other  environ- 
mental factors. 

Now,  so  little  has  Lamarck  been  understood  in  this  respect,  that 
even  one  of  Huxley's  acumen  and  knowledge  has  been  led  by  the 
misunderstanding  to  make  statements  absurd  and  misleading.  In 
"  Lay  Sermons  and  Addresses,"  article  "  Origin  of  Species,"  Huxley 
thus  writes  :  "  It  is  curious,  however,  that  Lamarck  should  insist,  so 
strongly  as  he  has  clone,  that  circumstances  never  in  any  degree  directly 
modify  the  form  or  organisation  of  animals,  but  only  operate  by 
changing  their  wants,  and  consequently  their  actions ;  for  he  thereby 
brings  upon  himself  the  obvious  question,  How  then  do  plants,  which 
cannot  be  said  to  have  wants  or  actions,  become  modified  ?     To  this  he 

46 


july  1899]  I.  W.  HEADLEY  ON  EVOLUTION  47 

replies  that  they  are  modified  by  the  changes  in  their  nutritive  pro- 
cesses, which  are  affected  by  changes  in  their  circumstances ;  and  it 
does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him  that  such  changes  might  be  as 
well  supposed  to  take  place  among  animals."  That  plants  cannot  be 
said  to  have  wants  is  rather  a  strange  assertion  from  a  scientist  of 
Huxley's  eminence,  and  the  statement  that  it  did  not  occur  to  Lamarck 
that  changes  in  animals  take  place  through  their  nutritive  processes,  as 
he  alleges  they  do  as  regards  plants,  is  a  deplorable  bit  of  gratuitous 
imputation  for  a  great  reasoner  like  Huxley  to  make,  seeing  that 
Lamarck  was  continually  reiterating  that  fact.  For  certainly  Lamarck's 
"  wants  "  include  the  want  of  food,  and  if  circumstances  force  animals 
to  modify  their  method  of  feeding,  a  new  habit  will  or  may  be  con- 
tracted, leading  gradually  through  heredity  to  modification  of  organs. 
Again,  we  see  the  misinterpretation  of  Lamarck  in  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's 
"Principles  of  Biology,"  when  he  implies  that  the  idea  as  to  what 
induces  organic  change  in  the  theories  of  Erasmus  Darwin  and 
especially  Lamarck,  is  identical  or  very  similar  to  the  motive  force 
implied  in  "  Vestiges  of  Creation "  and  Prof.  Owen's  works  whereas 
there  is  no  real  likeness,  or,  in  fact,  no  more  than  is  between  the 
vitalist's  theory  of  life  and  that  of  the  physicists. 

I  agree  entirely  with  Mr.  Headley  when  he  states  that  the  guiding 
principle  of  evolution  must  be  sought  for  in  the  organism  itself;  for 
that  is  what  Lamarck  ever  maintained.  Again,  Mr.  Headley  states 
that  the  paths  open  in  the  evolution  of  species  are  limited.  That  is 
also  true,  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  must  follow  the  lines 
of  function.  Take  up  any  work  on  physiology,  and  we  soon  learn 
why  the  paths  of  evolution  are  limited,  for  organic  life  depends  on 
only  a  few  great  functions,  viz.,  nutrition,  including  respiration,  repro- 
duction, and  locomotion,  all  governed  by  the  nervous  system,  and  hence 
it  must  be  on  these  lines — the  great  vital  functions,  as  distinct  from 
the  special  organic  functions — that  evolutionary  changes  are  brought 
about  when  changes  in  environment  lead  to  change  in  organic  reaction 
in  the  formation  of  new  species. 

It  seems  to  me  we  should  look  at  organic  matter  as  a  condition  of 
energy,  i.e.,  as,  in  a  highly  plastic  state,  capable  of  being  modified  either 
directly  or  indirectly  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  organism. 
Weismann  now  admits  (a  modification  of  his  former  views)  that  varia- 
tions are  caused  by  the  reaction  of  the  germinal  protoplasm  to 
extrinsic  forces.  But  why  does  he  not  see  that  this  reaction  to 
extrinsic  forces  is  not  limited  to  embryonic  life,  but  is  continuous  during 
the  whole  life  of  the  organism,  from  inception  of  life  to  death,  gradually 
decreasing,  of  course,  in  inverse  ratio  with  the  duration  of  life  of  the 
organism.  We  should  thus  be  able  to  account  not  only  for  variations 
appearing  at  birth,  but  also  for  the  inheritance  of  functionally -produced 
modifications. 

That  the  course  of  organic  evolution  is  gradual — one  step  in   a 


48  R.  F.  LICORISH  [july  1899 

definite  advance  being  the  basis  of  the  next  step — is  also  a  purely 
Lamarckian  conception,  although  Mr.  Headley  attributes  it  to  Eimer. 
As  regards  Mehnert's  principle  of  development,  summarised  by  Prof. 
Thomson  in  the  May  number  of  Natural  Science,  that,  too,  is  Lamarckian, 
for  Lamarck's  work  clearly  makes  out  that  all  progress  in  organic 
evolution  must  be  studied  from  the  physiological  or  functional  stand- 
point. Hitherto  it  has  been  studied  almost  wholly  from  the  morpho- 
logical point  of  view.  But  that  this  limitation  is  fallacious  must  be 
plain  if  we  admit  that  "  the  function  makes  the  organ." 

That  any  course  in  evolution  can  be  due  to  chance,  and  not  to 
responses  to  environmental  changes,  is  to  me  unthinkable,  for,  look 
where  we  will,  consider  what  we  may,  law  and  order  prevail  in  nature. 


Barbados,  W.I., 
May  25th,  1899. 


Meteorology  and  Ethics. 

In  days  whose  distance  from  those  of  our  enlightenment  is  not  great 
when  measured  chronologically,  though  vast  when  estimated  in  terms 
of  mental  modification,  the  organism's  dependence  on  its  surroundings 
was  unrecognised,  and  man  was  master  of  his  fate.  But  we  have 
changed  all  that, — the  organism  is  now  a  whirlpool  in  the  sea  of  life, 
and,  "  man  is  being  recognised  more  and  more  as  a  creature  of  his  en- 
vironment, a  sequence  of  personalities,  each  one  of  which  varies  from 
all  the  others  as  the  conditions  of  that  environment  vary."  Instead  of 
coelum  non  animum  we  read  coelum  ct  animum,  and  the  days  of  the 
study  of  the  personality  in  vacuo  have  passed  away  for  ever.  And  so 
we  react  from  a  false  abstraction  to  hardly  less  obvious  exaggeration. 
Flowers  shaped  insects'  mouth-parts  and  insects  formed  the  curves  of 
flowers,  the  popular  Lamarckian  says,  in  the  exuberance  of  his  confi- 
dence in  modifications  and  their  heritability  ;  and  as  for  our  vices,  it  is 
the  fault  of  the  weather.  The  environment,  in  short,  has  to  serve  its 
turn  as  the  scape -goat  of  the  human  camp.  But  just  as  there  was 
truth  in  the  old  doctrine  of  the  organism's  independence  and  man's 
mastery  of  circumstances,  so  there  is  truth  in  the  modern  reaction  ;  and 
we  have  read  with  great  pleasure,  which  we  wish  others  to  share, 
Professor  E.  G.  Dexter's  clever  and  careful  essay  on  "  Conduct  and  the 
Weather  :  an  inductive  Study  of  the  Mental  Effects  of  definite  Meteoro- 
logical Conditions"  {Psychological  Review,  Monograph  No.  10,  vol.  ii. 
1899,  pp.  103,  14  figs.).  "We  hope  no  one  will  be  unkind  enough  to 
recall  the  line  "  For  now,  these  hot  days,  is  the  mad  blood  stirring  " — 
it  may  be  cool  enough  before  this  note  is  published — for  the  thesis 
which  we  would  report  on  is  no  jeu  d' esprit,  but  a  sober  induction. 

The  meteorologists  are  probably  too  busy  with  the  affairs  of  their 
own  young  science,  to  care  as  yet  much  for  the  inspiration  which  comes 
from  a  contact  with  other  disciplines ;  yet  if  there  is  one  thing  that 
the  history  of  science  teaches  clearly,  it  is  the  value  of  interactions 
between  the  various  departments  of  scientific  inquiry.  That  meteor- 
ology touches  biology  at  every  corner  is  well  known,  for  whether  we 
study  Palolo  or  the  Plankton,  migration  or  the  mammoth,  whether  we 
take  up  Bonnier's  recent  studies  on  alpinisation  or  Clement  Keid's 
newly  published  essay  on  the  origin  of  the  English  flora,  we  have  to 
4 — nat.  sc. — vol.  xv.  no.  89.  49 


50  METEOROLOG  Y  AND  ETHICS  [july 

utter  to  the  meteorologists  the  almost  proverbial  cry  of  the  men  of 
Macedonia — "  Come  over  and  help  us."  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
there  may  be  meteorologists  wise  enough,  ignorant  enough,  and  humble 
enough  to  be  assured  through  the  medium  of  Natural  Science  that 
their  data  have  a  profound  bearing  on  Ethics. 

Our  author  tells  us  that  "  the  modern  science  of  Meteorology, 
emerging  from  the  mist  and  darkness  of  ignorant  guess  and  surmise 
has  left  its  path  strewn  with  many  a  shattered  idol.  Jupiter  Tonans 
the  Thunderer,  Pluvius  the  Bain-maker,  and  a  hundred  other  weather- 
gods  were  toppled  from  their  lofty  pedestals  ages  ago,  while  St.  Swithin 
and  his  two -score  of  saintly  colleagues,  whose  days  dominated  the 
weather  for  the  rest  of  the  year,  have  been  quite  as  surely  if  more 
recently  dethroned  by  the  delicate  instruments  and  skilful  calculations 
of  the  modern  weather-man."  But  the  dethroning  is  evidently  to  be 
followed  by  an  enthroning,  and  le  roi  qui  vive  is  Weather.  Quietly 
but  firmly  it  dominates  us  all, — how  effectively,  it  is  the  business  of 
Mr.  Dexter's  essay  to  show. 

It  is  of  course  a  familiar  saying  and  saving -clause  of  the  physician 
that  this  or  that  is  due  to  the  weather,  and  he  has  accumulated  here 
and  there  no  small  basis  for  his  platitude.  But  mental  states, 
especially  emotional  states,  are  affected,  through  the  medium  of  the  body, 
by  the  conditions  of  the  weather,  and  thus  the  connection  between 
meteorology  and  ethics  is  securely  established.  Indeed,  it  is  generally 
recognised,  though  its  inductive  elaboration  has  been  hitherto  neglected. 
"  There  are  many  persons  who  are  simply  victims  of  the  weather."  "  How 
inconsiderate  .are  our  friends  when  the  east  wind  blows  and  the  skies  are 
heavy."  "  How  dangerously  doubtful  seems  to-day  the  venture  which 
yesterday,  in  the  bright  sunlight,  seemed  certain  of  success."  We  have 
already  detected  the  influence  of  the  weather  in  the  pages  of  our  journal. 

The  poet  as  well  as  the  physician  has  recognised  the  dominance  of 
weather- influence ;  as  hyperaesthete  he  feels  it  more  keenly  than 
most ;  as  seer  he  has,  as  in  so  many  other  instances,  the  right  of 
priority  over  science  in  the  discovery  which  Mr.  Dexter  expounds. 
Although  many  may  not  accept  the  utterance  as  authoritative,  it  is  of 
interest  to  note  Byron's  remark — "  I  am  always  more  religious  on  a  sun- 
shiny day."  But  even  more  convincing  is  Southey's  complaint,  made 
during  one  of  his  visits  to  England  after  a  long  sojourn  in  Italy — "  I 
miss  the  sun  in  heaven,  having  been  upon  a  short  allowance  of  sun- 
beams for  the  last  ten  days,  and  if  the  nervous  fluid  be  the  galvanic  fluid, 
and  the  galvanic  fluid  the  electric  fluid,  and  the  electric  fluid  condensed 
light,  zounds !  what  an  effect  must  these  vile,  dark,  rainy  clouds  have 
upon  a  poor  nervous  fellow  like  me,  whose  brain  has  been  in  a  state  of 
high  illumination  for  the  last  fifteen  months."  Professor  Dexter  also 
points  out  how  the  plot  in  Eomeo  and  Juliet  hinges  upon  the  weather. 
What  a  wealth  of  meaning  there  was  in  Benvolio's  apparently  simple 
remark — "  The  day  is  hot." 


1899]  METEOROLOGY  AND  ETHICS  51 

But  we  must  remember  where  we  are  and  the  solemnity  of  facts, 
and  state  the  problem.  Have  the  various  meteorological  conditions,  ring- 
ing in  as  they  do  combinations  innumerable,  a  definite  causal  relation  to 
human  conduct  ?  Does  the  ever-changing  weather  present  conditions 
in  which  impulse  to  action  is  more  liable  than  usual  to  overcome  an 
ordinarily  overpowering  inhibitory  force  ? 

The  problem  was  attacked  in  two  ways  :  "  first,  by  the  tabulation 
and  discussion  of  a  questionnaire  sent  to  nearly  two  hundred  teachers 
of  all  grades,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  high  school,  superintendents 
of  asylums  and  reformatories,  and  wardens  of  prisons  and  penitentiaries;" 
second,  by  an  inductive  study  of  several  hundred  thousand  data  cor- 
relating weather  and  conduct.  It  is  evident  that  the  possible  fallacies 
are  so  numerous  that  a  large  body  of  results  were  necessary  before  any 
reliable  conclusions  could  be  drawn,  and  it  is  for  those  accustomed  to 
statistical  inquiries  to  say  whether  Professor  Dexter's  industry  was  or 
was  not  sufficiently  prolonged  to  allow  of  the  elimination  of  errors. 
However  this  may  be,  he  certainly  has  not  spared  trouble  in  seeking 
to  substantiate  his  thesis,  and  Mrs.  Dexter  also  shared  in  bringing  the 
immense  labour  of  tabulation  to  a  successful  issue. 

It  should  also  be  recognised  that  the  author  does  not  take  any 
crude  or  easy-going  view  of  his  problem.  He  has  realised  the  com- 
plexity of  the  factors  which  influence  conduct,  and  the  difficulty 
of  analysing  out  those  which  may  be  called  meteorological.  As  an 
instance  of  this,  we  venture  to  give  a  quotation — one  of  the  many 
pleasant  interludes  in  his  serious  argument. 

"  The  idea  that  the  prevalence  of  suicide  in  this  country  (England) 
is  due  to  our  bad  weather  is  precisely  one  of  those  hasty  and  illogical 
inferences  which  are  characteristic  of  the  Gallic  mind.  The  constant 
gloom  of  bad  weather  ought  to  acquaint  us  so  thoroughly  with  moods 
of  depression  that  suicide  would  never  occur  to  us.  Look  at  Scotland, 
for  instance,  where  suicides  are  rare.  Why  are  they  rare  ?  Simply 
because  a  succession  of  Scotch  Sundays  has  so  accustomed  the  people  to 
prolonged  despondency,  that  any  sudden  misfortune  cannot  sink  their 
spirits  any  farther.  One  has  only  to  spend  a  dozen  Sundays  in  Glasgow 
or  Edinborough  (sic)  to  become  inoculated  against  suicide."  ....  As 
Dexter  says,  there  is  truth  beneath  the  jocular  vein  of  this  quotation. 

The  results  of  the  study  lead  to   the  following  five  conclusions  : 

I.  "  Varying  meteorological  conditions  affect  directly  the  metabolism  of 
life."  Some  of  the  conditions  accelerate  the  oxidising  processes  of  life, 
while  others  retard  them ;  the  former  are  called  by  the  author 
anabolic,  the  latter  katabolic,  and  we  would  accent  his  hesitation  in 
using  these  terms,  with  the  remark,  that  he  thereby  darkens  his 
counsel  with  words  without  knowledge.  Any  other  terms  would  have 
done  as  well,  for  no  others  could  be  worse. 

II.  The  '  reserve  energy '  capable  of  being  utilised  for  i7itellectual 
processes  and  activities  other  than  those  of  the  vital  organs,  is  influenced, 


52  METEOROLOGY  AND  ETHICS  [july  1899 

to  a  marked  degree  by  meteorological  conditions."  Again  we  must  demur 
most  emphatically  to  the  quasi-physiological  expression  which  the 
author  uses  in  summing  up  his  results.  His  conception  of  "reserve 
energy  "  is  a  reflex  of  a  commercial  environment,  and  appears  to  us 
quite  inapplicable  to  the  real  business  of  metabolism.  It  is  an 
unconscious  'materialism' — an  attempt  to  give  a  false  simplicity  to  the 
facts. 

III.  "  The  quality  of  the  emotional  state  is  plainly  influenced."  "  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  high  conditions  of  temperature  and  humidity,  cloudy 
and  rainy  days,  and  for  many  people  high  winds,  are  generally  product- 
ive of  more  or  less  negative  emotional  states ;  while  moderate  and  cool 
temperatures,  low  humidities,  mild  winds,  and  clear  days  are  usually 
positive  in  their  effects."  But,  as  the  author  says,  this  thesis  must  be 
defended  by  means  of  an  analysis  based  solely  upon  introspection ;  and 
though  he  tries  to  connect  it  with  his  doctrine  of  "  reserve  energy  "  he 
is  not  certain  about  it,  and  it  is  just  as  well. 

IV.  "  The  reserve  energy  and  the  emotional  state  are  both  factors  in 
the  determination  of  conduct."  Here  the  author  seeks  to  show  that 
his  theory  of  "  reserve  energy  "  accounts  for  the  discrepancies  which  are 
apparent  on  the  supposition  that  the  emotional  state  is  the  only 
factor. 

V.  "  Conduct,  in  the  commonly  accepted  sense  of  the  term,  Death  and 
Intellectual  and  Physical  Labour  bear  very  different  relations  to  reserve 
energy."  "  As  a  conclusion,  it  would  seemingly  be  safe  to  say  that  of 
the  activities  (or  cessation  of  activity)  possible  to  human  beings,  some 
are  the  result  of  excessive  vitality,  and  others  of  deficient  states;"  and 
that,  generally  speaking,  "  those  misdemeanours  which  have  been  classed 
under  our  study  as  those  of  conduct  are  the  results  of  the  former,  while 
death  is  an  accompaniment  of  the  latter." 

As  it  seems  to  us,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the 
author  has  brought  forward  strong  evidence  to  substantiate  the  thesis 
that  there  is  an  indirect  causal  nexus  between  weather  and  conduct, 
But  we  do  not  feel  sure  of  anything  else  in  his  results,  and  particularly 
we  would  respectfully  suggest  to  him,  that  he  has  departed  from  the 
scientific  method  by  mingling  with  his  inductive  results  a  physiological 
theory  which  is  probably  erroneous  and  certainly  unnecessary. 

X. 


The  ComjDarative  Chemistry  of  our  Forest  Trees. 

By  P.  Q.  Keegan,  LL.D. 

By  the  chemistry  of  trees  is  meant  not  the  special  detection  and 
demonstration  of  the  chemical  forces  which  exert  energy  within  the 
living  arboreal  organism,  but  rather  the  detection  and  assignment  of 
such  separable  and  distinctive  organic  and  inorganic  bodies  as  are 
incidental  to  the  vital  processes  thereof,  whether  these  bodies  furnish 
the  stroma  of  the  actual  life,  or  are  merely  bye-  or  waste-  products 
of  the  spent  and  exhausted  activities.  The  tree,  indeed,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  wholly 
invisible  force.  The  capital  force  is  the  mysterious  one  called  "vital;" 
but  chemical  forces  and  their  visible  or  detectable  products,  which  here 
alone  concern  us,  are  set  agoing  thereby,  and  are  manifested  as  a  heritage 
or  inevitable  consequence.  Nevertheless,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that 
some  of  the  most  brilliant,  beautiful,  and  distinctive  constituents  of  the 
tree — of  its  stem,  leaf,  and  flower — are  not  the  results  of  any  chemical 
processes  known  to  us,  and  cannot  possibly  be  artificially  reproduced  by 
the  most  capable  and  dexterous  application  of  the  latest  and  most 
approved  synthetic  methods  and  expedients. 

The  arborescent  forms  of  the  forest  flora  of  the  British  Islands  are 
not  very  numerous,  but  (native  and  denizen  species  included)  they  are 
sufficiently  varied  to  render  an  account  of  their  chemical  constituents 
exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive.  If,  for  instance,  we  desire  to 
study  the  chemical  characteristics  of  the  Gymnosperms,  we  can  forth- 
with fasten  on  that  stately  and  sombre-foliaged  tenant  of  our  upland 
wastes  and  craggy  mounds  known  as  the  Scotch  Fir  (Pinus  sylvestris). 
Perhaps  we  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  the  leaf  as  the  most 
vigorously  active  of  the  vegetable  organs,  but  here  we  see  that  a  mighty 
portion  of  the  energy  is  delegated  to  the  woody  tissues.  For  what  is 
the  meaning  of  the  resinous  matter  which  is  so  characteristic  a  con- 
stituent of  the  Coniferae,  and  the  origin  of  which  has  been  the  theme 
of  such  acute  and  prolonged  controversy  ?  Some  specially  active 
mother-cells  containing  an  opaque  plasma,  and  situated  in  the  external 
heart-wood,  divide  and  divide  again  with  great  energy,  separating  from 
the  adjoining  tissue,  and  forming  four  to  eight  or  more  daughter  cells 

53 


54  P.   Q.  KEEGAN  [JULY 

which  split  asunder  internally,  leaving  a  hollow  space  (resin-passage) 
into  which  there  flows  the  product  of  their  spent  and  exhausted  labour 
(destructive  metabolism),  viz.  the  resin.  Physiological  operations  of 
this  very  pronounced  and  particular  nature  are  rather  rare  in  the  woody 
tissues  of  the  stem  and  root  of  our  Dicotyledons.  Then  again,  we  can 
attest  the  curious  transformations  which  the  starch,  fatty,  and  resinous 
constituents  of  the  wood  of  the  Scotch  Fir  undergo  at  the  different 
seasons  of  the  year.  According  to  Fischer  there  is  no  starch  at  all  in 
the  wood,  pith,  or  bark  during  the  winter ;  and  Jonssen  asserts  that  at 
this  season  the  wood  is  entirely  devoid  of  starch  in  all  parts,  but  bears 
a  considerable  quantity  of  fat-oil,  finely  distributed,  which  disappears 
in  April,  while  during  the  summer  the  wood  is  very  poor  in  fatty 
matter.  The  needle-shaped  evergreen  leaves,  again,  are  divested  of 
starch  in  winter ;  but  about  the  1st  April,  even  while  the  chlorophyll 
is  still  in  the  wintry  condition,  and  although  a  low  temperature  and  no 
special  sunlight  may  occur,  these  organs  are  found  crammed  full  of 
starch.  So  that  here  a  very  remarkable  phenomenon  is  presented,  viz. 
a  plenteous  production  of  starch  following  quickly  on  the  winter  sleep, 
and  under  conditions  the  very  reverse  of  those  which,  in  most  of  the 
dicotyledons  of  our  latitudes,  are  indispensable  for  accomplishing  a 
precisely  similar  effect.  In  fact,  certain  still  undetermined  causes, 
operative  after  a  kind  of  pre-ordained  periodicity,  seem  to  dominate  the 
physiological  action  of  the  protoplasm  of  these  extraordinary  foliar 
organs.  Coniferous  leaves  are  always  much  poorer  in  nitrogenous  and 
in  mineral  constituents  (ash)  than  those  of  deciduous  trees,  and  the  ash 
generally  contains  larger  amounts  of  magnesia,  iron,  and  silica.  On 
the  whole,  it  may  be  concluded,  from  a  study  of  the  character  and 
quantity  of  the  chemical  constituents,  that  the  coniferous  Gymnosperms 
are  subject  to  a  fitful  periodicity  of  physiological  energy,  interrupted 
by  corresponding  and  longer  periods  of  repose  akin  to  hibernation,  which 
permit  of  extensive  accumulation  of  "  dry  substance "  in  the  tissues 
under  the  form,  more  especially  of  the  products  of  de-assimilation 
(tannoids,  tannins,  glucosides  (coniferin),  resins,  waxes,  and  volatile 
oil),  while  on  the  other  hand  the  products  of  assimilation  (starch, 
fat-oil,  and  nitrogen-compounds)  are  relatively  and  absolutely  scanty. 

Eeviewing  now  the  more  extensive  and  familiar  field  of  the  Dicoty- 
ledons, we  are  impressed  not  only  by  the  comparative  chemical  similarity 
of  certain  of  the  woodland  organisms,  but  also  by  the  fact  that  a  few 
other  groups  stand  forth  singly  and,  as  it  were,  with  an  isolated 
heterogeneity  as  remarkable  as  it  is  apparently  inexplicable.  Peering 
adown  the  wondrous  vistas  opened  out  to  us  by  the  resources  and 
appliances  of  chemistry,  the  squabbles  of  the  "  splitters  "  and  "  lumpers  " 
of  the  would-be  systematic  taxonomists  seem  fantastic  and  puerile ;  the 
hair-splitting  agreements  or  otherwise  in  the  essential  or  unessential 
superficial  characters  of  the  organs  of  reproduction,  etc.,  are  liable  to  be 
contemned  or  wholly  ignored.      We  find   that   species   of   trees  very 


1899]  CHEMISTRY  OF  OUR  FOREST  TREES  55 

closely  related  in  systematic  affinity  are  anything  but  very  closely 
related  as  respects  their  physiological  faculties,  the  sweep  and  potency 
of  their  vital  energies,  inasmuch  as  we  can  now  attest  and  demonstrate 
that  the  inevitable  chemical  products  thereof  are,  in  the  two  cases, 
mightily  different  in  quality  and  quantity.  Bonnier  has  remarked  that 
"  the  anatomical  structure  of  a  plant  cannot  always  be  deduced  from 
its  physiological  functions ;  two  plants,  for  instance,  having  similar 
chlorophyllous  tissues  may  have  very  different  powers  of  assimilation, 
and  plants  are  known  which  have  a  palisade  tissue  more  developed 
than  others,  but  which,  nevertheless,  possess  much  feebler  chlorophyllian 
functions."  But  where  morphology  fails,  chemistry  braces  up  in  aid ; 
and  yet  with  all  its  magnificent  powers  and  abundant  resources  it  does 
not  presume  to  be  able  to  explain  why  or  how  it  happens  that  one  or 
two  of  our  heath  and  forest  species  of  the  extensive  order  Amentaceae 
should  be  pre-eminent  producers  of  fatty  matters,  leaving  the  rest 
shivering,  as  it  were,  in  the  cold  of  a  lavish  receipt  and  a  thrifty 
expenditure  of  carbohydrates.  I  will  now  briefly  pass  in  review  the 
principal  chemical  features  and  characteristics  of  the  dicotyledonous 
forest  flora  of  our  couutry. 

The  various  species  of  Elm  {e.g.,  Ulmus  campestris  and  montana  and 
their  varieties),  in  conformity  with  their  lowly  systematic  affinities, 
exhibit  nothing  very  advanced  or  developed,  but  rather  a  kind  of 
degradation  in  the  direction  of  a  very  facile  production  of  that  bSte  noire 
of  the  plant  analyst  known  as  vegetable  mucilage.  In  the  cortex 
special  sacs  evolved  from  the  meristem,  and  due  to  a  destruction  of 
living  cells  with  formation  of  cavities  or  canals,  contain  mucilage  in 
large  quantity ;  it  is  a  pectosic  mucilage  with  acidic  function,  being- 
coloured  by  basic  dyes ;  it  swells  up  and  almost  wholly  dissolves  in 
water,  but  is  not  derived  from  cellulose.  Some  resin  occurs  in  elm  bark 
and  wood  parenchyma,  but  the  quantity  of  tannin,  phloroglucin,  etc.,  is 
decidedly  scanty  in  all  parts.  The  leaves  contain  much  carotin,  con- 
siderable wax,  and  a  little  fat,  and  their  starch-producing  power  is 
undoubtedly  vigorous.  In  fact,  the  Elm  is  a  very  distinctive  and 
decisive  starch-tree,  exhibiting  a  protoplasmic  concentration  rather 
uncommon  ;  the  lavish  fortification  of  its  bark  and  leaves  with  lime 
and  silica,  and  the  ability  of  some  of  its  varieties  to  form  a  primary, 
persistent  periderm,  though  only  feebly  suberified,  are  features  clearly 
suggestive  of  the  special  quality  of  its  activities. 

Passing  on  now  to  these  interesting  morphologically  allied  congeners 
the  Birch  and  the  Alder,  we  realise  in  a  striking  degree  the  supreme 
value  of  chemical  analysis  in  its  application  to  botanical  science. 
These  two  species  are  closely  related  taxonomically,  and  yet  when 
chemically  investigated  we  almost  immediately  discern  very  serious 
differences  in  respect  to  physiology.  Both  are  fat-trees,  i.e.  during  the 
winter  no  starch  is  found  in  the  pith,  wood,  or  bark,  or  in  other  words, 
their  leaves  are  incapable  of  producing  much  starch,  and  the  amylaceous 


56  P.   Q.  KEEGAN  [JULY 

reserve  is  feeble  and  readily  exhausted.  So  far  they  agree,  but  in  the 
Birch  the  process  of  de-assimilation  is  not  so  complete  as  that  in  the 
Alder.  In  the  former  it  is  not  pushed  much  beyond  the  lavish  pro- 
duction of  colourless  waxes,  resins,  and  volatile  oils,  and  hence  the 
outcome  of  the  tannins,  phlobaphenes,  pigments,  etc.,  is  considerably 
restricted.  The  result  is,  that  in  the  "  queen  of  the  woods  "  we  have 
a  silvery  whitish  bark  with  about  30  per  cent  white  resin  (betulin) 
approaching  a  wax  or  camphor  in  character,  and  only  about  5  per  cent 
tannin  (all  too  feeble  to  impart  a  crimson  coloration  to  the  autumn 
leaves),  together  with  an  amount  of  phlobaphene  too  small  to  over- 
power the  predominant  suberification.  The  bast  of  this  tree  exhibits 
considerable  lignification,  but  it  is  clear  that  the  phellogen  is  perhaps 
the  most  active  formative  tissue  in  the  entire  rind.  The  case  is  pretty 
much  reversed  in  the  marsh-loving  Alder  wherein  de-assimilation  seems 
to  reach  its  highest  intensity.  The  bark  of  this  tree  sometimes  con- 
tains as  much  as  2  0  per  cent  of  a  tannin  which  is  highly  carbonaceous, 
and  very  readily  forms  high  red-brown  and  muddy  shaded  anhydrides 
of  an  eminently  antiseptic  character.  The  tannin  penetrates  freely 
into  the  medullary  rays,  parenchyma,  and  pith  of  the  wood  (it  is  very 
sparse  in  birch  wood) ;  in  fact,  without  a  doubt  the  Alder,  taken  all 
in  all,  is  by  far  the  most  richly  tannin-bearing  of  all  our  forest  trees, 
and  this  constituent  is  of  such  a  character  and  composition  that  it 
subserves  the  purpose  of  lignification  rather  than  of  embellishment,  for 
as  a  chromogen  it  is  useless  save  for  colours  dark  and  dun.  The  leaves 
contain  a  darkish  brown  oily  matter,  while  the  bark  of  the  twigs 
encloses  a  bright  yellow  pasty  mass  of  fat,  wax,  and  a  trace  of  volatile 
oil ;  carotin  is  very  scarce  even  in  the  leaves.  Cells  filled  with  a 
homogeneous  phlobaphenic  matter  seem  mostly  to  replace  or  represent 
the  highly  suberified  periderm  of  its  congener  the  Birch. 

The  members  of  the  sub-order  Cupuliferae,  viz.  the  Oak,  Spanish 
Chestnut,  and  Beech,  are  more  closely  allied  in  chemical  respects 
than  the  two  foregoing  species.  No  member  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom  has  been  more  thoroughly  and  exhaustively  investigated 
than  the  Oak.  The  peculiar  shape  of  its  leaves  is  no  pledge  of 
their  physiological  faculty,  which  is  extremely  powerful.  The 
amount  of  starch  which  this  tree  produces  and  stores  up  (there  is 
37  per  cent  in  the  acorns)  is,  I  think,  considerably  greater  than  that 
of  any  tree  in  our  woods.  A  very  distinctive  variation  is,  however, 
observable  in  the  Beech,  where  even  in  January  and  February  the  wood 
is  very  rich  both  in  oil  and  starch,  every  cell  of  the  parenchyma  in  the 
outer  rings  being  full  of  the  latter  (which  is  not  the  case  in  most  starch 
trees),  and  this  predominance  continues  up  till  April  when  the  wood  is 
found  still  to  be  rich  in  oil  (in  fat-trees  generally  there  is  little  oil  in 
spring  or  summer).  In  fact,  the  Beech,  chemically  speaking,  is  a 
peculiarly  eccentric  organism.  Even  in  its  most  massively  developed 
trunk  there  is  no  marked  distinction  between  the  heart-wood  and  the 


1899]  CHEMISTRY  OF  OUR  FOREST  TREES  57 

splint-wood ;  the  wood-elements  seem  only  very  slowly  to  become 
completely  lignified,  and  although  the  ratio  of  "  incrusting  matter " 
therein  is  ultimately  extremely  high,  there  exists  only  a  very  small 
quantity  of  tannin  and  that  only  infiltrating  the  walls  ;  in  the  inner 
rings  there  is  a  specially  abundant  store  of  starch  laid  up  to  meet  the 
tremendous  drain  of  the  "  seed-year,"  this  starch  gradually  changing 
into  drops  of  wood-gum  (xylan).  Moreover,  it  requires  more  nitrogen 
than  most  other  trees,  and  needs  a  plentiful  supply  of  potash.  The 
external  economy,  too,  is  as  remarkable  as  the  internal.  The  cortex  is 
a  veritable  curiosity.  "  The  whole  tree,"  says  Wicke,  "  sticks,  so  to 
speak,  in  a  siliceous  coat  of  mail,  the  silica  forming  a  thick  solid  crust 
over  the  whole  stem  and  the  young  twigs."  The  bark  is  said  to  con- 
tain 70  to  90  per  cent  of  oxalate  of  calcium.  Beech  leaves  are 
eminent  for  their  large  percentage  of  fatty  matter,  fibre,  lime,  silica, 
and  manganese.  In  view  of  the  considerable  amount  (some  25  per 
cent)  of  oil  in  the  nut,  the  enormous  affluence  of  starch,  and  the  poor  2 
per  cent  of  tannin  in  bark  and  leaves,  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  pro- 
nouncing the  Beech  to  be  the  most  vivaciously  active  and  powerful 
assimilating  organism  of  our  woodlands.  Finally,  how  it  happens  that 
the  Spanish  Chestnut  should  specifically  and  exclusively  produce  the 
particular  tannin  called  gallotannin  in  the  bark  and  the  wood  (each 
contains  about  7*5  per  cent,  the  leaves  about  6  per  cent),  is  one  of  the 
mysteries  shrouded  beneath  the  impenetrable  and  inscrutable  veil  of 
forest  secrecy. 

Passing  by  the  Hazel,  Walnut,  etc.,  which  are  not  strictly  speaking- 
forest  trees,  we  now  approach  a  mystic  tenant  of  the  woods,  a  true 
native,  and  abundantly  familiar,  but  which  challenges  the  utmost 
possible  chemical  consideration  that  can  be  bestowed  upon  it.  This 
is  the  common  Ash  (Fraxinus  excelsior),  and  no  lynx-eyed  acuteness  is 
requisite  to  enable  anybody  to  perceive  that  even  exteriorly  it  differs 
immensely  from  its  arboreal  neighbours  and  confreres.  The  smooth 
olive-grey  bark,  the  astonishing  knotty  protuberances  of  its  bursting 
flower-buds  in  spring,  the  almost  absolute  freedom  from  any  intrusive 
or  brilliant  colorific  effect  in  any  of  its  members  or  organs,  are  so  many 
tokens  and  pledges  of  characteristics  entirely  uncommon.  It  is  a 
starch-tree,  but  its  seeds  contain  16  per  cent  of  oil  and  no  starch,  and, 
moreover,  on  analysis  one  finds  in  the  various  organs  such  a  consider- 
able amount  of  waxy,  resinous,  and  fatty  matter,  and  such  evidences 
of  a  facile  decomposition  of  such  carbohydrates  as  are  produced  in  its 
leaves,  that  its  claim  to  enrolment  in  the  order  Oleaceae  is  seldom 
questioned  and  never  belied.  In  1840  Gmelin  had  noticed  a  peculiar 
iridescence  among  the  constituents  of  the  bark  of  Fraxinus  Omus ;  but 
in  1856  Salm-Horstmar  discovered  a  similar  fluorescence  in  the 
infusion  of  the  bark  of  F.  excelsior,  and  in  the  following  year  he 
isolated,  examined,  and  called  it  fraxin.  Its  dilute  aqueous  solution 
exhibits  by  reflected  daylight  a  strong  blue  or  blue-green  fluorescence 


58  P.   Q.  KEEGAN  [july 

which  is  destroyed  by  acids  and  increased  by  a  trace  of  alkali.  Fraxin 
is  a  colourless  crystalline  glucoside  of  a  feebly  bitter  taste,  and  seems 
to  be  related  to  quinic  acid  or  hydroquinone.  The  tannin  of  the  Ash 
is  totally  different  from  that  of  any  of  our  native  or  denizen  trees :  it 
is  distinctly  iron -greening,  is  not  a  glucoside,  does  not  yield  anhydrides 
by  the  action  of  acids,  but  only  by  heating  dry  or  by  repeated  evapora- 
tion of  its  solution,  when  brown  substances  (recalling  the  dun  shade  of 
the  autumn  leaves)  are  produced,  and  finally  on  potass-fusion  it  yields 
protocatechuic  acid  but  no  phloroglucin.  In  fact,  it  is  doubtful  if  any 
constituent  with  a  phloroglucin  nucleus  occurs  in  the  entire  organism; 
for  the  quercetin  found  in  the  leaves  from  birth  till  late  in  August 
shows  at  all  times  reactions  more  like  those  of  a  tannin  than  of  a 
mere  tannoid  compound.  The  leaves  may  be  regarded  as  among  the 
wonders  of  British  botanical  chemistry.  Eeplete  with  chlorophyll  and 
carotin,  they  contain  much  starch,  fat,  and  resin,  and  from  6  to  9  per 
cent  mineral  matters  (ash),  but  they  are  specially  distinguished  by  the 
number  and  variety  of  decomposition  products,  which  constitute  an 
exceptionally  high  non-nitrogenous  extract  consisting  of  quercetin, 
tannin,  inosite,  mannite,  glucose,  gum,  mucilage,  malic  acid  and  its  calcium 
salt  in  astonishingly  large  quantity.  On  the  whole,  we  see  that  the 
small  and  short-lived  leaves  of  the  Ash  are  extraordinarily  active,  and 
we  are  impressed  by  the  apparent  contradiction  between  the  enormous 
percentage  of  mineral  matters  indicative  of  an  intense  transpiration  and 
the  small  number  (150)  of  stomata  per  square  millimetre  of  epidermis  ; 
the  carbohydrates  produced  on  assimilation  are  largely  oxidised  to 
acids,  but  the  chlorophyllian  protoplasm  itself  in  its  descent  on 
exhaustion  stands  hesitating,  so  to  speak,  on  the  first  round  of  the 
ladder,  the  not  very  oxidised  tannoids. 

Much  instruction  and  edification  would  doubtless  be  gained  by  a 
specific  recital  and  description  of  the  chemical  constituents  of  the 
arborescent  Eosaceae,  e.g.  the  wild  cherry,  the  rowan  tree,  etc.,  with 
their  wondrous  plethora  of  products  of  de-assimilation  and  of  carbo- 
hydrate degradation  ;  but  as  these  are  assuredly  scattered  and  not 
forested,  I  now  pass  on  to  a  tree  which,  although  not  a  sterling  native, 
has  yet  been  frequently  artificially  planted  in  our  parks  and  groves 
on  such  a  plan  and  with  such  effect  that  the  serried  outskirts  of  a 
dense  forest — vast  columns  upholding  a  dome  of  leaves  and  flecked 
with  white  clusters  of  blossoms,  have  at  least  been  suggested.  This 
is  the  beautiful  Horse-Chestnut  (Aesmlus  Hippocastanum),  and  truly 
there  is  something  very  satisfactory  in  the  chemical  distinguishment 
and  examination  of  so  many  constituents  that  are  comparatively  simple 
and  afford  atomic  groups  more  or  less  harmoniously  proportionate. 
The  well-known  tannin,  C26H24012,  for  instance,  has  a  number  of  atoms 
of  hydrogen  nearly  equal  to  those  of  carbon,  and  exactly  double  those 
of  oxygen  ;  hence  its  reactions  come  out  very  decisively,  the  deficiency 
in  carbon  being  a  great  help  towards  the  ready  production  of  a  series 


1899]  CHEMISTRY  OF  OUR  FOREST  TREES  59 

of  beautiful  anhydrides,  which  never  reach  the  humus-like,  dull,  dirty- 
browns  yielded  by  other  tannins.  The  most  striking  constituent  is  the 
highly  fluorescent  aesculin  described  by  Martins  and  St.  George  in  1818  ; 
it  is  related  to  the  fraxin  of  the  Ash,  and  this  latter  is  also' contained  in 
the  tree  under  review.  In  the  bark  a  fluid  oil,  phlobaphene,  and  very 
small  quantities  of  aesculetin  and  its  hydrate,  are  also  found.  The 
leaves  are  eminent  for  their  richness  in  carotin  in  early  June,  their 
abundance  of  queraescitrin  (glucoside  of  quercetin),  fat,  wax,  phloba- 
phene, and  resin,  and  much  tannin  in  autumn.  The  seed  contains 
about  4  per  cent  fatty  oil  and  14  per  cent  starch,  also  fruit  sugar,  and 
a  series  of  curious  glucosides  and  bitter  principles  representative  of 
proteid  disorganisation.  It  is  rather  a  remarkable  feature  that  this  tree 
and  its  allies  exhibit  very  slight  indications  of  the  presence  or  decom- 
position products  of  gum,  mucilage,  etc.  ;  they  are  all  starch-producing 
trees,  but  apparently  there  is  no  superfluity,  waste,  or  prodigality  of 
this  substance,  and  at  the  same  time,  and  especially  in  some  of  the 
maples,  there  is  an  abundant  deposition  of  waxy  matters,  and  of  silice- 
ous incrustations.  It  is  quite  possible  that  some  of  the  foreign  species 
of  Sapindaceae  unknown  to  me  may  be  practically  fat-trees.  On  the 
whole,  this  order  is  extremely  interesting ;  and  coming  away  fresh  from 
its  analysis,  we  are  impressed  with  the  struggle,  as  it  were,  between 
the  starch  and  the  fat — the  sugar  rising  into  a  supremacy,  culminating 
in  A.  saccharinum,  and  with  the  lavish  abundance  and  superb  beauty 
of  the  products  of  de-assimilation. 

One  more  tree  remains  to  be  noticed,  viz.  the  Linden  (Tilia  euro- 
paca),  which  possesses  morphological  and  chemical  characters  of  extra- 
ordinary interest.  It  is  the  most  pronounced  fat-producing  member  of 
our  woods.  Its  seeds  contain  no  starch,  and  very  little  carbohydrate, 
but  store  up  5  8  per  cent  of  a  bright  yellow  non-drying  oil.  The  wood 
seems  to  have  some  difficulty  in  parting  with  its  reserves  of  fat,  which 
remain,  especially  in  the  older  rings,  up  till  June  or  later,  and  the 
starch  that  creeps  into  its  place  begins  to  dissolve  early  in  the  autumn, 
none  whatever  remaining  in  the  pith,  wood,  or  bark  during  the  winter. 
A  special  peculiarity  of  the  tissues  is  the  inconvenient  abundance  of 
mucilage  both  in  the  intercellular  spaces  of  the  parenchyma  of  the 
primary  cortex  and  in  the  epidermis  of  the  leaves.  The  large  and  very 
conspicuous  sieve-tubes  of  the  inner  bast  contain  very  thick,  mucilagin- 
ous masses  of  albuminoid  matters,  but  no  starch.  The  amount  of 
mineral  matters  in  the  leaves  is  very  great,  and  in  autumn  they  are 
incrusted  with  silica.  On  the  whole  this  tree  exhibits,  except  as  regards 
starch,  a  very  considerable  energy  of  assimilation  ;  and  if  some  of  its 
outcome  tends  towards  decomposition  or  degradation,  the  proportion  of 
the  higher  products  of  de-assimilation  is  decidedly  not  relatively  high ; 
in  fact,  those  which  depend  on  the  destructive  metabolism  of  starch 
are,  under  ordinary  conditions,  markedly  absent. 

Pattekdale,  Westmorland. 


FRESH   FACTS. 


A  Strange  Dish.  K.  Kishinouye.  "  Edible  Medusae,"  Zool.  Jahrb.  xii. 
1899,  pp.  205-210,  1  pi.  1  fig.  Mr.  Kishinouye  of  the  Imperial  Fisheries 
Bureau,  Tokyo,  has  described  two  rhizostomatous  medusae  (Hhopilema  esculenta 
and  Rh.  verrucosa)  which  are  used  for  food  in  Japan.  The  animal  is  preserved 
with  a  mixture  of  alum  and  salt  or  between  steamed  leaves  of  Kashiwa,  a  kind 
of  oak,  with  the  application  of  slight  pressure.  To  prepare  the  preserved 
medusa  for  the  table,  it  is  soaked  in  water  about  half  an  hour,  then  taken  out 
and  well  washed,  cut  into  small  pieces  and  flavoured.  It  is  easily  masticable 
and  furnishes  an  agreeable  food.  It  is  also  used  as  a  bait  for  the  capture  of 
file-fish  (Monacanthus)  and  sea-breams  {Pagrus).  The  latter  are  said  to  accom- 
pany shoals  of  the  medusae. 

An  Early  Cry.  K.  Fischer  Sigwart.  "  Biologische  Beobachtungen  an 
unsern  Amphibien.  ii.  Der  Laubfrosch,  Hyla  arborea,  L."  Vierteljahrssclirift 
Nat.  Ges.  Zurich,  xliii.  1899,  pp.  279-316,  1  pi.  From  this  entertaining 
account  of  observations  on  the  "  tree-frog  "  we  select  one  note  which  is  probably 
fresh.  The  observer  has  detected,  quite  apart  from  the  breeding  calls  and  the 
ordinary  summer  voice,  a  special  strong  cry  of  distress  ("  Angstschrei ")  uttered 
on  an  occasion  of  peculiar  anxiety.  As  amphibians  were  probably  the  first 
vertebrate  animals  to  find  a  voice,  this  observation  of  a  cry  of  distress  or  alarm 
has  peculiar  interest. 

What  is  the  Difference  between  a  Lake  and  a  Pond  1  Otto  Zacharias. 
"Ueber  einige  biologische  Unterschiede  zwischen  Teichen  und  Seen,"  Biol. 
Centralbl.  xix.  1899,  pp.  313-318.  The  difference  has  hitherto  been  defined 
physically  in  terms  of  depth,  etc.  Thus  R.  Chodat,  in  his  "  Etudes  de  biologie 
lacustre,"  says  that  the  minimum  average  depth  for  a  true  lake  is  20-30  metres. 
But  Zacharias  shows  that  there  are  also  distinct  bionomical  differences  in  the 
plankton,  various  algae,  rotifers,  etc.,  being  dominant  in  ponds  and  sparse  in 
lakes,  and  vice  versa  ;  and  he  substantiates  this  in  some  detail. 

Artificial  Production  of  Alpine  Characters  in  Plants.  Gaston 
Bonnier.  "  Caracteres  anatomiques  et  physiologiques  des  plantes  rendues 
artificiellement  alpines  par  l'alternances  des  temperatures  extremes,"  Comptes 
Rendus  Ac.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxviii.  1899,  pp.  1143-1146.  Continuing  his  experi- 
ments on  this  interesting  subject,  Bonnier  finds  that  plants  subjected  to  a  daily 
alternation  of  extremes  of  temperature,  tend  to  have  more  marked  development 
of  protective  tissues,  smaller  and  thicker  leaves  with  a  greater  development  of 
palisade  tissue,  frequent  redness  due  to  anthocyan,  more  assimilation  per  unit 
of  surface,  and  relatively  large  flowers  slightly  less  coloured  than  the  normal. 

Anal  Glands  of  Dytiscidae.  Fr.  Dierckz.  "  Sur  la  structure  des 
Dytiscides  et  le  pretendu  role  defensif  de  ces  glandes,"  Comptes  Rendus  Ac. 
Sci.  Paris,  cxxviii.  1899,  pp.  1126-1127.  According  to  this  investigator  the 
anal  gland  of  Dytiscus  is  a  unicellular  gland  facilitating  the  respiratory  function 

6o 


JULY 1899]  FRESH  FACTS  61 

by  secreting  an  oily  substance  which  keeps  the  water  out  of  the  respiratory 
reservoir  under  the  elytra.  The  defensive  apparatus  of  which  Bordas  speaks 
is  the  rectal  pouch. 

Freezing  Eggs  without  killing  them.  Etienne  Rabaut.  "  De  l'influ- 
ence  de  la  congelation  sur  le  developpement  de  l'oeuf  de  poule,"  Comptes 
Rendus  Ac.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxviii.  1899,  pp.  1183-1185.  Continuing  experiments 
begun  by  his  master,  the  late  Camille  Dareste,  Mr.  Rabaut  finds  that  eggs 
exposed  for  half  an  hour  in  a  freezing  mixture  at  -  15°  C.  are  not  killed. 
Lasting  perturbations  are  induced,  and  after  warming  (quickly  or  slowly)  most 
of  the  eggs  show  in  three  days  a  proliferating  blastoderm  spreading  over  the 
yolk,  but  without  trace  of  embryonic  differentiation.  Some  showed  abnormal 
embryos,  and  a  very  few — proving  the  individuality  of  the  egg — were  normal. 

A  Sexual  Peculiarity.  A.  Kowalevsky.  "  Quelques  mots  sur  YHaemen- 
teria  (Clepsine)  costata,"  Comptes  Rendus  Ac.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxviii.  1899,  pp.  1185- 
1188.  In  this  leech  there  is  marked  protandry,  and  exchange  of  spermato- 
phores  occurs  between  the  male  organs  at  a  period  when  the  female  organs  are 
still  rudimentary.  Kowalevsky  believes  that  the  same  phenomenon  will  be 
found  to  occur  in  other  Hirudinea,  such  as  Piscicola,  the  fish-leech. 

Egg  within  Egg.  Francis  H.  Herrick.  "  Ovum  in  Ovo,"  Amer.  Natural. 
xxxiii.  1899,  pp.  409-414,  3  figs.  The  occurrence  of  an  egg  within  an  egg  is 
not  a  fresh  fact,  but  it  is  often  supposed  to  be.  Mr.  Herrick  classifies  the 
cases  on  record  in  two  sets  : — (i)  enveloping  egg  usually  normal,  but  occasion- 
ally of  large  size ;  blastoderm  recorded  in  at  least  one  instance ;  (ii)  enveloping 
egg  of  colossal  size,  complete,  with  blastoderm  probably  present.  One  inter- 
pretation, which  covers  a  number  of  cases,  supposes  that  the  small  included  egg 
represents  a  fragment  of  a  normal  ovum  which  has  been  ruptured  in  the  upper 
part  of  .the  oviduct,  or  at  least  after  the  first  layers  of  albumin  have  been 
added  to  the  normal  egg.  It  is  possible  that  any  substance  which  serves  as  a 
local  stimulus  to  the  upper  part  of  the  oviduct,  whether  coining  from  the  ovary 
as  abortive  egg  or  egg-fragment,  or  from  the  duct  as  secreted  product,  may 
serve  as  a  nucleus  about  which  an  egg-like  body  may  be  formed.  Various 
inclusions  which  are  not  true  eggs  at  all  may  be  taken  up  by  the  egg  and  im- 
bedded in  it.  But  in  other  cases,  such  as  double  or  triple  yolk  eggs,  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  fusion  of  the  albumin  in  two  or  more  ova,  which  are  treated  in 
the  uterus  as  one  egg  and  surrounded  by  a  single  shell.  This  process  may 
sometimes  be  complicated  by  the  inclusion  of  a  third  egg  of  normal  size  and 
already  covered  by  a  hard  shell. 

Excretion  in  Molluscs.  L.  Cuenot.  "  L'excretion  chez  les  mollusques," 
Arch.  Biol.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  49-96,  2  pis.  The  injection  method  of  studying  the 
excretory  function  has  led  Mr.  Cuenot  to  conclude  that  there  are  three  seats  of 
the  process  in  molluscs  : — (a)  the  nephridia,  (6)  closed  cells  isolated  in  the 
connective  tissue  or  concentrated  in  the  vicinity  of  the  heart,  and  (c)  in 
gasteropods,  certain  cells  of  the  liver. 

Cephalic  Eyes  of  Bivalves.  Paul  Pelseneer.  "  Les  yeux  cephaliques 
chez  les  Lamellibranches,"  Arch.  Biol.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  97-103,  1  pi.  Pelseneer  has 
now  published  a  fuller  account  of  the  discovery,  to  which  we  previously  referred 
{Nat.  Sci.  xiv.  1899,  p.  6),  and  has  given  a  plate.  To  what  was  then  reported, 
we  may  add  Pelseneer's  note  that  the  larval  eye  was  seen  in  Mytihis  and  other 
forms  by  Loven  (1848),  and  in  Mytilus  by  Wilson  [Fifth  Annual  Rep.  Fishery 
Board  of  Scotland).  Pelseneer  has  shown  its  persistence  in  various  adults. 
As  there  was  a  misprint  in  one  of  our  previous  sentences,  we  may  further  note 
that  the  eyes  do  not  make  their  appearance  in  Mytihis  until  after  the  formation 
of  the  first  branchial  filaments. 


SOME  NEW  BOOKS. 


THE  SENSE  OF  HEARING. 

L' Audition  et  ses  organes.  By  Dr.  M.  E.  Gelle.  8vo,  pp.  326,  Math  67  figs. 
(Bibliotheque  Scientifique  Internationale).  Paris:  Felix  Alcan,  1899. 
Price  6  francs. 

This  is  a  work  of  great  interest,  in  which  the  author  has  brought  together 
the  results  of  modern  scientific  investigation  on  the  structure  and  functions  of 
the  ear.  It  is  divided  into  three  chapters,  the  first  dealing  with  sonorous 
vibrations,  the  second  with  the  structure  of  the  ear,  and  the  third  with  auditory 
sensations.  In  the  first  there  is  a  fairly  complete  discussion  of  the  physical 
phenomena  of  sound — duration,  intensity,  timbre — but  the  application  of 
Ohm's  law  regarding  the  composition  of  compound  vibrations,  and  of  Fourier's 
theorem  to  the  analysis  of  curves,  has  not  received  much  attention.  It  is 
impossible  to  obtain  an  adequate  conception  of  the  phenomena  of  hearing 
without  the  aid  of  these  fundamental  principles.  The  novelty  of  Dr.  Gelle's 
book  is  that,  for  the  first  time,  there  is  a  systematic  study  of  phonograms,  or 
the  tracings  made  on  the  wax  cylinder  of  the  phonograph.  Many  examples 
of  these  tracings  are  given  from  the  writings  of  Hermann,  M'Kendrick,  Maragi, 
and  Marichelle,  in  which  the  curious  marks  are  seen,  both  as  depicted  by 
photography,  as  by  Marichelle's  method,  and  by  graphic  tracings,  as  recorded 
by  the  method  of  M'Kendrick.  These  tracings  show  many  of  the  phenomena 
of  tone  to  the  eye  of  the  observer  ;  the  number  of  the  marks  in  a  given  time 
(or  the  duration  of  each  mark)  indicating  pitch,  the  depth  of  the  mark  intensity, 
and  the  character  or  form  of  the  mark  quality  or  timbre.  The  interpretation 
of  the  curves,  as  photographed  from  above,  is,  however,  much  more  difficult 
than  that  of  the  curves  traced  by  a  graphic  method,  and  much  yet  remains  to 
to  be  done.  Dr.  Gelle  shows  the  marks  or  curves  obtained  from  tracings  of 
musical  tones,  as  produced  by  various  instruments,  and  also  the  tracings  of 
syllabic  sounds  and  words. 

The  character  of  a  word  is  clearly  brought  out.  It  is  a  series  of  more  or 
less  explosive  sounds  linked  together  by  vowel  tones,  each  sound  and  tone 
having  its  own  peculiar  record  of  vibrations,  the  number  of  which  depends  on 
the  length  of  time  occupied  in  the  pronunciation  of  each  phone,  or  distinct  and 
separate  sound.  Little  has  yet  been  done  in  the  analysis  of  consonantal  sounds 
and  syllabic  sounds,  so  that  we  may  regard  this  department  of  phonetics  as  still 
in  its  infancy.  The  time  may  come  when  the  educated  eye,  even  from  a  tracing 
of  nature's  long-hand  system  of  recording  vibrations,  will  be  able  to  recognise 
the  word  recorded ;  but  at  present  that  is  impossible. 

The  only  part  of  the  second  chapter  calling  for  special  notice  is  the  elaborate 
description  given  of  the  deep  roots  of  the  auditory  nerve.  It  is  certainly 
remarkable  that  this  nerve  has  more  intricate  connections  with  various  parts  of 
the  encephalon  than  are  possessed  by  any  other  nerve.     As  this  is  the  case, 

62  ' 


july  1899]  THE  SENSE  OF  HEARING  63 

more  especially  for  the  cochlear  division,  the  view  is  strengthened  that  this  is 
the  part  of  the  nerve  really  connected  with  hearing,  while  the  vestibular  portion 
has  to  do  with  the  transmission  of  the  result  of  pressures  connected  with  the 
sense  of  equilibrium  and  the  position  of  the  head  (and  perhaps  the  body)  in 
space.  True  auditory  impressions  not  only  pass  to  their  appropriate  centres  in 
the  cerebrum  but  they  may  arouse,  in  a  reflex  way,  many  motor  mechanisms, 
by  their  transmissions  to  the  deep  origins  of  probably  all  the  motor  cranial 
nerves.  This  striking  fact  suggests  an  explanation  of  how  it  is  that  music 
penetrates  into  the  very  roots  of  our  being,  and  thrills  us  through  and  through. 

At  the  close  of  the  book,  there  is  an  interesting  chapter  on  the  results  of 
pathological  inquiries  into  the  condition  of  the  internal  ear  in  deafness,  and  in 
cases  of  deaf-mutism.  These  results  all  support  Helmholtz'  theory  of  the 
analytic  action  of  the  cochlea.  The  real  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  full 
acceptance  of  this  theory,  namely,  the  perception  of  noise  and  the  nature  and 
influence  of  combinational  tones,  are  not  discussed. 

The  value  of  the  book  is  lessened  by  the  want  of  a  good  index.  Altogether 
this  is  an  excellent  work,  of  a  semi-popular  character  adapted  for  the  perusal 
of  any  one  who  desires  to  know  something  of  a  fascinating  subject,  without 
having  to  plunge  into  mathematico-physical  investigations.  The  latter,  however, 
along  with  adequate  anatomical  knowledge,  are  the  only  means  by  which  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  wonderful  sense  of  hearing  can  be  obtained. 

John  G.  M'Kendrick. 


SCIENCE  AND  QUARRYING. 

Steinbruchindustrie  und  Steinbruchgeologie.  By  Dr.  0.  Herrmann.  8vo, 
pp.  xvi.  +  428,  with  6  plates,  and  17  figures  in  the  text.  Berlin: 
Gebriider  Borntraeger,  1899.     Price  10  marks. 

This  excellently  printed  work  is,  as  its  author  is  careful  to  point  out,  largely 
devoted  to  the  stone  industries  of  Saxony ;  but  a  general  review  of  useful 
stones  is  also  undertaken.  The  list  of  books  helpful  to  the  reader  would 
astound  a  quarry-owner,  but  shows  how  the  author  is  intent  on  putting  forward 
mineralogical  and  geological  knowledge  as  the  true  basis  for  the  practical  treat- 
ment of  rock-masses.  We  miss,  however,  from  this  list  Levy  and  Lacroix's 
"  Mineraux  des  roches,"  and  the  admirable  tables  of  the  same  authors.  While 
England  is  well  represented,  only  three  French  works  seem  quoted,  which  is  a 
loss  when  one  considers  the  present  brilliant  position  of  geology  and  mineralogy 
throughout  France. 

The  work  opens  with  a  modestly-written  description  of  the  common  rock- 
forming  minerals,  stress  being  laid  on  the  characters  that  make  their  presence 
welcome  or  unwelcome  in  building  materials.  An  account  of  rocks  then  follows,, 
based  on  Zirkel's  text-book ;  but  it  seems  unwise  to  introduce  the  question  of 
geological-age  at  this  late  period  into  the  classification  of  the  igneous  masses. 
What  would  a  German  quarryman  think,  were  he  imported  into  the  Mourne 
Mountains  or  the  Pyrenees  1  It  is  a  pity,  at  any  rate,  to  give  grounds  for  the 
suspicion  that  geology  is  a  matter  of  names,  and  of  no  value  to  the  "practical 
tradesman."  Pp.  83-150,  however,  should  go  far  to  show  how  minute  structural 
details,  or  conditions  of  original  deposition,  such  as  those  studied  by  the  geolo- 
gist, fundamentally  affect  the  utility  of  rocks  when  they  come  to  be  placed  upon 
the  market.  We  gather  from  p.  180  that  the  growth  of  the  artificial  stone 
industry  already  affects  the  business  of  German  quarries,  and  that  the  rates 
charged  on  railways  are  among  the  obstacles  to  progress.  The  same  may  be  said 
with  greater  force  of  our  own  islands ;  and  it  is  a  question  whether  artificial 
stones,  of  uniform  excellence,  may  not  in  time  supersede  natural  ones  for  city 
use.     This  will  only  be  a  further  example  of  science  applying  the  tools  of  nature 


64  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [july 

to  man's  general  advantage.  The  lightning-flash  is,  after  all,  an  uncertain  and 
unruly  affair  compared  with  the  incandescent  electric  light. 

For  ornamental  stones,  however,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  artificial  product  should 
replace  the  natural ;  the  question  here  is  one  of  natural  beauty  as  opposed  to 
artificial  colouring.  Indeed,  the  startling  breccias  of  some  Italian  manufacturers 
seem  only  parodies  of  nature.  An  artificial  marble  should  be  as  impossible  in 
architecture  as  an  artificial  flower-bed  in  a  garden. 

Dr.  Herrmann's  account  of  the  marvellous  variety  of  rocks  in  Saxony 
occupies  180  pages,  and  is  followed  by  an  appendix  showing  the  choice  of  road- 
metal  on  Saxon  highways.  Would  that  we  could  echo — -especially  in  Ireland — 
his  conclusion  (p.  351)  that  sandstone,  limestone,  dolomite,  mica-schist,  clay- 
slate,  loam,  and  clay,  while  covering  forty  per  cent  of  the  surface  of  the  country, 
are  nowhere  used  as  road  material  !  When  we  see  sand  and  turf-lumps  thrown 
down  on  the  denuded  foundations  of  the  fine  old  Holyhead  road,  as  a  metalling 
of  modern  days,  we  could  wish  for  a  little  more  of  Dr.  Herrmann's  science 
mingled  with  our  British  practice. 

This  useful  and  agreeable  volume  concludes  with  a  review  of  the  public 
purposes  to  which  the  best  known  stones  have  been  applied  in  various  countries. 
It  is  a  pity  that  the  sumptuous  use  made  of  the  "Irish  green"  serpentinous 
marble  in  recent  work  in  Dublin  could  not  have  been  included.  The  granite  of 
Peterhead  naturally  comes  in  for  mention,  including  references  to  Dublin  and  to 
Liverpool.  The  work  involved  in  the  preparation  of  this  catalogue  is  not  to  be 
lightly  estimated. 

While  some  of  the  photographic  illustrations  are  useful,  others,  such  as 
those  of  stone-masons'  buildings,  are  hardly  in  keeping  with  the  work.  A  few 
bold  pictures  of  wrought  surfaces  of  stones,  taken  near  at  hand,  would,  to  our 
thinking,  be  effective  in  a  subsequent  edition.  G.  A.  J.   C. 

MOKE  APPLIED   GEOLOGY. 

Applied  Geology.  Part  II.  By  J.  V.  Elsden,  B.Sc.  8vo,  pp.  vi.  +250, 
with  figs.  58  to  186.  London:  "  The  Quarry  "  Publishing  Company, 
Limited,  1899. 

This  book  is  stated  by  the  author  to  be  written  both  for  the  geologist  and 
the  practical  man.  The  second  volume  begins  with  chapter  vi.,  which  relates 
to  ore  deposits,  and  contains  information  of  a  rudimentary  but  well-chosen 
character,  coupled  with  illustrations  from  various  sources,  notably  from  "  Ore 
Deposits  "  by  the  late  J.  A.  Phillips. 

This  chapter  is  represented  by  19  pages  of  useful  matter,  illustrations 
included,  and  ends  with  a  list  of  "  Common  Ores  occurring  in  Mineral  Veins," 
in  which  stromayerite  and  melaconite  seem  hardly  common  enough,  in  most 
localities,  to  deserve  mention.  Chapter  vii.  deals  with  non- metalliferous 
minerals.  About  19  pages,  including  illustrations,  are  devoted  to  chapter  viii.,  in 
which  notes  on  prospecting,  the  recognition  of  minerals  and  their  paragenesis, 
quarrying  and  mining  are  closely  packed,  somewhat  to  their  mutual  detriment. 
The  four  following  chapters  treat  of  building  and  ornamental  stones,  of  these 
chapter  ix.  relates  to  igneous  rocks,  their  modes  of  occurrence,  structure,  wearing, 
etc.  On  page  68  the  reader's  attention  is  arrested  by  a  plan  of  Dartmoor, 
which,  although  it  may  embody  a  limited  amount  of  truth,  certainly  demands  an 
enormous  exercise  of  faith  from  anyone  personally  acquainted  with  the  borders 
of  that  granitic  mass.  In  the  section  of  the  Worcestershire  Beacon,  Fig.  108, 
it  might  have  been  well  to  indicate  the  direction  in  which  the  section  is  drawn, 
and  Fig.  110  appears  to  bear  little  or  no  relation  to  the  adjacent  letterpress. 
The  definitions  of  rock-structures  on  pages  74  and  75  are  in  some  cases  far  from 
satisfactory.  The  eruptive  rocks  are  described  in  14  pages,  with  some  large, 
well-executed  figures,  representing  their  appearance  in  thin  sections  under  the 


1899]  MORE  APPLIED  GEOLOG  Y  65 

microscope.  These  and  certain  other  figures  of  microscope  sections  are,  in  some 
instances,  rather  diagrammatic,  but  are  admirable  of  their  kind.  Chapter  xi. 
deals  with  sedimentary  rocks,  and  gives  a  short  but  useful  description  of  sand- 
stones and  grits.  Then  follows  chapter  xii.,  describing  limestones  and  slates, 
with  several  good  illustrations. 

Chapter  xiii.  is  headed  "Rocks  used  in  the  Arts  and  Manufactures."  The 
reader  may  find  some  useful  information  here ;  but  the  two  pages  on  gems 
might,  for  practical  purposes  of  identification,  just  as  well  have  been  omitted. 
Chapters  xiv.  and  xv.  are  devoted  to  questions  of  water-supply,  drainage,  land- 
slips, tunnelling,  road-making,  etc.  A  map  of  England  and  Wales  is  given, 
showing  the  distribution  of  road-stones.  It  is  difficult  to  say  why  the  Land's 
End  should  be  marked  "syenite,"  and  several  additions  might  be  made  in  other 
parts  of  the  map ;  still  it  is  a  useful  one. 

There  is  an  appendix  on  "  Simple  and  Rough  Methods  for  the  Determina- 
tion of  Minerals  and  Rocks."     Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  are  simple  and  rough. 

An  index,  in  which  Arkose  precedes  Architectural,  and  Bauxite  comes  before 
Basalt,  concludes  the  volume,  which,  with  its  good  features  improved  and  its  bad 
ones  eliminated,  may  eventually  fulfil  the  author's  praiseworthy  object  in  making 
it  of  use  both  to  the  geologist  and  the  "practical  man."  In  its  present  form  it 
will  probably  better  serve  the  purpose  of  the  latter.  The  paper,  the  letterpress, 
and  many  of  the  illustrations  are  good.  There  are  possibilities  about  such  a 
book.  The  general  plan  of  the  work  indicates  a  useful  motive  in  a  right 
direction.  F.  R. 

THE  MUSEUMS  ASSOCIATION". 

Report  of  Proceedings,  with  the  Papers  read  at  the  Tenth  Annual  General 
Meeting,  held  in  Sheffield — July  4  to  8,  1898.  Edited  by  Herbert 
Bolton.    8vo,  pp.  193.    London:  Dulan  and  Company,  1899.    Price  5s. 

"  The  Editor,"  we  read  on  p.  v.,  "  exceedingly  regrets  that  so  long  a  time 
has  been  occupied  in  completing  these  Proceedings,  which,  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, ought  to  have  been  in  the  hands  of  members  and  associates  last 
October."  What  the  extraordinary  circumstances  may  be  we  are  not  informed  ; 
but  among  them  may  doubtless  be  reckoned  Mr.  Bolton's  removal  to  Bristol 
almost  immediately  after  his  appointment  as  Editor  of  the  Museums  Associa- 
tion, and  the  mass  of  additional  work  connected  with  the  rearrangement  of 
large  collections  in  the  Bristol  Museum  and  with  the  British  Association 
Meeting,  in  which  he  thus  became  involved.  Considering  this,  we  do  not  think 
that  Mr.  Bolton  need  be  greatly  ashamed  of  having  followed  the  example  of 
previous  editors  in  issuing  the  report  eleven  months  after  the  meeting  to  which 
it  refers. 

We  miss  from  the  volume  before  us  some  of  the  papers  which,  according  to 
the  programme,  were  read  at  the  meeting.  Curators  will  regret  the  absence  of 
Professor  W.  C.  F.  Anderson's  stimulating  remarks  on  "  Museums  in  relation  to 
Art  Teaching,"  of  the  valuable  suggestions  as  to  "  Methods  of  Preservation  and 
Arrangement  of  Seaweeds  for  Exhibition "  that  came  from  Professor  F.  E. 
Weiss,  and  especially  of  the  thoroughly  practical  "  Note  on  some  Arrangements 
and  Fittings  in  the  Sheffield  Museum,"  read  by  the  energetic  curator  of  that 
institution,  the  enthusiastic  secretary  of  the  Association,  Mr.  E.  Howarth. 
None  the  less,  it  would  not  have  been  advisable  to  have  delayed  publication  of 
the  report  for  the  sake  of  including  even  these  valuable  contributions. 

The  contents  of  the  report  are  of  rather  more  varied  nature  than  usual. 
The  natural  history  aspect  of  museums  has  had  prominence  hitherto,  but  in  the 
present  volume  are  several  contributions  from  the  Art  side.  This  is  as  it  should 
be,  for,  different  though  the  two  branches  appear,  the  curators  of  each  can  with 
profit  exchange  experiences  and  hints.      Rather  more  art  in  the  display  of 

5 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   89. 


66  SOME  NE  W  BOOKS  [JULy 

natural  objects,  rather  more  system  in  the  exhibition  of  things  artistic,  would 
often  not  be  misplaced.  Among  the  contributions  to  which  we  allude,  special 
attention  should  be  paid  to  that  by  Mr.  James  Paton,  Superintendent  of 
Museums,  Glasgow,  giving  an  authoritative  account  of  the  inception,  establish- 
ment, and  maintenance  of  the  "  People's  Palace  "  in  that  city.  The  question  of 
loan  exhibits  in  museums  is  always  a  difficult  one,  and  those  who  have  had  to 
consider  it  will  read  with  amusement  Mr.  Paton's  witty  classification  of  lenders, 
and  agree  with  him  and  Polonius  that  one  should  "neither  a  lender  nor  a 
borrower  be."  Mr.  John  Maclaughlan,  of  the  Albert  Institute  Museum, 
Dundee,  writes  on  "  Sculpture  in  Art  Museums,"  in  a  way  that  should  be  of 
much  use  to  other  provincial  curators.  Mr.  William  White's  paper  on  "The 
Individuality  of  Museums  "  is  chiefly  devoted  to  an  exposition  of  the  Ruskin 
Museum,  of  which  he  is  the  curator.  It  is  followed  by  "  Practical  Notes  and 
Suggestions  on  Modes  of  exhibiting  Museum  Specimens,"  drawn  from  Mr. 
White's  experience  in  the  same  museum ;  several  of  these  are  original  and 
valuable. 

Among  articles  that  refer  to  all  classes  of  museums,  the  place  of  honour  is 
of  course  due  to  the  address  by  the  genial  President,  Alderman  W.  H.  Brittain, 
who  gives  an  account  of  the  labours  of  the  Museum  Committee  of  the  Sheffield 
Corporation.  In  a  paper  on  "  Provincial  Museums  and  the  Museums  Associa- 
tion "  Mr.  H.  Bolton  suggests  the  compilation  of  a  return  of  statistics  as  to  the 
present  condition  of  all  museums  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Such  a  statement 
would  be  of  great  value  to  curators,  councillors,  and  educationalists,  and  we  are 
glad  to  see  that  the  Association  has  appointed  a  committee  "  to  obtain 
information  respecting  museums  on  the  lines  of  Mr.  Bolton's  paper,"  and  that 
the  General  Secretary  has  been  instructed  to  prepare  a  form  to  be  sent  to 
museums  for  their  officials  to  fill  up. 

Mr.  W.  E.  Hoyle's  illustrated  account  of  "The  Electric  Light  Installation  in 
the  Manchester  Museum  "  is  thoroughly  practical,  and  since  that  museum  seems 
to  have  solved  many  of  the  difficulties  incident  to  artificial  lighting,  this  paper 
should  be  studied  with  care  by  all  who  propose  to  adopt  the  electric  light  for 
similar  institutions.  "  The  cleaning  of  museums  "  may  seem  an  obvious  duty, 
and  it  is  just  conceivable  that  the  cleaning  and  dusting  of  the  public  portions  of 
most  of  our  modern  museums  is  adequately  carried  out ;  but  Miss  Clara 
Nordlinger,  of  the  Manchester  Museum,  cannot  emphasise  too  strongly  the 
need  for  "a  judicious  and  efficient  daily  dusting  of  the  workrooms  used  by  the 
staff" ;  ventilation  is  usually  lacking  in  such  apartments,  while  the  atmosphere 
is  full  of  particles  of  arsenic,  corrosive  sublimate,  and  other  poisonous  and 
irritating  substances.  Such  rooms  are  never  properly  cleaned,  except,  perhaps, 
in  the  Manchester  Museum,  and  the  health  of  the  staff  suffers  in  consequence. 

Papers  of  more  restricted  range,  and  dealing  chiefly  with  matters  of  natural 
science,  are  the  following  : — Professor  A.  Denny  of  Sheffield,  on  "  The  Relation 
of  Museums  to  Elementary  Teaching,"  which  contains  nothing  more  novel  than 
common  sense.  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes,  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  writing  on 
"  The  Arrangement  of  Herbaria,"  describes  the  methods  adopted  in  various 
public  establishments,  and  selects  from  them  numerous  useful  suggestions.  He 
favours  the  alphabetical  arrangement  for  all  small  herbaria :  undoubtedly  it 
effects  a  great  saving  of  time.  In  pursuance  of  this,  he  gives  an  alphabetical 
list  of  the  natural  orders  of  plants,  with  the  numbers  affixed  to  them  in 
Bentham  and  Hooker's  "  Genera  Plantarum,"  and  with  cross-references  to  the 
names  used  in  Engler  and  Prantl's  "  Natiirlichen  Pflanzen-Familien."  Dr.  H.  C. 
Sorby  has  yet  another  note  on  "  Marine  Animals  mounted  as  Transparencies  for 
Museum  Purposes  " ;  many  of  his  beautiful  preparations  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
Sheffield  Public  Museum,  where  they  have  been  exposed  to  the  light  for  several 
years  without  deterioration.  Mr.  Harlan  I.  Smith,  of  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  suggests  a  detailed  classification  for  "The  Ethnological 
Arrangement  of  Archaeological  Material "  ;   it  is  thought  that  it  may  lead  the 


1899]  THE  MUSEUMS  ASSOCIATION  67 

collector  in  the  field  to  procure  common  objects  such  as  he  otherwise  might 
overlook,  and  this  seems  to  us  a  thoroughly  valuable  suggestion.  Mr.  S. 
Sinclair  describes  "  The  Australian  Museum,"  of  which  he  is  the  secretary.  The 
last  paper  in  the  volume,  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Bather,  of  the  British  Museum  (Nat. 
Hist.),  describes  "some  Russian  Museums"  visited  by  him  when  attending  the 
International  Geological  Congress  in  1897.  The  account  of  the  Caucasian 
Museum  in  Tiflis  has  a  timely  interest,  since  its  curator,  Dr.  G.  Radde,  has  just 
been  awarded  the  great  gold  medal  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society.  Other 
museums  described  are  those  of  St.  Petersburg,  Reval,  Jurjev  (Dorpat),  Moscow, 
Saratov,  Astrakhan,  and  Theodosia.  The  notes  are  mostly  geological  and 
zoological,  and  are  followed  by  the  drawing  of  a  few  morals,  professedly 
referring  to  Russia,  but  peculiarly  applicable  to  museums  nearer  home. 

As  usual,  a  few  reviews  and  notes  close  the  volume ;  but  we  regret  to  see 
that  the  Secretary  has  not  furnished  any  report  of  the  discussion  following  the 
papers.  Such  reports  in  former  years,  despite  occasional  verbosity,  contained 
much  useful  matter  that  otherwise  would  not  have  achieved  publication.  We 
trust  that  this  will  be  remedied  at  the  next  meeting,  which  we  are  informed  is 
to  be  held  at  Brighton  during  the  first  week  of  July. 


CRITICISM  WITHOUT  KNOWLEDGE. 

Views  on  some  of  the  Phenomena  of  Nature,  as  seen  from  the  Workshop, 
the  Factory,  and  the  Field.  Part  II.  By  James  Walker.  8vo, 
pp.  187.  London:  Swan  Sonnenschein  and  Company,  Ltd.,  1899. 
Price  2s.  6d. 

Mr.  Walker  is  a  paradoxer  of  the  first  water.  His  quarrel  with  modern 
science  is  partly  verbal ;  but  the  greater  part  of  his  booklet  is  taken  up  with 
denunciation  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light.  He  takes  fright  at  the  large- 
ness of  the  numbers  used  to  describe  the  number  of  vibrations  per  second  in  the 
motion  that  is  the  physical  concomitant  of  what  we  call  red  light,  and  imagines 
that  the  writing  out  of  these  by  numbers  across  a  whole  line  of  print  is  an 
argument  against  their  existence.  He  has  still  to  learn  the  truth  that  largeness 
and  smallness  are  purely  relative  terms,  and  that  the  billionth  of  an  inch  is  as 
truly  a  magnitude  as  the  distance  from  the  earth  to  the  sun.  It  would  be  vain 
to  attempt  any  criticism  in  a  short  notice.  Enough  to  say,  that  his  representa- 
tion of  the  modern  theory  of  light  and  radiant  heat  is  a  travesty,  and  shows 
extraordinary  ignorance  of  the  elements  of  wave  motion.  In  support  of  this 
statement  we  give  one  quotation  as  a  sample.  In  his  description  of  the  pro- 
duction of  lightning  according  to  the  science  of  to-day,  he  says,  "  All,  from  every 
single  molecule  of  that  vapour,  these  motions  and  quivering  waves  of  ether 
somehow  drop  the  molecules,  forsake  them,  abandon  them ;  and  although  being- 
nothing  themselves  but  the  simple  quivers  of  ether,  somehow  collect  themselves 
into  a  flash  of  an  irresistible  force  of  destruction,  occupying  not  one-half  of  a 
cubic  inch  of  space,"  etc.  We  congratulate  our  author  on  this  very  remarkable 
theory  of  the  production  of  the  lightning  flash.  It  is  his  alone  !  It  may  be 
well  to  point  out  that,  although  Mr.  Walker  scoffs  at  scientific  men  for  their 
gratuitous  invention  of  the  ether,  he  himself  falls  into  the  same  pit  by  invent- 
ing "  electrogene,"  which,  so  far  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  vague  references 
that  are  made  to  it,  is  a  kind  of  material  squirted  out  from  the  sun.  To  expose 
the  fallacy  of  most  of  his  arguments  would  be  wasted  labour.  Magna  est 
Veritas,  et  prevalebit ;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  tomes  of  argument  could  ever  convince 
Mr.  Walker  of  his  sublime  ignorance  of  the  real  basis  of  our  ethereal  dynamics. 

C.  G.  K. 

fcA  —  «g 

jujjLIBRAR  Yjjj 


68  SOME  NE IV  BOOKS  [july 

A  HISTOKY  OF  EXPERIMENTAL  PHYSICS. 

Geschichte  der  physikalische  Experimentier-Kunst.  By  Drs.  Gerland 
and  F.  Traumuller.  8vo,  pp.  xvi.  +  442,  with  425  illustrations. 
Leipzig:  Engelmann,  1899. 

To  trace  from  their  hazy  beginnings  the  gradual  and  laborious  development 
of  what  are  now  familiar  and  simple  truths  is  always  a  fascinating  study.  If 
rightly  pursued  it  should  give  us  a  psychological  insight  into  the  mental  modes 
of  man.  One  great  difficulty  must  ever  be  the  imperfection  of  the  historic 
imagination.  Just  as  the  mature  intellect  is  apt  to  misinterpret  the  modes  of 
thought  of  the  child  or  savage,  so  we,  the  heirs  of  centuries  of  accumulated 
knowledge,  have  difficulty  in  appreciating  the  intellectual  needs  and  powers  of 
our  ancestors.  Where,  however,  as  in  the  case  before  us,  the  mark  of  the  stage 
of  culture  arrived  at  is  a  mechanical  contrivance  or  an  illustrative  experiment, 
there  is  less  play  for  the  personal  equation,  there  is  more  chance  for  a  sound 
judgment.  Doctors  Gerland  and  Traumuller  have  put  together  an  extremely 
interesting  book  in  which  is  presented,  on  its  purely  experimental  side,  the 
evolution  of  physical  science  from  the  early  days  of  the  Assyrians,  Egyptians, 
and  Greeks,  through  the  times  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  with  Galileo  the  modern  school  of  experimental  science  may  be 
said  to  have  begun,  and  from  this  epoch  on  to  our  own  days.  Nearly  a  century 
before  Galileo's  time,  however,  we  find  in  Leonardo  da  Vinci — famous  even  in 
his  own  day  as  painter,  sculptor,  musician,  architect,  and  engineer — a  type  of  the 
true  scientific  spirit.  Particularly  fruitful  were  his  inventions  and  discoveries 
in  hydraulics. 

To  give  a  fair  notion  of  the  contents  of  the  book,  suffice  it  to  say  that  it 
is  chiefly  concerned  with  the  invention  of  such  familiar  instruments  as  the 
telescope,  microscope,  pendulum,  air-pump,  thermometer,  barometer,  hygro- 
meter, the  electric  machine,  voltaic  cell,  galvanometer,  induction  coil,  tele- 
graph, etc. 

The  cuts  and  illustrations  are  numerous  and  instructive.  Many  are 
reproduced  from  original  sources,  and  some  are  of  high  interest.  Perhaps  the 
most  curious  is  the  picture  of  von  Guericke's  experiment  showing  two  teams  of 
horses  (sixteen  in  all)  engaged  in  "  a  tug  of  war,"  the  object  being  to  pull  asunder 
two  gigantic  Magdeburg  hemispheres  within  which  a  vacuum  has  been  formed. 
Very  instructive  also  are  the  ingenious  mechanical  devices  employed  by  our 
scientific  forefathers  to  illustrate  or  demonstrate  important  mechanical  principles. 
Not  a  few  of  these  might  with  advantage  be  introduced  for  demonstrative 
purposes  in  our  schools  and  colleges.  C.  G.  K. 


POPULAR  ENTOMOLOGY. 

True  Tales  of  the  Insects.     By  L.  N.  Badenoch.     8vo,  pp.  xviii.  +  255,  with 
44  figs.     London:  Chapman  and  Hall,  Ltd.,  1899.     Price  12s. 

It  was  a  happy  inspiration  of  the  author  to  devote  most  of  this  handsome 
volume  to  insects  with  stories  of  such  interest  and  so  little  hackneyed  as  are 
those  of  the  Orthoptera.  Though  popular  in  aim  the  book  bears  evidence  of  a 
true  love  of  entomology  and  of  a  knowledge  of  the  creatures  described  that  are 
far  from  universal  in  similar  works ;  and  few  readers  will  lay  it  down  without 
the  desire  to  learn  more  of  its  subject.  The  essays  on  Lepidoptera,  which 
occupy  the  last  eighty  pages,  are  scarcely  equal  to  the  others. 

Unfortunately  the  literary  form  often  leaves  a  good  deal  to  be  desired. 
Such  sentences  as  these  are  too  frequent : — "  Others  again  can  fly,  having  ample 
wings,  and,  oddly  enough,  often  gaily  coloured.  Look  at  the  large  spectre 
Acrophylla  titan  of  Australia,  a  giant  of  its  kind ;  its  charming  wings  generally 


1899]  POPULAR  ENTOMOLOGY  69 

blackish-brown  in  colour,  but  irregularly  spotted  and  banded  with  white,  the 
costal  portion  variegated  with  green  and  pink,  and  expand  fully  eight  inches." 
"  The  colour  of  the  body  in  many  Phasmidae  may  change  from  brown  in  early 
life  to  green,  subsequently  returning  to  the  brown  tint.  If  this  be  owing  to  the 
presence  of  chlorophyll  or  other  plant-juices  among  the  insect-tissues,  its  ex- 
planation is  not  far  to  seek."  "Sir  John  Hunter"  is  a  slip  that  probably 
expresses  admiration  for  his  genius. 

The  illustrations  of  the  insects  deserve  high  praise,  and  the  printer  has  done 
his  work  well.  The  book  fills  a  place  not  previously  occupied  in  the  literature 
of  entomology,  and  places  within  reach  of  English  readers  much  varied  informa- 
tion. The  quaint  forms  and  admirable  disguises  of  the  leaf -insects  and  "walk- 
ing sticks,"  the  methods  of  capturing  prey  employed  by  the  mantis,  the  beauty 
of  colour,  the  methods  of  producing  sounds,  and  many  other  curious  traits,  are 
all  described  here,  and  should  attract  students  to  the  Orthoptera,  which  rarely 
get  the  attention  they  deserve.  J.   H.  W.   T. 


In  the  February  number  of  the  American  Geologist  Mr.  W.  S.  Gresley  throws 
some  "  Side-light  upon  Coal  Formation,"  in  adducing  evidence  that  many  coal- 
seams  have  not  undergone  any  appreciable  vertical  compression  since  the  time 
of  their  formation  from  decaying  vegetation.  He  also  points  out  that  when 
coal  arises  from  drifted  deposits  laid  out  in  water,  the  shale  band  occurring 
above  the  coal  may  represent  that  which  originally  underlay  the  plant-remains. 
Such  reversals  by  the  agency  of  denudation,  the  materials  of  the  highest  original 
bed  becoming  laid  down  first  in  the  new  area  of  deposition,  then  those  of  the  bed 
below,  then  those  of  the  next  bed,  and  so  on,  are  of  course  not  uncommon  in  the 
geological  series. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Woodworth  writes  of  the  classification  of  glacial  deposits,  laying 
useful  stress  on  the  association  of  "sands  and  gravels"  with  the  melting  of  ice- 
masses  in  situ.  In  introducing  one  or  two  new  technical  terms  he,  almost  by 
miracle,  avoids  the  use  of  Greek,  a  language  which  has  preponderated  in  the 
modern  geological  literature  of  America,  to  the  confusion  and  astonishment  of 
Eastern  readers. 

Mr.  Hovey's  report  of  the  winter  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society  of 
America  contains  a  number  of  suggestive  abstracts.  Mr.  Walcott's  announce- 
ment (p.  99)  of  "  plates  of  crustaceans  closely  related  to  Eurypterus  "  in  the 
Algonkian  beds  of  Montana,  4000  feet  below  the  base  of  the  Cambrian, 
will  be  received  by  palaeontologists  with  respectful  watchfulness.  Possibly 
the  lover  of  thrust-planes  will  also  want  to  have  his  say  in  the  matter.  At  the 
present  time  students  of  variation  in  igneous  magmas  will  read  with  interest 
Mr.  Emerson's  observations  on  absorption  by  granite,  quoted  on  p.  105. 

In  the  March  number  of  the  Naturalist  Mr.  O.  Grabham  gives  an  account 
of  the  bats  found  in  Yorkshire,  with  notes  on  their  habits  in  confinement.  The 
absence  of  attention  to  recent  emendations  in  nomenclature  is  as  conspicuous 
in  this  as  in  an  earlier  paper  on  British  bats  noticed  in  these  columns.  Our 
own  opinion  with  regard  to  such  emendations  is,  that  it  is  frequently  desirable 
to  "  let  sleeping  dogs  lie " ;  but  that  when  they  have  once  been  made  by  a 
naturalist  of  recognised  eminence  it  is  the  duty  of  humbler  folk  to  follow  suit, 
and  not  to  presume  to  have  opinions  of  their  own  on  such  subjects. 

We  are  grateful  to  the  editor  of  Finland  for  sending  us  a  copy  of  the  first 
number  of  his  beautifully  printed,  admirably  written  magazine.  The  subjects 
with  which  it  deals,  though  of  enthralling  interest,  can  scarcely  claim  to  be 
touched  on  in  a  scientific  journal,  except  in  so  far  as  every  worker  in  science 
thereby  confesses  himself  a  lover  and  an  advocate  of  freedom,  education,  and  the 
right  to  know  and  think.  The  offices  of  Finland  are  at  106  Victoria  Street, 
London,  S.W.,  and  the  price  is  3d.  a  number. 


OBITUARIES. 

RUDOLF    LEUCKART. 

Born  October  7,  1822;  Died  February  6,  1898. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  regret  to  us  that  no  obituary  of  this  great  zoologist  has 
previously  appeared  in  our  pages, — an  omission  mainly  due  to  the  busy  pre- 
occupation of  those  best  qualified  to  write  such  a  notice.  Yet  we  are  not  very 
far  behind  some  of  our  contemporaries,  for  the  May  number  of  the  Zoologi&ches 
Centralblatt  furnishes  us  with  the  material  on  which  this  note  is  based. 

Rudolf  Leuckart  was  the  son  of  a  senator  and  printer  at  Helmstedt,  and 
nephew  of  the  zoologist  Fr.  Sigismund  Leuckart.  He  studied  at  Gtittingen, 
graduating  as  Doctor  of  Medicine  in  1845,  and  was  brought  much  under  the 
influence  of  Rudolf  Wagner,  whose  assistant  he  became.  After  a  period  of 
activity  as  privat  docent  he  was  called  in  1850  to  Giessen  as  Professor  of 
Zoology  in  succession  to  Carl  Vogt. 

Even  in  Gottingen  he  had  defined  the  characteristics  of  his  future  work  : — 
(1)  by  numerous  detailed  researches,  (2)  by  his  generalising  essay  "  Ueber 
Morphologie  unci  Verwandtschafts-verhaltnisse  der  wirbellosen  Thiere,"  and  (3) 
by  helping  H.  Frey  in  preparing  a  second  edition  of  Wagner's  "  Comparative 
Anatomy." 

Soon  after  he  had  settled  down  in  Giessen,  where  he  remained  till  1869,  he 
published  along  with  C.  Bergmann  a  treatise  which  was  at  the  time  and  still 
remains  a  remarkably  strong  piece  of  work — the  "  Anatomisch-physiologische 
Uebersicht  des  Thierreichs"  (1852).  His  subsequent  essays  on  polymorphism, 
division  of  labour,  alternation  of  generations,  parthenogenesis,  and  especially, 
perhaps,  his  article  "Zeugung"  in  Wagner's  Dictionary  of  Physiology  (1855), 
were  also  notable  contributions  to  the  more  general  problems  of  Zoology. 

In  his  detailed  researches  he  ranged  from  Protozoa  to  Cephalopods,  from 
Siphonophora  to  Pteropods,  from  the  development  of  insects  to  that  of  the 
vertebrate  eye, — indeed,  over  the  whole  animal  kingdom, — but  the  department 
of  study  which  seems  to  have  fascinated  him  most,  and  in  connection  with  which 
he  is  best  known,  was  parasitology.  To  what  is  now  known  of  the  structure  and 
life-history  of  Trematodes,  Cestocles,  Nematodes,  Acanthocephala,  Linguatulidae, 
etc.,  Leuckart  made  very  important  contributions,  many  of  which  were  summed 
up  in  his  famous  work,  "  Die  menschlichen  Parasiten  unci  die  von  ihnen  herruh- 
renden  Krankheiten  "  (1863-1875).  A  second  edition  of  this  indispensable  com- 
pendium was  begun  but,  unfortunately,  never  completed.  The  first  part  is  well 
known  to  students  in  this  country  by  Mr.  Hoyle's  translation  (1886,  Pentland, 
Edinburgh). 

In  1869  Leuckart  was  called  to  the  professorship  of  zoology  in  Leipzig,  and 
there  he  had  wider  scope  for  his  enthusiasm  and  skill  as  a  teacher.  To  name  his 
students  who  have  become  famous  would  fill  a  page,  and  the  splendid  Festschrift 

70 


july  1899]  OBITUARIES  71 

which  was  dedicated  to  him  on  his  seventieth  birthday  affords  eloquent  testimony 
of  the  respect  and  gratitude  of  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  sitting  at  his  feet. 

The  wall-diagrams  by  Leuckart  and  Nitsche  are  almost  as  familiar  to  the 
student  as  Leuckart's  memoirs  and  his  bibliographical  Berichte  (1848-1879)  are 
to  the  investigator. 

As  generaliser,  specialist,  and  teacher,  Rudolf  Leuckart  was  certainly  one 
of  the  great  zoologists  of  the  century. 

See  Butschli,  0.,  Zool.  Centralbl.,  vi.  1899,  pp.  264-266. 

Carus,  J.  V.,  Zur  Erinnerung  an  Rudolf  Leuckart,  Ber.   Ges.    Wiss.  Leipzig,  1898,  pp. 

51-62. 
Blanchard,  R.,  Notices  biographiques.     I.,  R.  Leuckart.     Avec  portrait.     Arch.  Para- 

sitol.  1898,  pp.  185-190. 
Grobbkn,  C,  Rudolf  Leuckart.     Ein  Nachruf.      Verh.  Zool. -hot.  Ges.   Wien.  1898,5  pp. 
Jacobi,  A.,  Rudolf  Leuckart.     Mit  Portrat.      Centralbl.  Balctcriol.  xxiii.  1898,  pp.  1073- 

1081.  X.  , 

The  death  is  reported  by  telegram  of  Mr.  John  Whitehead,  the  well-known 
collector  and  explorer,  who  succumbed  to  an  attack  of  pestilential  fever  while 
on  a  scientific  mission  in  the  island  of  Hainan.  He  left  England  in  the  autumn 
of  last  year  to  explore  the  less  known  islands  of  the  Philippine  group.  On  his 
arrival  at  Manilla,  he  found  the  condition  of  things  too  disturbed  to  permit  of 
his  going  into  the  interior,  and  so  made  his  way  to  Hainan,  the  highlands  of 
which  have  never  been  traversed  by  European.  Mr.  Whitehead  has  during  the 
last  three  years  been  engaged  in  the  exploration  of  the  Philippines,  and  by  his 
work  he  added  greatly  to  our  knowledge  of  the  zoology  of  the  group.  In  his 
last  expedition  to  the  island  of  Luzon,  Mr.  Whitehead  made  an  unexpected 
discovery  in  the  shape  of  a  new  and  peculiar  mammal  fauna  inhabiting  the 
Luzon  highlands,  and  believed  to  be  isolated  on  a  small  plateau  on  the  top  of 
Mont  Data,  in  the  centre  of  northern  Luzon  at  an  altitude  of  from  7000  to 
8000  feet.  As  a  collector  Mr.  Whitehead  was  highly  esteemed,  and  his  death 
at  the  early  age  of  43  will  be  especially  felt  in  the  Natural  History  Museum  at 
South  Kensington,  the  zoological  collections  in  which  have  been  enriched  through 
his  industry  and  skill. 

The  deaths  are  also  announced  of  Prof.  L.  A.  Charpentier  of  the  Faculty 
of  Medicine,  Paris ;  on  April  20,  at  Montauban,  Prof.  Charles  Friedel  (b. 
1832),  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  French  chemists,  and  one  of  the 
initiators  of  the  French  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science ;  Dr. 
Theodor  von  Hessling,  formerly  professor  of  anatomy  in  the  University  of 
Munich,  at  the  age  of  83  years ;  on  May  6,  aged  73,  the  Rev.  T.  Neville 
Hutchinson,  who  was  science  master  at  Rugby  from  1866-83,  and  did  much 
to  introduce  the  study  of  science  in  the  English  public  schools ;  on  May  17,  the 
Rev.  Jonathan  Short,  vicar  of  Hoghton,  near  Preston,  in  his  74th  year. 
He  was  well  known  as  a  geologist  and  antiquarian  throughout  the  North  of 
England,  and  has  taken  an  active  part  in  collecting  and  preserving  the  historical 
records  of  Lancashire. 


NEWS. 


The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Dr.  Howard  Ayers, 
professor  of  biology  in  Missouri  University,  to  be  president  of  the  University 
of  Cincinnati ;  Dr.  Tarlton  H.  Bean,  to  be  director  of  forestry  and  fisheries 
of  the  United  States  Commission  to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900 ;  Dr.  C.  E. 
Beecher,  professor  of  historical  geology  in  Yale  University,  to  succeed  the  late 
Prof.  0.  C.  Marsh  as  curator  of  the  geological  collections  of  the  Peabody 
Museum,  and  to  be  a  member  of  the  executive  council  of  the  museum  ;  Miss 
Edith  Chick,  as  Quain  student  in  botany  for  three  years  at  University  College, 
London ;  W.  R.  Crane  of  Janesville,  Wis.,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  mining 
engineering  at  Kansas  University ;  Dr.  G.  Davis,  to  be  assistant  professor  of 
applied  anatomy  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ;  Dr.  Ida  Hyde  of 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  zoology  at  Kansas  University ; 
Miss  A.  Lambert,  M.Sc,  to  be  assistant  lecturer  in  biology  in  the  University 
of  Melbourne ;  Dr.  G.  Lindau,  to  be  Custos  of  the  Imperial  Botanical  Museum 
of  Berlin ;  Miss  Lillie  J.  Martin,  to  be  acting  assistant  professor  of  psychology 
in  Stanford  University  during  Dr.  Frank  Angell's  absence  in  Europe  ;  Prof. 
E.  A.  Schafer,  F.R.S.  of  University  College,  London,  to  be  professor  of 
physiology  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  in  succession  to  the  late  Prof. 
Rutherford ;  Dr.  J.  L.  Wortman,  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
to  take  charge  of  the  new  collections  of  fossil  vertebrata  in  the  Carnegie 
Museum,  Pittsburgh. 


'»* 


Mr.  F.  J.  Bennett  has  resigned  his  position  on  the  Geological  Survey  of 
England,  after  30  years'  service,  during  which  he  has  mapped  large  areas  of 
Cretaceous  and  later  rocks  in  Surrey,  Berks,  Wilts,  and  the  eastern  counties. 

We  regret  to  learn  that  it  was  owing  to  medical  orders  that  Prof.  E.  Ray 
Lankester  was  compelled  to  withdraw  his  promise  to  deliver  the  "  Robert  Boyle  " 
lecture  at  Oxford  this  summer.  He  has  been  recruiting  his  health  by  a  trip 
to  various  Continental  museums.  The  Boyle  lecture  was  delivered  on  June  6, 
by  Prof.  J.  G.  M'Kendrick,  who  took  for  his  subject  the  physiological  percep- 
tion of  musical  tone. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  birthday  of  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  the  following 
among  other  honours  have  been  bestowed  :  —  a  baronetcy  was  conferred  on 
Prof.  J.  S.  Burdon  Sanderson,  and  the  honour  of  knighthood  on  Dr.  W. 
Mitchell  Banks  and  Dr.  John  Sibbald.  Mr.  Stanley  was  appointed  to  be 
G.C.B.,  and  Prof.  Michael  Foster  to  be  K.C.B.  Dr.  J.  C.  Meredith,  secretary 
of  the  Royal  University  of  Ireland,  is  also  among  the  new  knights. 

In  a  convocation  at  Oxford  on  May  16,  the  degree  of  M.A.  (honoris  causa) 
was  conferred  upon  Mr.  Roland  Trimen,  F.R.S.,  formerly  curator  of  the  South 
African  Museum,  Cape  Town,  and  late  president  of  the  Entomological  Society 
of  London. 

72 


july  1899]  NE  WS  73 

On  June  21,  at  the  Oxford  Commemoration,  the  honorary  degree  of  D.C.L. 
was  conferred  inter  alios  on  F.  D.  Godman,  F.R.S.,  and  on  Mr.  J.  G. 
Frazer,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity. 

On  June  8,  a  number  of  foreign  guests  who  had  been  present  at  the  Stokes 
jubilee  celebration  and  the  Royal  Institution  centenary,  were  entertained  at 
Oxford,  and,  in  a  convocation,  the  honorary  degree  of  D.C.L.  was  conferred  on 
Profs.  Becquerel,  Korner,  Liebreich,  Moissan,  and  Newcomb. 

At  a  congregation  at  Cambridge  on  May  11,  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Science 
(honoris  causa),  was  conferred  on  Alexander  Kowalevsky,  the  illustrious  pro- 
fessor of  zoology  in  the  Imperial  University  of  St.  Petersburg. 

On  June  2  the  University  of  Cambridge  conferred  honorary  degrees  on 
Professors  Cornu,  Darboux  (Paris),  Kohlrausch  (Berlin),  Michelson  (Chicago), 
Mittag-Leffler  (Stockholm),  Quincke  (Heidelberg),  and  Voigt  (Gottingen). 

Mr.  Prillieux  has  been  nominated  member  of  the  Academy  of  Science,  Paris, 
in  the  botanical  section,  in  place  of  the  late  Ch.  Nauclin. 

The  St.  Petersburg  Geographical  Society  has  awarded  its  great  gold  medal 
to  Dr.  G.  Radde,  Director  of  the  Caucasian  Museum  at  Tiflis. 

Mr.  Alexander  Agassiz  has  been  elected  president  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Art  and  Sciences. 

The  gold  medal  of  the  Linnaean  Society  has  been  this  year  awarded  to  Mr. 
J.  G.  Baker,  the  well-known  botanist  of  Kew. 

The  following  naturalists  have  been  elected  foreign  members  of  the  Lin- 
naean Society  : — Adrien  Franchet  (Paris),  E.  C.  Hansen  (Copenhagen),  Seiitsiro 
Ikeno  (Tokyo),  E.  von  Martens  (Berlin),  and  G.  O.  Sars  (Christiania). 

It  has  been  resolved  to  establish  a  professorship  of  Agriculture  at  Cambridge, 
subject  to  the  following  regulations: — The  professor  shall  teach  and  illustrate 
the  principles  of  Agriculture,  apply  himself  to  the  advancement  of  the  know- 
ledge of  the  subject,  and  undertake  the  direction  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture in  connection  with  the  University.  The  Professorship  shall  exist  for  ten 
years,  and  longer  should  the  University  so  decide,  and  it  shall  not  be  tenable 
with  any  other  Professorship  or  Readership  in  the  University.  The  stipend 
shall  be  £800  per  annum,  or  £600  per  annum  should  the  Professor  hold  a 
Fellowship.  The  Professor  shall  be  connected  with  the  Special  Board  of 
Studies  for  Biology  and  Geology,  and  shall  be  a  member,  ex  officio,  of  the 
Special  Board  of  Physics  and  Chemistry,  and  of  the  Board  of  Agricultural 
Studies. 

Convocation  at  Oxford  on  May  16  passed  a  decree  authorising  the  Univer- 
sity chest  to  receive  for  the  next  five  years  £400  per  annum  from  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  and  to  pay  the  same  to  the  common  university  fund,  and 
also  to  pay  that  fund  during  the  same  period  £100  per  annum  from  the  chest, 
the  sums  so  paid  to  be  applied  to  the  furtherance  of  geographical  study  in 
Oxford.  A  provisional  scheme  for  the  teaching  and  study  of  geography  has 
already  been  arranged. 

The  appeal  made  some  time  ago  by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  as  Chancellor  of 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  for  financial  assistance  to  the  university,  is  meet- 
ing with  substantial  support,  the  list  published  showing  promises  which  amount 
to  over  £50,000. 

A  statue  of  Charles  Darwin  by  Mr.  Hope  Pinker,  which  has  been  presented 
to  Oxford  University  by  Mr.  Edward  B.  Poulton,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Jesus  Col- 
lege, Hope  Professor  of  Zoology,  was  inaugurated  at  the  University  Museum, 
and  an  address  was  delivered  by  Sir  Joseph  D.  Hooker,  K.C.S.I.,  F.R.S., 
Hon.  D.C.L.  The  Vice  -  Chancellor  (the  President  of  Corpus)  presided, 
and  among  those  present  were  Professor  Charles  Darwin  of  Cambridge,   Sir 


74  NE  WS  [july 

John  Conray,  Sir  J.  S.  Burdon  Sanderson,  and  Professor  Poulton.  The  Chan- 
cellor, in  opening  the  proceedings,  said  Darwin's  method  and  Darwin's  concep- 
tions were  applicable  to  the  whole  range  of  knowledge,  and  had  been  extended 
to  numerous  fields  of  research  which  probably,  at  the  beginning  of  his  specula- 
tions, never  entered  within  his  own  purview.  The  historical  method  which  had 
been  so  fertile  in  its  results  was  indeed  known  and  practised  before  the  time  of 
Darwin,  but  it  was  mainly  owing  to  Darwin's  splendid  applications  and  illus- 
trations of  it  in  the  natural  sciences  that  it  had  now  become  the  acknowledged 
and  generally  received  instrument  of  inquiry  in  the  sciences  of  mind,  morals, 
aesthetics,  language,  society,  politics,  law,  religion,  and  in  fact  every  subject  con- 
nected with  the  constitution  of  history  and  the  capacities  of  man.  The  statue, 
which  was  pronounced  as  a  remarkable  likeness  of  Mr.  Darwin,  was  unveiled 
amidst  loud  cheers. 

The  Johnson  Memorial  Prize  of  the  University  of  Oxford  has  been  awarded 
to  Mr.  H.  N.  Dickson  of  New  College,  for  his  work  on  the  distribution  of  water 
and  currents  in  the  North  Sea. 

Women's  munificence  to  universities  and  colleges  in  the  past  has  generally 
taken  the  form  of  bequests,  but  Aberdeen  recently  received  a  handsome  gift 
during  a  lady's  lifetime.  Miss  Cruickshank,  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Cruickshank, 
Professor  of  Mathematics  in  Marischal  College  from  1817  to  1860,  gave  not 
long  ago  £15,000  to  establish  a  botanical  garden  in  the  city  for  the  use  of  uni- 
versity students  and  the  general  public.  The  garden  will  be  about  five  acres  in 
extent,  and  situated  in  Old  Aberdeen.  It  is  intended  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Alexander  Cruickshank,  L.L.D.,  brother  of  the  donor,  who  was  devoted 
to  scientific  pursuits,  especially  botany  and  geology,  and  who  died  about  two 
years  ago.  The  laying  out  of  the  garden  is  now  in  rapid  progress  under  Prof. 
Trail's  supervision.  There  will  also  be  a  physiological  laboratory  and  other 
important  adjuncts. 

The  North  London  Natural  History  Society  sends  us  its  programme  for  the 
latter  half  of  this  year.  There  are  excursions  to  Broxbourne,  Tring,  Eynsford, 
Lambourn,  Epping  Forest,  Kew  Gardens,  and  "  South  Kensington  Museum," 
as  well  as  cycle  runs.  The  papers  offered  seem  to  be,  for  the  most  part,  of  a 
general  nature.  Meetings  are  held  at  the  Sigdon  Road  Board  School,  Dalston 
Lane,  close  to  Hackney  Down  Station,  and  begin  at  7.45  p.m.  Those  who 
wish  to  become  members  should  apply  to  the  Secretary,  Mr.  L.  B.  Prout,  F.E.S., 
246  Richmond  Road,  Dalston,  N.E. 

From  the  Times  of  June  15  we  learn  that  Sir  Harry  Johnston  devotes  a 
section  of  his  new  report  on  Tunis  to  an  account  of  the  measures  taken  there  for 
educating  the  native  population.  In  the  course  of  this  he  gives  a  very  interest- 
ing account  of  the  "Mosque  of  the  Olive  Tree"  (Jama-Ez-Zituna)  at  Tunis,  one 
of  the  three  great  centres  of  Mahommedan  learning  in  North  Africa,  the  others 
being  El  Azbar  in  Cairo  and  the  Great  Mosque  at  Fez,  in  Morocco.  This  Zituna 
still  remains  a  great  centre  of  teaching.  It  is  an  immense  building  with  161 
porphyry  columns,  lit  only  by  many  open  doors.  Outside  the  main  building  is 
a  vast  square,  surrounded  by  a  colonnade,  at  one  end  of  which  is  an  immense 
minaret.  Within  the  main  building,  where  the  porphyry  columns  are,  is  the 
sacred  shrine,  and  in  this  main  building  the  professors  teach  and  the  students 
learn.  The  institution  has  a  valuable  library  of  Arab  books  and  manuscripts, 
some  of  which  are  said  to  have  come  from  the  famous  library  of  Alexandria 
destroyed  by  the  first  Mahommedan  invader  of  Egypt.  Over  400  students  are 
usually  taught  at  this  university,  while  there  are  about  100  professors.  The 
lectures  begin  at  sunrise  and  continue  until  sunset,  15  different  lectures  usually 
going  on  at  the  same  time.  Each  professor  sits  cross-legged,  with  his  back 
against  one  of  the  many  columns  of  the  mosque,  his  students  grouped  about  him. 
The  latter  vary  in  age  from  1 6  to  30,  but  occasionally  are  men  of  advanced 
middle  age.     They  can  choose  their  own  professors,  but  are  constrained  to  some 


1899]  NEWS  75 

extent  as  to  the  course  of  teaching  it  is  considered  best  for  them  to  follow. 
They  live  near  the  mosque  in  medressahs,  or  lodgings,  of  which  there  are  22, 
each  presided  over  by  a  sheikh  or  elder.  The  instruction  is  chiefly  in  theology, 
rhetoric,  logic,  grammar,  law,  and  medicine,  and  much  obsolete  and  useless 
teaching  is  given  under  these  heads.  Until  recently  there  was  but  little  method 
in  the  instruction  ;  each  professor  rambled  on  in  his  discourse,  ranging  over  any 
topic  on  which  he  cared  to  impart  information,  and  the  students  listened  or  not 
as  they  chose.  To  encourage  a  more  practical  education,  the  State  offered  the 
students  exemption  from  military  service  and  from  certain  taxes  if  they  passed 
an  elementary  outside  examination  ;  but  only  4  of  66  recently  succeeded  in 
doing  this.  In  future  it  is  intended  to  impress  on  the  management  of  the 
mosque  that  each  professor  should  keep  to  one  subject ;  that  the  students  should 
be  obliged  to  take  notes  and  pass  periodical  examinations.  Outside  lectures  on 
scientific  subjects  and  on  matters  of  present-day  interest  have  also  been  estab- 
lished, and  about  100  students  from  the  mosque  attend  these. 

The  foundation-stone  of  a  Museum  of  Oceanography  was  laid  at  Monaco  on 
April  25.  It  will  house  the  collections  of  the  Princess  Alice,  and  will  include 
laboratories. 

The  salary  of  an  assistant  in  zoology  at  the  New  York  State  Museum  is 
$900,  about  £187  :  10s.  This  sounds  promising.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  notice 
of  the  last  examination  was  not  issued  in  time  for  the  out-of-work  zoologists  in 
this  country  to  send  in  their  names. 

The  collection  of  shells  of  the  late  Mr.  Henry  D.  Van  Nostrand,  recently 
given  to  Columbia  University,  is,  says  Science,  well  known  among  malacologists 
as  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  private  collections  in  the  country ;  it  contains 
the  larger  and  better  portion  of  the  land  shells  of  the  West  Indies  collected  by 
Thomas  Bland,  including  many  types,  together  with  many  of  the  rarest  speci- 
mens of  the  Perry  Expedition. 

The  Ballestier  collection  of  shells  from  the  East  Indies  made  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century,  has  been  presented  by  the  heirs  of  Warren  Delano  to 
Harvard  University,  which  has  also  obtained  Mr.  E.  Elsworth  Call's  collection 
of  American  land  shells. 

The  Gray  Herbarium  of  Harvard  University  has,  says  the  American 
Naturalist,  recently  purchased  a  collection  of  Compositae  of  the  late  Dr.  F.  W. 
Klapp,  of  Hamburg.  It  contains  about  11,000  specimens,  and  will  probably 
add  60  genera,  1 500  species,  to  the  Gray  Herbarium,  which  previously  contained 
35,000  sheets  of  composites. 

Dr.  Daniel  G.  Brinton,  professor  of  American  Archaeology  and  Linguistics 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  has  presented  to  the  University  his  collec- 
tion of  books  and  manuscripts  relating  to  the  aboriginal  languages  of  North  and 
South  America.  According  to  Science,  the  collection  represents  a  work  of  ac- 
cumulation of  twenty-five  years,  and  embraces  about  2000  volumes,  in  addition 
to  nearly  200  volumes  of  bound  and  indexed  pamphlets  bearing  on  the  ethnology 
of  the  American  Indians.  Many  of  the  manuscripts  are  unique.  A  number  of 
the  printed  volumes  are  rare  or  unique  and  of  considerable  bibliographical  im- 
portance. The  collection  of  works  on  the  hieroglyphic  writings  of  the  natives 
of  this  country  embraces  nearly  every  publication  on  the  subject.  The  special 
feature  of  the  library  is  that  it  covers  the  whole  American  field — North,  Central, 
and  South — and  was  formed  for  the  special  purpose  of  comparative  study. 

The  new  building  erected  in  the  Dublin  Zoological  Gardens  in  memory  of 
the  late  Professor  Samuel  Haughton  was  formally  opened  on  May  19  by  the 
Lord-Lieutenant,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  gathering. 

The  Booth  Free  Library  Museum  and  Technical  School  Journal  shows  that 
every  effort  is  made  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Ogle  to  widen  the  influence  of  these  institutions. 


76  NEWS  [july 

Popular  lectures  on  birds  have  been  delivered  in  the  Museum,  illustrated  by- 
specimens  in  the  cases  and  books  brought  in  from  the  Library ;  and  the  notes 
are  now  printed  in  the  Journal. 

This  year  no  appropriation  has  been  made  for  the  New  York  State  weather 
service.  The  sum  is  only  % 4500  dollars  per  annum,  but  with  the  volunteer  aid 
of  nearly  2500  persons,  it  has  been  enough  to  maintain  a  weather  signal  station 
in  conjunction  with  the  Bureau  at  Washington,  to  publish  weekly  "  Crop 
Bulletins,"  much  appreciated  by  the  farmers,  and  to  carry  on  observations,  and 
numerous  stations,  some  of  which  have  continuous  records  for  thirty  years. 
"  This  interruption,"  says  Science,  "  will  make  a  break  in  the  files  which  can 
never  be  repaired." 

In  its  fifth  session,  which  will  be  held  in  Germany  in  1901,  the  International 
Congress  of  Zoology  will  award  for  the  third  time  the  prize  founded  by  His 
Majesty  the  Tzar  Nicolas  II.  The  following  subjects  are  proposed,  though  the 
whole  need  not  be  dealt  with  : — "  Influence  of  light  on  the  development  of 
colours  in  Lepidoptera  :  the  causes  determining  the  differences  of  colours,  form, 
and  structure  of  parts  covered  during  the  resting  position  in  insects." 

The  memoirs  presented  may  be  in  manuscript  or  printed  ;  in  the  latter  case 
their  date  of  publication  must  be  subsecpient  to  September  1898.  They  should 
be  written  in  French,  and  addressed  before  the  1st  of  May  1901  to  Prof.  A.  Milne- 
Edwards,  57  Rue  Cuvier,  Paris,  or  to  Prof.  11.  Blanchard,  226  Boulevard  Saint 
Germain,  Paris.  According  to  rule,  naturalists  belonging  to  the  country  in 
which  the  Congress  is  to  be  held  are  not  eligible. 

The  69th  meeting  of  the  British  Association  will  commence,  on  September 
13,  at  Dover,  under  the  presidency  of  Professor  Sir  Michael  Foster,  who  will 
deliver  an  address  at  8  p.m.  At  two  evening  meetings,  which  will  begin  at 
8.30  p.m.,  discourses  will  be  delivered  on  September  15  by  Professor  Charles 
Eichet,  and  on  September  18  by  Professor  J.  A.  Fleming.  The  concluding 
meeting  will  be  held  on  Wednesday,  September  20,  at  2.30  p.m.,  when  the 
association  will  be  adjourned  to  its  next  place  of  meeting. 

The  following  are  the  titles  of  the  sections  and  the  names  of  the  members 
who  have  been  nominated  by  the  Council  for  the  office  of  President  of 
Sections: — (A.)  Mathematical  and  Physical  Science,  Prof.  J.  H.  Poynting ;  (B.) 
Chemistry,  Mr.  Horace  T.  Brown;  (C.)  Geology,  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  ;  (D.) 
Zoology,  Mr.  Adam  Sedgwick ;  (E.)  Geography,  Sir  John  Murray ;  (F.)  Eco- 
nomic Science  and  Statistics,  Mr.  Henry  Higgs ;  (G.)  Mechanical  Science,  Sir 
W.  H.  White;  (H.)  Anthropology,  Mr.  C.  H.  Read  ;  (I.)  Physiology,  Dr.  J.  N. 
Langley  ;  (K.)  Botany,  Sir  George  King. 

The  meeting  will  have  the  special  feature  of  being  of  an  International 
character,  as  an  interchange  of  visits  has  been  arranged  with  the  French 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  which  will  hold  its  meeting  this 
year  at  Boulogne.  The  members  of  the  French  Association  will  visit  Dover 
on  Saturday,  September  16  ;  and  it  is  proposed  that  a  formal  reception  of 
the  visitors  shall  take  place  in  the  morning  before  the  proceedings  of  the 
Sections  begin,  which  they  are  invited  to  attend.  The  members  of  the  British 
Association  are  invited  to  visit  Boulogne  on  the  following  Thursday. 

The  Mayors  and  Corporations  of  Dover  and  Canterbury,  the  Military 
Authorities  of  the  South-Eastern  District,  and  the  leading  Scientific  and 
Educational  Institutions  have  signified  their  desire  to  take  part  in  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  Association. 

The  Castle,  Docks,  and  National  Harbour  Works  will  be  open  for  inspection 
during  the  meeting.  Excursions  will  be  arranged  to  places  of  interest  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Dover,  and  there  will  be  special  Geological  excursions  in  the 
afternoons.  Excursions  will  also  be  arranged  to  Calais  and  Ostend,  and  a 
longer  one  to  towns  of  Northern  France  and  Belgium  at  the  conclusion  of  the 


meeting. 


1899]  NEWS  77 

The  Reception  Rooms  will  be  at  Dover  College,  in  the  old  building  of  the 
Priory,  close  to  the  Priory  Station  (L.C.D.  Railway),  and  within  a  few  minutes' 
walk  of  the  Sectional  meetings,  most  of  which  are  arranged  to  take  place  in  the 
Municipal  Technical  Schools  and  adjoining  buildings. 

From  the  unique  character  of  the  meeting  and  the  historical  importance  of 
the  town  in  which  it  is  held,  a  large  attendance  is  expected. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  Sir  Clement 
Markham  reviewed  the  geographical  work  of  the  past  twelve  months.  In  the 
course  of  his  summary,  Sir  Clement  touched  on  most  parts  of  the  earth's  surface, 
and  paid  in  passing  a  compliment  to  Major  Marchand,  the  scientific  results  of 
whose  journey  across  Africa  could  not,  he  said,  fail  to  be  very  important.  Sir 
Clement  was  able  to  give  numerous  hitherto  unpublished  details  as  to  the 
progress  of  the  Southern  Cross  expedition,  of  which  Mr.  Borchgrevinck  is  in 
command,  but  his  main  references  to  the  Antai'ctic  referred  to  the  national 
expedition  which  is  being  organised  under  the  joint  auspices  of  the  Royal  and 
the  Royal  Geographical  Societies.  With  obvious  gratification  he  also  referred 
to  the  establishment  of  a  geographical  school  at  the  University  of  Oxford  as 
"  crowning  the  edifice  of  the  Society's  educational  policy."  The  President  was 
also  able  to  announce  the  completion  of  a  task  of  great  magnitude  and  import- 
ance, in  which  the  Society's  librarian,  Dr.  Hugh  Robert  Mill,  has  been  engaged 
for  some  years  past — a  complete  geographical  catalogue.  This  catalogue  is  a 
practically  exhaustive  list  of  the  literature  of  every  part  of  the  earth's  surface. 
It  contains  at  present  100,850  cards,  and  is,  of  course,  only  available  in  the 
library  of  the  Society,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  may  at  no  very  distant  date 
be  printed,  and  so  made  available  for  students  generally.  Another  work  of 
great  utility  to  which  Sir  Clement  referred  was  the  preparation  of  an  authori- 
tative list  of  geographical  terms,  with  definitions.  To  effect  this,  a  special 
Nomenclature  Committee  has  been  appointed,  and  when  its  work  is  completed 
many  persons  besides  professional  geographers  will  have  reason  to  be  grateful. 
Unfortunately,  neither  of  the  gold  medallists  of  this  year  could  attend  person- 
ally, Mr.  Foureau  being  far  away  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  Captain  Binger  too 
much  occupied  with  his  duties  at  the  French  Colonial  Office  to  come  to  London  ; 
so  the  medals  were  received  on  their  behalf  by  the  military  attache  of  the 
French  Embassy.  Another  medal  was  presented — the  gold  medal  of  the 
American  Geographical  Society — which  the  American  Ambassador  handed  to  Sir 
John  Murray,  in  recognition  of  his  many  brilliant  services  to  geographical 
science. 

The  International  Hydrographic  and  Biological  Congress,  which  is  to  discuss 
the  arrangement  of  periodical  researches  into  the  conditions  of  the  North  Sea 
and  North  Atlantic,  was  opened  at  Stockholm  on  June  16. 

The  Societe  Helvetique  des  Sciences  Naturelles  will  meet  at  Neuchatel 
from  July  31  to  August  2.  A  due  proportion  of  discourses  and  excursions  are 
intimated. 

At  the  Geographical  Congress  at  Berlin,  this  summer,  the  languages  to  be 
used  will  be  limited  to  English,  French,  German,  and  Italian.  The  Scientific 
American  notes  a  protest  in  the  review  published  by  the  Madrid  Geographical 
Society  against  the  exclusion  of  the  Spanish  language,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
it  was  spoken  by  most  of  the  discoverers  and  colonists  of  a  large  part  of  the 
world.  The  writer  says,  if  more  geographers  were  able  to  read  Spanish  they 
would  not  from  time  to  time  bring  forth  facts  as  new  which  were  printed  in 
Spanish  books  two  or  three  centuries  ago. 

The  thirtieth  volume  of  the  Report  and  Transactions  of  the  Cardiff  Natu- 
ralist's Society  for  1897-98,  published  1S99,  as  is  so  lamentably  common  in 
such  cases  (though  in  this  case  the  delay  is  said  to  be  accidental),  has  not  been 
sent  to  us,  which  seems  to  us  a  mistake  on  the  Society's  part.     It  affords 


78  NEWS  [JULY 

evidence  of  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  Society,  which  has  460  members, 
and  it  chronicles  a  creditable  amount  of  appropriate  work.  We  observe  that 
the  Society  enlivens  its  autonomic  functions  by  inviting  experts  from  outside  to 
give  public  lectures,  and  in  this  they  seem  to  have  proved  their  wisdom  practi- 
cally as  well  as  theoretically,  for  they  made  a  profit  of  about  <£125  on  one 
lecture. 

At  the  annual  congress  of  the  South-Eastern  Union  of  Scientific  Societies 
held  at  Rochester  at  the  end  of  May,  Mr.  W.  Whitaker,  the  President,  gave  an 
address  on  the  "  Deep-seated  Geology  of  the  Rochester  District,"  and  there 
were  papers  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Harrison  on  plateau  implements;  Mr.  J.  J. 
Walker  on  collecting  Coleoptera  ;  Mr.  G.  F.  Chambers  on  eclipses ;  Prof.  G.  S. 
Boulger  on  botanical  bibliography  and  records ;  Mr.  J.  Hepworth  on  the  history 
of  the  Rochester  Naturalist ;  Mr.  Paul  Mathews  on  ideals  of  natural  history 
societies ;  Mr.  C.  Bird  on  the  position  of  science  in  education ;  Mr.  E.  Connold 
on  vegetable  galls.  Prof.  Howes  was  elected  president  of  the  1900  Congress  to 
be  held  at  Brighton. 


'n' 


A  striking  result  of  the  "  Valdivia "  expedition,  in  regard  to  which  one 
naturally  wishes  to  have  more  details,  is  (as  translated  in  Nature  from  Dr. 
Supan's  summary  in  the  April  number  of  Petermami's  Mittheilungen)  that  "  the 
quantity  of  plankton  (in  Antarctic  waters)  increases  down  to  about  2000 
metres,  diminishing  rapidly  at  greater  depths,  although  no  level  is  destitute  of 
animal  life.  The  quantity  of  vegetable  plankton,  on  the  other  hand,  reaches  its 
lowest  within  300  or  400  metres  of  the  surface.  The  characteristic  of  the 
Antarctic  plankton  is  the  abundance  of  diatoms,  and  the  occurrence  of  special 
forms ;  the  appearance  of  the  Antarctic  type  begins  as  far  north  as  40°  S.,  but 
in  50°  S.  the  presence  of  forms  belonging  to  warmer  seas  is  still  noticeable." 

Science  for  May  26  contains  an  account  of  ethnological  work  on  the  island 
of  Saghalin  by  Dr.  Berthold  Laufer  of  the  Morris  K.  Jesup  North  Pacific 
Expedition.  There  are  certain  differences  between  the  Ainu  of  this  country  and 
those  of  Yezzo ;  their  numeral  systems  is  decimal  not  vigesimal,  their  dialect  is 
more  archaic,  and  its  phonetics  richer.  Dr.  Laufer  has  obtained  explanations 
of  many  of  their  decorative  designs,  and  much  information  as  to  traditions. 
Measurements  were  difficult  to  take,  but  the  hairy  nature,  at  least  of  Saghalin 
Ainu,  is  not  so  great  as  supposed.  From  the  Olcha  Tungus  Dr.  Laufer  obtained 
wooden  idols  and  amulets  of  fish-skin.  Among  the  Gilyak  he  saw  many  secret 
ceremonies,  and  he  induced  both  Gilyak  and  Tungus  to  sing  into  his  phonograph. 
Altogether  an  excellent  record  of  work,  with  suggestions  of  some  excitement, 
danger,  and  hardship. 

Dr.  Zwingle,  representing  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  United 
States,  is  now  in  Morocco  on  a  mission  which  may  open  a  new  industry  in  the 
most  arid  sections  of  the  South-west.  It  has  been  found  that  date-palms,  with 
some  irrigation,  will  grow  as  well  in  Arizona  as  in  Arabia.  Dr.  Zwingle  is 
making  a  study  of  the  African  date-palm,  selecting  the  varieties  best  adapted 
to  the  American  arid  region. 

Mr.  C.  A  Harrison,  Jr.,  Mr.  W.  H.  Furness,  and  Dr.  H.  M.  Hiller,  who 
recently  returned  from  an  exploration  of  Borneo,  with  collections  for  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  are,  we  learn  from  Science,  about  to  start  on 
another  expedition.  They  expect  to  make  explorations  in  the  northern  part  of 
Burma  and  make  archaeological  and  ethnological  collections. 

Professor  Gustave  Gilson,  of  Louvain  University,  Belgium,  has  begun,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Government  of  Belgium,  a  series  of  experiments  in  the 
North  Sea  resembling  the  observations  conducted  by  Mr.  Garstang  from 
Plymouth.  On  April  29  a  set  of  bottles  was  let  off  from  the  West  Hindar 
light  vessel,  2°  26'  E.,  51°  23'  N.,  i.e.  about  20  miles  north-west  of  Ostend. 


1899]  NEWS  79 

Each  bottle  contains  a  printed  card,  and  it  is  hoped  that  any  one  who  picks  up 
one  of  these  bottles  will  take  out  the  card  and  till  up  the  blanks  reserved  for 
the  place  and  date  of  finding,  name  and  place  if  found  on  the  shore,  latitude 
and  longitude  if  found  on  the  sea,  and  send  it  to  Professor  Gilson. 

A  preliminary  report  upon  the  results  of  the  scientific  expedition  to  the 
island  of  Socotra  has  been  issued  by  Mr.  Henry  O.  Forbes,  Director  of  Museums 
to  the  Liverpool  Corporation,  who,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  and  Royal 
Geographical  Societies  of  London,  and  of  the  British  Association,  and  in  con- 
junction with  Mr.  W.  R.  Ogilvie  Grant,  representing  the  British  Museum, 
undertook  the  investigation  of  the  natural  history  of  the  island.  The  expedi- 
tion occupied  a  period  of  about  six  months,  and  the  investigations  were  conducted 
amid  considerable  difficulties.  At  one  time  all  the  members  of  the  party  were 
laid  down  by  a  pernicious  form  of  malaria,  and  they  also  suffered  from  frequent 
attacks  of  fever.  The  party  were  fortunate  in  discovering  many  new  species  of 
plants  and  animals,  and  a  valuable  collection  has  been  brought  home.  Accord- 
ing to  the  report  the  Socotrians  are  only  poorly  civilised  Mahommeclans,  living 
in  caves  or  rude  cyclopean  huts,  and  possessing  but  few  utensils,  implements,  or 
ornaments,  and  no  weapons.  The  ethnographical  collection  is  consequently 
small.  The  plant  specimens  have  been  handed  to  a  well-known  student  of  the 
flora  of  Socotra,  Professor  I.  Bayley  Balfour  of  Edinburgh  University,  who 
describes  them  as  of  high  scientific  interest,  and  of  great  commercial  value. 
The  cultivation  of  some  is  being  undertaken  in  the  Royal  Botanic  Garden  at 
Edinburgh.  The  report  concludes  by  congratulating  Liverpool  on  being  the 
first  provincial  Corporation  to  further  the  advancement  and  increase  of  know- 
ledge by  actively  sharing  in  the  investigation  of  unknown  regions. 

The  Indian  Marine  Service  steamer,  the  Investigator,  has  recently  closed  a 
season  of  surveying,  with  important  results  both  for  navigation  and  zoology. 
The  Investigator,  starting  from  the  Moulmein  river  in  Burma  last  January, 
steadily  surveyed — and  her  Surgeon-Naturalist,  Captain  Anderson,  trawled — 
across  the  bay  to  the  northern  end  of  the  great  Andaman,  and  fixed  the  position 
of  the  island  for  the  first  time.  Thence  the  longitudinal  position  of  Port  Blair, 
the  capital  of  the  penal  settlement  of  the  Government  of  India,  was  fixed  by 
running  a  meridian  distance  to  Double  Island,  off  Burma.  When  at  work  in 
the  Middle  Straits  between  the  two  largest  islands,  the  ship's  staff  had  the 
assistance  of  forty  tamed  Andamanese  pigmies  against  their  as  yet  savage 
countrymen,  who  of  late  have  killed  several  of  the  Indian  convicts  near  Port 
Blair  with  poisoned  arrows.  The  fifteen  islands  in  the  three  groups  of  the 
Cocos,  four  Andamans  and  nine  Nicobars,  will  henceforth  be  a  help  instead  of 
a  danger  to  the  busy  mercantile  marine  plying  between  Calcutta,  Madras, 
Burma,  and  the  Straits  Settlements.  The  deep-sea  trawl  went  clown  in  some 
cases  from  480  to  800  fathoms,  from  which  Dr.  Anderson  brought  up  not  a 
few  valuable  additions  to  his  collections. 

It  is  reported  that  the  Duke  of  Abruzzi,  the  nephew  of  King  Humbert,  has 
started  for  Franz  Josef  Land,  intending  to  penetrate  as  far  as  possible  by  ship, 
and  then  to  make  a  rush  for  the  Pole  with  sleighs. 


'O* 


Early  in  May  a  party  of  scientific  men  started  for  Alaska  as  the  guests  of 
Mr.  Edward  H.  Harriman,  of  New  York.  Among  those  taking  part  in  the 
expedition  are  Prof.  Prichard,  of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey ;  Prof.  Coville, 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture ;  Prof.  C.  Hart  Merriam,  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution ;  and  Prof.  William  Trelease,  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Gardens. 
The  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  is  represented  by  Frank  Chapman  and 
John  Rowley,  the  Field  Columbian  Museum  by  Daniel  G.  Elliott,  Amherst 
College  by  Prof.  Emerson,  Leland  Stanford  University  by  Prof.  Gilbert. 
Messrs.  R.  Swain  Gifford  and  Louis  Agassiz  Fuertes  will  go  with  the  expedition 
as  artists. 


So  NE  WS  [july  1899 

Mr.  H.  J.  Mackinder,  reader  in  geography  at  Oxford,  has  gone  in  charge  of 
an  expedition  to  explore  Mount  Kenia,  in  British  East  Africa. 

We  are  glad  to  notice  that  the  Technical  Instruction  Committee  of  the 
Liverpool  City  Council  has  been  enlightened  enough  to  set  a  good  example,  in 
arranging  with  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman  to  give  a  short  course  of  lectures  and 
demonstrations  to  help  teachers  in  schools  towards  imparting  sound  instruction 
in  natural  science. 

A  discovery  of  coal,  to  which  much  importance  is  attached  by  geologists  as 
bearing  upon  the  coal  seams  pierced  in  Kent,  is  announced.  The  boring  is 
situated  a  few  miles  south-east  of  Calais,  and  is  one  of  several  which  have  been 
put  down,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Breton,  the  French  geologist.  The  seam 
struck  is  two  feet  six  inches  thick,  and  is  pronounced  to  be  equal  to  the  best 
quality  of  Welsh  steam  coal. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  Dr.  Koeppe's  contention  that  distilled  water 
is  decidedly  deleterious  to  protoplasm,  absorbing  from  the  same  saline  con- 
stituents and  swelling  its  tissue  even  to  the  extent  of  destroying  the  vitality  of 
the  cells.  Distilled  water  has  a  similar  action  on  the  cells  of  the  stomach, 
producing  in  some  cases  vomiting  and  catarrhal  troubles.  He  concludes  that 
the  toxic  property  of  certain  glacier  and  spring  water  is  due  to  its  absolute 
purity,  which  also  explains  why  the  sucking  of  ice  and  drinking  of  glacier  water 
sometimes  causes  stomach  derangement. 


*ev 


Dr.  D.  Hansemann  has  reported  on  the  brain  and  skull  of  von  Helmholtz. 
The  head  was  about  equal  to  Bismarck's,  the  brain  was  about  100  grams  heavier 
than  the  average,  the  sulci  were  very  deep  and  well  marked  especially  in  the 
frontal  convolutions.  Like  Cuvier,  Helmholtz  was  somewhat  hydrocephalus 
in  youth ;  and  it  has  been  suggested  by  competent  authorities  that  this  state, 
by  enlarging  the  skull  and  allowing  the  brain  more  room  to  grow,  may  be  rather 
.an  advantage  than  otherwise. 


Natural  Science     fr^- 


iuj|UIRARY 


A  Monthly  Review  of  Scientific   Progress 

August  1899 

NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

Against  the  Tide. 

A  crank  has  been  defined  as  a  man  whose  position  is  so  different 
from  our  own  that  we  utterly  fail  to  understand  it.  But  this  definition 
is  too  charitable ;  it  ignores  the  public  aspect  of  the  crank,  who  not 
only  occupies  an  unintelligible  position,  but  bores  you  by  insisting  upon 
it.  The  crank  is  essentially  a  house-top  man,  not  oue  in  a  corner. 
Yet  we  would  not  call  any  one  a  crank,  for  by  the  definition  this  would 
proclaim  our  own  lack  of  understanding.  We  would  only  say  that 
there  are  some  whom  some  would  call  cranks,  and  we  have  just  received 
a  paper  from  one, — a  paper  entitled  "  Faussete"  de  l'idee  evolutionniste 
appliquee  au  systeme  planetaire  ou  aux  especes  organiques "  (Lyon, 
1899,  7  pp).  The  author,  Mr.  F.  Leport,  has  previously  tried  to  con- 
vince geologists  that  there  are  no  faults  around  Morvan,  to  convince 
astronomers  that  the  nebular  hypothesis  is  gratuitous,  and  to  convince 
others  about  other  things,  and  now  he  tries  to  convince  us  of  the  false- 
ness of  the  evolution-idea.  What  he  has  convinced  us  of  is,  of  course,  that 
he  does  not  understand  it  at  all.  He  opposes  it  to  the  idea  of  creation, 
which  no  sensible  man  ever  does,  for  to  do  so  is  to  quarrel  about 
puuctuation.  He  finds  that  the  law  of  existence  is  undulatory  move- 
ment, and  that  the  origin  of  the  movement  is  divine — a  platitudinarian 
belief  which  affects  the  evolutionist  not  one  whit.  He  tells  us  about 
the  homogeneity  of  protoplasm  and  the  infertility  of  hybrids  (surely  we 
might  have  been  spared  that),  and  so  with  other  matters,  when  he  gets 
near  facts  he  shows  by  mishandling  them  that  he  does  not  realise  their 
solemnity.  He  tells  us  that  a  thesis  of  St.  George  Mivart's  entitled 
"  Evolutionisme  restreint  aux  corps  organiques  "  was  examined  at  Borne 
by  competent  authority  and  judged  "  insoutenable  "  so  far  as  it  dealt 
with  the  body  of  man,  and  his  lament  is  that  the  verdict  was  so  limited 
in  its  disapprobation — "  signe  terrible  des  temps  troubles  011  nous 
vivons."  We  would  borrow  from  the  Soman  authority  the  word  "  in- 
soutenable," and  fix  it  to  Mr.  Leport's  mistaken  attempt  to  talk  wisely 
about  matters  which  he  shows  no  evidence  of  understanding. 

6 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    90.  8  I 


82  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

A  Rare  Rotifer. 

In  October  1859  Professor  Semper  discovered  in  some  ditches  inter- 
secting rice -fields  in  the  Philippine  Islands  a  remarkable  spherical 
rotifer,  which  he  named  TrocJiosphaera  aequatorialis,  in  allusion  to  the 
ciliary  wreath  which  divides  it  into  two  hemispheres.  For  thirty  years 
nothing  more  was  seen  of  the  creature,  until  Surgeon  Gunson  Thorpe  found 
it  (1889)  in  Pern  Island  pond  of  the  Botanical  Gardens  at  Brisbane. 
In  1892  he  discovered  in  some  irrigation  creeks  and  ponds  near 
Wuhu  on  the  Yangtsze  Kiang  a  new  species  (T.  solstitialis)  in  which 
the  ciliary  wreath  encircles  the  body  as  the  Tropic  of  Cancer  does  the 
earth.  In  1896  the  same  species  was  found  in  the  Illinois  Eiver  by 
Dr.  C.  A.  Kofoid,  and  in  1898  by  Mr.  H.  S.  Jennings,  in  a  pond  close 
to  Lake  Erie.  We  have  taken  this  information  from  a  short  note  by 
Mr.  C.  F.  Ptousselet  (Journ.  Quekett  Micr.  Club,  vii.  (1899)  pp.  190-193, 
1  fig.)  who  recently  exhibited  to  the  Quekett  Club  a  slide  of  T.  solsti- 
tialis, prepared  according  to  his  method  by  Mr.  Jennings.  This  was 
the  first  time  the  animal  had  been  seen  in  the  flesh  in  England.  "  The 
anatomy  is  extremely  simple  and  beautifully  displayed,  all  the  organs, 
usually  so  indistinct  and  closely  packed  together  in  rotifers,  being  here 
spread  out  and  suspended  in  the  transparent  sphere  in  the  most  delight- 
ful manner."  It  is  said  that  Dr.  Kofoid  is  preparing  a  full  account 
of  this  remarkable  type. 


Does  the  Organism  Repeat  Itself? 

In  an  interesting  paper  entitled  "  Localised  Stages  in  Development  in 
Plants  and  Animals  "  (Mem.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.  v.  (1899)  pp.  89-153, 
10  pis.),  Mr.  Eobert  Tracey  Jackson  elaborates  an  interpretation  which 
is  in  direct  line  with  the  ideas  expressed  by  Hyatt,  Cope,  Eyder, 
Beecher,  and  some  other  American  workers.  It  is  especially  in  harmony 
with  Hyatt's  law  of  senile  characters : — ■"  In  the  old  age,  stages  are 
found  which  are  similar  to  stages  found  in  the  young,  and  are  prophetic 
of  types  to  be  found  in  degradational  series  of  the  group  to  which  the 
animal  belongs."  But  Mr.  Jackson's  particular  point  is  that  in  addition 
to  stages  in  the  young  and  in  the  old  age,  stages  may  be  found  in 
localised  parts  throughout  the  life  of  the  organism. 

"  In  organisms  that  grow  by  a  serial  repetition  of  parts,  it  is  found 
that  there  is  often  an  ontogenesis  of  such  parts  which  is  more  or  less 
closely  parallel  to  the  ontogenesis  of  the  organism  as  a  whole.  In  the 
ontogeny  of  such  localised  parts  in  a  mature  individual  we  find  stages 
in  development  during  the  growth  of  the  said  parts  which  repeat  the 
characters  seen  in  a  similar  part  in  the  young  individual." 

Such  localised  stages  have  been  observed  in  the  leaves  of  plants,  in 
branches  or  suckers  of  plants,  in  the  budding  of  some  of  the  lower 


1899]  DOES  THE  ORGANISM  REPEAT  ITSELE?  83 

animals  such  as  Hydra  and  Galaxea,  in  the  plates  of  crinoids  and  sea- 
urchins,  in  external  ornamentations  in  molluscs,  and  in  the  septa  of 
cephalopods.  They  must  be  clearly  distinguished  from  stages  in  the 
development  of  the  organism  as  a  whole,  for  they  are  features  seen  in 
localised  parts  throughout  the  whole  life,  or  are  capable  of  being 
brought  into  existence  by  certain  conditions  throughout  the  life. 

The  author  adduces  a  large  number  of  illustrations  from  plants  and 
animals,  and  sums  up  :  "  The  occurrence  of  localised  stages,  and  their 
bearing,  may  be  expressed  in  the  following  law,  which  should  be  com- 
pared with  the  laws  concerning  youthful  and  senile  stages  : — Throughout 
the  life  of  the  individual,  stages  may  be  found  in  localised  parts  which 
are  similar  to  stages  found  in  the  young,  and  the  equivalents  of  which 
are  to  be  sought  in  the  adults  of  ancestral  groups.  While  this  law 
covers  the  usual  conditions,  it  is  possible  and  even  probable  that  degrada- 
tional  or  progressive  features  may  appear  as  localised  stages.  To 
include  such  cases  the  following  clause  may  be  added  :  The  equivalents 
of  regressive  or  progressive  localised  stages  are  to  be  sought  in  the 
adults  of  degradational  or  progressive  series  of  the  group." 

Mr.  Jackson's  thesis  is  an  attractive  one  whose  applicability  must 
be  tested  in  detail  and  with  impartiality,  and  it  will  be  interesting, 
therefore,  to  see  how  experts  on  foliage  and  budding,  fossil  sea-urchins 
and  cephalopods  deal  with  it.  That  it  is  a  luminous  suggestion  carefully 
illustrated  and  tested,  and  not  a  mere  bow  drawn  at  a  venture,  is  some- 
thing to  be  thankful  for. 


Nephrite. 

In  the  Globus,  vol.  lxxv.  No.  18  (May  6,  1899),  attention  is 
called  by  A.  B.  Meyer  to  some  fresh  occurrences  of  nephrite  in 
Styria.  In  1883  he  found  pebbles  or  rolled  fragments  of  it  in  the 
river-beds  of  the  Sann,  near  Cilli,  and  the  Mur  in  Gratz.  That 
these  pieces  of  nephrite  were  really  pebbles  wras,  in  both  instances, 
questioned,  some  considering  them  to  be  stone  implements  which  had 
been  more  or  less  water-worn  and  rounded. 

In  1888  Berwerth  also  found  nephrite  in  the  bed  of  the  Mur, 
and  in  the  present  year  discovered  three  more  examples  among  the 
rolled  fragments  of  that  river,  one  of  them  measuring  3*6  metres. 

These  later  finds  are  considered  by  Berwerth  to  remove  all  doubt 
concerning  the  occurrence  of  nephrite  in  Styria,  and  to  indicate  that 
it  will  probably  be  met  with  forming  thin  beds  in  the  metamorphic 
rocks  in  the  vicinity  of  the  river  Mur,  an  opinion  in  which  Meyer, 
from  his  earlier  observations,  perfectly  concurs. 


84  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

The  Ordeal  by  Fire. 

A  year  or  two  ago,  Drs.  Hocken  and  Colquhomi  of  Dunedin  witnessed 
the  fire-walking  ceremony  in  Fiji,  and  their  scientific  zeal  led  them  to 
lick  the  soles  of  the  feet  of  the  natives  who  were  about  to  walk  over 
the  red-hot  stones  to  ascertain  whether  any  substance  had  been  applied 
to  them.  Colonel  Gudgeon,  British  resident  at  Rarotonga,  has  now 
gone  one  better  and  walked  over  the  stones  himself,  and  appears  to 
have  enjoyed  it. 

In  the  March  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  Polynesian  Society, 
published  in  Wellington,  IST.Z.,  he  says  that  the  tohunga,  or  priest,  first 
took  across  Mr.  Goodwin,  at  whose  place  the  ceremony  was  performed. 
He  then  said  to  Mr.  Goodwin,  "  I  hand  my  mana  (power)  over  to  you ; 
lead  your  friends  across."  Mr.  Goodwin  then  led  Colonel  Gudgeon 
and  two  other  Europeans  across.  Colonel  Gudgeon  got  across 
unscathed,  and  only  one  of  the  party  was  badly  burned.  They  all 
walked  with  bare  feet,  and  after  they  had  done  so,  about  two  hundred 
Maoris  followed.  Colonel  Gudgeon  did  not  walk  quickly  across  the 
oven — which  was  about  12  feet  in  diameter — but  with  deliberation, 
for  he  feared  that  he  might  tread  on  a  sharp  point  of  the  stones  and 
fall,  as  his  feet  were  very  tender.  His  impression  as  he  crossed  the 
oven  was  that  the  skin  would  all  peel  off  his  feet,  but  all  he  felt  when 
the  task  was  accomplished  was  a  tingling  sensation,  not  unlike  slight 
electric  shocks,  on  the  soles  of  his  feet,  and  this  continued  for  seven 
hours  or  more.  Many  of  the  Maoris  thought  that  they  were  burned, 
but  they  were  not,  at  anyrate  not  severely.  Although  the  stones  were 
hot  enough  an  hour  afterwards  to  burn  up  green  branches,  the  skin  of 
Colonel  Gudgeon's  feet  was  not  even  hardened  by  the  fire. 

We  should  like  to  know  the  experience  of  Dr.  Craig,  who  was 
badly  burned.  Was  he  one  of  the  percentage  who  are  said  to  be 
non-susceptible  to  suggestion  ?     Or  is  the  solution  elsewhere  ? 


American  Species  of  Peripatus. 

The  suggestive  value  of  the  systematic  study  of  the  species  of  Peripatus 
is  well  known.  The  isolated  position  of  the  type,  its  archaic  and  syn- 
thetic characters,  its  wide  distribution,  its  great  diversity  of  structure 
within  narrow  limits,  the  differences  in  the  modes  of  development  in 
the  several  species,  and  other  considerations,  lend  special  interest  to  the 
detailed  working  out  of  the  taxonomy.  The  student  of  species  is  here 
almost  forced  to  face  the  problem  of  origins. 

In  a  recent  communication  on  the  American  species  (Comptes 
Eendus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxviii.  1899,  pp.  1344-1346)  Mr.  E.  L. 
Bouvier  notices   some  results   of  general  interest.      He  mentions  the 


1899]  AMERICAN  SPECIES  OF  PERIPATUS  85 

occurrence  of  Peripatus  in  some  localities  not  previously  recorded — 
Mexico,  Guadeloupe,  and  Antigua.  He  notes  that  the  American  forms 
agree  in  having  lingual  teeth  formed  by  a  chitinous  cone  whose  in- 
ternal cavity  opens  by  an  apical  orifice,  in  showing  a  clear  dorsal 
median  line  usually  attenuated  to  microscopic  dimensions,  and  also  a 
clear  (probably  sensory)  organ  on  each  side  of  the  clear  dorsal  line  in 
each  of  the  grooves  of  the  body.  These  organs  are  absent  or  atrophied 
in  the  African  species  (except  P.  tholloni)  and  in  those  of  Oceania. 
But  of  greater  interest  is  the  note  that  the  American  species  form 
small  regional  groups,  more  or  less  distinct,  so  that  it  may  almost  be 
predicted  that  each  island  of  the  Antilles  has  its  particular  species  or 
variety. 


Wearing  of  the  Green. 

One  always  welcomes  a  paper — however  short — from  Prof.  Dr.  August 
Gruber,  so  well  known  for  his  investigations  on  the  Protozoa.  One  of 
his  latest  contributions  (Bcr.  Naturf.  Ges.  Freiburg,  xi.  1899,  pp.  59- 
61)  describes  the  prosperity  of  a  colony  of  green  amoebae  which  he 
observed  for  about  seven  years.  The  colony  hailed  from  a  water-basin 
in  the  Connecticut  valley,  and  came  to  Europe  in  some  dried  bog-moss 
in  a  letter  from  Prof.  Wilder.  The  green  amoebae  fed  at  first  on  what 
they  could  get  in  the  vessel  in  which  the  bog-moss  was  placed ;  they 
devoured  rotifers  and  various  forms  of  rhizopods ;  but  soon  they  and 
green  specimens  of  Paramaecium  hursaria  were  left  in  possession  of  the 
field  of  pure  Freiburg  water.  No  conjugation  was  observed,  and,  still 
more  strange,  no  division,  though  crops  of  small  forms  appeared  in 
continuous  succession.  The  condition  of  prosperity  was  obviously  to 
be  found  in  the  chlorophyll  of  the  zoochlorellae  in  the  amoebae,  and 
in  the  sustained  illumination.  Samples  placed  in  darkness  soon  came 
to  an  end.  Thus  Dr.  Gruber  has  shown  that  organisms  which  are  in 
ordinary  circumstances  holozoic  may  by  the  wearing  of  the  green 
prosper  for  many  years  in  a  holophytic  existence. 


Brevis  esse  laboro,  obscurus  fio. 

Writers  of  scientific  papers,  of  text-books,  and  of  museum-labels  are 
ever  too  apt  to  judge  of  other  people's  knowledge  by  their  own.  Now 
one  may  be  no  fool  and  yet  be  absolutely  ignorant  of  many  matters 
that  the  specialist  has  at  his  fingers'  ends.  An  author  therefore 
should  do  himself  the  justice  to  remember  that  his  papers  may  possibly 
be  referred  to  by  the  general  zoologist,  or  by  the  "  remote,  unfriended, 
solitary "  (and   shall  we  add  ?)   occasionally  "  slow "  student,  and   he 


86  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

should  write  accordingly.  There  is  a  certain  tendency  to  brevity,  born 
either  of  natural  slothfulness  or  of  a  more  laudable  thrift,  but  in  all 
cases  to  be  kept  under  restraint.  This  tendency  is  very  noticeable 
when  an  author  begins  to  quote  from  others.  Nowadays  mere  shame 
prevents  one  from  omitting  the  bibliographic  reference  altogether  ;  but, 
oh !  how  easy  it  is  to  keep  it  short  and  to  render  it  just  so  unintelli- 
gible that  the  reader  will  never  bother  to  verify  it !  With  what 
apparent  sincerity,  what  underlying  artfulness,  we  allude  to  "  a 
ridiculous  statement  by  M.  Chose  (C.K.  CIX.  '87,  p.  20)"  or  to  "the 
great  discovery  by  A.  M'Grabham  (P.E.S.E.,  V.  p.  25 1)  "!  These  cabal- 
istic letters  are  in  themselves  enough  to  give  an  air  of  supreme  authority 
to  our  estimate.  A  few  such  references  constitute  an  impregnable  line 
of  fortifications. 

A  further  instance  of  the  obscurity  begotten  of  brevity  is  furnished 
by  that  peculiar  convention  which  forbids  the  zoologist  and  botanist 
to  write  a  fellow-worker's  name  in  full  when  quoting  him  as  authority 
for  a  generic  or  specific  name.  To  write  "  De  Candolle  "  instead  of 
"  DC,"  "  Linnpeus  "  instead  of  "  L."  or  "  Danielssen  and  Koren  "  instead 
of  "  D.  &  K."  would  stigmatise  one's  work  as  that  of  a  mere  beginner, 
unworthy  of  serious  consideration.  Naturally  the  constant  repetition 
of  the  same  name  or  names  many  times  on  every  page  of  a  systematic 
work  would  be  intolerable,  and  if  it  really  be  absolutely  necessary  to 
quote  the  authority  for  every  specific  name  each  time  it  is  used,  then 
some  fairly  intelligible  abbreviation  is  forced  upon  one.  We,  however, 
have  often  expressed  our  opinion  that  such  repetition  is  an  idle 
absurdity.  But,  just  in  those  cases  where  the  citation  of  an  author's 
name  would  be  useful,  there  the  customary  abbreviation  is  apt  to 
deprive  it  of  any  value.  The  visitor  to  a  museum  sees  a  label  "  Wood 
of  Abies  nobilis  Ldl."  ;  the  reader  of  a  natural  history  book  finds  under 
a  figure  "  Shell  of  Valuta  nivosa  Lam."  What,  beyond  mere  bewilder- 
ment, can  these  symbols  convey  to  his  mind  ?  And  in  these  places 
brevity  is  not  needed,  for  there  is  nearly  always  plenty  of  space  to  spare 
in  a  label  or  a  legend.  Here  are  some  contractions  taken  at  random 
from  a  text-book  of  zoology ;  we  should  like  to  know  how  many  pro- 
fessed zoologists,  to  say  nothing  of  university  students,  can  say  straight 
off  what  they  mean :— M.  &  W.,  W.  &  M.,  Fbs.,  Trie,  Stp.,  Mas.  & 
Ale,  Wr.,  M.  &  T.,  Gm.,  M.  V.  K.  To  attempt  to  regularise  these 
contractions,  as  the  Germans  have  done,  by  the  publication  of  a  list  of 
authors'  names,  is  only  to  emphasize  the  evil.  A  new  edition  of  such 
a  list  would  be  needed  each  year,  and  even  if  it  were  rigidly  adhered 
to  by  systematists,  one  could  not  expect  every  field-botanist  or  every 
lover  of  birds  to  keep  a  copy  perpetually  at  his  elbow.  No !  let  us 
give  up  this  attempt  to  put  natural  science  on  a  par  with  the  missing 
word  competition.  Do  what  we  may,  the  Annals  and  Magazine  of 
Natural  History  will  never  attain  the  popularity  of  Answers  or 
Pearsons  Weekly. 


1899]  B RE  VIS  ESSE  LABORO,   OBSCURUS  FIO  87 

The  preceding  remarks  were  prompted  by  a  paper  entitled  "A 
Hunt  for  a  Name,"  contributed  by  T.  S.  Hall  to  the  Victorian  Naturalist 
for  May,  1899.  The  difficulties  to  which  we  have  alluded  are  of 
course  magnified  in  outlying  parts  of  the  world,  where  fellow-workers 
are  few.  In  trying  to  name  a  coral,  Mr.  Hall  found  himself  referred 
by  the  reporter  of  the  Challenger  to  "  Plesiastraea  urvillei,  Milne- 
Edwards  and  Haine,  Cor.  II.,  p.  490."  On  this  "almost  meaningless 
reference "  Mr.  Hall  remarks :  "  When  one  knows  the  country  it  is 
easy  for  him  to  find  his  way  about,  but  to  the  stranger  it  is  not  easy, 
and  he  needs  the  finger-posts  which  the  other  never  heeds.  '  Cor.  II.' 
is  good  enough  for  the  specialist,  but  is  a  meaningless  '  blaze  '  for  the 
'  new  chum.' '  We  are  glad  that  Mr.  Hall  refused  to  regard  "  Cor.  II." 
as  a  Biblical  reference,  and  that  he  eventually  discovered  "  Histoire 
Naturelle  des  Coralliaires " ;  but  what  language  would  he  have  used 
had  the  Challenger  reporter  followed  the  custom  of  his  kind,  and  con- 
tented himself  with  "  P.  urvillei,  E.  &  H.,  Cor.  II."  ? 


The  Parietal  Eye. 

The  parietal  eye  and  adjacent  organs  of  the  New  Zealand  Tuatera 
(Sphe7iodon)  form  the  subject  of  an  important  paper  by  Mr.  A.  Dendy 
in  the  May  issue  of  the  Quart.  Journ.  Micr.  Soc.  It  has  already  been 
shown  that  in  the  adult  of  this  reptile  this  eye  is  better  preserved  than 
in  other  animals ;  and  the  author  now  demonstrates  that  its  develop- 
ment has  undergone  less  modification  than  in  other  reptiles.  The  first 
indication  of  its  appearance  is  seen  at  a  stage  (K)  comparable  with  a 
two-day-old  chick,  when  a  "  primary  parietal  vesicle  "  buds  on  the  roof 
of  the  fore-brain  slightly  to  the  left  of  the  median  line.  At  stage  N 
the  eye  forms  a  hollow  vesicle  in  front  and  slightly  to  the  left  of  its 
so-called  "stalk" — the  "parietal  stalk,"  which  is  a  finger-shaped 
diverticulum  of  the  root  of  the  fore-brain,  practically  in  the  middle 
line.  The  eye  is  almost  or  completely  separated  from  the  stalk,  which 
contains  a  prolongation  of  the  cavity  of  the  brain.  The  "  paraphysis  " 
likewise  makes  its  appearance  at  this  stage,  as  a  backwardly-directed 
outgrowth  of  the  roof  of  the  fore-brain. 

At  stage  0  the  parietal  eye  and  stalk  are  conspicuous  externally ; 
while  at  stage  B  (the  one  immediately  before  hatching)  the  eye,  which 
is  now  apparently  median,  is  seen  as  a  white  spot  with  a  black  border, 
the  latter  representing  the  pigmented  margin  of  the  retina  and  the 
former  the  lens.  In  the  adult  (stage  S)  the  eye,  though  very  highly 
organised,  is  no  longer  recognisable  externally  ;  but  in  recently  hatched 
individuals  it  is  stated  to  be  still  visible  as  a  dark  spot  through  the 
translucent  skin  covering  the  parietal  foramen. 

After  discussing  the  structure  of  the  eye  and  its  nerve,  and  the 


88  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

relations  of  the  former  to  the  stalk,  the  author  states  that  the  evidence 
in  favour  of  the  originally  paired  character  of  the  parietal  eye  is 
derived  principally  from  the  fact  that  it  arises  to  the  left  of  the  median 
line,  while  the  stalk  is  practically  median,  and  therefore  slightly  to  the 
right  of  the  eye.  Accordingly  the  parietal  eye  in  Sphenodon  is 
regarded  as  the  left  of  the  original  pair,  while  the  right  one  is  repre- 
sented by  the  parietal  stalk.  It  is  shown  that  the  origin  of  the  latter 
appears  to  be  precisely  similar  to  that  of  the  former ;  and  the  two 
have  also  a  very  similar  structure,  although  the  stalk  never  acquires 
the  same  degree  of  perfection  as  the  eye. 

The  relations  between  the  parietal  stalk,  the  "  epiphysis,"  and  the 
brain  are  next  discussed,  not  only  in  Sphenodon,  but  in  Lizards,  Cyclo- 
stomes,  and  Fishes.  It  is  shown  that  in  the  two  reptilian  groups  the 
epiphysis,  or  pineal  gland,  is  a  composite  structure,  in  which  the  para- 
physis  takes  a  large  share,  whereas  the  parts  comparable  to  the 
epiphysial  outgrowths  of  Fishes  form  but  a  small  one.  In  Lizards 
the  stalk  may  represent  either  the  right  or  the  left  parietal  eye- 
Beyond  that  of  fellowship,  the  parietal  eye  has  no  real  connection  with 
the  parietal  stalk,  being  supplied  with  a  special  nerve  of  its  own  quite 
distinct  from  the  stalk.  Finally,  it  is  inferred  that  the  ancestors  of 
existing  Vertebrates  were  furnished  with  a  pair  of  parietal  eyes,  which 
may  have  been  serially  homologous  with  the  existing  functional  pair  of 
ordinary  eyes. 


The  Expansion  of  the  Empire  of  Hibbed  Toads. 

A  single  ribbed  toad  has  been  found  at  Humptulips,  Washington, 
U.S.A.  This  simple  statement  involves  a  noteworthy  fact.  The  sub- 
order of  tailless  batrachians,  known  as  Costata,  embracing  the  single 
family  Discoglossidae,  to  which  the  new  genus  belongs,  "  has  been 
credited  with  a  most  extraordinary  geographic  distribution.  Until 
now  it  was  composed  of  four  genera,  three  of  which  are  confined  to 
the  south-western  corner  of  the  palaearctic  region,  except  a  single  species 
at  the  south-eastern  end  of  the  same  region.  The  fourth  genus,  com- 
posed of  a  single  species,  represents,  alone,  the  batrachia  in  New 
Zealand.  None  of  the  seven  species  known  to  form  this  sub-order 
consequently  had  been  found  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  at  all,  and 
none  has  thus  far  been  taken  in  tropical  Africa,  Australia,  or  Asia, 
with  the  above  exception.  The  addition  of  a  typical  costate  genus  to 
the  fauna  of  North  America  is  therefore  not  only  an  interesting- 
novelty  in  itself,  but  it  emphasises  the  fact  that  we  have  as  yet  much 
to  learn  about  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  vertebrates  even  in 
regions  which  have  been  fairly  well  explored."  Thus  writes  Mr. 
Leonhard  Stejneger,  who  describes  the  specimen  in  Proceedings  of  the 
U.  S.  National  Museum  (xxi.  pp.  899-901,  pi.  lxxxix.  June   1899). 


1899]    EXPANSION  OF  THE  EMPIRE  OF  RIBBED  TOADS    89 

The  genus  is  called  Ascaphus,  meaning  "  spadeless,"  apparently  because 
the  sternum  appears  as  a  narrow  band  of  cartilage  only,  without 
posteriorly  diverging  lateral  styles  as  in  other  genera.  But  since  the 
sternum  "  had  been  considerably  damaged  by  the  collector  cutting  open 
the  abdomen  to  admit  alcohol  to  the  intestines,"  its  shape  is  "  a  little 
doubtful,"  and  may  possibly  not  justify  the  generic  name.  An  un- 
doubted criterion  is  afforded  by  the  position  of  the  vomerine  teeth, 
which  are  between  the  choanae,  and  not,  as  in  other  genera,  behind 
them.  The  species  is  called  A.  truei,  because  Dr.  True  is  the  author's 
official  chief.      The  sex  of  the  unique  specimen  is  not  stated. 


Degrees  of  Protective  Adaptation. 

An  examination  of  the  contents  of  the  stomach  has  often  proved  of 
value  in  biological  research,  though  it  may  seem  to  some  a  dull  way 
of  getting  at  the  secrets  of  life.  We  have  learned,  for  instance,  not  a 
little  in  regard  to  the  habits  of  fishes  through  the  patient  labours  of 
those  who  have  analysed  the  contents  of  fishes'  stomachs ;  and  a 
recent  research  by  Mr.  Sylvester  D.  Judd  (Amer.  Naturalist,  xxxiii. 
1899,  pp.  461-484),  who  has  examined  the  stomachs  of  fifteen  thousand 
birds,  is  an  important  contribution  towards  solving  one  of  the  most 
intricate  problems  of  biology — the  efficiency  of  protective  adaptations. 

These  protective  adaptations  in  insects  are,  as  every  one  knows, 
extraordinarily  diverse,  but  the  most  important  are  included  under 
the  following  heads  : — resemblance  to  surroundings  ;  hairs ;  stings  or 
poisonous  bites  ;  ill-flavoured,  ill-scented,  or  irritating  properties  ;  warn- 
ing coloration ;  and  protective  mimicry.  These  are  the  headings  used 
by  Mr.  Judd  in  his  paper,  the  broad  result  of  which  shows  that  the 
supposed  protections  of  insects  are  certainly  not  always  baffling  to 
birds.  He  gives  a  long  list  of  so-called  protected  forms,  and  of  the 
birds  which  nevertheless  prey  upon  them. 

We  agree  entirely  with  the  author  when  he  says :  "  It  seems  to 
me  that  there  are  different  degrees  of  protective  adaptations — that 
some  are  much  more  effective  than  others.  There  is  need  of  some 
standard  of  the  efficiency  of  protective  adaptations,  i.e.  a  measure  of 
their  working  forces.  Some  of  the  writers  on  the  subject  have  led  one 
to  suppose  that  a  good  many  protective  devices  secure  almost  complete 
immunity  from  the  attacks  of  birds ;  while  other  investigators  have 
been  tempted,  when  they  found  in  particular  instances  that  facts, 
apparently,  did  not  coincide  with  current  views,  to  abandon  the  theory 
entirely." 

There  is  an  anthropomorphism  in  biology  which  is  hardly  to  be 
got  rid  of.  Because  an  insect  is  unpalatable  to  us  we  argue  that  it 
must  be  distasteful  to   a   bird  ;  but  "  it  does   not  follow,"  Mr.  Judd 


9o  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

says,  "  that  since  a  stink-bug  nauseates  our  stomach  and  irritates  our 
tongue,  it  will  produce  a  like  effect  on  a  crow."  There  appears  to  be 
need  of  a  little  more  avian  psychology,  as  he  quaintly  phrases  it. 
"  Numerous  species  of  bugs  aud  beetles  which,  in  addition  to  being 
protectively  coloured,  possess  ill-smelling,  bad-tasting,  and  irritating- 
secretions,  would  naturally  be  supposed  by  some  writers  to  be  avoided 
generally  by  nearly  all  birds,  but  they  are  habitually  eaten  by  many 
birds  of  the  eastern  United  States." 

The  conclusion  seems  to  be,  as  we  have  said  before  in  these 
columns,  that  adaptations  are  by  no  means  so  perfect  as  is  often 
supposed.  Protective  adaptations  may  lessen  the  chances  of  death, 
and  thus  be  of  much  evolutionary  importance  without  being  in  any 
wise  perfect.  But  it  is  fairer  to  let  the  author  sum  up  : — "  The  alleged 
protective  coloration  is  not  the  all -important  factor  in  securing  an 
insect  from  extermination,  as  some  earlier  naturalists  have  supposed; 
there  are  other  equally  important  factors  that  demand  consideration." 


An  Entomological  Exhibition. 

Professor  Bouvier,  of  the  Museum  d'histoire  naturelle  of  Paris, 
announces  that  a  great  entomological  exhibition  is  being  arranged  for 
in  the  laboratory  of  his  department,  and  asks  for  co-operation.  The 
preliminary  prospectus,  given  in  La  Feuille  des  Jcuncs  Naturalises, 
July  1899,  is  very  attractive,  and  includes  the  following  divisions : — 
Bees  and  apiculture ;  giant  arthropods  and  giant  nests ;  wasps'  nests  ; 
classification  and  anatomy,  with  especial  reference  to  flight  and  stridu- 
lation ;  reproduction  and  development;  adaptations  —  defensive,  such 
as  mimicry  and  protective  coloration — offensive,  such  as  weapons — 
and  in  relation  to  change  of  habitat ;  commensals  and  parasites  ;  social 
insects ;  bizarre  forms  ;  domestic  forms ;  useful  and  injurious  insects, 
and  so  on.  It  is  a  big  undertaking,  which  well  deserves  the  co-opera- 
tion asked  for.  To  see  such  an  exhibition  will  be  an  entomological 
education  in  itself. 


At  Last  ? 

A  paper  by  Professor  L.  En-era,  entitled  "  Heredite  d'un  caractere 
acquis  chez  un  champignon  pluricellulaire  "  (Bull.  Acad.  Boy.  Belgique, 
1899,  pp.  81-102),  cannot  but  arouse  the  interest  of  evolutionists. 
Has  the  long -sought -for  instance  been  found  at  last  ?  Is  there  a 
modification  in  regard  to  which  we  can  look  the  whole  world  in  the 
face  and  say  that  it  is  transmitted  ?  The  story  will  be  read  with 
bated  breath,  as  the  advertisements  of  novels  say. 


1899]  AT  LAST?  91 

Conidia  of  the  mould  Aspergillus  niger  were  cultivated  (A)  in  a 
Eaulin  solution,  (B)  in  a  Eaulin  solution  plus  6  per  cent  of  common 
salt  for  one  generation,  and  (C)  in  the  same  for  two  generations. 

Then  they  were  placed  in  a  Eaulin  solution  plus  18-4  per  cent  of 
salt,  in  which  A  showed  no  germination,  B  slight  germination,  and  C 
general  germination  ;  again,  in  a  Eaulin  solution  plus  G  per  cent  of 
salt,  in  which  A  produced  spores  in  5  days,  B  in  4  days,  and  C  in  3J 
days  ;  and  again,  in  a  Eaulin  solution  without  additional  salt,  in  which 
A  showed  sporification  in  4  days,  B  in  5  days,  C  in  5  days,  but 
slight. 

Spores  from  the  last-named  three  cultures,  in  a  normal  Eaulin 
solution,  were  then  sowed  in  Eaulin  solution  plus  18*4  per  cent  of 
salt,  in  which  A'  showed  after  5  days  no  germination ;  B',  after  5 
days,  just  visible  germination ;  and  C/,  after  5  days,  clearly  visible 
germination. 

Hence,  it  is  argued,  that  the  conidia  of  Aspergillus  become  adapted 
to  the  medium  in  which  their  parent  is  growing,  and  more  adapted 
after  the  second  generation  than  after  the  first ;  and,  as  the  adaptation 
to  a  concentrated  medium  is  not  wholly  lost  after  rearing  in  a  normal 
medium,  there  is  evidently  a  persistence  of  the  adaptation,  an  inherit- 
ance of  the  acquired  quality  of  resistance  to  concentration. 

In  truth,  however,  this  is  not  very  convincing.  The  distinction 
between  soma  and  germ-cells  is  not  more  than  incipient  in  the  mould 
in  question ;  and  even  if  it  were  more  marked,  what  does  the  case 
show  but  that  the  germ-plasm  may  be  affected  along  with  the  soma 
by  a  saturating  influence,  which  nobody  can  deny. 

We  need  more  than  this  before  we  allege  the  inheritance  of  an 
acquired  character.  We  wish  to  hear  of  a  clear-cut  somatic  modifica- 
tion observed  to  occur  in  successive  generations,  and  of  the  recurrence 
of  this  modification  or  of  some  change  in  the  same  direction  in  the 
offspring  when  these  are  reared  in  a  environment  from  which  the 
original  cause  or  stimulus  of  the  modification  is  absent.  At  the  best, 
Errera's  case  is  no  more  cogent  than  those  which  have  been  adduced 
from  the  study  of  alcoholism,  where  the  germ-cells  are  apparently 
affected  along  with  the  body — cases  with  which  Weismann  has  duly 
dealt. 

We  may,  however,  recall  David  Harum's  words :  "  A  reasonable 
amount  of  fleas  is  good  for  a  dog — they  keep  him  f'm  broodin'  on 
bein'  a  dog ; "  and  re-interpret  them,  saying  that  a  reasonable  amount 
of  such  experiments  as  those  of  Errera  is  good  for  Weismannists — if 
so  be  they  keep  them  from  brooding  on  the  perfection  of  their 
system. 


92  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

Colours  of  Northern  Monocotyledons. 

Mr.  John  H.  Lovell  has  arranged,  according  to  their  colours,  the 
1058  species  of  northern  monocotyledonous  flowers  recognised  in 
the  "  Illustrated  Flora  "  of  Britton  and  Brown,  and  finds  there  are 
41  yellow,  82  white,  22  red,  22  purple,  34  blue,  and  857  green 
or  dull,  the  last  set  being  of  course  enormously  swollen  because 
of  the  large  number  of  grasses,  sedges,  and  the  like.  It  is  useful  to 
have  the  facts  of  colour-distribution  clearly  before  us,  and  when 
we  have  this  it  is  almost  impossible  to  refrain  from  drawing  infer- 
ences, which  may  or  may  not  be  correct.  Those  which  Mr.  Lovell 
has  drawn  (Amer.  Naturalist,  xxxiii.  1899,  pp.  493-504)  are  the 
following : — 

The  primitive  colour  of  the  perianth  of  the  monocotyledonous 
families  was  green,  as  it  still  is  in  the  greater  part  of  the  species 
which  are  anemophilous  or  self-fertilised.  A  few  of  the  oldest 
families,  with  an  indefinite  number  of  stamens  and  carpels  spirally 
arranged,  have  probably  never  possessed  floral  envelopes. 

Yellow,  white,  and  lurid  or  greenish-purple  flowers,  have  in 
numerous  instances  been  derived  directly  from  the  primitive  green  ; 
red  flowers  have  passed  through  a  yellow  or  white  stage  ;  and 
blue  and  purple-blue  have  been  derived  from  yellow,  white,  or 
red"  forms.  Ee version  to  white  is  most  common,  but  reversion  to  red 
or  yellow  also  occurs. 

Physiological  conditions  appear  to  have  often  played  an  important 
part  in  determining  the  coloration  of  the  petals,  while  "  insects 
have  contributed  to  the  fixation  of  such  characters  when  once 
acquired." 

In  general,  among  monocotyledons  yellow  flowers  are  visited 
by  bees  and  flies  ;  white  flowers  by  bees,  nocturnal  lepidoptera,  flies, 
and  beetles ;  lurid-purple  by  flesh  flies  ;  red  by  bees  and  butterflies ; 
and  blue  chiefly  by  bees.  Bed  and  blue  flowers  usually  have  the 
honey  concealed,  which  is  a  far  more  effective  cause  of  the  limitation 
of  insect  visits  than  colour.  When  the  honey  is  abundant  and 
exposed,  and  the  flower  pleasantly  odorous,  it  may  prove  attractive  to 
any  anthophilous  insect. 


The  Proper  and  Improper  View  of  Heredity. 

We  are  not  aware  of  the  specific  diagnosis  of  the  journal  called  The 
New  Age,  edited  by  S.  C.  Mukhopadhaya,  M.A.,  and  published  in 
Calcutta,  but  we  know  that  it  has  a  larger  circulation  (guaranteed) 
than  Natural  Science,  and  we  see  very  prominently  on  its  title-page  an 
advertisement  of  a  firm  of  plumbers  and  gasfitters,  to  which,  indeed — 
unless  to  its  position  above  the  title — we  have  no  objection,  for  the 


1899]       PROPER  AND  IMPROPER   VIE  W  OF  HEREDITY      93 

association  of  science  and  art  is  one  of  our  dearest  ideals.  We  are 
afraid,  however,  that  our  mineralogical  colleagues  might  not  like  the 
make-up  of  this  "journal  of  universal  information,"  for  in  the  number 
before  us  the  5th  heading  is  mineralogy  and  the  6th  is  science.  It 
was  an  announcement  under  the  last  heading  that  arrested  our  hungry 
eye — "  The  Proper  and  Improper  View  of  Heredity  " — for  this  went 
beyond  our  furthest  ambitions.  We  had  cherished  an  idea  that,  with 
the  help  of  Galton  and  Weismann  and  their  opponents,  we  might  in 
the  course  of  time  arrive  at  a  discrimination  between  the  true  and 
untrue  view  of  heredity,  but  the  criterion  of  propriety  seemed  unattain- 
able. We  wondered  before  we  opened  the  pages  what  revelation  might 
await  us — an  exposure  of  Pearson's  prolegomena  as  prurient,  of  Weis- 
mann's  wisdom  as  wanton — and  our  fancies  flew  to  Zola  and  Ibsen  and 
other  students  of  heredity,  as  we  speculated  whose  views  The  New  Age 
regarded  as  "  improper."  The  very  title,  we  say,  was  a  wonderment  to 
us.  We  had  never  thought  of  looking  at  the  facts  in  the  light  of 
propriety,  and  yet  how  luminous  it  is  !  But  when  we  came  to  the 
article  we  found  only  a  feeble  protest  against  the  old,  absurd  misunder- 
standing that  to  recognise  one  factor  in  life  means  a  denial  of  the 
others.  "  Let  us  never  fold  our  hands  and  say,  because  we  have 
inherited  a  poor  memory,  a  small  order,  poor  calculation,  or  imperfect 
digestion  and  weak  lungs,  that  we  are  fated  by  that  inheritance  and 
cannot  overcome  it."  Thereafter  followed  some  verses  on  "  Heredity's 
Opposites  " — e.g.,  "  Lowest  sinner,  highest  saint,  dull  of  wit  and  full 
of  plant "  (the  italics  are  ours),  ending  with  the  appropriate  words 
"  curses  deep." 


Darwin's  Doggedness. 

In  the  charming  address  which  the  veteran  botanist,  Sir  Joseph  D. 
Hooker,  delivered  on  June  14,  when  Mr.  Hope  Linker's  statue  of 
Darwin,  presented  by  Prof.  Poulton,  was  unveiled  at  the  University 
Museum  at  Oxford,  there  are  many  little  touches  which  vivify  the 
picture  which  modern  naturalists  have  of  their  master.  The  proof- 
sheets  of  the  Beagle  journal  impressed  Hooker  profoundly,  even 
despairingly,  "  with  the  genius  of  the  writer,  the  variety  of  his  acquire- 
ments, the  keenness  of  his  powers  of  observation,  and  the  lucidity  of 
his  descriptions."  In  1844  Hooker  was  shown  confidentially  a  sketch 
of  "  The  Origin  of  Species,"  and  on  his  many  visits  to  town  he  was 
habitually  "  pumped "  after  breakfast  with  botanical  cpiestions,  the 
answers  to  which  were  deposited  in  bags  or  pockets  that  hung  against 
the  wall.  "  If  I  were  asked,"  he  said,  "  what  traits  in  Mr.  Darwin's 
character  appeared  to  me  most  remarkable  during  the  many  exercises 
of  his  intellect  that  I  was  privileged  to  bear  witness  to,  they  would  be, 
first,  his  self-control  and  indomitable  perseverance  under  bodily  suffering, 


94  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august 

then  his  ready  grasp  of  difficult  problems,  and  lastly,  the  power  of 
turning  to  account  the  waste  observations,  failures,  and  even  the 
blunders  of  his  predecessors  in  whatever  subject  of  inquiry."  As  is 
well  known,  Darwin  was  wont  to  attribute  his  success  to  industry 
rather  than  to  ability.  "  It  is  dogged  that  does  it "  was  an  expression 
he  often  made  use  of.  He  attributed  his  results  to  "  the  love  of  science 
— unbounded  patience  in  long  reflecting  over  many  subjects — industry 
in  observing  facts,  and  a  fair  share  of  invention  as  well  as  of  common 
sense."  This  is  a  famously  modest  self-estimate,  but  its  psychological 
justice  may  be  doubted,  and  it  seems  to  us  important  to  notice  Sir 
Joseph  Hooker's  opinion.  "  In  this  retrospect  he  has,  if  my  judgment 
is  correct,  greatly  undervalued  invention,  that  is  originality  or  that 
outcome  of  the  exercise  of  the  imagination  which  is  so  conspicuous  in 
every  experiment  he  made  or  controlled,  or  in  the  genesis  of  every 
new  fact  or  idea  that  he  first  brought  to  light."  Truly  it  was  fell 
doggedness. 


Dispersal  of  Seeds. 

Among  many  interesting  notes  in  Mr.  Clement  Eeid's  "  Origin  of  the 
British  Flora  "  is  a  table  of  modes  of  dispersal  of  seeds,  which  may  be 
quoted  as  follows  : — Minute  seeds  readily  moved  by  accidents  of  all 
sorts ;  those  eaten  or  dropped  by  birds,  most  of  which  are  destroyed 
while  some  remain  uninjured ;  seeds  passed  in  an  uninjured  state  by 
mammals  or  birds  ;  those  transported  by  wind  ;  those  which  cling  to 
feathers  or  fur  {e.g.  in  the  cakes  of  mud  which  adhere  to  the  flanks  of 
oxen) ;  those  transported  by  water ;  those  plants  of  which  broken 
pieces  grow,  such  fragments  being  carried  on  the  legs  of  wading  birds 
often  to  great  distances.  With  regard  to  the  transportation  by  water 
an  interesting  observation  has  reached  us  from  Mull  and  Iona.  It  is 
said  that  thousands  of  apple  seeds  have  taken  root  on  those  islands, 
the  result  of  dispersal  from  the  wrecked  liner  "  Labrador."  Mr.  Eeid 
mentions  an  interesting  case  of  a  dead  wood-pigeon  found  by  him  in  a 
chalk  pit ;  its  crop  was  full  of  broad-beans,  all  of  which  were  growing 
well,  though  under  ordinary  circumstances  they  would  have  been 
eventually  digested.  As  he  says — "  A  pigeon  would  easily  cross  the 
Strait  of  Dover  in  half  an  hour,  and  in  the  clays  when  raptorial  birds 
and  wild  cats  were  plentiful  many  pigeons  must  have  been  struck 
down  with  their  last  meal  undigested." 


Reformed  Nomenclature  ! 

Prof.  Herkera  emphasizes  the  impossibility  of  recognising  organisms 
by  their  names  under  the  present  complicated  system  of  nomenclature 


1S99]  REFORMED  NOMENCLATURE !  95 

in  botany  and  zoology.  No  one  can  profit  by  the  800,000  names 
recognised  by  naturalists.  For  who  can  tell  from  the  name  any- 
thing about  the  nature  of  Mormops  megalophytta,  Sphaeria  sobolifera, 
etc.,  etc.  One  cannot  even  say  whether  one  is  dealing  with  plants  or 
reptiles,  with  crustaceans  or  zoophytes  ! 

It  seems  then  worthy  of  consideration  whether  we  should  not  in 
current  usage  suppress  the  generic  name,  and  leave  it  for  the  lists  and 
treatises  of  specialists,  whether  we  should  not  in  current  usage  substi- 
tute for  the  generic  title  some  composite  term  indicative  of  the  class 
and  family  to  which  the  organism  belongs. 

Thus  all  the  names  of  mammals  might  begin  with  the  syllables 
Mammi,  and  end  with  abbreviations  indicative  of  the  family.  Thus 
we  would  suggest  Mammicanae  lupus,  Mammivcspertae  megalophytta, 
Mammilcporae  or  Mammileporus  euniculus. 

If  there  are  two  ecpiivalent  specific  names  in  the  same  family,  one 
might  add  the  complete  generic  name  in  brackets. 

He  goes  on  to  suggest — 

Avigallinae  domesticus. 
Rcptilacertiae  occllata. 
Piseipcrcidae  flu  riatilis. 
Mollushhclicac  aspersa. 
Lcgumputpilliac  sativus. 
Insect  icarabac  auratus. 
Echiniholotli uriae  regedis. 
Arachniacariae  sea biei. 

Such  a  procedure  seems  to  him  easy  and  logical.  The  radicals  Mammi-, 
Avi-,  Crypto-,  Insecti-,  recall  the  sulphates,  carbonates,  ethyls,  etc.,  etc., 
of  the  chemists  ;  and  would  not  vary  in  any  important  degree  within 
a  century.  It  seems  the  only  way  of  securing  a  universal  biological 
terminology,  and  besides  saving  an  infinitude  of  time,  it  would 
conform  to  the  mode  of  the  exacter  science  of  chemistry.  Such  is 
Mr.  Herrera's  suggestion.  It  should  make  the  sticklers  for  terminology 
'  sit  up.' 


Science  and  Conduct. 

Those  who,  taking  an  interest  not  only  in  science  but  in  human 
conduct,  desire  to  harmonise  their  conceptions  of  the  one  and  the 
other,  should  not  fail  to  study  Prof.  Miinsterberg's  recent  volume  on 
"  Psychology  and  Life."  l  It  is  not  light  reading.  As  the  author  says  in 
his  Preface — "  I  do  not  want  to  entertain  by  these  papers,  I  want  to 
fight ;  to  fight  against  dangers  which  I  see  in  our  public  life  and  our 
education,  in  art  and  science ;  and  only  those  who  intend  serious  and 

1  Archibald  Constable  and  Company.     Pp.  xiv.  +  286.     Price  6s.  net. 


96  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [august  1899 

consistent  thought  ought  to  take  up  this  unamusing  book."  But  it 
has  all  the  charm  of  boldness,  originality,  and  evident  conviction. 
Whether  we  agree  or  not  we  are  forced  to  think.  There  are,  too, 
many  passages  which  stimulate  by  their  piquancy.  Of  the  greatest 
possible  happiness  of  the  greatest  possible  number,  "  that  discouraging- 
phrase  in  which  the  whole  vulgarity  of  a  naturalistic  century  seems 
condensed,"  he  asks,  "  is  it  really  the  source  of  inspiration  for  an  ideal 
soul,  and  does  our  conscience  really  look  out  for  titillation  in  connection 
with  a  majority  vote  ? "  Again  in  the  essay  on  "  Psychology  and 
Mysticism  "  he  says  :  "  The  telepathists  annihilate  the  theosophists,  and 
the  spiritualists  belittle  the  telepathists  ;  and  when  the  Christian 
scientists  and  metaphysical  healers  on  the  one  side,  the  mind  curers 
and  faith  curers  on  the  other  side,  have  spoken  of  each  other,  there 
remain  few  abusive  words  at  the  disposal  of  us  outsiders." 

The  gist  of  Prof.  Miinsterberg's  argument,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
presented  in  a  few  words,  is  as  follows.  Physical  science  deals  with 
the  phenomena  of  which  it  treats  in  terms  of  matter  and  motion  ; 
mental  science  devotes  its  attention  to  states  of  consciousness.  The 
one  leads  to  materialism,  the  other  to  idealism.  Both  are  right 
within  the  limits  of  an  ideal  construction  elaborated  for  specific  ends. 
Both  are  utterly  wrong  if  they  seek  to  impose  their  special  isms 
beyond  these  limits.  In  other  words  their  final  conclusion  is  scientifi- 
cally valid  but  philosophically  monstrous.  Human  life  and  conduct 
present  abundant  material  both  to  physics  and  to  psychology,  material 
to  be  explained  in  terms  of  cause  and  effect ;  but  "  the  interests  of  life 
have  not  to  do  with  causes  and  effects,  but  with  purposes  and  means ; 
in  life  we  feel  ourselves  as  units  and  as  free  agents,  bound  by  culture 
and  not  only  by  nature,  factors  in  a  system  of  history  and  not  only 
atoms  in  a  mechanism."  This  may  seem  to  some  a  hard  saying ;  nor 
will  it  sound  less  hard  when  it  is  urged  that  the  real  world  of  pur- 
poses and  teleological  ends  in  which  we  live  is  endlessly  fuller  and 
richer  than  that  shadow  of  reality  which  we  mean  by  physical  and 
psychological  existence.  There  are  plenty  of  hard  sayings  in  Prof. 
Miinsterberg's  book.  But  though  we  may  not  agree  with  some  of  his 
main  positions  which  appear  to  us  open  to  criticism,  he  knows  quite 
well  what  he  is  discussing,  he  is  trained  alike  in  physics  and  psycho- 
logy, he  is  well  acquainted  with  the  stock,  and  often  cheap,  arguments 
of  the  materialist,  and  he  is  a  thinker  whose  thought  is  not  to  be 
lightly  disregarded  and  brushed  aside  simply  because  it  does  not 
chance  to  be  consonant  with  our  own.  Hence  we  commend  his  book 
to  serious  naturalists,  who  can  spare  some  attention  to  human  affairs, 
not  necessarily  for  acceptance  but  at  any  rate  for  careful  consideration. 


ORIGINAL    COMMUNICATIONS. 

Some  Considerations  Concerning  Symmetry. 

By  Professor  R  J.  Anderson. 

Symmetry  has  so  much  to  do  with  the  order,  form,  and  arrangement  of 
parts  in  natural  objects  and  figures  geometric,  that  one  becomes 
interested  in  its  varieties,  the  causes  of  these  latter,  and  the  relation- 
ships that  exist  between  them.  There  is  involved  also  the  question  of 
asymmetry.  Symmetry  is  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the 
resultant  forces  that  fashion  a  body.  There  is  no  limit  to  the  number 
of  forms  that  may  be  assumed,  but  with  certain  kinds  of  symmetry 
one  becomes  more  familiar  than  with  others.  Bilateral  symmetry  is 
one  of  these.  Corresponding  to  a  part  on  one  side  of  a  bilaterally 
symmetrical  body  there  is  a  part  on  the  other  side,  the  parts  thus 
appearing  to  balance  one  another  like  weights  in  scales.  A  three- 
legged  table,  or  other  utensil  of  a  tripod  nature,  seems  to  suggest  more 
completeness  because  of  the  greater  steadiness.  The  four  -  limbed 
symmetry  of  the  vertebrate,  and  the  six,  eight,  ten  or  more  legged 
insects,  spiders,  crabs,  etc.,  are  instances  of  the  bilateral.  Eadial 
symmetry  is  to  be  observed  in  numerous  organisms,  e.g.  many  plants, 
sea  anemones,  and  star-fish,  and  is  commonly  distinguished  from  the 
bilateral. 

The  sphere  is  the  most  generally  symmetrical  solid  body.  It  is 
divided  into  two  parts  by  any  plane  passing  through  its  centre.  The 
spheroid  is  divided  into  two  symmetrical  halves  by  every  plane  passing 
through  its  axis  of  rotation,  and  by  the  equatorial  plane.  The  general 
ellipsoid  can  only  be  divided  symmetrically  by  three  planes.  The 
right  circular  cylinder  can  be  divided  into  two  similar  parts  by  any 
plane  passing  through  the  axis.  The  right  elliptical  cylinder  can  be 
divided  into  two  equal  halves  by  two  planes  only,  passing  through  the 
axis,  and  the  right  circular  and  elliptic  cones  conform  to  this  rule. 
If  the  cylinders  and  cones  be  oblique  only  one  plane  can  divide  those 
solids  symmetrically.  These  are  only  special  forms  of  the  infinite 
number  of  possible  cones  and  cylinders.  The  conceptions  and  practical 
investigation  of  complex  figures  gradually  become  impossible  to  all  except 

7 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   90.  97 


98  R.  J.  ANDERSON  [august 

a  few,  and  at  last  even  to  these.  Yet  even  a  superficial  study  of  such 
figures  and  forms  must  lead  one  on  to  the  consideration  of  the  forces 
at  work.  There  is  exhibited  on  approaching  the  living  form  a  remark- 
able feature  which  living  things  possess  beyond  inorganic  forms,  viz.  the 
greater  power  and  facilities  which  a  living  organism  has  to  express  what 
it  cannot  conceive  or  understand,  and  the  capacity  of  adjusting  most 
complex  forces  to  meet  others  which  it  can  neither  measure  nor  weigh. 

The  forces  that  are  at  work  in  moulding  bodies  are  external  or 
internal ;  amongst  the  latter  may  be  placed  surface  tension  in  fluids. 
The  external  compression  that  causes  a  soft  substance  to  assume  a 
spherical  form  is  more  familiar  to  us  than  the  mode  of  action  of  the 
cohesion  forces  that  cause  the  particles  to  swing  into  position  to  form 
the  crystalline  body.  Yet  one  may  in  inorganic  bodies  see  that  the 
forces  that  press,  or  the  pressure  that  acts  all  around  a  sphere,  may  be 
so  distributed  as  to  form  a  cube,  if  divided  into  three  equal  pressure 
sets,  each  two  forces  acting  opposite  to  one  another  on  equal  areas  and 
at  right  angles  to  the  directions  of  the  other  two  pairs.  The  cube, 
octohedron,  or  dodecahedron  (with  rhombic  base),  may  be  easily  pro- 
duced by  similar  compressions,  and  these  symmetrical  irregular  bodies 
may  be  divided  into  two  equal  symmetrical  parts  by  three  planes  or 
more  passing  through  certain  axes.  It  is  evident  that  a  quadrilateral 
symmetry  may  be  noted  in  a  cube  lying  on  one  side,  by  making 
sections  with  suitable  planes,  and  a  triangular  symmetry  in  sections 
made  perpendicular  to  a  through  diagonal.  A  suitable  adjustment  of 
the  compressing  forces  leads  to  the  production  of  the  square  prism. 
The  side  pairs  of  pressure  sets  will  in  this  case  be  equal,  whilst  the  end 
pair  is  greater  or  less,  but  each  pressure  pair  acts  at  right  angles  to  each 
of  the  other  pressure  pairs.  The  lateral  compressing  forces,  if  one 
opposing  pair  do  not  act  at  right  angles  to  the  other  opposing  pair,  will 
give  rise  to  a  rhombic  prism.  The  three  main  axes  must  stand  at 
right  angles.  If  the  compression  be  so  applied  that  an  oblique  prism 
is  produced,  one  plane  only  can  be  found  which  will  divide  the  crystal 
into  symmetrical  halves.  "Where  a  crystal  is  doubly  oblique,  the  form 
may  be  imitated  by  proper  pressure  planes,  no  plane  of  symmetry  can 
be  found ;  symmetry  here  is  only  discoverable  in  individual  planes. 
The  hexagonal  prism  form  seen  in  beryl  and  other  minerals  is  con- 
nected with  the  rhombohedron,  and  the  rhombohedron  is  a  cube  crushed 
out  of  shape.  The  tetrahedron  and  pentagonal  dodecahedron  are 
asymmetric  crystalline  forms,  although  regular  solids. 

Angular  bodies  are  not  limited,  as  is  well  known,  to  inorganic 
nature.  The  elements  of  which  organic  bodies  are  composed  are  often 
constrained  to  assume  forms  with  an  angular  outline.  Polyhedra, 
hexagonal  prisms,  tessellated  pavements,  brick  shaped  and  stellate  cells, 
are  a  few  of  the  varieties  well  known  to  the  student.  These  forms, 
although  correctly  attributed  to  external  pressure,  are  largely  under  the 
influences  of  forces  inorganic  and  organic  within  the  elements  themselves. 


1899]        CONSIDERATIONS  CONCERNING  SYMMETRY  99 

It  is  evident  that  a  limit  to  the  exercise  of  the  compressing  force  may 
be  set  by  the  elasticity  of  the  cell  contents  resisting  any  further  com- 
pression, or  extreme  pressure  may  paralyse  the  cells.  Then  light,  heat, 
and  electric  phenomena,  as  well  as  gravity,  are  agents  that  may 
influence  the  demeanour  of  the  cells.  The  radiate  symmetry  of  a 
hexagonal  prism  body  or  element  is  easy  to  understand,  but  the  prism 
may  be  divided  bilaterally  by  six  planes  that  pass  through  the  axis, 
and  notably  by  three  directed  through  the  axis  and  opposite  angles. 
Skeletal  structures  laid  down  along  the  lines  of  certain  radii,  where 
circumstances  favour  the  deposit,  establish  the  character  of  the 
symmetry,  and  these  radial  structures  (composed  of  lignin,  lime  salts, 
cellulose,  or  other  substances)  leave  between  them  avenues  which 
protoplasm  and  fluids  keep  free.  The  skeleton,  like  many  another  tissue, 
is  advantageously  regarded  as  an  excretion,  such  as  might  be  cast  off 
by  some  organisms,  but  is  retained  by  its  possessor.  This  structure,  of 
seeming  advantage  at  first  as  a  protecting  and  supporting  framework, 
grows  so  large  sometimes  as  to  interfere  with  the  activity  of  the  tissue 
by  which  it  has  been  produced.  There  are  apparently  no  limits  to  the 
possibilities  in  the  interior  structure  of  cylindrical  organisms.  The 
number  of  radii  may  be  many  or  few,  and  the  cylinder  may  be  of  small 
or  large  diameter. 

The  trimerous  and  pentamerous  symmetry  of  plants  excited  much 
interest  when  first  established  as  a  plant  law.  The  fixity  and  nature 
of  growth  of  the  higher  plants  favour  a  radiate  cylindrical  symmetry.1 
There  are  well-known  cases  of  an  apparent  bilateral  symmetry,  in  the 
ovary  and  other  parts,  and  a  spurious  quadrilateral  in  others.  The  in- 
crease in  information  with  reference  to  the  effects  of  light,  heat,  gravity, 
etc.,  forces  most  people  to  be  cautious  in  drawing  conclusions.  Dr. 
William  Allman,  formerly  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of 
Dublin,  sought  to  connect  the  structure  of  exogens  with  the  penta- 
merous arrangement  of  the  parts  of  the  flower,  and  that  of  the  so-called 
endogens  with  the  trimerous  arrangement,  by  means  of  the  cellular 
structure  of  the  plants.  Starting  with  the  hypothesis  that  plant-cells 
in  mass  have  a  tendency  under  the  influence  of  an  all  round  pressure 
to  assume  figures  intermediate  between  the  sphere  and  regular  solid, 
he  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  regular  solids  are :  the  tetrahedron  (4 
sides),  cube  (6  sides),  octohedron  (8  sides),  dodecahedron,  with  penta- 
gonal faces  (12  sides),  icosahedron  (20  sides).  He  proceeds  to  show 
that  the  two  latter  forms  appear  to  agree  best  with  the  forms  of  cells 
in  plants,  the  dodecahedrons  would  best  explain  the  pentagonal 
arrangement  of  the  exogens,  and  the  icosahedrons  the  trimerous  form 
of  endogens.  The  cubical  form  was  regarded  as  more  prevalent 
amongst   the   acotyledons.       Allman   supposed   the   young   shoot   of   a 

1  The  term  symmetrical  is  used  sometimes  by  authors  when  bilaterally  symmetrical  is 
meant.  The  word  is  also  used  to  indicate  certain  relationships  between  sepals,  petals, 
stamens,  etc. 


100  R.  J.  ANDERSON  [august 

plant  to  consist  of  columns  of  dodecahedral  cells,  arranged  so  that 
the  upper  surface  of  one  cell  might  coincide  with  the  base  of  the  one 
next  above  it.  If  the  adjacent  columns  fit  as  nearly  as  possible  into 
one  another,  that  is  to  say,  that  the  re-entrant  angles  of  one  column 
may  correspond  to  the  salient  angles  of  the  other,  three  dodecahedra 
will  meet  at  each  edge,  but,  since  the  angle  of  a  dodecahedron  is  less 
than  120°,  they  will  not  fill  the  space,  but  will  leave  interstices,  increas- 
ing in  width  from  the  centre  of  the  mass  towards  its  circumference. 
The  "  tubes  "  will  find  room  to  grow  in  these  interstices,  and  the  growth 
will  be  effected  by  the  addition  of  matter  externally  as  in  exogens. 
The  increase  is  likely  to  be  more  considerable  where  the  edges  meet, 
that  is,  at  the  angles  of  the  pentagon,  than  elsewhere.  Certain  quali- 
fications are,  however,  introduced.  If  the  cells  are  icosahedral  and 
arranged  in  the  same  manner,  it  is  easy  to  see  that,  their  angles  being 
greater  than  120°,  the  interstices  would  be  formed  internally,  and  that 
the  growth  of  such  a  plant  wrould  proceed  by  the  internal  addition  of 
matter  as  in  so-called  endogens.  In  this  case,  as  in  the  exogens,  the 
growth  should  take  place  along  planes  passing  through  the  angular 
points.  Hence  the  parts  ought  to  be  arranged  in  threes  in  the  one 
case  and  in  fives  in  the  first.  The  parts  in  the  fructifying  organs  of 
certain  fungi  and  mosses  are  in  number  powers  of  two,  so,  it  is  pointed 
out,  that  the  cubical  arrangement  in  acotyledons  is  rendered  probable.1 
This  ingenious  hypothesis  ("  Une  idee  au  moins  piquante  et  ingenieuse," 
says  De  Candolle)  was  propounded  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  present 
century.  The  elements,  although  angular,  unite  to  form  tissues  with 
round  outlines.  The  form  assumed  is  the  result  of  various  forces. 
Equally  diffused  pressure  acting  along  the  radii  of  a  cylinder  tends 
to  maintain  its  form.  A  cone  would  have  its  shape  best  maintained 
by  the  diffusion  of  the  pressure  according  to  a  certain  law ;  but  here 
again  the  internal  activities,  surface  tension  of  cells,  perhaps,  and  other 
agents,  may  materially  modify  the  results. 

One  cannot  venture  to  compare  the  increase  in  size  of  a  crystal  to 
the  deposit  of  a  soluble  salt  from  an  evaporating  solution,  but  rather 
to  the  growth  of  a  battalion  of  soldiers  by  more  men  falling  into  rank 
all  round  at  the  word  of  command.  Even  in  crystals  many  are  the 
causes  that  affect  the  increase  in  size  and  form ;  temperature  and 
impurities  in  the  substance  are  two  of  the  best  known.  The  "  growth  " 
here  is,  of  course,  influenced  by  the  supply  of  material.  Organic 
bodies,  also,  are  influenced  by  many  activities  that  start  from  without 
and  reach  into  their  substance.  Their  growth  is  true  growth,  but 
within  considerable  limits  the  physical  demeanour  of  the  organic  may 
correspond  to  the  inorganic. 

One  might  compare  a  slender  shoot  to  a  six-rayed  ice  crystal  that 
is  growing  slowly  by  the   addition    of   an   upward   stream   of   water. 

1  Abbreviated  from  Allman's  paper.     The  term  "tubes"  appears  to  have  been  used  to 
indicate  vessels  and  fibres  of  plants  as  distinguished  from  cells  proper. 


1899]        CONSIDERATIONS  CONCERNING  SYMMETRY         101 

The  flow  of  nutrient  fluid  in  the  plant  conjoins  with  the  active 
protoplasm  to  make  new  tissue.  Year  after  year  new  additions  are 
added  to  the  stem,  but  these  are  laid  down  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  plant  growth.  "Whatever  may  be  the  resolution  of  these  forces, 
it  is  evident  that  the  form,  shape,  and  nature  of  the  grouping  of  bundles, 
and  the  succession,  as  well  as  the  shape  of  the  conjoined  bundles  and 
packing  tissue  that  form  steins  or  leaves,  are  the  results  of  not  merely 
internal  forces,  physical  and  organic,  but  external  forces  of  great 
constancy,  if  not  of  great  magnitude. 

A  collapsing  cylinder  is  said  to  assume  often  the  form  of  a  three- 
sided  prism,  and  a  sphere  the  form  of  a  tetrahedron.  There  can  be  no 
harm  in  placing  side  by  side  with  this  statement  the  record  of  trimerous 
symmetry  in  plants.  One  would  require  to  take  a  note  of  several  hollow 
cylinders  in  the  latter  case,  perhaps,  which  renders  the  comparison 
more  difficult ;  five,  six,  or  eight-angled  prisms  might  also  be  allowed 
to  be  within  the  powers  of  plant  manufacture, — columns  not  to  be 
formed  as  a  battalion  of  soldiers,  from  the  outside  alone,  but  by  the 
addition  of  new  rows  between  the  already  formed  lines.  W.  Allman 
pointed  out  a  connection- between  the  icosahedron  and  dodecahedron  ;  if 
the  latter  be  inscribed  in  a  sphere,  tangent  planes  at  the  angles  will 
constitute  an  icosahedron,  just  as  a  cube  in  a  sphere  similarly  treated 
will  give  rise  to  an  octohedron,  and  a  tetrahedron  to  a  figure  like  itself. 
It  may  be  noted  here,  that,  if  we  compare  the  pentamerous  symmetry 
with  the  trimerous,  it  will  appear  at  once  that  five  equilateral  triangles  l 
meeting  by  their  apices  and  arranged  so  that  each  is  separated  from 
his  neighbour  by  twelve  degrees,  will  leave  chinks  which  in  triangular 
prisms  would  serve  for  young  tissues.  Account  is  rather  taken  here  of 
the  collective  tissue  groups  (vascular  and  cellular).  The  flower  or  leaf 
parts,  if  followed  to  the  large  stems,  are  not  so  easy  to  marshal.  Six 
equilateral  triangles  meeting  in  the  centre  by  their  apices,  and  lying  in 
the  same  plane,  would  leave  no  spaces  for  the  reception  of  cells  or 
fibres ;  in  this  case  the  exterior  of  the  composite  bundle  might  be 
regarded  as  the  chief  generating  tissue.  Then  eight  equal  equilateral 
triangles  with  the  apices  turned  in  would  require  to  stand  well  out 
in  the  same  plane  in  order  that  their  external  angles  might  even  fit 
to  one  another.  Eight  equal  equilateral  triangular  prisms  may  be 
adjusted,  with  their  long  axes  parallel  to  one  another,  and  with 
their  edges  on  radial  planes  that  divide  the  cylinder  into  equal 
segments.  One  face  pointing  out  in  each,  and  one  edge  looking 
in,  will,  if  the  prisms  stand,  leave  interspaces  internally  wide  and 
externally  narrow.  These  prisms,  if  the  first  to  develop  out, 
might  determine  the  course  of  future  tissues.  The  arrangement  of  the 
leaves  on  the  stem  suggests  other  schemes  for  plant  bundles,  but  there 
is  clear  enough  proof  of  a  predominant  radial  symmetry,  and  it  does 

1  The  triangles  are  here  taken  to  represent  sections  of  prisms.     No  account  is  taken  of 
any  twisting  the  stem  or  bundles  may  experience  in  the  course  of  development. 


102  R.  J.  ANDERSON  [august 

seem  odd  that  the  two  forms  of  prisms  that  the  trimerous  and  penta- 
merous  symmetries  suggest  are  asymmetric.  The  fact  that  arboraceous 
monocotyledons  dwell  in  the  tropics,  and  that  dicotyledons  dwell  in 
temperate  regions,  has  been  commented  on.  The  Dicksonias  of  New 
Zealand  and  the  araucarias  of  South  America  have  chosen  curious 
places  for  homes.  The  sun  in  rotating  on  its  axis,  in  sending  its 
rays  through  an  atmosphere  that  partly  polarizes  the  rays  which  are 
going  through  the  air  with  various  degrees  of  obliquity,  and  the  same 
luminary  in  having  its  countenance  affected  by  spots  occasionally,  not 
to  speak  of  the  various  wave  whirls  that  may  affect  rays  going  in 
different  directions,  may  be  held  responsible  for  some  of  these  dis- 
crepancies. The  rays,  if  they  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  alterable 
by  a  crystal,  may  be  naturally  expected  to  have  some  power  to  alter 
the  character  of  a  crystal,  or  other  substance,  and  so  a  crystal  may  get 
a  molecular  twist,  and  the  plant  that  uses  the  crystal  as  food  may 
become  similarly  influenced,  or  get  directly  altered  itself;  but  although 
there  may  have  been  a  tendency  to  molecular  twisting  in  the  young 
plant  by  the  sun's  rays,  grown  plants  are  not  so  apparently  affected ; 
the  plant  tissues  seem  to  have  some  power  of  correction,  and  so  the 
difference  in  the  effects  of  the  symmetry  of  the  rays  in  the  north 
as  compared  with  the  southern  hemisphere  is  not  observed. 

The  symmetry  of  animals  is  of  various  kinds.  The  spherical  kind 
is  illustrated  in  the  Protozoa.  The  Radiolaria,  with  their  rays  and 
their  trellis  work,  show  us  what  was,  or  is,  being  done,  and  raise  inquiry 
as  to  the  various  agents  that  may  be  at  work  in  bringing  about 
the  result.  Still  water  or  some  inert  fluid  may  be  looked  upon  as 
favouring  the  maintenance  of  the  spherical  form  seen  in  the  resting 
stages  of  many  Protozoa,  but  the  surface  tension  may  also  contribute 
largely  to  the  result.  The  sea  anemones,  simple  sponges,  and  corals  are 
admirable  examples  of  the  modified  cylindric  symmetry ;  the  medusae 
illustrate  the  modified  spherical  symmetry.  The  mouth  in  the  centre 
with  appropriate  radiating  tubes,  and  in  some  cases  the  actual  provision 
of  separate  segments  with  a  definite  nervous  system,  shows  a  very 
important  departure  in  the  bearings  of  the  symmetry  of  a  body  on  its 
life.  The  welfare  of  many  an  animal  is  so  much  connected  with  its 
colonial  habits  that  its  separation  often  means  rapid  extinction.  The 
chance  of  extinction  is  diminished  by  the  segmentation  in  question. 
Each  part  is,  in  a  manner,  independent  of  its  neighbours ;  so  are  the 
parts  of  a  star-fish,  which  may  live  after  separation.  A  single  ray  may 
even  turn  over.  A  mechanical  advantage  seems  also  to  be  derived  from 
a  pair  of  fixed  planes  placed  at  right  angles  to  one  another,  both  as 
regards  purchase  and  security,  in  the  case  of  certain  medusoids.  The 
rhythm  of  Rhizostoma  seems  independent  of  the  symmetry,  20  to  24 
contractions  per  minute  in  a  closed  vessel  were  noted  in  one  case.  The 
rhythm  is  best  counted  in  the  sea,  however,  an  operation  which  is  only 
possible  there  in  some  medusae.      The  motion  of  the  fluid  from  centre 


1899]        CONSIDERATIONS  CONCERNING  SYMMETRY         103 

to  circumference  may  in  part  be  responsible  for  the  radiate  character 
of  the  tubes,  but  the  other  forces  already  alluded  to  in  other  structures 
cannot  be  lost  sight  of  in  this  connection,  nor  the  fact  that  the  contrac- 
tion and  dilatation  of  the  umbrella  favours  the  circulation  of  fluids  in 
certain  directions. 

Passing  over  the  tunicates,  which  may  be  radial  in  colonies  and 
bilateral  in  individuals,  the  worms,  arthropods,  and  vertebrates  may  be 
noted.  A  bilateral  symmetry  is  here  evident  enough.  Not  only  in  the 
early  forms,  but  in  the  adult  life  of  many  of  these  and  molluscs,  a 
disguised  radiate  symmetry  seems  to  prevail. 

The  chief  axis  of  the  yolk  sac  in  the  chick  may  be  regarded  as  an 
axis  of  symmetry  in  the  young  animal.  There  may  or  may  not  be  the 
remains  of  an  apparently  azygous  organ,  but  a  radiating  system  of 
alimentary  tubes  is  easy  to  see  in  some  animals,  and  a  like  arrangement 
in  the  nervous  and  vascular  systems  in  others  that  are  easy  to  group 
with  a  central  axis.  The  paired  ganglia  above  and  below  the  anterior 
part  of  the  alimentary  canal  in  worms  and  arthropods,  and  the  three 
pairs  of  ganglia  in  the  molluscs,  may  also  be  regarded  as  an  exaggerated 
radiate  symmetry.  Then  the  alimentary  canal  has  been  looked  upon  as 
forming  the  central  axis  of  the  system,  an  axis  often  strengthened  by 
lime  or  chitin,  deposited  or  formed  in  a  tissue  derived  from  without ; 
the  cells  also  that  form  bone  are  probably  derived  from  the  outer 
embryonic  cell  layer.  The  vascular  system  consists  chiefly  of  four 
tubes  in  some  worms  (dorsal,  ventral,  and  lateral).  The  nervous  system 
may  occupy  the  sides  in  the  central  part  of  the  body,  or  dorsal  and 
ventral  cords  may  be  both  present  in  the  same  animal.  This  bilateral 
symmetry  might  be  regarded  as  a  modified  kind  of  quadrilateral  sym- 
metry. The  special  development  of  certain  parts  emphasizes  the  former 
variety.  The  dorsal  tube  feet  in  some  holothurians  are  dummies,  whilst 
in  others  are  three  rows  of  tube  feet  on  the  ventral  surface,  and  two  on 
the  dorsal.  There  are  indications  of  a  bilateral  symmetry  in  the 
interior.  The  enamel  of  the  teeth  is  derived  from  a  portion  of  the 
invaginated  skin  in  the  vertebrates ;  so,  if,  passing  over  the  early  stage, 
it  be  desirable  to  take  the  alimentary  canal  as  the  axis  of  symmetry, 
some  ingenious  attempts  may  be  made  to  give  force  to  the  assumption. 
The  position  of  the  primitive  mouth  will  not  then  escape  attention, 
nor  will  the  fact  that  the  sympathetic  has  a  good  district  in  the 
alimentary  canal.  If  this  study  be  pushed  as  far  as  one  can  decently 
go,  and  the  ground  changed  to  the  spinal  canal  and  cord,  then  a  most 
instructive  method  of  comparison  may  be  noted,  viz.  on  the  dorsum  a 
canal,  a  nervous  cord  around  it,  and  the  appropriate  serous  membrane, 
blood  vessels,  muscle,  and  bone  ;  and,  on  the  ventral  part,  the  intestinal 
canal,  a  sympathetic  neuro- muscular  system,  serous  membrane, 
vessels,  etc. 

Around  the  vertebrate  axis  a  modified  radial  system  seems  to 
prevail.       Owen    and    Humphry   advocated    this,    although   not   in    so 


io4  R.  J-  ANDERSON  [august 

many   words.      Owen's  typical   vertebra,  it  will  be   remembered,  has 
growths  above,  below,  and  at  the  sides.      The  two  dorsal  growths  end 
in  the  spine ;  the  lateral  growths  are  the  transverse  processes  (dorso- 
lateral), and  the  lower  growths  (ventro-lateral)  may  join  the  ribs  which 
form  an    arch   like   the   dorsal   one.      The  limbs    are   represented  by 
diverging  appendages.      The  limb  folds  seem  to  partake  of  the  quadri- 
lateral symmetry  type  in  some  fishes.      Humphry  pointed  out  that  the 
term  "  duality "  is  inapplicable  to  the  nervous  system  and  skeleton. 
The  lineal  axis  of  the  embryo  sends  off  the  processes  referred  to,  and  there 
is  therefore  a  quadrilateral  rather  than  a  bilateral  symmetrical  arrange- 
ment.1    Humphry,  however,  distinguished  between  the  body  as  a  whole 
in  this  regard  and  the  separate  parts.      Leaving  out  the  bodies  of  the 
vertebrae  which  are  variously  formed,  but  originally  developed  round 
an  endodermic  growth,  one  can  make  out  a  radiate  symmetry  of  four, 
five,  or  six  rays,  according  as  certain  processes  are  counted  or  omitted. 
The  pillars  of  the  dorsal  arch  may  be  counted  separately,  so  may  the 
transverse  processes  and  body  processes ;  or,  reckoning  each  pair  as  one 
process  forming  a  two-pillared  arch,  there  are  four  arches.      The  spinal 
nerve  cord  section  occupies  the  dorsal  arch,  the  sympathetic  the  ventral, 
and  the  posterior  root  ganglia  are  at  the  sides.     It  is  clear,  however,  that 
the  spinal  cord  may  be  looked  upon  as  made  up  of  two  lateral  halves, 
so  may  the  sympathetic  cords.      A  survey  of  the  entire  system  tends 
to  render   the  bilateral  symmetry  of  each  less  clear,  whether  taken 
together  or  separately.     The  sympathetic  seems  to  be  of  more  con- 
siderable relative  importance  in  early  life,  judging  from  the  drawings  of 
Paterson.      The  ganglia  are  often  large  in  man,  but  the  size  appears  to 
be  due  in  the  abdominal  ganglia  to  fibrous  tissue  (D.  J.  Cunningham). 
W.  Alexander  has  removed  the  superior  cervical  in  man  with  advantage 
to  the  patient,  proving  how  far  the  system  has  gone  back.2    The  sympa- 
thetic  is,  however,  of  enormous   interest  because   of  its   distribution, 
subsidized  by  the  spinal,  in  the  viscera  and  arterial  coats.    The  symmetry 
that  takes  account  of  the  spinal  cord,  divided  into  two  equal  lateral 
parts,  has  also  reference  to  the  division  of  the  abdominal  nervous  system, 
so  that  a  modified  quadrilateral  symmetry  may  appear  as  a  bilateral 
symmetry.      The  dorsal  and  ventral  systems,  as  every  one  knows,  are 
mainly  independent  of  one  another.      The  presence  of  the  serous  mem- 
branes secures  this  independence  in  part,  but  the  nerve  connections  do 
not  favour  a  ready  transference  of  impressions  from  one  system  to  the 
other.      The  connections,  however,  come  into  use  often  in  disease,  and 
a  slight  activity  in  the   terminals  of  either  systems,  may  produce   a 
profound  disturbance  in  the  district  supplied  by  the  other.      The  sym- 
pathetic ganglia  associated  with  the  cerebral  system  are  obscured  by  the 
magnitude  of  the  large  brain  and  its  connections  in  vertebrates.      The 

1  See  Quain's  "Anatomy,"  8th  ed. 

2  Nerve  cells  being  now  proved  to  be  trophic  only,  the  fibres  collectively  assume  more 
prominence  in  our  estimate  of  the  value  of  a  nerve  tract,  or  district. 


1899]        CONSIDERATIONS  CONCERNING  SYMMETRY         105 

significance  of  some  of  these  ganglia  has  been  satisfactorily  learned. 
The  sense  organs  bear  out  apparently  the  statement  that  vertebrates  are, 
speaking  generally,  bilateral  animals.  The  pineal  eye,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  sense  organs  in  some  invertebrate  types,  may  be  cited  as 
being  favourable  to  other  views  of  symmetry.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  C.  S.  Minot  thinks  that  the  cerebral  ganglia  of  a  worm  may  fairly 
be  regarded  as  the  optic  central  organs,  and  that  some  of  the  sub- 
oesophageal  would  do  for  cerebral  ganglia  if  the  mouth  were  further 
back. 

Asymmetry. 

The  five  fingers  and  the  five  nerves  that  form  the  brachial 
plexus  have  been  associated  by  some  anatomists  (Paterson),  but 
Bardeleben  has  given  reasons  for  regarding  the  primitive  hand  as 
having  a  much  larger  number  than  five  digits.  The  Gasteropods  show 
rare  examples  of  asymmetry.  The  left  respiratory  organ  and  the  left 
kidney  in  part  lose  their  character,  and  the  right  organs  do  the  work 
of  the  pair.  Mechanical  causes  seem  to  be  the  main  agents  in  bring- 
ing about  the  absorption  of  the  absent  organs.  A  superficial  bilateral 
symmetry  appears  in  some,  but  not  only  is  there  want  of  dorso-lateral 
symmetry,  but  the  dorsal  growth  of  the  animal  has  been  so  consider- 
able, and  the  form  has  become  so  altered  dorsally  and  ventrally,  that 
with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of  the  body  in  front,  it  is  impossible 
to  see  an  approach  to  quadrilateral  symmetry.  There  are,  however, 
the  four  ganglia  or  six,  which  may  be  looked  upon  as  part  of  a  radial 
quadrilateral  or  hexagonal  symmetry.  The  renal  organs  of  the  lancelet 
are  sometimes  asymmetric.  The  newly-hatched  sole  is  symmetric  ;  the 
size  is  3-55— 3'75  mm.  long.  This  creature  swims  with  its  yolk  sac 
up  because  the  latter  is  light  (Cunningham).  The  eyes  come  to  lie 
on  the  upper  surface  (the  right).  Remembering  that  if  a  fish  is  to 
forage  and  rest  on  the  floor  of  a  bay,  it  must  be  spread  out  laterally  or 
have  some  supporting  apparatus  in  connection  with  its  fins,  it  seems 
natural  that  the  sole  or  plaice,  not  being  able  to  make  suitable  pro- 
vision in  either  of  these  ways,  should  simply  lie  on  its  side  and  turn 
its  second  eye  up.  The  result  is  advantageous  in  this  way,  that  a 
surface  of  one  to  two  square  feet  is  presented  to  the  view  of  a  voracious 
dog-fish,  skate,  or  shark,  so  that  the  apparent  size  may  save  the  sole  or 
plaice.  The  asymmetry  is,  therefore,  susceptible  of  a  triple  explanation. 
The  diminution  of  one  lung  in  snakes  is  due  to  the  elongation  of  the 
body ;  with  the  elongated  lung  a  certain  amount  of  dislocation  of  the 
viscera  is  associated.  The  single  lung  is,  under  the  circumstances,  better 
suited  for  respiration.  The  single  ovary  in  birds  is  most  convenient 
in  consequence  of  the  large  eggs,  and  the  large  ovary  is  connected  with 
the  persistence  of  the  abdominal  rather  than  the  chylopoietic  aorta. 
The  latter  is,  evidently,  the  best  for  mammals.  Asymmetry  in  the 
dolphin  tribe  is   marked  in  the  skull.     The   large   left  upper  canine 


106  R.  J.  ANDERSON  [august 

tooth  of  the  narwhal  emphasizes  the  condition.  This  asymmetry  is 
not  easy  to  explain.  Is  it  due  to  the  dolphin  opposing  one  side  by 
preference  to  an  ocean  current,  so  that  he  grows  gradually  one-sided, 
like  a  sensitive  politician  ?  or  does  he  get  altered  by  attempting  to 
present  a  too  bulky  broadside  to  an  opposing  foe  for  the  purpose  of 
increasing  his  self-importance,  or  to  reassure  himself  ?  May  the  change 
have  been  brought  about  as  the  result  of  deep  nervous  impressions 
received  from  without  ?  This  creature  lives  near  the  surface  a  good 
deal,  and  sees  much  that  is  one  sided  among  the  phenomena  of  aerial 
nature.  The  contemplative  disposition  may  allow  the  reflex  nerve 
actions  too  much  range. 

The  well-known  cases  of  asymmetry  in  man  may  be  mentioned — 
the  left  aorta  and  heart,  right  sided  liver,  left  stomach  and  spleen, 
large  right  lung,  the  lateral  spinal  curve.  The  viscera  may  be 
transposed  in  position.  Asymmetry  is  found  sometimes  in  the  muscles 
of  man.  The  chest  region  may  display  asymmetry,  the  sternum  or 
ribs  may  be  more  prominent  at  one  side.  The  pelvis  also  shows 
occasionally  some  features  of  asymmetry.  The  skull,  in  the  size  and 
thickness  of  the  cranial  bones,  is  subject  to  some  variations.  The 
bones  on  one  side  are  sometimes  thicker  than  those  on  the  other 
side,  as  has  been  shown  by  the  writer  elsewhere ;  the  sinuses  of  one 
side  are  sometimes  larger  than  those  of  the  other.  The  septum  of  the 
nose  is  often  bent  to  one  side.  Bilateral  symmetry  in  man  seems  to 
be  the  rule.  Humphry  laid  much  stress  upon  this  fact,  but  he  takes 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  specimen  of  a  skeleton  of  a  boy  in  the  Bonn 
Museum,  in  which  the  bones  of  the  right  arm  and  leg  are  longer  than 
those  of  the  left  side.  The  disproportion  was  marked  by  nodules  in 
the  leg  bones,  but  not  in  the  arm  bones.  These  nodules  indicate  the 
former  presence  of  inflammatory  action  in  the  right  lower  extremity. 
The  right  humerus  is  9  lines  and  the  ulna  10  lines  longer  than  those  of 
the  left  side.  The  right  femur  is  11  lines,  and  the  right  tibia  2  inches 
longer  than  the  left  ones. 

The  nervous  system  has  considerable  influence  over  distant  parts 
within  certain  limits.  Asymmetry  is  thought  by  some  to  afford  some 
indications  of  permanent  central  nervous  change.  Abundant  statistics 
are  necessary  in  order  to  come  to  any  satisfactory  conclusion.  Lombroso 
found  in  one  class  (Class  A)  of  offenders  26  per  cent  of  cranial 
asymmetry  ;  in  Class  B,  46  per  cent ;  Class  C,  32  per  cent ;  Class  D,  50 
per  cent.  Asymmetric  faces  were  found  in  7 '7  per  cent  of  delincpients 
and  in  1*8  per  cent  of  another  class.  Criminals  have  the  advantage  (?) 
of  others  in  possessing  a  larger  percentage  of  wry  noses  (not  due, 
presumably,  to  mechanical  causes).  Asymmetric  faces  are  commoner 
in  classes  B  and  D  than  in  other  types.  It  is  also  stated  that 
anomalies  are  more  common  in  man,  especially  savage  man,  than  in 
woman,  and  more  common  amongst  males  of  other  vertebrates  than 
in   females    (Viazzi    quoted  by  Lombroso).      It  will   be   remembered, 


1899]        CONSIDERATIONS  CONCERNING  SYMMETRY         107 

however,  that  anomalies  are  more  common  in  man  than  in  other 
mammals.  In  the  latter  anomalies  of  all  kinds  are  rare.  The  pro- 
duction of  a  deformity,  owing  to  some  peculiar  mental  state,  is  not 
easy  to  follow  out.  There  are  very  many  factors  at  work.  The 
mental  and  physical  defects  may  be  concomitant  effects  of  the  same 
cause,  or  the  latter  may  be  very  remotely  connected  with  the  former. 
A  deformity,  if  exposed,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  not  necessarily  asso- 
ciated with  any  aberrant  mental  condition.  A  structural  change  in 
the  central  nervous  system  may  be  associated  with  some  distal  change, 
but  the  distal  change  may  be  due  to  easily  explained  mechanical  causes. 

If  we  revert  to  asymmetry  in  crystals,  it  will  be  recollected  that 
attempts  have  been  made  to  explain  their  asymmetry  in  their  action 
on  light,  by  referring  to  the  asymmetric  character  of  solar  radiation. 
Some  crystals  rotate  the  plane  of  polarization  to  the  right,  others  to 
the  left,  and  two  opposites  are  compared  to  a  pair  of  gloves.  The 
sun's  rays,  passing  south  (as  has  been  noted  earlier  in  this  paper),  may 
be  expected  to  produce  effects  on  vegetable  structures  different  from 
those  produced  by  the  north-going  rays  or  the  intermediate  ones.  The 
question  of  the  effects  of  the  sun-spots  arises  naturally.  If  these 
asymmetric  rays  and  the  portion  of  the  solar  surface  exposed  has 
favoured  the  growth  of  dicotyledons  in  one  place,  monocotyledons  of 
great  dimensions  in  another,  and  giant  ferns  in  a  third,  what  is  to 
prevent  our  speculating  on  the  changes  that  may  have  resulted  from 
certain  alterations  in  his  demeanour  in  ancient  times  ?  Did  the  sun 
show  less  or  more  of  one  pole  to  the  Silurian  world  ?  Was  this 
followed  by  a  bend  that  gave  rise  to  the  vegetable  products  of  the 
carboniferous  ?  Was  another  change  attended  with  the  growth  of  the 
Triassic,  and  another  with  the  growth  of  the  Jurassic  flora,  until  at  last, 
after  a  tropical  and  cold  period,  the  present  temperate  vegetation  of 
the  north,  and  the  palms  in  the  tropics  and  Dicksonias  in  the  south, 
have  been  evoked  by  some  new  position  of  the  solar  globe  ? 

In  special  breeds  of  domestic  fowl  abundant  material  can  be 
obtained  and  the  history  can  be  studied.  The  sternum  is  often 
marked  by  a  crooked  keel,  and  the  tail-bone  and  feathers  are  some- 
times wry.  The  bend  of  the  keel  is  sometimes  to  the  left  and  at 
other  times  to  the  right.  A  large  number  of  specimens  have  been 
examined,  but  taking  fifteen  at  random,  there  is  a  distinct  bend  to  the 
left  in  nine  keels  and  to  the  right  in  six.  Tracing  one  of  the  best 
marked,  the  keel  at  the  anterior  part  is  seen  to  be  a  little  bent  to  the 
right,  followed  back  it  leads  to  the  left,  crosses  the  middle  line,  forms 
a  curve  of  considerable  length,  and,  turning  in  to  the  median  line, 
recrosses  it  to  the  right  side. 

Two-thirds  of  the  breeders  consulted  by  me  are  of  opinion  that 
crooked  sternum  keels  are  hereditary,  and  that  in-and-in  breeding  is 
accountable  for  the  wry  tails. 

One-third    of    the    breeders    consider    the    causes   to    be    mainly 


10S  R.J.ANDERSON  [august  1899 

mechanical  and  due  to  the  nature  of  the  roosts.  These  breeders  look 
upon  the  weakness  naturally  associated  with  the  preparation  of  pure 
breeds  of  fowls  as  a  predisposing  cause. 

Light  pure  bred  fowls  have  been  often  observed  to  have  crooked 
keels,  whilst  heavy  breeds,  if  the  birds  are  not  allowed  to  roost  early, 
have  not  the  deformity.  The  following  is  a  note  from  a  breeder : — "  A 
'  black  Norfolk  turkey '  with  a  crooked  breast  was  mated  with  a 
straight-breasted  hen.  All  the  chicks  got  the  same  treatment,  the 
roosts  were  low  and  flat,  and  covered  with  straw  until  the  birds  were 
able  to  fly."  Notwithstanding  these  precautions  five  cock  birds  out  of 
the  sixteen  birds  which  formed  the  flock  had  crooked  breast  keels. 
Water-fowl  have  sometimes  crooked  breasts ;  the  deformity  here  is  not 
due  to  roosting.  The  most  crooked  sternum  in  my  possession  belonged 
to  a  Brahma.  The  keel,  where  the  bend  is  greatest,  is  nearly  hori- 
zontal There  are  marks  of  pressure  on  the  keel  edge  in  some  cases. 
A  distinct  broadening  of  the  edge  of  the  keel  is  perceptible,  in  two  bent 
to  the  right,  and  in  four  bent  to  the  left.  An  indentation  occurs  in 
front  of  the  middle  of  the  two  keels  bent  to  the  left.  Two  keels  have 
marks  of  having  been  broken  and  reunited.  The  wry  tail  has  been 
attributed  to  the  bird  roosting  too  near  the  wall,  and  to  the  tendency 
to  form  a  compensating  bend  in  consequence  of  the  breast  being  bent 
to  the  opposite  side.  The  fanciers  who  believe  that  it  is  due  to  in- 
herent weakness  because  of  the  breeds  being  run  out,  seek  to  correct 
the  tendency  by  the  introduction  of  new  stock.  The  wry-tailed  birds 
are  discarded.      The  evidence  goes  to  prove  that — 

(1)  Malformation  is  commonest  in  pure  breeds. 

(2)  In-and-in  breeding  tends  to  develop  wry  tails  and  crooked  keels. 

(3)  The  distortion  is  frequently  transmitted  from  parent  to  off- 

spring. 

(4)  Roosting  on  round    or    sharp    roosts    tends    to    promote    the 

distortion. 

Summary. 

(1)  The  shape  of  a  body  may  be  due  to  forces  within  or  pressure 

without,  or  both. 

(2)  The  same  kinds  of  symmetry  are  to  be  observed  in  inorganic 

and  organic  forms. 

(3)  The  forces  at  work  inside  organisms  are  "  vital "  and  physical. 

The  resultant  figures  are  the  expression  of  the  work  of  two 
or  more  sets  of  agents. 

(4)  Asymmetry  may  be  due  to  causes  internal  or  external,  or  both. 

I  have  to  thank  Dr.  G.  J.  Allman  for  the  opportunity  of  con- 
sulting his  father's  manuscript. 

Queen's  College, 
Galway. 


The  Flora  of  the  Alps. 

By  Professor  Alfred  W.  Bennett,  M.A.,  B.Sc,  V.P.RM.S. 

Even  to  those  tourists  who  claim  no  botanical  knowledge,  the  pleasure 
of  a  visit  to  Switzerland  is  greatly  increased  by  the  extraordinary 
beauty  and  variety  of  its  flora.  Even  in  the  lowland  valleys  and  on 
the  spurs  of  the  foot-hills,  the  wild  plants,  if  not  more  varied  and  more 
beautiful  than  our  own,  present  many  novelties,  at  least  to  the  dwellers 
in  our  southern  counties.  In  the  early  spring  the  meadows  are  gay 
with  the  globe-flower  and  the  bird's-eye  primrose ;  later  on  the  monks- 
hoods, yellow  and  blue,  the  hellebores,  the  anemones,  the  phyteumas, 
the  pinks,  the  gentians,  the  yellow  foxgloves,  have  the  charm  of 
novelty ;  and  the  keenest  delight  is  experienced  when  the  blue  bells  of 
the  Soldanella  are  first  seen  peering  through  the  snow,  or  the  Edelweiss 
is  first  gathered  in  its  rocky  home.  It  is  only  the  experienced  botanist 
who  realises  that,  as  a  compensation,  some  of  our  most  beautiful  wild 
flowers  are  absent  from  the  flora  of  Switzerland.  We  can  well  under- 
stand the  rapture  with  which  the  great  Swedish  botanist  Linnaeus  is 
said  to  have  gazed  for  the  first  time  on  a  gorse- common  in  full 
bloom ;  for  the  gorse  is  not  abundant  in  Central  or  Northern  Europe. 
Our  bell-heathers  hardly  go  east  of  the  Bhine,  and  may  be  said  to 
be  replaced  on  the  Swiss  mountains  by  the  "  alpine  roses  "  or  rhodo- 
dendrons. The  wood-hyacinth  and  the  purple  foxglove  are  not  found 
in  Switzerland. 

The  distribution  of  the  alpine  flora  in  Switzerland  is  very  unequal. 
The  calcareous  Jura  has  a  subalpine  flora  of  its  own.  The  flora  of 
Mont  Blanc  and  of  the  Alps  of  Savoy  is  a  very  poor  one.  That  of 
the  Bernese  Oberland  is  somewhat  richer.  But  the  great  wealth  of  the 
alpine  flora  is  south  of  the  Rhone  valley ;  and  especially  in  those 
mountain  spurs  and  alpine  valleys  which  stretch  into  the  territory 
which  is  geographically  and  linguistically,  though  not  politically,  Italian. 
The  Rhone  valley  itself  exhibits  a  remarkable  commingling  of  different 
floras.  Here  I  have  gathered,  almost  side  by  side,  the  subalpine  holly- 
fern  (Polystidmm  lonchitis)  and  the  gigantic  horsetail  (Equisetum 
ramosissimum)  representative  of  the  Mediterranean  flora. 

With  regard  to  the  special  characteristics  of  the  flora  of  the  Alps, 

109 


no  ALFRED  IV.  BENNETT  [august 

the  most  familiar  and  most  striking  is  the  abundance  of  the  flowers, 
growing  either  in  great  masses  or  remarkable  for  their  large  size  and 
brightness  of  colouring.  This  is  exhibited  in  various  ways.  In  the 
first  place,  we  may  compare  the  alpine  with  the  lowland  species  of 
genera  which  are  represented  in  both  floras — for  example,  Aquilegia 
alpina  with  our  columbine ;  Dianthus  cdjpinus  or  glacialis  with  our 
pinks  ;  Scutellaria  alpina  with  our  skull-cap  ;  Bartsia  alpina  with  our 
British  species ;  Myosotis  alpestris  with  our  forget-me-nots ;  the  Edel- 
weiss with  our  cudweeds ;  and  many  others  that  might  be  mentioned. 
Or  we  may  take  genera  that  are  exclusively  or  chiefly  alpine,  as  far  as 
the  European  flora  is  concerned : — Gentiana,  Primula,  Pedicidaris, 
Rhododendron,  Soldanclla,  Saxifraga,  Scmpervivum,  etc.  These  are 
among  the  most  familiar  glories  of  the  alpine  flora.  Or,  again,  we  may 
take  genera  common  to  high  and  low  altitudes,  but  in  which  the  alpine 
species  are  characterised  by  the  small  flowers  being  so  crowded 
together  as  to  make  the  masses  of  them  very  conspicuous  from  a 
distance,  such  as  Arabis,  Silene,  Moehringia,  Draba,  and  many  others. 

The  advantage  to  alpine  plants  of  the  conspicuousness  of  the  flower 
is  obvious.  Although  not  so  dependent  as  lowland  plants  on  the  pro- 
duction of  seeds  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  species — the  great  majority 
of  them  being  perennials — yet,  like  many  of  our  own  perennial  plants, 
trees  and  others,  they  do,  as  a  rule,  produce  abundance  of  ripe  seeds, 
and  for  the  carriage  of  pollen  from  the  anthers  to  the  stigmas  they  are 
largely  dependent  on  the  visits  of  insects.  Now,  at  great  altitudes 
winged  insects  are  comparatively  scarce,  and  it  is  obvious  that  a  con- 
spicuous and  far-seen  sign  as  to  the  locality  where  they  can  find  their 
honey  must  greatly  increase  the  number  of  flower-visits  which  they  can 
pay  in  the  course  of  a  sunny  afternoon.  Mr.  G.  W.  Bulman  has 
recently,  in  the  pages  of  this  journal,1  ventured  the  opinion  that  four  of 
the  keenest-sighted  naturalists  who  have  ever  studied  the  phenomena 
of  plant  physiology — Darwin,  Wallace,  Lubbock,  and  Hermann  Muller 
— are  all  mistaken  in  their  interpretation  of  the  function  of  colour  in 
flowers,  and  that  insects  are  attracted  to  flowers  mainly  by  the  sense 
of  smell  rather  than  by  the  sense  of  sight.  My  own  observations, 
which  have  extended  over  many  years,  lead  me  to  range  myself  un- 
hesitatingly on  the  side  of  those  distinguished  names.  That  insects 
are,  to  a  certain  extent,  attracted  by  the  odour  of  flowers  is  undoubted. 
But  in  the  Alps  this  can  only  come  into  play  to  a  very  subordinate 
extent.  Very  few  alpine  plants  are  strongly  scented ;  and,  if  they 
were,  owing  to  the  strong  winds  that  almost  constantly  prevail  at  those 
Great  heights,  the  scent  would  be  almost  useless  in  indicating  its  source 
to  insects.  In  the  bright  colour  and  large  size  or  close  crowding  of 
the  flowers,  we  have,  on  the  other  hand,  an  obvious  and  admirable 
adaptation  to  this  end. 

But  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  the  sole  purpose  of  the 

1  Natural  Science,  Feb.  ]  899. 


1899]  THE  FLORA  OF  THE  ALPS  1 1 1 

bright  colour  of  flowers  is  to  attract  insects.  We  find  it  in  flowering 
plants  where  it  can  have  no  such  function,  as  in  the  scarlet  stigmas  of 
the  hazel,  which  is  unquestionably  anemophilous,  and  in  the  young 
inflorescence  of  the  larch  ;  or,  in  Cryptogams,  more  especially  in  con- 
nection with  the  organs  of  reproduction,  as  in  the  brightly-coloured 
oogones  and  antherids  of  Char  a  and  the  red  sporanges  of  Sphagnum. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  bright  red  colour  has  an  important 
function  in  absorbing  and  retaining  the  heat-rays,  and  thus  maintain- 
ing the  organ  at  a  temperature  necessary  for  the  physiological  processes 
going  on  within  it.  Hence  the  very  earliest  of  the  flowers  of  the 
Alps,  like  Soldanellas  and  Hepaticas,  are  usually  very  brightly  coloured, 
and  the  earliest  spring  foliage  has  also  very  commonly  a  more  or  less 
bright  red  tint. 

There  are  other  and  equally  interesting  characteristics  of  alpine 
plants.  And  here  it  may  be  worth  while  to  contrast  the  conditions  of 
life  in  high  altitudes  and  in  high  latitudes,  which  are  often  assumed 
to  be  very  similar.  They  are,  in  truth,  totally  different.  In  the 
arctic  or  subarctic  zone  we  have  a  brief  summer,  during  which  there  is 
almost  perpetual  insolation  and  a  nearly  uniform  temperature  through- 
out the  twenty-four  hours ;  in  Switzerland  the  summer  nights  are 
longer  than  they  are  with  us,  and  the  difference  of  temperature  between 
day  and  night  is  often  excessive,  the  nights  being  associated,  even  in 
the  height  of  summer,  with  exceptionally  heavy  dews.  It  will  be 
seen,  therefore,  that  we  have  totally  different  climatic  conditions  to 
deal  with.  We  have  in  our  own  flora  several  arctic  species  which  do 
not  occur  in  Switzerland,  as,  for  example,  Saxifraga  nivalis  and  Primula 
scotica. 

Alpine  plants  have  several  other  characteristics  besides  the  large 
size  or  close  crowding  of  the  flowers.  In  the  first  place,  although 
many  ripen  abundance  of  seed,  but  a  very  small  proportion,  as  has 
already  been  mentioned,  are  annual.  In  many  the  floral  organs  are 
almost  completely  formed  within  the  flower-bud  during  the  preceding 
autumn,  so  that  they  are  ready  to  unfold  with  the  first  warm  days  of 
spring,  and  before  the  appearance  of  the  leaves,  not  requiring  these 
organs  to  supply  them  with  any  further  food-material.  Hence  the 
very  early  flowering  of  many  alpine  and  sub-alpine  plants,  such  as 
the  hepatica,  Christmas  rose,  winter  aconite,  species  of  Soldanella, 
Primula,  Gcntiana,  etc.  Secondly,  from  the  great  strain  to  which 
they  are  subject  from  violent  winds,  we  find  a  considerable  number 
with  prostrate  woody  stems,  species  of  willow,  birch,  etc,  such  as  we 
seldom  meet  with  in  plants  of  our  own  climate.  For  the  same  reason 
the  root-system  is  also  often  very  strongly  developed  in  comparison 
with  the  aerial  part  of  the  plant.  Furthermore,  the  extreme  bright- 
ness of  the  sun  during  the  summer  months  has  a  tendency  to  cause 
excessive  transpiration  or  evaporation  from  the  leaves,  which  has  to  be 
counteracted  by  specialities  of  structure.      This  protection  is  afforded 


ii2  ALFRED  IF.  BENNETT  [august 

in  many  ways.  In  some  the  leaves  are  thick  and  fleshy,  as  in  species 
of  Sempervivum,  Pinguicula,  etc. ;  or  they  are  crowded  together  in 
dense  rosettes,  as  in  so  many  members  of  the  orders  Cruciferae  or 
Caryophyllaceae.  Others  are  covered  with  a  dense  felt  of  hairs,  as  in 
species  of  Achillea,  Artemisia,  or  Gnaphalium,  including  the  Edelweiss. 
In  others  again  protection  is  afforded  by  the  rolling  back  of  the 
margin  of  the  leaf,  as  in  Azalea  procambens,  JSmjpetrum  nigrum,  etc. 
The  greater  rarity  of  the  air  at  high  altitudes  implies,  of  course,  a 
smaller  supply  of  carbonic  acid  gas  from  which  to  build  up  the  food- 
materials  of  the  plant.  Hence  the  organs  in  which  alone  this  manu- 
facture of  food-materials  can  take  place,  the  green  leaves,  are  almost 
invariably  strongly  developed. 

In  a  very  interesting  series  of  experiments  carried  on  by  Prof.  G. 
Bonnier  in  his  experiment-station  at  Fontainebleau,1  he  appears  to 
have  established  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  to  produce  artificially  the 
special  characters  of  alpine  plants  grown  in  the  open  air,  by  subject- 
ing lowland  species  to  alternations  of  temperature  comparable  to  those 
to  which  plants  are  subject  at  high  altitudes.  He  took  a  number  of 
familiar  lowland  plants, — Trifolium  repens,  Teucrium  scorodonia,  Senecio 
jacobaea,  Vicia  saliva,  Avena  saliva,  Hordeum  vidgare, — and,  choosing 
in  all  cases  specimens  springing  from  the  same  stock,  grew  them  in 
three  sets :  the  first  set  was  kept  continually  at  a  low  temperature — 
4°-9°  C. ;  the  second  was  grown  under  the  normal  variations  of 
temperature  in  Central  France ;  while  the  third  set  was  subjected  to 
very  low  night  temperatures,  and  to  strong  insolation  during  the  day- 
time. As  a  rule  he  found  that  in  the  third  set  the  subterranean  parts 
of  the  plant  became  more  developed  relatively  to  the  aerial  stems ;  the 
latter  became  shorter  from  an  abbreviation  of  the  internodes,  more  pro- 
cumbent, and  either  more  woody  or  more  hairy;  the  leaves  were 
smaller,  more  fleshy  or  more  hairy ;  the  flowers  were  produced  at  an 
earlier  period,  and  were  relatively  or  even  actually  larger,  and  were 
more  brightly  coloured.  The  internal  structure  of  the  leaf  showed 
corresponding  changes  : — the  epiderm  was  less  strongly  cuticularised  ; 
the  palisade-tissue  became  relatively  more  important ;  and,  in  the 
same  leaf-area,  the  function  of  chlorophyllous  assimilation  became 
more  intense.  If,  as  would  appear  from  these  experiments,  the 
anatomical  and  morphological  characters  of  alpine  plants  are  the 
direct  outcome  of  a  response  to  external  conditions,  and  if  these 
characters  are  perpetuated  from  generation  to  generation,  this  would 
seem  to  afford  strong  evidence  of  the  non-universality  of  Weismann's 
law,  that  acquired  characters  cannot  be  transmitted  by  heredity. 

The  number  of  species  of  which  the  flora  of  the  Alps  is  composed 
varies,  of  course,  with  the  view  entertained  by  the  botanist  of  specific 
limits.      The  late  Mr.  John   Ball,  president  of  the  Alpine   Club,  the 

1  Ann.  Sci.  Nat.  (Botanique),  vol.  xx.  1895,  p.  217  ;  Canutes  Lendus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris, 
vol.  cxxvii.  189S,  p.  307. 


1899]  THE  FLORA  OF  THE  ALPS  113 

highest  authority,  gives  the  number  as  2010,  divided  into  523  genera, 
included  in  96  natural  orders.  This  is  considerably  richer  than  the 
flora  of  our  islands,  notwithstanding  our  extensive  sea-board  and  great 
variety  of  soil  and  climate.  A  very  few  usually  maritime  plants  are, 
however,  found  in  Switzerland,  as  the  thrift  (Armcria  vulgaris  var. 
alpina)  on  lofty  mountains,  and  the  yellow  horned  poppy  (Glaucium 
luteum)  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Neuchatel.  Of  these  species  1117, 
arranged  in  279  genera  and  60  natural  orders,  belong  to  the  upper 
zone  of  the  Alps.  The  largest  number  of  species  occur  in  the  orders 
Compositae,  Leguminosae,  and  Gramineae,  followed  by  the  Cruciferae, 
Cyperaceae,  and  Caryophylleae,  each  numbering  over  100  species. 
Both  in  the  alpine  flora  in  general  and  in  that  of  the  higher  zone,  the 
number  of  Compositae  is  nearly  double  that  of  any  other  order, 
numbering  about  one-eighth  of  the  whole.  Of  the  Saxifragaceae  there 
are  42  species,  of  the  Primulaceae  36,  of  the  Gentianaceae  26. 

The  origin  of  the  flora  of  the  Alps  is  an  interesting  and  somewhat 
complicated  problem.  I  have  already  pointed  out  the  great  difference 
between  the  climatic  conditions  of  Switzerland  and  those  of  the  Arctic 
zone.  In  accordance  with  what  might  be  expected  from  this  fact,  a 
close  examination  of  the  Swiss  flora  led  the  two  highest  authorities  on 
the  subject,  the  late  M.  Alphonse  de  Candolle  and  the  late  Mr.  John 
Ball,  to  the  conclusion  that  its  nearest  connection  is  not  with  the  arctic 
flora,  but  with  that  of  the  mountains  of  Central  Asia,  especially  with 
the  Altai  range.  The  arguments  in  favour  of  this  view  are  very  clearly 
brought  out  by  Sir  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  in  his  introductory  note  to  a 
posthumous  paper  by  Mr.  Ball  on  the  distribution  of  plants  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Alps,  read  before  the  Linnean  Society  on  the  2nd  of 
May  1895,  and  published  in  its  Transactions  (2nd  ser.  vol.  v.). 
According  to  Mr.  Ball,  while  only  17  per  cent  of  the  species  found  in 
the  Alps  are  common  to  the  arctic  flora,  25  per  cent  are  found  also 
on  the  Altai  range.  Still  more  convincing  is  the  interesting  fact  that 
some  of  the  most  remarkable  and  peculiarly  alpine  members  of  the 
Swiss  flora  (genera  or  species)  are  found  only  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Alps,  and  are  distributed  at  wide  intervals  throughout  a  discontinuous 
mountain  chain  extending  from  the  Pyrenees  to  Central  Asia  ;  while 
they  are  entirely  absent  from  Central  and  Northern  Switzerland,  and 
from  the  North  of  Europe.  This  is  the  case  with  species  of 
Oxytropis,  Primula,  and  Pedicularis,  and  especially  with  Campanula 
cenisia  and  its  allies,  and  with  the  genus  Wulfenia. 

I  have  touched  on  only  the  more  conspicuous  features  of  the 
flora  of  the  Alps.  Those  who  have  not  yet  turned  their  attention  in 
this  direction  will  find  how  much  is  added  to  their  enjoyment  of  an 
alpine  tour  by  even  a  slight  acquaintance  with  its  salient  features. 

6  Park  Village  East,  /v^^-^4/   y\ 

Regent's  Park,  N.W.  -^s<^\ 

8 NAT.   SC. VOL.    XV.    NO.    90.  ^W^il 

tuu   LI  IRA  R  Y  VZ\ 
^+*      IS 


The  Scope  of  Natural  Selection. 

By  J.  Lionel  Tayler. 

A  reconsideration  of  a  few  of  the  chief  objections  which  have  from 
time  to  time  been  urged  against  the  theory  of  natural  selection  may, 
in  view  of  the  more  recent  development  of  its  principles,  be  not 
without  some  value  at  a  time  when  test  cases  to  decide  the  question 
of  use -inheritance  and  the  power  of  natural  selection  are  being 
continually  brought  forward. 

In  this  paper  I  shall  throughout  follow  Lloyd  Morgan,  Mark 
Baldwin,  and  others  in  the  precise  usage  of  the  terms,  variation, 
modification,  adaptation,  and  accommodation. 

Variation  will  apply  to  changes  which  are  of  germinal  origin. 
Modification  will  apply  to  changes  which  are  impressed  on  the 

"  body  "  or  soma  in  the  course  of  individual  life. 
Adaptation  will  apply  to  those  changes  which  have  been  produced 

by  the  selection  of  favourable  variations. 
Accommodation  will  apply  to  those  alterations  which  have  been 

produced   by   the   reaction   of  the   soma   to  environmental 

conditions. 

"We  may  seek  to  interpret  the  facts  of  organic  evolution  by 
resting  wholly  or  in  part  upon  one,  or  a  combination  of  more  than 
one,  of  the  following  assumptions  : — 

1.  That  organisms  have  evolved  along  definite  lines,  wholly  or 
chiefly  dependent  upon  the  nature  of  each  organism,  developing  either 
completely  or  partially  irrespective  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  environ- 
ment. On  this  view  the  more  or  less  unsuitable  organisms  are  simply 
eliminated,  but  this  elimination  is  of  little  or  no  importance  in 
development,  the  assumption  being  that  every  organism  that  is  not 
exterminated  evolves  at  its  own  rate,  and  that  its  development  is 
neither  retarded  nor  accelerated  by  the  presence  or  absence  of  other 
organisms. 

2.  That  organisms  are  modifiable  by  environment  and  that 
modifications  so  produced  are  inherited,  the  hereditary  relation  being 
subservient  to  the  action  of  the  environment.  This  assumption  has 
to  be  considered  under  two  heads. 

114 


aug.  1899]        THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  115 

(a)  Accommodations  which  are  the  direct  result  of  environmental 

influence. 

(b)  Accommodations  which  result  from  the  activity  of  the  organism 

itself  in  response  to  its  environment. 

It  is  obvious  that  these  two  classes,  though  not  usually  so  considered, 
are  in  reality  fundamentally  distinct.  Class  (a)  includes  the  only 
kind  of  inherited  characters  that  can  be  truly  called  acquired. 
Class  (b)  includes  what  are  in  reality  merely  developments  of  already 
existing  somatic  tendencies,  which  some  biologists  believe  may,  and 
others  that  they  may  not,  become  germinal.  In  any  case  there  must 
be  an  elementary  something  which  can  be  developed  by  use  or  there 
would  obviously  be  no  development,  but  rather  the  formation  of  a 
new  character,  and  the  accommodation  would  then  have  to  be  classed 
under  (a).  In  class  (a)  the  influence  of  the  environment  in  producing 
a  modification  is  one  of  primary  cause  and  effect ;  in  class  (b),  on  the 
other  hand,  the  influence  of  environment  is  secondary,  it  is  the 
indirect  cause  of  the  degree  of  the  response,  but  not  of  the  capacity  of 
responding  which  exists  in  the  particular  form  of  protoplasm  itself. 
Class  (a)  is  incompatible  with  selection,  for  in  proportion  as  direct 
modification  is  able  to  occur,  the  less  is  the  necessity  of  selection,  and 
this  direct  climatic  influence  must  obviously  be  also  inversely  pro- 
portional to  the  power  of  heredity.  Class  (b),  on  the  other  hand,  is 
not  necessarily  in  opposition  to  the  selection  theory  because  within 
certain  limits  the  more  responsive  the  organism  the  greater  the  rapidity 
of  development,  selection  would  become  simply  more  rigorous,  the 
selection  value  would  be  raised,  the  less  responsive  organisms  being- 
weeded  out. 

There  are  thus  two  separate  questions  in  this  division  to  be 
answered : — ■ 

1.  Does  a  direct  somatic  alteration  of  structure  ever  occur  as  the 

result  of  climatic  or  other  physical  influence,  and  if  so,  how 
frequently  and  under  what  conditions  ?  Do  these  altera- 
tions become  germinal  ?  or 

2.  Do  all,   or    any,   somatic    modifications  to  environment    arise 

as  developments  of  a  pre-existing  element  in  protoplasmic 
structure  ?  If  so,  do  somatic  responses  ever  become  ger- 
minal ?  For  a  clear  statement  of  the  Lamarckian  position 
it  is  necessary  to  determine  the  relation,  if  any  exists,  that 
class  («)  has  to  class  (&). 

3.  By  the  selection  of  organisms  which  possess  favourable  varia- 
tions, and  by  rejection  of  those  which  have  unfavourable,  the  offspring 
resulting  will  tend  to  reproduce  the  favourable  variations  of  their 
parents,  and  the  selection  being  continued  in  every  subsequent 
generation,  so  long  as  conditions  remain  fairly  constant,  there  must 


n6  /.  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

inevitably  result  an  organism  which   tends  to  vary  more  and  more 
definitely. 

To  determine   how  far  evolution  has  been  dependent  on  one  or 
more  of  these  three  factors,  it  is  necessary  to  estimate — 

I.  The  direct  accommodative   power  of  environment  over  proto- 

plasm, if  it  exists. 

II.  The  power  existing  in  protoplasm  of  responding  to  conditions 

which  favour  its  activity,  and  the  relation,  if  any,  that 
somatic  response  bears  to  germinal  in  multicellular  organism. 

III.  Whether  the  responsive  power  (II.)  or  the  direct  influence  of 

environment  (I.)  are  altered  in  relation  to  present  by  past 
accommodations,  or  variations,  or  both,  and  if  so,  the  relative 
importance  of  the  character,  intensity,  and  persistency  of 
these  past  conditions  in  producing  more  or  less  permanent 
or  transitory  modifications  or  variations  in  organisms. 

It  follows  from  the  preceding  argument  that  it  is  necessary  to 
understand  the  theoretical  capability  of  each  of  these  three  sets  of 
factors  to  account  for  the  process  of  evolution,  and  to  endeavour  to 
form  some  estimate  of  the  probable  primitive  material  from  which 
the  present  forms  of  life  have  proceeded. 

In  this  article  I  propose  to  examine  this  question  from  three 
aspects,  first,  the  theoretical  capability  of  natural  selection,  secondly, 
some  of  the  chief  difficulties  advanced  against  this  principle,  and 
lastly,  a  few  of  the  more  general  properties  of  protoplasm  and  the 
inferences  which  these  main  characteristics  appear  to  justify. 

The  Limitations  of  the  Principle  of  Natural  Selection. 

Ever  since  the  publication  of  the  "  Origin  of  the  Species  "  in  1859, 
there  have  been  steadily  rising  into  greater  prominence,  two  lines  of 
thought  which  seem  to  lead  to  fundamentally  opposite  conceptions  of 
the  principles  which  underlie  the  process  of  organic  evolution.  One 
tendency  manifests  itself  in  an  increasingly  marked  disposition  to 
minimise  the  claims  of — use  and  climatic — inheritance,  and  to  explain 
the  course  of  evolution  by  the  single  principle  of  selection  and  certain 
fundamental  properties  of  protoplasm.  The  other  school  of  thought 
tends  as  emphatically  to  disregard  this  selection  principle,  and  to  rely 
on  the  responsive  power  of  protoplasm  and  the  influence  of  environ- 
ment as  the  main  causes  of  evolutionary  development.  Some  of  the 
members  of  this  school  also  add  to  these  assumed  properties  of  proto- 
plasm, other  innate  tendencies  by  which  protoplasm  is  supposed  to  be 
capable  of  developing  along  definite  lines  which  are  independent  of 
environment.  In  the  one  case,  the  supporters  of  selection  maintained 
that,  as  no  case  of  supposed  use-inheritance  had  ever  been  brought 
forward  which  could  not  be  as  easily,  or  even  more  easily,  accounted 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  117 

for  by  the  single  principle  of  survival  of  the  fittest  and  elimination  of 
the  less  fit,  they  were  justified  in  considering  natural  selection  to  be 
the  main  or  sole  principle  in  species  formation.      In  the  other  Neo- 
Lamarckians  based  their  objections  to  natural  selection  on  the  assump- 
tion that  modifications  in  nature  were  always  or  nearly  always  definite, 
that    definite    modifications    were   admittedly   unexplainable    on    the 
selectionist   theory,   it   therefore    followed,    as   nature   could    produce 
definite  modifiability,  without  the  aid  of  natural  selection,  that,  unless 
some  special  and  additional  reason  could  be  found  for  its  existence, 
the  selectionist   principle  must  be  regarded  as  wholly  subsidiary  in 
nature,  and  that  it  could  only  be  regarded  as  a  species-former  in  the 
limited  field  of   the  domesticated   organisms   which  were   under   the 
direct   influence    of   man.       Neither    position   could   be    regarded   as 
satisfactory,  siDce  each  school  of  thought  was  apparently  supported  by 
some  facts,  while  negatived  by  others.      Professor  Lloyd  Morgan,  in  an 
article   contributed   to  Natural   Science  in    1892,  altered   the   whole 
force  of  the  arguments  advanced  on  both  sides  by  demonstrating  the 
fact  that  if  natural  selection  acts  at  all,  it  must  tend,  under  moderately 
constant  conditions,  to  produce  definite  variability  through  survival  of 
the  favourable  line  of  inheritance,  and  extermination  of  the  unfavour- 
able.      This   corollary  to   the  principle   of    selection   he   has   further 
expounded  in  his  work  on  "  Habit  and  Instinct "  in  a  chapter  entitled 
"  Modification  and  Variation." 

In  an  article  published  in  this  journal  for  April  18981  contended 
that  natural  selection  was  capable  of  producing  in  the  whole  organism 
a  general  definite  variability  under  relatively  constant  conditions.  I 
was  at  that  time  unaware  that  Professors  Lloyd  Morgan  and 
Weismann  l  had  both  in  large  part  anticipated  me. 

The  former  writer's  views  may  be  summarised  briefly  as  follows  : — 

The  theory  of  natural  selection,  involving  as  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciple the  assumption  that  an  organism  survives  solely  because  it  has 
certain  favourable  elements  in  its  nature  which  give  it  certain  advan- 
tages in  the  competition  for  existence,  the  less  favoured  organisms 
being  eliminated,  it  follows,  in  so  far  as  parental  characteristics  are 
able  to  influence  those  of  their  offspring,  that  the  progeny  of  successful 
parents  will  be  likely  to  inherit  a  higher  average  of  adaptability  to 
their  environment,  and  as  this  average  adaptability  will  keep  rising 
so  long  as  selection  lasts,  it  will  tend,  under  more  or  less  constant 
conditions,  to  produce  more  or  less  definite  variability.  Definite 
variability  is  not  therefore  necessarily  inconsistent  with  the  principle 
of  selection.  If  it  exists  only  where  the  conditions  are  such  that  the 
principles  of  the  theory  would  lead  any  impartial  biologist  to  expect 
such  definite  variability  it  will  be  strong  confirmation  of  the  truth  of 
the  theory  in  question. 

Every  living  organism  may  be  considered  from  two  aspects — (1)  it 

1  In  his  theory  of  "Germinal  Selection  "  put  forward  in  September  1895  at  Leyden. 


it8  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

tends  to  develop  and  maintain  its  own  structure,  (2)  it  tends  to 
reproduce,  under  suitable  conditions,  other  organisms  more  or  less 
similar  to  itself.  We  have  therefore  to  consider  every  living  form 
from  a  somatic  and  a  germinal  side.  Both  somatic  and  germinal  aspects 
exhibit  two  tendencies  which  are  differently  proportioned  in  different 
organisms,  (1)  to  remain  constant  in  spite  of  variable  external  con- 
ditions, (2)  to  manifest  certain  changes  of  structure.  According  as 
one  or  other  of  these  tendencies  predominate  the  organism  will 
develop  and  reproduce  definitely  or  indefinitely.  In  both  somatic  and 
germinal  development  natural  selection  will  tend  to  favour  the 
requisite  definiteness  or  indefiniteness  of  structure.  The  inheritance 
of  somatic  characters  does  not  appear  to  have  been  established  in  any 
one  of  the  many  alleged  examples ;  the  evidence,  therefore,  that  up  to 
the  present  time  has  been  collected,  would  seem  to  favour  the  con- 
clusion that  if  accommodations  are  ever  inherited  it  is  an  event  of 
extreme  rarity. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  lack  of  evidence  in  support  of  the  inheritance 
of  acquired  characters,  there  seems  to  be  a  considerable  mass  of 
evidence  in  favour  of  the  contention  that  germinal  variations  often 
correspond  in  their  tendencies  to  somatic  accommodations. 

Definite  variability  corresponding  to  environmental  accommodation 
might  however  be  acquired  in  the  following  way.  It  has  already  been 
noticed  that  every  organism,  both  from  its  somatic  and  germinal 
aspects,  exhibits  two  tendencies,  one  towards  definiteness,  the  other 
towards  indefiniteness ;  somatic  indefiniteness  appears  to  be  able  to  be 
modified  by  environmental  influences,  therefore  those  organisms  whose 
somatic  tendency  is  predominantly  plastic  will  survive  under  altered 
conditions  of  environment  where  those  organisms  of  a  less  easily 
modifiable  tendency  will  be  eliminated.  Now  if  somatic  characters 
rarely  or  never  become  germinal,  the  modifications  of  the  parental 
organisms  cannot  be  transmitted  to  their  offspring,  but  those  offspring 
that  happened  to  be  endowed  with  variations  in  the  same  direction  as 
the  acquired  but  not  transmitted  modifications,  would  start  their  life 
with  a  predisposition  favourable  to  their  environment,  and  therefore 
favourable  to  more  complete  modification  of  the  somatic  side  of  the 
organism  ;  this  tendency  being  accumulative  under  constant  conditions, 
coincident  variability  would  arise  by  the  process  of  selective  elimina- 
tion and  preservation,  without  the  need  for  the  assumption  of  use- 
inheritance,  which  assumption  facts  appear  to  negative. 

Coincident  variations  would  thus  have  a  better  chance  of  survival 
simply  because  they  would  be  present  in  the  surviving  organisms,  but 
the  principle  of  selection  would  be  the  same  whether  the  variations 
were  coincident  or  not. 

It  follows  from  the  preceding  argument  that  definite  variability 
is  a  logical  necessity,  under  certain  conditions,  if  the  principle  of 
natural  selection  be  allowed  to  be  a  factor  of  considerable  importance 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  119 

in  organic  evolution.  So  far  all  facts  point  to  the  conclusion  that 
variations  under  stable  conditions  are  definite,  under  unstable  con- 
ditions indefinite,  and  this  definiteness  and  indefiniteness  occur  under 
precisely  those  conditions  which  the  theory  of  natural  selection  would 
lead  one  to  expect ;  hence,  unless  definite  variability  can  be  shown  to 
occur  under  conditions  which  selection  could  not  have  produced,  the 
facts  adduced  by  the  Lamarckian  School  are  favourable  rather  than 
otherwise  to  the  Neo-Darwinian  position. 

To  realise  how  far  the  theory  of  selection  is  capable  of  explaining 
the  facts  of  organic  evolution,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the 
postulates  on  which  the  theory  is  founded. 

1.  It  is  obvious  that  Natural  Selection  can  only  act  by  preserving 
or  eliminating  the  complete  organism.  Selection  must  therefore  be 
organismal.  This  Darwin  and  other  selectionists  have  clearly  recog- 
nised. 

2.  As  the  whole  organism  must  survive,  if  the  favourable  variation 
or  variations  are  to  be  preserved,  it  follows  that  certain  minor 
unfavourable  variations  may  also  be  preserved  if  they  happen  to  exist 
in  an  individual  which  survives  on  account  of  its  major  favourable 
variations.  And  since  no  individual  is  completely  adapted  to  its 
environment,  it  follows  that  there  must  be  always  a  variable  amount 
of  residual  unfavourable  variability  in  every  organism. 

3.  This  residual  unfavourable  variability  may  be  of  considerable 
utility  under  changed  conditions. 

4.  Complementary  specialisation  of  parts,  as  Spencer  has  shown, 
is  favourable  to  successful  competition,  and  as  it  is  the  whole  organism 
that  is  selected  or  eliminated,  it  follows  that  any  weakness  of  one 
specialised  part,  since  it  would  disturb  the  balance  of  all,  would  be 
detrimental.  The  more  complex  the  organism,  the  more  specialised 
the  structures,  the  more  dependent  one  part  will  be  on  the  others  for 
its  existence,  hence  a  complementary  specialising  tendency  will  be 
favoured  by  selection,  and  therefore  all  struggles  of  one  part  of  an 
organism  with  another  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

It  is  clear  that  there  must  be  some  underlying  criterion  which 
determines  whether  any  given  organism  shall  be  selected  or  not,  and 
that  criterion  must  be  the  net  result  of  its  adaptability  to  its  environ- 
ment. One  organism  may  conceivably  survive,  by  its  possession  of  a 
large  number  of  small  favourable  variations,  while  another  may  survive 
in  virtue  of  a  single  valuable  one,  but  in  each  case  it  would  be  the 
whole  value  of  that  organism  which  determined  its  survival.  This 
fact  is  continually  disregarded  by  opponents  of  the  Neo-Darwinian 
position,  yet  this  selection  of  the  organism  as  a  whole  is  the  funda- 
mental postulate  from  which  the  theory  of  selection  starts.  Thus  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  read  criticisms  bearing  on  the  early  development  of 
some  organ,  in  which  the  inadequacy  of  selection  is  supposed  to  be 
proved  by  the  writer  demonstrating,  or  believing  he  has  demonstrated, 


120  J.  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

the  fact  that  the  particular  variation  in  question  must  have  been  too 
small  to  be  by  itself  of  selection  value.      In  many  cases  the  particular 
variation  would,  no  doubt,  if  taken  alone  be,  as  the  objector  asserts, 
too  unimportant  to  be  selected,  but  as  it  is  the  whole  organism  that  is 
selected,  it  is  not  logical  to  make  an  artificial  separation  and  study  the 
development  of  one  organ  or  structure  irrespective  of  the  other  organs 
with  which  it  is  in  nature  associated.      Every  organ  in  its  evolution 
must  be  considered  in  relation  to  the  whole  of  the  particular  organism 
in  which  that  particular  stage  of  development  of  that  organ  is  found. 
Starting  therefore  with  this  fact  that  the  net  value  of  adaptability  of 
the  whole  organism  to  its  environment  must  be  the  basis  which  deter- 
mines selection  or  elimination,  it   will   follow  that   certain   lines   of 
development  will  result  from  the  application  of  this  criterion.      In  a 
series  of  organisms  placed  under  new  conditions,  elimination  will  pro- 
ceed along  lines  essential  to  bring  about  a  proper  adjustment  to  the 
new  conditions.      If  the  offspring  of  these  adjusted  organisms  merely 
repeated  in  their  generation  the  characters  of  the  exterminated  as  well 
as  of  the  surviving  organisms,  that  temporary  adjustment  would  be 
permanent  as  long  as  the  conditions  were  unchanged.      But  since  the 
offspring  are  produced  only  by  the  surviving  organisms,  selection  is 
continually  raised    to   higher  and  higher    planes  of  adaptation,  and 
therefore,   as   long   as   conditions   remain    constant,   the   tendency   of 
selection  must  be,  as  Darwin  clearly  saw,  cumulative.      He  did  not, 
however,  apparently  see  that  from  this  cumulative  tendency  definite 
variability  must  arise  out  of  indefinite. 

Selection  in  direct  relation  to  climatic  conditions  is  therefore  of 
very  minor  importance,  while  selection  among  the  members  of  a 
species  and  all  forms  of  inter-organismal  selection  is  of  infinitely  more 
importance,  since  it  is  this  interaction,  produced  by  the  offspring  in 
different  degrees  inheriting  the  advantages  of  both  parents  (both  of 
whom  have  survived  on  account  of  certain  advantages),  that  leads  to 
the  cumulative  development  and  never-ending  struggle  for  survival. 
Darwin  came  very  near  to  this  conception  of  definite  variability  when 
he  pointed  out  that  "  if  a  country  were  changing  the  altered  conditions 
would  tend  to  cause  variation,  not  but  what  I  believe  most  beings  vary 
at  all  times  enough  for  selection  to  act  on."  Extermination  would 
expose  the  remainder  to  "  the  mutual  action  of  a  different  set  of 
inhabitants,  which  I  believe  to  be  more  important  to  the  life  of  each 
being  than  mere  climate,"  l  and  as  "  the  same  spot  will  support  more 
life  if  occupied  by  very  diverse  forms,"  l  it  is  evident  that  selection 
will  favour  very  great  diversity  of  structure. 

Bearing  in  mind  this  cumulative  action  of  selection  it  will  follow 
that  under  constant  or  relatively  constant  conditions  the  struggle  for 
successful  living  will  become  more  and  more   selective  in  character, 


*o 


1  From  Poulton's  "  Charles  Darwin  and  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection  "  (Abstract  of 
Darwin's  letter  to  Professor  Asa  Gray). 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  121 

even  if  the  actual  number  of  inhabitants  remain  more  or  less  the  same 
as  when  the  struggle  first  commenced.  The  selection  of  variations 
will  thus  tend  to  pass  through  certain  more  or  less  ill-defined  but 
nevertheless  real  stages.  In  proportion  as  the  struggle  becomes  in- 
tense, either  from  the  number  or  from  the  increasing  adaptability  of 
the  organisms,  or  both,  certain  major  essential  adaptations,  which  were 
necessary  for  the  climatic  and  other  more  or  less  comparatively  simple 
conditions,  will  be  supplemented  by  minor  auxiliary  variations  which 
in  the  earlier  stages  would  not  have  appeared.  And  still  later  as 
more  and  more  rigorous  conditions  of  life  were  imposed  the  advantage 
would  tend  to  rest  with  those  organisms  which  possessed  highly  co- 
ordinated adaptations,  since  this  would  entail  more  rapid  responsiveness 
to  environment. 

As  evolution  advances  from  the  unspecialised  to  the  specialised, 
and  higher  and  higher  forms  of  life  come  into  being,  with  increasing 
complexity  and  specialisation  of  parts  entailing  an  increasingly  deli- 
cate adjustment  of  those  parts  to  each  other's  needs,  the  relation  of 
each  part  to  the  whole  organism  becomes  of  more  and  more  import- 
ance, and  it  follows  that  selection  must  become  more  and  more  gener- 
alised in  its  action.  No  single  variation  could  be  of  service  to  any  of 
the  higher  forms  of  life  unless  it  was  in  more  or  less  complete  harmony 
with  the  whole  tendency  of  the  individual.  The  adjustment  of  parts 
and  their  mutual  interdependence  make  it  essential  for  adaptation 
that  the  relation  of  parts  be  preserved  ;  consequently,  correlated 
minute  favourable  variations  will  tend  to  be  more  and  more  selected 
as  evolution  passes  from  the  unspecialised  to  the  specialised  forms  of 
life.  This  response  of  the  whole  organism  should  be  still  more  deli- 
cate in  those  forms  of  life  that  are  continually  subjecting  themselves 
to  changed  conditions ;  hence  this  delicacy  of  adjustment  is  far  more 
necessary  in  the  higher  forms  of  animal  life  than  in  the  more  stationary 
plant  organisms,  and  in  the  developing  nervous  system  of  animals 
we  have  just  the  central  adjusting  system  that  is  required  for  these 
conditions.  With  evolution  of  type,  there  will  thus  he  an  increasingly 
definite  tendency  given  to  organic,  especially  the  animal,  forms  of  life, 
if  the  acting  principle  of  evolution  has  been  selectional.  Selection 
is  therefore  able  to  account  for  the  steadily  progressive  tendency  of 
life  as  a  whole  without  calling  to  its  aid  any  unknown  and  doubtful 
perfecting  principle. 

To  summarise : — Natural  selection,  acting  on  the  whole  organism, 
tends  to  produce  more  and  more  definite  tendencies  in  all  surviving 
forms  of  life,  which  tendencies  are  progressive  and  continuous  in 
character.  Variable  conditions,  by  partially  altering  the  line  of 
selection,  induce  a  temporary  indefiniteness.  And  lastly,  the  process 
of  selection  being  itself  able  to  be  the  indirect,  though  not  the  direct, 
cause  of  those  favourable  variations,  which  it  subsequently  selects  from, 
is  able   to  dispense   with   any  subsidiary   factors,  provided  it  has  a 


122  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

certain  number  of  elementary  properties  of  life  which  afford  sufficient 
material  to  work  with. 


Objections  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection. 

Keeping  constantly  in  view  the  leading  principles  of  the  selection 
theory  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that  the  facts  adduced  by  the  more 
scientific  opponents  of  this  theory  can,  when  the  importance  of  the 
corollary  put  forward  by  Lloyd  Morgan,  and  after  him  by  Weismann, 
is  considered,  be  easily  accounted  for,  and  that  as  they  then  fall  into 
line  with  its  legitimate  deductions  increase  the  strength  of  the  theory 
by  showing  it  to  be  a  more  and  not  less  important  principle  than 
Darwin  and  even  Wallace  were  led  to  believe. 

1.  Variations  are  definite  and  not  indefinite  in  nature. — This 
objection  has  already  been  met  in  the  preceding  part  of  this  article, 
and  as  selection  is  able  to  explain  the  indefinite  variability  which 
arises  from  variable  conditions,  crossing,  etc.,  and  the  constancy  of  type 
from  rational  inbreeding,  it  is  in  more  complete  accord  with  facts 
than  any  mainly  Lamarckian  or  Orthogenetic  theory. 

2.  That  Natural  Selection  cannot  be  the  cause  of  New  Characters 
. — The  alternative  must  be  present  before  the  selection  can  commence. 
If  any  character  or  variation  can  be  shown  to  have  been  produced 
which  differs  qualitatively,  not  merely  quantitatively,  from  its  parental 
forms,  which  is  not  to  be  explained  by  incomplete  development,  atavism, 
or  degeneration  ;  if  any  variation  can  be  shown  to  arise,  which  has 
not  some  pre-existing  though  less  or  more  differentiated  counterpart, 
it  would  form  an  objection  of  considerable  magnitude.  But  as  no 
case  of  the  kind  has  been  put  forward  which  Neo-Darwinians  have 
felt  bound  from  the  strength  of  the  case  to  accept,  this  objection  may 
be  disregarded  until  such  case  arises. 

3.  The  difficulty  of  the  chance  variation  appearing  at  the  right 
moment  is  largely  met  by  the  fact  that  selection  tends  to  induce 
determinate  variability  ;  this  objection  is  still  further  weakened  by  the 
fact  that  even  relatively  rapid  changes  in  nature  are,  as  a  rule,  long  in 
proportion  to  the  life  of  the  individual,  and  afford  considerable  oppor- 
tunities for  selection  working  through  somatic  accommodations  and 
later  coincident  germinal  variability  to  produce  the  required  change. 

4.  That  the  earliest  forms  of  variations  must  have  been  too  small 
and  insignificant  in  character  to  be  of  selectional  value. — This  objection 
appears  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  most  weighty  of  all  the  objections 
which  have  been  raised  to  the  selectional  hypothesis,  and  it  is  further 
an  extremely  difficult  objection  to  satisfactorily  reply  to ;  first,  be- 
cause it  is  almost  impossible  to  say  in  what  form  of  organism  the 
earliest  variations  appeared,  and  without  this  no  judgment  on  the 
value  of  any  small  variation  can  be  of  use ;  secondly,  it  is  equally 
essential   to  know  the  kind  of  environment  which   such   an  organism 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  123 

was  living  in ;  and  lastly,  if  we  were  fully  acquainted  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  organism  and  its  environment  it  would  still  be  difficult 
to  form  any  adequate  opinion  on  the  value  of  such  a  variation,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  this  apparently  simple  organism  would  differ  so  widely 
from  our  own  functional  activity  and  life  that  any  conclusions  formed 
on  comparative  methods  of  testing  its  powers,  etc.,  would  be  extremely 
likely  to  be  fallacious.  If,  however,  we  keep  in  mind  the  facts  that 
(1)  the  whole  and  not  merely  a  part  of  the  organism  is  selected,  and 
that,  therefore,  each  variation  does  not  require  to  be  of  the  same  value 
as  if  selection  depended  on  it  alone ;  (2)  specialisations  are  largely 
quantitative,  between  man  at  one  extreme  of  development  and  a  simple 
unicellular  organism  at  the  other,  the  difference  though  very  great,  is 
mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  man  is  a  huge  multicellular  colony ;  this 
difficulty  will  be  much  simplified.  To  estimate  the  qualitative  difference 
it  is  necessary  to  endeavour  to  determine  the  specialisation  of  an  in- 
dividual cell  in  one  of  those  collective  specialisations  or  organs :  the 
difference  between  a  cell  in,  for  instance,  the  cerebral  cortex  of  man 
and  the  character  of  an  amoeba  is  no  doubt  great,  but  the  amoeba 
reacts  to  stimuli,  though  in  a  less  specialised  form  just  as  the  cortex 
cell  does  ;  in  the  same  way  the  reaction  to  light  in  the  mammalian  eye 
is  not  a  new  development — it  has  its  beginnings  in  the  preference  for 
light  or  darkness  shown  by  many  unicellular  organisms.  These  two 
points  that  selection  is  organismal  and  that  specialisations  are  as,  or 
more,  largely  quantitative  than  qualitative,  weaken  if  they  do  not 
abolish  all  those  difficulties  to  natural  selection  that  are  founded 
on  this  objection,  and  it  is  further  necessary  to  recollect  that  no 
specialisation  has  yet  been  found  which  has  not  a  primitive  counter- 
part in  the  earliest  known  forms  of  life. 

5.  The,  Imperfections  of  the  Geological  Record. — This  is  obviously 
a  much  less  important  objection  than  the  preceding  one.  The  very  large 
areas  of  the  world  that  have  yet  to  be  examined  tend  very  much  to 
weaken  any  objection  founded  on  imperfections  and  absence  of  links. 
And  as  with  increasing  research  these  missing  links  are  being  steadily 
filled  in,  it  follows  that  this  objection  has  become  weaker  and  not 
stronger  with  advancing  knowledge. 

There  are,  however,  certain  points  which  it  is  essential  to  recollect 
in  any  consideration  of  the  imperfections  arising  from  this  cause. 
Lloyd  Morgan  has  pointed  out  that,  as  the  tendency  of  natural 
selection  is  to  favour,  under  appropriate  conditions,  definiteness  both 
in  the  soma  and  in  the  germinal  structures,  the  geological  record  should 
not  be  expected  to  provide  evidence  that  does  not  correspond  to  this 
definite  line  of  development. 

There  is  also  another  point  which  does  not  appear  to  me  to  have 
been  sufficiently  emphasised.  In  the  earlier  part  of  this  paper  I  drew 
attention  to  the  fact  that  Darwin  considered  the  mutual  action  of  a 
different  set  of  inhabitants  arising  from  the  birth  of  a  new  generation 


i24  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

to  be  of  more  importance  than  the  mere  conditions  of  climate,  etc., 
and  inasmuch  as  climatic  selection  will  largely  cease  acting  as  soon 
as  organisms,  capable  of  surviving  at  all  under  these  altered  con- 
ditions, are  produced,  it  follows  that  inter-organismal  action,  which 
is  continuous,  must  be  of  more  importance  in  species  formation  and 
differentiation  of  structure.  But  as  organisms  which  cannot  survive 
under  these  altered  conditions  will  be  eliminated,  it  follows  that  the 
more  obvious  structural  changes  will  be  largely  produced  by  this 
temporary  climatic  selection,  and  this  form  of  selection  will  be  re- 
markably rapid  in  its  action  relatively  to  the  inter-organismal 
selection.  Hence  the  obvious  structural  changes  induced  by  climatic 
selection  will  have  less  chance  of  leaving  a  geological  record  behind 
them  than  the  less  obvious  variations  induced  by  inter-organismal 
selection.  For  this  reason  certain  imperfections  in  the  record  are 
likely,  and  should  be  expected,  to  arise. 

6.  That  the  period  of  time  is  too  short  for  such  great  alterations 
of  structure  to  have  taken  place. — As  the  rapidity  or  slowness  of 
structural  alterations  will  depend  on  the  local  surrounding  conditions, 
it  follows  that,  until  some  fairly  complete  record  of  these  local  condi- 
tions is  obtainable,  no  objection  as  to  time  limit  can  be  logically 
raised. 

7.  The  co-ordination  of  parts  necessary  for  the  development  of 
favourable  adaptations. — Spencer  has  pointed  out  that  co-ordination 

of  many  parts  to  form  one  adaptation  is  based  on  a  different  principle 
to  the  cumulative  results  of  many  different  variations  each  of  which 
is  of  selective  value,  and  urged  that  natural  selection  is  powerless  to 
explain  this  co-existent  adaptation. 

Wallace,  in  referring  to  this  subject,  says  : — "  The  fact,  that  in  all 
domestic  animals,  variations  do  occur,  rendering  them  swifter  or 
stronger,  larger  or  smaller,  stouter  or  slenderer,  and  that  such  varia- 
tions can  be  selected  and  accumulated  for  man's  purpose,  is  sufficient 
to  render  it  certain  that  similar  or  even  greater  changes  may  be 
effected  by  natural  selection,  which  as  Darwin  well  remarks  '  acts  on 
every  internal  organ,  on  every  shade  of  constitutional  difference,  on 
the  whole  machinery  of  life.'  The  difficulty  as  to  co-adaptation  of 
parts  by  variation  and  natural  selection  appears  to  me,  therefore,  to 
be  a  wholly  imaginary  difficulty  which  has  no  place  whatever  in  the 
operations  of  nature."  1  This  criticism  does  not  appear  to  me  to  do 
justice  to  Spencer's  objection ;  he  would  no  doubt  agree  with  Wallace 
that  these  accessory  variations  can  be  developed  by  selection,  but  he 
would  go  one  step  farther  back  and  ask  why  it  is  that  the  accessory 
variations  happen  to  be  there  to  be  selected  from  at  all.  He  would 
agree  to  the  fact  that  selection  must  act  on  the  whole  machinery  of 
life,  but  he  would  still  urge  that  he  is  unable  to  see  how  it  is  that  all 
these  numerous  accessory  variations  which  are  necessary  to  the  working 

1   "Darwinism,"  p.  418. 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  125 

of  one  variation  happen  to  be  present  at  one  and  the  same  time.      His 
difficulty  therefore  does  not  appear  to  me  to  be  answered  by  Wallace. 

Weismann,1  admitting  the  objection  of  Spencer's  as  having  a  real 
existence,  attempts  to  answer  it  by  the  tendency  of  natural  selection 
itself  to  induce  definite  variability.  This  answer  does  not  seem  to 
me  to  be  much  more  satisfactory  than  Wallace's,  for  the  point  of  the 
argument  is,  that  as  the  accessory  variations  are  necessary  to  the  proper 
working  of  the  primary  they  must  be  present  from  the  first  selection,  and 
as  determinate  selection  can  only  appear  after  selection  has  been  con- 
tinued for  some  generations  it  must  be  unable  to  explain  this  occurrence 
of  co-ordinated  parts  which  occurs  prior  to  the  action  of  selection. 

Mr.  Lloyd  Morgan  in  the  December  number  of  Natural  Science 
deals  with  this  difficulty  in  a  manner  which  appears  to  me  to  be  much 
more  satisfactory.  We  have  seen  in  the  brief  summary  of  his  views 
that  he  draws  an  important  distinction  between  somatic  response  to 
environment  and  the  selection  of  germinal  variations,  that  under 
altered  conditions  of  environment  he  considers  somatic  plasticity  to 
be  one  of  the  principal  determining  causes  of  selective  preservation, 
and  as  he  admits  the  action  of  use -modification  on  the  somatic 
structures,  those  organisms  whose  somatic  structures  are  sufficiently 
plastic  to  allow  of  this  newer  co-adjustment  to  the  newer  conditions 
will  survive  on  account  of  their  plasticity,  and  this  will  continue  to 
happen  over  one  or  more  generations  until  chance  variations  happen 
to  make  their  appearance  in  the  same  direction  as  the  environment, 
then  the  offspring  of  this  organism  or  these  organisms  will  start  life 
with  a  slight  favourable  predisposition  to  their  environment,  which  in 
addition  to  somatic  plasticity  will  give  them  a  slightly  better  chance 
than  those  without  this  predisposition,  hence  by  the  fostering  power 
of  body  response  a  co-ordinate  structure  might  be  formed  through 
cumulative  co-incident  variability.  This  objection  therefore  does  not 
apply  to  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection  modified  as  above. 

Keeping  in  view  this  theory  of  co-incident  variability,  there  is 
another  consideration  which  will  also  tend  to  weaken  this  objection. 
As  selection  must  be  from  the  first  organismal,  and  as  adaptation  to 
climatic  conditions  must  be  absolute,  as  far  as  it  is  capable  of  exercis- 
ing a  selective  action,  a  certain  common  tendency  will  be  present  in 
all  more  or  less  similar  organisms  living  under  these  more  or 
less  similar  physical  conditions.  This  primitive  climatic  basis  will 
give  a  certain  direction  to  the  subsequent  inter-organismal  selection, 
and  we  have  seen  that  with  progressive  evolution  the  necessary 
specialisation  entails  an  increasingly  definite  tendency  in  the  organism 
as  a  whole,  owing  to  the  increasing  dependence  of  one  part  on  another : 
hence  it  will  follow  that  all  variations  will  tend  to  become  increasingly 
co-ordinated  as  they  become  increasingly  specialised,  and  they  will  also 
become  increasingly  so  as  we  pass  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  forms. 

1   "  Germinal  Selection." 


126  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

There  will  thus  be  very  little  tendency  for  incoordinated  variations  to 
appear,  and  this  tendency  will  diminish  with  evolution  of  type. 

8.  That  organisms  not  uncommonly  exhibit  a  more  perfect  organisa- 
tion than  their  environment  demands. — This  statement  is  frecmently 
associated  with  other  similar  objections,  some  of  which,  such  as 
definite  variability,  and  varying  degrees  of  capacity  to  vary  in  different 
animals,  have  already  been  met ;  it  is  also  asserted  that  animals  some- 
times manifest  at  the  earlier  periods  of  their  lives  a  higher  condition 
than  at  a  later  period,  and  that  this  higher  earlier  condition  cannot 
be  explained  by  any  assumption  of  reversion  in  the  later  stages  of 
growth,  thus  it  is  asserted  that  the  infant  ape  is  much  nearer  to  man 
than  the  adult  ape,  etc. 

All  these  assumptions  have  as  a  basis  the  conscious  or  half 
conscious  belief  in  some  unknown  internal  force  which  is  capable  of 
producing  evolution  of  type  independently  of  environment.  To 
Lamarckian  and  selectionist  theories  alike  any  such  force,  were  it 
proved  to  exist,  would  be  largely  fatal. 

It  has  been  shown  that  an  increasingly  definite  tendency  in 
organisms  evolved  through  the  principle  of  natural  selection  is  what 
on  theoretical  grounds  one  would  be  led  to  expect — that  the  preserva- 
tion of  a  definite  relation  of  one  part  to  another  becomes  of  increasing 
importance  with  increasing  specialisation.  That  this  is  actually  the 
case,  the  facts  associated  with  "  internal  secretion  "  in  man  and  the 
higher  mammals  clearly  prove.  The  thyroid,  kidney,  liver,  pancreas, 
testes,  and  ovaries,  etc.,  have  been  shown  to  exert  some  remarkably 
important  influence  on  the  nutrition  of  the  whole  body,  and  this  influ- 
ence in  the  case  of  the  thyroid,  and  less  certainly  in  other  organs, 
has  been  found  to  be  produced  through  the  throwing  off  of  certain 
products  into  the  circulation  which  are  necessary  to  the  metabolism  of 
the  whole  body. 

On  any  theory  of  complementary  specialisation  of  parts  such  facts 
are  easily  understandable.  A  chemical  circle  of  nutrition  would  be  the 
most  economical  way  of  maintaining  tissue  activity ;  if  each  organism 
can  act  chiefly  on  some  particular  substance,  one  organ  or  tissue  re- 
quiring a  more  complex  food  material  than  another  to  carry  on  its 
metabolism,  then  the  waste  product  of  one  organ  might  be  used  as 
a  food  product  by  the  next  in  this  food  series,  until  the  last  organ 
of  this  series,  having  obtained  all  the  energy  from  this  material, 
excretes  this  simpler  substance,  which  cannot  be  further  utilised  by 
the  body,  into  some  channel  where  it  is  got  rid  of.  Some  such 
hypothesis  is  necessary  to  explain  the  facts,  and  the  increasing  series  of 
progressively  simpler  products,  although  still  incomplete,  that  have 
been  obtained,  which  are  allied  to  uric  acid  and  other  substances,  lends 
considerable  support  to  this  theory.  There  would  be  thus  a  serial 
specialisation  of  food  supply  among  the  tissues  of  each  organism  which 
would  be  as  economical  as  the  specialisation  of  food  supply  among 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  127 

individual  organisms  competing  in  nature.  Now  this  close  relation  of 
one  part  to  another  which  is  characteristic  of  the  adult  organism  is 
also  equally  characteristic  of  the  developing  one,  and,  keeping  this 
sequence  of  nutrition  in  view,  each  organism  starting  from  a  more  or 
less  quantitatively  generalised  substance,  evolves  to  quantitatively 
specialised  structure,  in  the  building  up  of  which  every  antecedent 
stage  of  development  is  necessary,  and  forms  a  basis  for  the  later  stages, 
it  will  follow  that  a  definite,  regular  order  will  be  developed ;  and 
hence  definiteness  in  groivth  and  development  is  as  essential  as  definite- 
ness  in  the  relation  of  one  part  of  a  specialised  organism  to  another. 
That  this  necessary  sequence  in  development  is  no  mere  unsupported 
conjecture  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  relation  of  parts  alters  with 
growth,  an  organ  occupying  a  first  place  in  activity  at  one  period  may 
become  second  or  third  at  another,  this  alteration  of  the  relative  size 
of  different  organs  to  the  whole  body  at  different  ages  must  be  of  some 
value  to  the  whole  organism  or  it  is  unlikely  that  it  would  be  perpetu- 
ated ;  the  thymus  gland  affords  a  typical  example  of  this — it  appears  in 
some  way  to  be  associated  with  development,  it  reaches  its  maximum 
size  in  man  about  two  years  after  birth,  and  then  slowly  shrivels  up ; 
the  presumption  is  that  at  that  period  it  had  some  function  to  perform 
which  ceases  to  be  required.  If  we  assume  a  metabolic  sequence  in 
structure  we  explain  this  varying  relation  of  parts,  and  we  explain  its 
definite  character,  and  this  sequence,  as  in  other  specialisations,  would 
be  subject  to  the  influence  of  natural  selection ;  so  far  preservation 
of  different  stages  of  growth  can  be  easily  accounted  for  on  a  selec- 
tion hypothesis  if  this  necessary  chemical  sequence  is  assumed,  and 
without  it  no  theory  has  as  yet  explained  the  facts. 

There  thus  remains  from  this  objection  only  those  cases  where 
there  is  an  apparent  or  real  foreshadowing  of  a  higher  evolutionary 
type.  Now  before  this  foreshadowing  can  be  used  as  an  objection,  it 
has  first  to  be  determined  how  far  it  is  real  or  not.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  ovum  of  one  animal  resembles  another  considerably,  and  that 
the  higher  animals,  as  they  pass  through  successive  stages  of  their 
development,  resemble  more  or  less  incompletely  certain  lower  forms  of 
adult  organisms,  and  this  has  led  to  the  assumption  of  the  recapitula- 
tion theory.  Were  it  possible  to  reverse  the  order  of  evolution  and 
proceed  backward,  we  should  find  all  types  converging  towards  unity, 
and  while  this  applies  to  the  whole  line  of  development,  it  equally 
applies  to  lesser  portions  of  it.  As  the  infant  ape  is  less  specialised 
than  the  adult  ape  it  is  more  likely  to  present  similarities  to  man,  not 
on  account  of  an  actual  foreshadowing,  but  simply  because,  being  more 
generalised  in  structure,  it  is  less  easy  to  mark  off  differences ;  for  pre- 
cisely the  same  reason  a  human  child  might  appear  nearer  to  some 
ideal  and  higher  type  of  man. 

Until  this  fictitious  resemblance  is  dealt  with  this  objection  can 
be  disregarded.      Further,  as  many  biologists  have  already  pointed  out, 


128  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [august 

there  is  always  a  certain  excess  force,  which  would  be   fostered   by 
selection,  sufficient  to  provide  for  emergencies. 

9.   Rudiments  and  their  disappearance. — It  is  assumed  that  there 
will  come  a  point  where  the  rudiment  ivill  be  of  such  slight  significance 
that  it  will  no  longer  be  of  selection  value,  hence  it  is  urged  that  the  fact 
that  rudiments  do  tend  to  completely  disappear,  is  against  any  purely 
selectionist  principle.      Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  possibilities  of 
reversal  of  selection,  panmixia,  etc.,  it  appears  to  me  that  there  is  a 
comparatively   simple  cause   for   this   disappearance.       George  Henry 
Lewes,  Wilhelm   Roux,  and  more   recently  Weismann,  have  all  fallen 
back  on  the  assumed  necessity  of  applying  the  principle  of  selection  to 
the   several  parts  and  specialisations  of  the  individual  organism,  in 
addition  to  the  action  of  selection  on  the  whole  organism.      The  last 
writer   in   particular,  in   his   "  Germinal    Selection,"    suggests  that  a 
struggle  among  the  different  parts  of  the  germ-plasm  may  account 
for  the  complete   disappearance  of  rudiments,  this  germinal  selection 
thus  supplementing  the  action  of  panmixia,  personal  or  organismal 
selection,   etc.       Now    the    necessity   for    increased    co-ordination    of 
parts  with  increasing  specialisation,  entailing,  as  it  necessarily  must, 
an  increasing  mutual  dependence  of  each  part  on  the  others,  must  lead 
as   the   type  advances  to  diminished  opportunity  for   any  struggle  of 
parts  in  the  organism,  consequently  if  such   a   struggle  exist  at  all  it 
must  be  limited  to  the  most  undifferentiated  organisms.      I   do  not 
therefore  see  how  this  principle  can  explain  the  disappearance  of  rudi- 
ments in  any  of  the  more  specialised  organisms,  hence  it  does  not  seem 
to   be   sufficient  answer   to   the  above-mentioned  difficulty.       In   the 
development  of  the  individual  we  see  a  disappearance  of  structures, 
which   appear  to  become  with  advancing  development  useless,  almost 
parallel  to  the  gradual  disappearance  of  rudiments,  etc.,  in  the  history 
of  the  species  evolution.      And  a  common  explanation  for  both  of  these 
series  of  phenomena  can,  I  believe,  be  satisfactorily  found  in  the  known 
facts  of  nutrition.      Growth   of  any  tissue  would  seem  to  depend  on 
three  conditions,  a  stimulus  of  the   part  adequate  to  promote  func- 
tional activity,  a  proper  food  supply,  and  efficient  removal  of  products 
produced   by    that   particular   tissue's   activity.       There   is   abundant 
evidence  to  prove  that  a  tissue  tends  to  degenerate  if  its  own  excretory 
products  are  not  removed  ;  the  evil  effects  produced  by  fatigue  products 
in  muscle  and  other  tissues   on   the  activity  of  the  tissue  itself  prove 
that  this  factor  must  be  of  great  importance  wherever  it  is  found  to 
occur.     Just  as  the  growth  and  development  of  bacteria  is  interfered 
with,  and  finally  altogether  checked  by  the  accumulation  of  products  of 
their  own  activity,  so  a  tissue  in  the  higher  organisms  has  its  activity 
impaired  and  its  power  lessened   when  for  some  reason   diminished 
elimination  of  its   own  metabolic  products  occurs.      Now  both  in  the 
development  of  the  individual  and  the  race  we  see  an  alteration  of 
structure,  a  gradual  transition  from  the  less  to  the  more  specialised, 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  129 

and  in  this  gradual  transition  there  must  be,  as  I  endeavoured  to 
prove  in  niy  answer  to  the  last  objection,  an  alteration  in  the  line  of 
functional  activity  of  the  parts,  and  that,  owing  to  this  fact,  a  tissue 
that  was  necessary  in  the  earlier  stages,  became  less  and  less  so  as 
specialisation  advanced,  the  whole  tendency  of  the  specialising  organism 
being  continually  and  increasingly  against  the  earlier,  less  specialised, 
stages.  It  will  thus  happen  that  every  structure  which  is  becoming- 
useless  owing  to  its  deficient  specialisation,  whether  in  the  history  of 
the  race  or  the  individual,  will  have  two  adverse  sets  of  conditions  to 
contend  with — one  defective  elimination  of  its  own  tissue  products, 
owing  to  its  becoming  increasingly  removed  from  the  growing  organismal 
specialisation  of  food  products,  while  secondly,  for  this  same  reason, 
its  own  food  supply  will  become  less  and  less  suitable.-  This  theory 
would  apply  equally  to  germinal  and  somatic  development  and  atrophy 
of  structure ;  there  would  thus,  through  the  alteration  of  functional 
activity  of  the  whole  organism,  be  brought  about  elimination  of  all 
structures  not  in  the  line  of  evolution,  and  therefore  organismal 
selection  alone,  if  this  theory  is  sound,  would  be  able  to  explain  the 
complete  disappearance  of  rudiments,  the  various  forms  of  develop- 
ment and  atrophy,  without  calling  to  its  aid  climatic  inheritance, 
panmixia,  and  germinal  or  any  other  form  of  particular  selection. 

The  only  two  other  important  objections  against  the  principle  of 
selection  are  (1)  those  cases  where  it  is  assumed  that  automatism 
produced  by  habit  has  become  hereditary  (instinctive),1  an  assumption 
which  an  examination  of  the  facts  does  not  appear  to  warrant,  and 
(2),  those  cases  which  are  supposed  to  be  examples  of  experimental 
demonstration  of  acquired  inheritance. 

In  the  best  known  of  these  experiments,  particularly  those  per- 
formed by  Brown-Sequard,  we  have  certain  facts  which  appear  to  show 
that  under  very  exceptional  conditions  somatic  injuries  may  affect 
germinal  structures.  Assuming  that  reliance  may  be  placed  on  this 
interpretation  of  these  experiments,  an  interpretation  which  future 
facts  might  conceivably  negative,  there  are  other  facts  associated  with 
the  relation  of  environment,  alcohol,  etc.,  to  crime  and  insanity  which 
would  seem  to  offer  some  slight  confirmation  of  this  view.  If  further 
investigation  proved  the  possibility  of  somatic  responses  affecting 
occasionally  the  germinal  structures,  it  would  only  affect  any  theory  of 
heredity  which  was  based  on  the  assumption  that  somatic  and  ger- 
minal elements  were  completely  isolated.  The  purely  selectionist 
position  would  remain  intact  unless  direct  climatic  accommodation  could 
be  also  proved  to  be  a  factor  of  importance.  The  objections  to  the 
selectionist  theory  do  not  appear,  therefore,  when  examined,  to  be  valid. 

1  See  Lloyd   Morgan's   "Comparative  Psychology"   and  "Habit  and  Instinct,"  and 
Mr.  E.  L.  Thorndike's  experiments. 

{To  he  continued.) 

9 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    90. 


Stray  Impressions  of  the  Marine  Invertebrates  of 
Singapore  and  Neighbouring  Islets. 

By  F.  P.  Bedford,  M.A. 

Nearly  all  the  facts  mentioned  in  the  following  account  are  probably 
well  known,  but  so  few  English  naturalists  seem  to  have  visited  the 
Malay  Peninsula  with  the  object  of  studying  its  marine  invertebrate 
fauna,  and  my  own  preconceptions  of  marine  tropical  life  derived  from 
lectures,  books,  and  specimens,  which  more  or  less  faintly  recalled 
their  original  form  and  colour,  were  so  vague  and  so  often  erroneous, 
that  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  there  may  be  many  who,  from  lack 
of  the  opportunity  or  possibly  the  desire  to  travel  in  the  tropics,  may 
be  in  a  similar  predicament.  If  this  is  so,  a  few  of  the  impressions 
produced  on  one's  mind  may  not  be  entirely  devoid  of  interest. 

No  doubt  all  who  are  interested  in  the  subject  will  have  read  such 
books  as  Professor  Hickson's  "Naturalist  in  North  Celebes  "  and  Professor 
Semper's  "  Animal  Life,"  books  written  in  a  most  suggestive  and  lucid 
style,  made  the  more  convincing  by  the  intimate  practical  knowledge 
which  the  authors  possessed  of  the  animals  they  describe.  I  cannot 
of  course  pretend  to  any  such  knowledge  on  my  own  part,  and  I 
would  not  venture  to  traverse  ground  which  has  already  been  so  ad- 
mirably reconnoitred,  but  there  is  a  purely  superficial  aspect  of  the 
subject  which  some  months'  collecting  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Singa- 
pore has  impressed  on  my  mind,  and  which  may  be  worth  attempting 
to  describe  before  it  has  become  obscured  by  the  details  which  assume 
an  increasingly  prominent  position  in  one's  thoughts  the  longer  one 
collects. 

One  of  the  first  impressions  produced  when  one  either  turns  over  stones 
or  digs  at  low-tide,  or  dredges  or  trawls  in  the  sea  beyond,  or  examines 
the  results  of  surface  tow-nettings  after  dark,  is  the  marked  similarity 
of  the  fauna  to  that  of  our  English  coasts.  At  or  near  the  surface  at 
night  are  Appendiculariae,  Copepoda,  Malacostracan  larvae,  Chaetognatha, 
Medusae,  Siphonophora,  and  Ctenophora,  many  of  which,  to  the  naked 
eye  at  least,  are  quite  indistinguishable  from  those  which  might  be 
obtained  in  a  similar  way  at  Plymouth  or  Port  Erin,  such  forms  as 
Heteropoda,  Pteropoda,  and  the  larger  pelagic  Tunicates  being  by  no 

no 


Aug.  1899]   MARINE  INVERTEBRATES  OF  SINGAPORE  131 

means  common  as  a  rule.  In  the  dredge  are  obtained,  according  to 
the  depth  of  water,  nature  of  the  substratum,  strength  of  currents, 
etc.,  different  forms  of  invertebrates  which,  as  a  rule,  recall  at  once 
some  English  genus,  the  most  noticeable  being  perhaps  the  Sponges, 
Hydroids,  Gorgonians,  Polyzoa,  Ascidians,  and  the  five  groups  of 
Echinoderms.  The  littoral  fauna  is  not  at  first  sight  strikingly  unusual 
except  in  those  places  where  the  reef-building  corals  flourish ;  here 
undoubtedly  a  surprise  awaits  any  zoologist  who  sees  them  for  the  first 
time.  Often  as  he  may  have  seen  the  beautiful  photographs  in  Saville- 
Kent's  well-known  work  on  the  Australian  Barrier-reef  or  collections 
of  coral  such  as  are  exhibited  at  the  Natural  History  Museum  at 
South  Kensington,  or  often  as  he  may  have  read  the  accounts  of 
Darwin,  Dana,  Murray,  Semper,  and  others  on  the  formation  of  coral 
reefs,  he  will  hardly,  until  he  is  brought  face  to  face  with  the  reality, 
have  been  able  to  form  a  mental  picture  which  at  all  adequately 
represents  the  actual  charm  and  beauty  of  the  living  coral,  reposing 
calmly  "  like  a  flower  garden "  (as  I  think  Moseley  described  it) 
beneath  the  seemingly  unnatural  transparency  of  a  tropical  sea. 

In  these  shallower  waters,  which  rarely  exceed  a  depth  of  30 
fathoms,  the  reefs  differ  considerably  from  those  usually  described,  and 
a  short  account  of  them  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

The  reef-building  corals  form  a  fringe  which  is  by  no  means  always 
continuous  round  the  islets  or  on  the  margin  of  the  coast ;  on  the 
latter  especially  there  are  extensive  tracts  covered  with  sand  or  mud, 
and  with  occasional  mangrove  swamp,  but  totally  devoid  of  reefs,  coral 
being  represented  by  small  clumps  distributed  very  sparsely  at 
intervals  of  often  several  yards.  In  places  where  the  reef  is  present, 
its  distance  from  the  shore  varies  from  a  few  yards  to  half  a  mile  or 
more,  and  in  many  cases  no  part  of  the  reef  proper  is  dry  at  low  spring- 
tides ;  the  actual  width  of  the  reef  itself  is  also  very  variable,  but 
rarely  exceeds  about  ten  yards  ;  on  its  outward  edge  it  slopes  somewhat 
abruptly  to  about  five  or  six  fathoms,  and  then  more  gradually  seawards. 
Between  the  reef  and  the  shore  there  is  nearly  always  a  flat  covered 
with  mud,  and  very  often  with  an  abundant  growth  of  brown  sea-weed 
which  harbours  a  large  fauna.  This  mud  flat  is  very  nearly  level,  and 
at  lowest  spring-tides  there  is  left  about  a  foot  of  water  in  the  deepest 
parts,  the  highest  portions  of  the  "  flat  "  being  just  dry.  The  mud  some- 
times extends  nearly  up  to  high- water  mark,  but  as  a  rule  it  is  separated 
from  the  land  by  a  belt  of  sandy  or  rocky  ground,  or  occasionally  by 
projecting  volcanic  rocks  excavated  by  the  sea  into  hollows,  which  on 
the  retreat  of  the  water  form  tide-pools,  and  contain  numerous  nooks 
and  crannies  in  which  molluscs,  crabs,  and  other  animals  find  a  hiding- 
place.  Here  at  any  rate  at  first  sight  the  naturalist  will  readily  admit 
that  he  might  be  on  English  ground.  As  he  looked  more  closely  he 
would  probably  see  large  fleshy  Alcyonarians  abounding  on  the  mud- 
flat,  and  to  some  extent  replacing  our  anemones,  the  latter  being  only 


1 32  F  P.  BEDFORD  [august 

locally  common  ;  he  might  also  see  large  Holothurians  basking  in  the  sun, 
either  stationary  or  crawling  slowly  over  the  mud,  but  the  commonest 
groups  would  be  those  that  he  was  already  accustomed  to.  Hermit- 
crabs  abound  everywhere,  and  at  night  the  shore  will  sometimes  be 
almost  covered  with  them ;  crabs  and  prawns  shelter  themselves  in 
crevices  or  under  stones  or  in  the  sand,  and  Spatangids,  Chaetopods, 
and  Gephyreans  make  their  burrows  in  the  sand  or  rocks  ;  limpets, 
too,  of  a  diminutive  size  it  is  true,  but  still  obvious  limpets,  stick  to 
the  rocks  with  the  same  tenacious  grip  as  elsewhere,  and  obviously 
fill  the  same  place  in  the  economy  of  nature ;  our  common  littoral  Gas- 
teropod  genera,  such  as  Nassa,  Purpura,  Littorina,  Trochus,  etc.,  are 
represented  by  forms  closely  similar  both  in  form  and  habits,  and 
many  of  the  species  seem  to  have  extremely  variable  coloration  as  on 
our  own  coasts ;  in  fact  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  characteristic 
difference.  Polychaet  tabes  project  from  the  surface  on  nearly  every 
sand-flat,  Lamellibranchs  abound  in  the  mud  and  bore  into  rocks  and 
wooden  landing-stages,  Nudibranchs  of  brilliant  colours,  together  with 
Polyclads,  creep  about  on  stones  and  sea-weed,  and  even  the  abundant 
Pcriophthalmus  which  forms  so  marked  a  feature  of  the  littoral  fauna 
as  it  bounds  over  the  surface  of  the  pools,  or  rests  on  some  adjacent 
object  just  above  the  water,  is  after  all  only  a  goby,  such  as  every  boy- 
naturalist  delights  to  hunt  at  home. 

The  conclusion  thus  seems  forced  on  our  attention  that  the  broad 
features  of  marine  life,  the  modes  of  adaptation  of  different  groups  to 
their  inorganic  environment,  and  the  modes  of  life  adopted  in  their 
mutual  rivalries  of  offence  and  defence,  are  to  a  very  considerable  extent 
independent  of  geographical  position  or  climatic  influence,  and  what  is 
perhaps  more  surprising,  they  would  seem  to  be  independent  of  the 
marked  differences  which  undoubtedly  exist  among  the  higher  verte- 
brates. The  presence  of  numerous  kinds  of  tropical  sea-birds,  of  sea- 
snakes,  of  crocodiles,  and  of  a  host  of  curious  fish  seems  to  have  made 
a  scarcely  appreciable  impression  on  the  habits  of  the  lower  forms  : 
and  from  what  we  know  of  fossil  fauna,  commencing  from  the  Olenellus 
and  other  faunas  of  the  earliest  fossiliferous  rocks  which  have  retained 
the  imperfect  relics  of  but  a  few  of  their  once  living  inhabitants,  it 
might  be  surmised  that  from  that  time  onwards  these  same  broad 
features  have  persisted  all  the  world  over,  altered  but  slightly  from 
time  to  time  by  the  subsequent  evolution  from  some  of  them  of  the 
Decapod  Crustacea,  Vertebrates,  and  other  "  higher "  forms.  No 
doubt,  too,  in  a  similar  way  the  exclusively  tropical  forms,  among 
which  we  may  perhaps  regard  the  reef-building  corals  as  in  this  respect 
the  most  important,  have  led  to  modification  of  the  animals  dependent 
on  them,  but  from  a  superficial  point  of  view  at  least,  the  crabs,  prawns, 
Cirripedes,  Lamellibranchs,  and  Holothurians  that  live  associated  with 
them  do  not  differ  very  considerably  from  their  allies  which  are 
surrounded  by  other  environments. 


1899]  MARINE  INVERTEBRATES  OF  SINGAPORE  133 

By  most  writers  on  tropical  zoology  much  stress  lias  been  laid  on 
these  modifications,  and  we  have  all  repeatedly  been  told  of  the 
brilliant  coloration  of  tropical  marine  animals,  of  the  way  in  which 
hermit-crabs  wander  far  inland,  of  fresh- water  crabs,  etc.,  but  to  my 
mind  the  resemblances  are  much  more  striking  than  the  differences, 
and  all  that  I  have  attempted  in  the  present  article  is  to  give  some 
idea,  necessarily  very  imperfect,  of  the  general  impression  produced 
when  collecting  for  the  first  time  in  these  waters,  and  if  it  is  thought 
that  more  detailed  facts  are  required  before  any  generalisations  are 
possible,  I  can  only  hope  that  at  some  future  time  I  may  be  able  to 
contribute  my  mite  to  the  common  store. 

Raffles  Museum, 
Singapore. 


A  Theory  of  Sleep. 

By  Professor  A.  L.  Herrera. 

Sleep  is  not  peculiar  to  man,  for  it  presents  itself  in  every  organism. 
"  Protozoa  themselves  sleep,"  says  Milne  Edwards,  and  sleep  must, 
therefore,  have  quite  a  general  cause.  Some  substances  (narcotics, 
anaesthetics)  provoke  sleep  either  by  dehydration  or  by  producing  con- 
gestion in  the  nervous  centres,  etc.  On  the  other  hand,  sleep  does  not 
invade  every  organ  in  the  same  manner  ;  it  presents  itself  sporadically  in 
such  organs  as  happen  to  be  extremely  tired,  or  in  those  that  are  not 
well  fed.      It  does  not,  in  short,  essentially  differ  from  hibernal  sleep. 

Let  us  seek  then  for  a  philosophical  explanation  comprising  every 
particular  case  and  requiring  no  suppositions  nor  vitalistic  theories.  I 
find  but  one  entirely  general  cause :  the  delay  of  the  protoplasmic 
currents  in  which  life  consists,  as  I  stated  in  a  special  paper  on  this 
subject.1 

The  Sleep  of  Plants. 

In  animals  sleep  is  characterised  by  the  flaccidity  of  their 
locomotor  organs,  whilst  leaves  remain  in  their  nocturnal  state  on 
account  of  a  very  remarkable  rigidity  that  seizes  them.  Linnaeus  once 
received  from  Prof.  Sauvageau  of  Montpellier  a  shoot  of  Lotus  ornitho- 
podioides  L.,  which  began  to  nourish  in  a  hot-house  at  the  garden  of 
Upsala.  The  great  botanist  examined  the  flowers  directly  they  opened 
and  observed  that  they  disappeared  on  the  same  night.  He  believed 
at  first  that  they  had  been  thoughtlessly  cut  away,  but  had  to  acknow- 
ledge his  mistake  next  day,  as  the  disappearance  of  the  flowers  at 
night  depends  completely  on  the  close  approach  of  the  adjoining 
leaves  which  form  a  kind  of  shelter  for  them.  This  observation 
afforded  cause  for  fresh  investigations,  and  it  was  discovered  that 
every  species  of  plants  opens  and  shuts  itself  at  an  appointed  hour,  etc. 

Explanation. — "  The  motor  dilatation  occurring  in  some  leaves  at 
the  base  of  the  petiole  is  due  to  two  antagonistic  factors,  the  one 
tending  to  raise  the  leaf,  the  other  trying  to  bend  it,  but  the  former, 
being  by  nature  the   weakest,  acquires   an   additional  force  whenever 

1  "Protoplasmic  Currents  and  Vital  Force,"  Natural  Science,  April  1899. 

l34 


August  1899]  A  THEORY  OF  SLEEP  135 

light  and  heat,  endowed  with  a  certain  degree  of  intensity,  produce  an 
abundance  of  sap  in  the  cells  which  increases  the  turgescence  :  it  can 
then  resist  the  action  of  the  opposite  factor."  In  short,  this  is  but  a 
mechanical  effect  of  the  delay  of  the  nutritive  currents  coming  up  the 
leaves. 

Dreams. 

These  vary  both  in  essence  and  degree  according  to  the  state  of 
the  dreamer's  circulation.  Some  hygienic  exercise  or  the  repetition  of 
a  lesson  may  probably  cause  certain  neurons  to  go  on  moving  during 
sleep.  But  when  they  have  worked  too  actively  in  the  course  of  the 
day  they  are  liable  to  be  utterly  drained  and  exhausted  when  night 
comes,  and  when  such  is  the  case  there  may  be  dreaming  of  the  facts 
that  brought  their  fatigue  about.  An  assiduous  exercise  of  the 
neurons  may  facilitate  their  continuous  development  and  action  {e.g. 
in  the  student  dreaming  about  his  examinations  again  and  again). 
Contrariwise,  the  absence  of  new  impressions,  or  a  limited  exercise 
during  the  day,  will  allow  the  uniform  rest  of  all  the  neurons  and  a 
thorough  absence  of  nightmare  (husbandmen). 

Fixed  ideas  lead  to  madness,  perhaps  on  account  of  an  atrophy  of 
the  inactive  parts,  some  limited  congestions,  hypertrophies,  etc.  This 
is  no  business  of  mine,  but  I  must  state  that  the  possibility  of  the 
functions  of  some  cerebral  centres  being  accomplished  independently 
is  made  manifest  during  sleep.  This  means  that  certain  neurons 
become  associated  in  an  abnormal  way,  extending  themselves  too  much, 
and  that  diseases  of  mind,  disordered  neuroplasmic  vibrations,  are  not 
inhibited  by  the  more  powerful  vibrations  of  sound  judgment,  this 
being  then  peacefully  slumbering. 

Causes  of  Sleep. 

Theories  on  this  subject  are  by  no  means  wanting,  but  they  con- 
cern man  only ;  they  are  not  capable  of  general  application,  and  leave 
the  innermost  mechanism  of  the  phenomena  unexplained.  I  admit,  if 
necessary,  the  action  of  poisons  and  that  of  the  secretions  of  the 
organism  accumulated  during  the  day,  but  chloroform  and  hypnotism 
work  in  the  same  manner.  "Whether  the  brain  be  congested  or 
whether  it  be  anaemic,  its  functions  are  deeply  modified  on  account  of 
the  delay  of  the  currents.  Moreover,  the  lowest  animals  (Protozoa) 
sleep  and  wake  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  of  their  activity. 

I  believe,  therefore,  that  sleep  originates,  either  in  man  or  infusorian, 
in  a  delay  or  slowing  of  the  protoplasmic  or  neuroplasmic  currents, 
due  to  refrigeration,  lack  of  nutritive  fluids,  congestion  or  anaemia. 
Everything  grows  wearied.  Everything  bores  and  is  bored.  Both 
Biitschli's  foam  and  my  protoplasmic  mass  made  by  synthesis, 
cease  from  visible  movement  after  a  certain  period  of  activity.      Briefly, 


136  A.  L.  HERRERA  [august 

it  is  a  mere  question  of  provisions.  When  the  oxidisable  ferment  is 
spent,  when  zymoses  decrease,  and  almost  all  the  material  carried  from 
the  external  to  the  internal  medium  is  wasted,  it  is  but  natural  that 
movements  and  currents  become  slower  and  slower.  The  organism  is 
then  said  to  be  sleeping.  And  how  many  degrees  there  are  from  the 
simple  yawn  and  somnolence  to  the  drowsiness  of  a  worn-out  and 
fatigued  traveller !  But  currents  do  not  cease  entirely — death  is  not 
the  issue.  The  transport  of  materials  is  slowly  continued  from  the 
digestive  apparatus  to  the  recesses  of  the  organism,  from  the  outside  to 
the  inside. 

In  wakening  organisms  oxidations  increase  little  by  little  (just  as 
in  Butschli's  plasm  when  heated) ;  the  current  is  augmented  (as  in 
Herrera's  plasm  when  it  receives  a  slight  addition  of  peptone) ;  the  re- 
agents in  the  laboratory  begin  to  bustle,  the  forge's  reverberations  swell, 
and  the  hymn  of  work  grows  louder  and  louder  until  it  finally  attains 
the  pitch  of  thunder.  Bear  this  in  mind,  that  the  act  of  waking  is  a 
slow  one,  having  many  degrees  and  shades.  At  the  break  of  day  our 
sleep  is  light,  and  we  begin  lazily  to  stir  ourselves  without  even  open- 
ing our  eyes,  whilst  we  remain  fluctuating  in  a  pleasant  languor. 

Keep  this  rule  in  mind ;  whenever  there  is  a  cause,  be  it  y,  z,  or 
n  that  modifies  nutrition,  sleep  will  increase  in  the  exhausted  con- 
valescent, in  the  newly-delivered  mother,  in  the  child  endowed  with  an 
exceedingly  active  circulation,  in  the  inhabitant  of  the  tropics  whose 
salts  and  water  are  perpetually  drained  by  the  everlasting  cupping- 
glass  of  climate,  in  the  traveller,  in  the  drunkard,  in  Butschli's 
"  artificial  protoplasm,"  and  in  my  own  when  seen  under  the  micro- 
scope at  their  respective  periods  of  activity  and  asthenia,  in  the  glutton 
who  ingests  and  absorbs  large  quantities  of  nutritive  material,  and  in 
the  youth  who  has  provoked  great  waves  of  commotion  which  propa- 
gate themselves  through  vast  nervous  territories.  On  the  contrary,  old 
people  and  sedentary  persons  sleep  both  badly  and  scantily,  as  they 
stand  in  waiting  for  death. 

I  do  not  admit,  0  metaphysicians  !  the  existence  of  any  hard  and 
fast  line  between  sleep,  this  anaesthetic  of  life,  and  waking.  I  do  not 
believe,  0  vitalists  !  that  an  organism  can  ever  be  either  completely 
awake  or  completely  asleep.  There  is  always  something  living,  one 
organ  sleeping  and  another  palpitating.  A  goose  never  happens  to 
shut  both  its  eyes  at  once.  My  own  heart  has  at  no  time  slept  as  my 
brain  does ;  it  hardly  ever  rests,  poor  perpetual  sentinel !  And  you, 
0  muscles  ?  We  yawn,  wake  and  work  too.  There  are  some  dis- 
inherited, beggared  organs  sleeping  in  ascetics.  Yet,  there  is  a  weak 
and  slow  nutritive  current  even  there. 

I  deny,  then,  any  hard  and  fast  line ;  there  are  no  barriers  between 
sleeping  and  waking,  just  as  there  are  no  absolutely  separated  and 
divided  things  in  nature,  whether  stars  or  organisms. 

But    the    day   comes    when    both    the    currents    and    the    general 


1899]  A  THEORY  OF  SLEEP  137 

irrigation  cease ;  my  Amazon  is  dry  and  the  pale  brain  can  drink  no 
more  from  the  drained  internal  stream.  True  sleep  comes  then. 
Cadaverous  decomposition  is,  however,  accompanied  with  some  slight 
currents  which  are  neither  protoplasmic  nor  co-ordinated. 


About  some  Particular  Cases. 

(a)  Trance. — This  consists  in  the  diminution  of  certain  currents, 
and  is  a  more  limited  sleep  than  that  effected  in  normal  conditions. 
Hypnotizers  avail  themselves  of  several  means  of  fixing  or  inhibiting 
currents  (compression  of  the  eyes,  staring,  gazing  at  a  brilliant  object, 
or  suggestion,  that  is,  the  inhibiting  action  of  the  will  on  some  nervous 
currents  of  a  particular  sort). 

(5)  The  sleep  of  nocturnal  animals  in  the  course  of  day  is  related 
to  the  action  of  light.  In  Mexico  bats  have  been  observed  to  issue 
from  their  dens  during  eclipses  of  the  sun  ;  gnats  flutter  in  rooms  during 
day-time  as  soon  as  all  doors  are  shut  so  as  to  leave  the  apartment  in 
the  dark.  Everyone  has  seen  that  owls  close  their  eyelids  whenever  a 
vivid  light  strikes  them. 

(c)  Muscular  Relaxation  during  Sleep. — I  believe  that  muscular 
contractions  are  due  to  certain  changes  in  the  volume  of  the  proto- 
plasmic alveoli.  Ehumbler  has  demonstrated  that  such  is  the  possible 
cause  of  mytosis,  and  that  the  rows  of  small  alveoli,  when  these  are 
partly  emptied,  diminish  in  volume  and  exercise  a  strong  tension  on 
the  centrosomes.  The  dynamical  influence  of  those  changes  being- 
wanting  when  nerves  are  sleeping,  and  there  are  no  waves  nor  modi- 
fications in  the  intra-alveolar  pressure,  it  is  clear  that  muscles  must 
relax. 

The  same  happens  in  several  pathological  cases  under  the  influence 
of  fatigue  or  of  certain  depressing  emotions,  etc.  This  means  that  I 
suppose  nervous  waves  to  provoke  the  passage  of  the  alveolar  enchy- 
lema  into  the  protoplasm  of  the  muscles  either  by  the  mechanical 
action  of  the  shock  or  by  an  increase  of  hydrostatic  pressure.  I  do 
not  deny  that  the  latter  have  the  structure  and  elasticity  required. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  muscular  wave  moves  along  the  muscles 
of  ants  in  such  a  way  that  it  is  observable  under  the  microscope.  This 
could  not  be  the  case  in  a  homogeneous  liquid. 

(d)  Naturalists  faithful  to  the  old  school  would  find  a  remarkable 
"  harmony  "  in  the  following  fact : — 

According  to  Van  Beneden  the  intestinal  worms  of  bats  enter  into 
a  period  of  hibernal  sleep  at  the  same  time  as  their  hosts.  That  is  to 
say  that  the  deep  protoplasmic  currents  are  delayed  both  in  the  host 
and  its  parasite  by  lack  of  nourishment. 


138  A.  L.  HERRERA  [attgtist 


Summary  (concerning  every  living  thing). 

Nutritive  currents  are  endowed  with  a  very  great  velocity  in 
active  life. 

Nutritive  currents  (sap,  blood,  protoplasmic  currents)  are  periodically 
delayed  by  the  want  of  the  reserves  expended  during  the  day,  and  the 
result  is  sleep. 

The  same  currents  may  be  less  active  during  the  day  on  account  of 
inaction  or  of  some  other  cause,  and  the  result  is  somnolence.  This 
may  also  be  ascribed  to  nervous  excitation. 

Currents  delayed  by  the  constant  action  of  cold — Sleep  in  winter. 

Currents  delayed  by  an  excess  of  external  heat — Sleep  in  summer. 

Currents  delayed  or  even  utterly  prevented  by  lack  of  moisture — 
Latent  life. 

General  co-ordinated  currents  definitely  stopped  by  coagulation, 
poisoning,  hemorrhages,  asphyxia,  etc. — Death. 


An  Artificial  Schematic  Organism. 

The  principal  varieties  of  sleep,  life,  and  activity  may  be  illustrated 
by  an  organism  which  I  have  constructed.  It  can  be  modified  and 
perfected  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  several  may  be  brought  into  con- 
nection. It  consists  of  a  damp  chamber  bounded  by  walls  of  cement 
and  gypsum,  or  a  paste  of  carbonate  of  lead  and  linseed  oil  (skin)  with 
efferent  capillary  tubes  (excretory  apparatus).  Between  the  two  glasses 
and  the  two  partitions  there  are  big  drops  of  Biitschli's  cytoplasm  or 
"  artificial  protoplasm  "  and  water.  In  the  middle  stands  a  digestive 
apparatus  formed  of  thin  caoutchouc  or  of  a  snake's  lung ;  two  tubes 
of  glass  serve  to  keep  it  open  at  the  ends,  and  it  is  made  narrower 
in  the  middle ;  it  receives  food  (peptone,  water,  and  some  sugar 
solutions)  through  one  end  and  expels  it  through  the  other.  For  this 
purpose  the  mouth  is  covered  after  filling  the  cavity.  The  whole  is 
afterwards  heated  by  means  of  a  small  oil-lamp,  and  then  cooled  or 
dried,  whilst  the  currents  and  the  osmotic  phenomena,  the  deposits, 
concretions,  etc.,  are  observed.  The  internal  currents  and  movements 
are  stimulated  or  paralysed  according  to  the  conditions  mimicking 
those  called  vital.  As  respiration  cannot  be  imitated,  the  heat  afforded 
by  oxidations  may  be  replaced  by  that  furnished  by  the  small  oil-lamp  : 
after  all  it  is  exactly  the  same  thing.  The  two  glasses  being  difficult 
to  unite  they  may  be  replaced  by  Vierordt's  glass-box  or  haemato- 
chrometer. 

Note. 

In  a  relatively  young  country,  such  as  Mexico,  investigations  con- 
cerning General  Biology  are  very  difficult.      Science  has  fructified  here 


1899] 


A  THEORY  OF  SLEEP 


i39 


only  for  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years,  and  that  beneath  the  shade  of 
a  most  complete  and  dispiriting  peace.  There  is  a  lack  of  teachers, 
books,  laboratories,  and  intellectual  vigour — the  latter  chiefly.  Con- 
sequently, although  it  would  make  me  happy,  I  dare  not  beg  for  the 
protection  of  the  learned  foreign  corporations,  considering  myself  un- 
qualified for  it,  but  I  will  at  least  beg  that  some  indulgence  be  shown 
regarding  the  imperfections  with  which  all  my  works  do  surely  abound. 

Mexico,  April  30,  1899. 


FRESH    FACTS. 


Pump  Benthos.  W.  P.  Hay.  "  Description  of  a  new  species  of  subter- 
ranean Isopod,"  Proc.  U.S.  Nat.  Mm.  xxi.  1899,  pp.  871-872,  pi.  lxxxvi. 
Forty  or  fifty  specimens  were  obtained  from  an  old  well  in  Irvington,  Marion 
County,  Indiana.  They  were  evidently  strictly  aquatic.  The  pump  in  the  well 
drew  water  from  the  bottom,  and  the  animals  could  be  obtained  only  by 
vigorous  work.  After  capture  they  lived  for  some  hours  in  a  jar  of  water, 
crawling  about  on  the  bottom,  very  much  after  the  manner  of  Asellus.  While 
in  the  water  the  swimming  feet  gently  moved  up  and  down  with  a  fanlike 
motion.  Several  of  the  females  carried  eggs,  six  or  eight  of  which  were  sufficient 
to  fill  the  brood  pouch.  The  species  is  named  Haplophthalmm  puteus.  Other 
species  of  the  genus  are  inhabitants  of  moist  situations,  such  as  decaying  leaves 
and  wood,  in  various  localities  in  Europe.  It  is  also  closely  related  to  Scypha- 
cella  (Haplophthalmus?)  arenicola,  which  has  been  found  burrowing  in  the  sand 
in  a  number  of  localities  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America. 


't3 


A  Zoological  Puzzle.  William  Morton  Wheeler.  "  The  Life-history 
of  Dicyema"  Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii.  1899,  pp.  169-176.  The  author's  observations 
suggest  a  new  conception  of  the  life-history  of  Dicyema,  which  has  been  for  a 
long  time  a  zoological  puzzle.  He  believes  that  the  same  Dicyema  is  at  first  a 
"  nematogen "  (or  female  produced  from  parthenogenetic  ova  and  producing 
other  females  parthenogenetically),  and  then  a  "rhombogen"  (producing  Avhat 
are  called  infusiform  embryos  which  arise  from  fertilised  ova  and  are  really 
males).  "  As  in  so  many  other  cases  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  the 
males  make  their  appearance  when  the  conditions  of  life  become  unfavourable, 
viz.  after  the  kidney  (of  Octopus)  is  well-peopled  with  Dicyemids  and  food  is 
less  abundant."  Mr.  Wheeler  believes  that  the  structural  and  developmental 
peculiarities  of  the  Dicyemids  entitle  them  to  a  more  independent  rank  than 
that  of  an  appendix  to  the  flat-worms. 

How  Young  Duckmoles  get  Milk.  V.  Sixta.  "  Wie  junge  Ornitho- 
rhynchi  die  Milch  ihrer  Mutter  saugen,"  Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii.  1899,  pp.  241-246. 
Prof.  Sixta  has  been  informed  by  Alois  Topic*,  who  lived  for  many  years  in 
Australia,  that  the  mother  duckmole  lies  down  on  her  back,  and  that  the  two 
young  ones  press  the  milk  out  through  the  sieve-like  apertures  with  their  bills. 
The  milk  flows  into  a  median  groove  which  is  formed  by  the  longitudinal 
muscles.  Until  they  are  12  cms.  in  length  the  young  remain  in  the  nest ;  when 
they  measure  20  cms.  they  are  taken  by  the  mother  into  the  water. 

Smell  in  Birds.  Xavier  Raspail.  "  Le  sens  de  l'odorat  chez  les  oiseaux." 
Bull.  Soc.  Zool.  France,  xxiv.  1899,  pp.  92-102.  It  is  a  common  statement 
that  while  nocturnal  birds  have  a  fine  sense  of  smell,  the  diurnal  birds  of  prey 
are  guided  solely  by  sight.  Indeed,  in  many  good  zoological  works,  the  sense 
of  smell  in  birds  is  said  to  be  almost  nil.  Against  this,  Baspail  protests 
vigorously,  and  cites  his  observations  on  rooks,  magpies,  and  blackbirds,  which 

140 


august  1899]  FRESH  FACTS  141 

seem  to  show  that  the  sense  of  smell  is  well  developed.  He  goes  the  length  of 
saying  that  birds  are  endowed  with  the  sense  of  smell  at  least  equal  to  that  of 
the  dog. 

Nuclei  of  Mammalian  Red  Blood  Corpuscles.  A.  Negri.  "  Ueber  die 
Persistenz  des  Kernes  in  den  roten  Blutkorperchen  erwachsener  Saugethiere," 
Anat.  Anzeig.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  33-38.  The  student  who  in  his  practical  examina- 
tion identifies  distinctly  nucleated  red  blood  corpuscles  as  mammalian  does  not 
win  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  examiner,  and  this  is  perhaps  well.  But  Mr.  A. 
Negri,  stud,  med.,  has  shown  that  there  is  still  relevancy  in  inquiring  into  the 
possible  persistence  of  the  nucleus  in  the  red  blood  corpuscles  of  adult  mammals. 
The  persistence  of  a  nucleus  has  been  asserted  repeatedly,  and,  we  believe, 
always  given  up.  Perhaps  only  Petrone  has  stood  to  his  guns  and  maintained 
contra  mwidum  that  to  say  the  nucleus  is  absent  is  to  confess  ignorance  of  the 
proper  method  for  its  discovery.  Negri  has  worked  with  Petrone's  method,  but 
finds  that  Petrone's  "  nucleus "  is  to  be  found  in  the  embryo  along  with,  but 
distinct  from,  the  nucleus  which  is  still  evident  in  the  red  blood  corpuscles  in 
intrauterine  life. 

Urns  op  Sipunculus.  S.  J.  Metalnikoff.  "  Das  Blut  und  die  Excretions- 
organe  von  Sipunculus  nudus,"  MT.  Zool.  Stat.  Neapel,  xiii.  1899,  pp.  440-447. 
The  strange  multicellular  ciliated  bodies  which  occur  in  the  body  cavity  and 
blood  of  Sipunculids  have  been  much  discussed  and  variously  interpreted. 
According  to  Metalnikoff,  they  arise,  in  part  at  least,  on  the  internal  walls 
of  the  blood  vessels,  and  serve  to  protect  the  animal  from  the  ill-effects  of  hard 
particles  which  may  be  ruptured  from  the  gut  into  the  body  cavity.  The 
suggestion  of  Cuenot  and  others  that  the  urns  by  their  rapid  movements  help  to 
compensate  for  the  absence  of  a  heart  is  also  accepted. 

Beetles  in  Self -Defence.  L.  Bordas.  "Les  glandes  defensives  ou 
glandes  anales  des  Coleopteres,"  Ann.  Fac.  Sci.  Marseille,  ix.  Fasc.  v.  pp.  1-45, 
2  pis.  In  this  memoir,  which  our  French  colleague  has  been  kind  enough  to 
send  us,  it  is  shown  that  the  majority  of  beetles  (Cicindclidae,  Carabinae, 
Harpalinae,  Feroniinae,  Brachininae,  Dytiscidae,  Gyrinidae,  Staphylinidae, 
Silphidae,  etc.)  possess  in  the  posterior  abdominal  region  a  pair  of  glands, 
disposed  in  a  cluster  or  in  a  tube,  producing  a  secretion  which  is  forcibly 
ejected  in  self-defence.  These  anal  or  defensive  glands  belong  to  the  last 
abdominal  segment,  and  consist  of  a  glandular  portion,  an  efferent  canal,  a 
reservoir  or  receptacle,  and  an  excretory  duct. 

Devonian  Rocks  of  Arctic  Europe.  Th.  Tschernyschew  and  N. 
Jakowlew.  "Die  Kalksteinfauna  des  Cap  Grebeni  auf  der  Waigatsch-Insel 
und  des  Flusses  Nechwatowa  auf  Nowaja-Semlja,"  Verhandl.  Fuss.  Kais. 
Mineral.  Ges.  xxxvi.  pp.  55-99,  pis.  vi.-viii.  1899.  Many  authors  have  written 
much  on  the  Palaeozoic  rocks  and  fossils  of  Waigatsch  and  Nova  Zembla,  but 
their  statements  have  lacked  precision,  their  conclusions  definiteness.  Two 
horizons  are  here  determined  in  Waigatsch.  The  one,  containing  Spirifer 
waigatschensis,  n.  sp.  and  five  other  brachiopods,  is  paralleled  with  the  upper 
limestones  of  the  Middle  Devonian  in  the  Ural,  containing  Spirifer  anossqfi  and 
Stringocephalus  burtini.  The  other,  furnishing  Froetus  ivaigatschensis,  Lichas 
(Dicranogmus)  lindstromi,  Leptodomus  borealis,  Spirifer  parvuhis,  n.  spp., 
appears  equivalent  to  the  limestone  of  Nova  Zembla,  which  contains  Cardiola 
lehmanni,  n.  sp.  Other  fossils,  such  as  Orthoceras  cinctum,  0.  cf.  tentacidare, 
Whitfieldella  didyma,  Leperditia  nordenskioldi,  show  that  this  is  not  older  than 
Middle  Devonian. 


SOME  NEW  BOOKS. 

EAST  AFRICAN  SPORT. 

Sport  in  East  Central  Africa,  being  an  account  of  Hunting  Trips  in  Portu- 
guese and  other  districts  of  East  Central  Africa.  By  F.  Vaughan 
Kirby.  8vo,  pp.  xvi.  +  340,  with  4  plates.  London:  Rowland 
Ward,  Limited,  1899.     Price  8s.  6d. 

Mr.  Kirby  is  already  known  to  the  sporting  world  as  the  author  of  "  In 
Haunts  of  Wild  Game  " ;  and  the  interesting  experiences  narrated  in  the  latter 
Avork  naturally  lead  the  reader  to  expect  as  many  exciting  adventures  in  the 
new  venture.  In  this  matter  it  may  confidently  be  said  that  expectation  will 
not  be  disappointed ;  the  adventures  which  befell  the  intrepid  author  in  his 
pursuit  of  lions,  elephants,  hippopotami,  and  rhinoceros  being  little  short  of 
marvellous,  although  all  bearing  the  mark  of  truth.  The  greater  part  of  the 
country  traversed  by  Mr.  Kirby  lies  in  the  provinces  of  British  Central  Africa 
and  Portuguese  East  Africa,  and  those  who  follow  in  his  footsteps  will  doubt- 
less benefit  much  by  the  descriptions  given  of  the  different  routes.  It  would, 
however,  have  been  a  decided  advantage  if  the  publishers  could  have  seen 
their  way  to  issue  an  explanatory  map,  but  the  price  at  which  the  book  is  sold 
probably  rendered  this  impossible.  In  his  first  work  the  author  showed  a 
tendency  to  write  unduly  long  and  complex  sentences;  and  we  are  glad  to 
notice  an  improvement  in  this  respect  in  the  present  volume,  although  in  some 
cases  a  still  further  curtailment,  both  as  regards  length  of  sentences  and 
general  redundancy  of  expression,  would  be  desirable. 

Much  of  the  volume  is  taken  up  by  the  ordinary  routine  of  marching  and 
camp-life ;  but  in  the  second  half  the  real  sporting  adventures  are  so  thickly 
crowded  that  almost  every  page  is  of  thrilling  interest.  In  this  part  of  the 
Dark  Continent  at  any  rate,  unless  the  rinderpest  has  subsequently  done  its 
fell  work  of  destruction,  the  game  is  evidently  not  yet  on  the  verge  of 
extermination. 

But  Mr.  Kirby  is  something  more  than  the  ordinary  sportsman,  and  dis- 
plays a  keen  interest  in  Natural  History.  This  is  exemplified  by  the  well 
written  appendix,  in  which  all  the  larger  species  of  mammals  met  with  during 
the  trip  are  recorded,  with  notes  on  their  distribution  and  habits.  In  one 
respect  the  author  displays  a  curious  ignorance,  this  being  his  failure  to  grasp 
the  meaning  of  the  term  "  type  "  in  Zoology.  For  instance,  on  page  338,  he 
falls  foul  of  the  editor  of  the  "Royal  Natural  History"  for  calling  the  original 
white-legged  variety  of  BurchelPs  zebra  the  typical  form,  on  account  of  its  not 
being  the  one  met  with  commonly  at  the  present  day !  Of  course  the  editor 
of  the  "Royal  Natural  History"  is  perfectly  right,  and  his  would-be  critic, 
hopelessly  wrong. 

To  those  interested  in  a  comparatively  little  known  portion  of  Africa,  Mr. 
Kirby's  volume  may  be  cordially  commended,  and  we  may  at  the  same  time 
call  attention  to  the  very  valuable  series  of  works  on  African  sport  and  natural 
history  now  in  course  of  publication  by  Mr.  Rowland  Ward. 

142 


august  1899]  THE  BRAINS  OF  MAMMALS  14; 


THE  BRAINS  OF  MAMMALS. 

Handbuch  der  Anatomie  und  vergleichenden  Anatomie  der  Centralnerven- 
Systems  der  Saugethiere  :  I.  Makroscopischer  Theil.  By  Drs.  E.  Flatau 
and  S.  Jacobsohn.  Svo,  pp.  xvi.  +578,  with  7  plates  and  126  figs. 
Berlin:  S.  Karger,  1899.     Price  22  marks. 

Perhaps  we  can  bestow  no  greater  praise  on  this  elaborate  and  bulky 
treatise  (which,  by  the  way,  only  forms  a  first  instalment  of  the  complete  work) 
than  the  expression  of  the  wish  that  it  may  be  found  possible  to  republish  it 
on  a  reduced  scale  in  English.  We  say  in  an  abbreviated  form  on  purpose, 
because  in  these  high -pressure  times  there  is  scarcely  any  one  save  the 
specialist  who  can  afford  time  to  wade  through  the  mass  of  detail  brought 
together  by  the  learned  author ;  and  it  is  important  that  students  of  mammals, 
other  than  brain-specialists,  should  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the  lead- 
ing facts  of  the  present  line  of  investigation.  Although,  so  far  as  we  are 
aware,  there  is  no  work  in  English  specially  devoted  to  the  central  nervous 
system  of  mammals,  we  are  glad  to  see  the  authors  of  the  volume  before  us 
confessing  their  indebtedness  to  British  investigators  like  Cunningham,  Bed- 
dard,  and  Garrod. 

The  plan  adopted  by  the  authors  is  to  take  leading  representatives  of  the 
various  mammalian  orders  in  regular  sequence  and  to  describe  in  detail  the 
brain-characters  in  each,  more  space  being  naturally  devoted  to  the  complicated 
brain  of  the  Chimpanzee  than  is  assigned  to  its  simpler  representative  in  the 
Duckbill  or  Echidna.  One  method  of  illustration  that  especially  commends 
itself  to  us  is  the  delineation  of  the  position  of  the  chief  cerebral  sulci  on  the 
outer  surface  of  the  skull  of  the  animal  to  which  the  brain  in  question  pertains. 
By  this  means  an  excellent  idea  is  gained  not  only  of  the  relative  proportion  of 
the  brain  to  the  skull,  but  also  as  to  the  relative  complexity  of  brain-convolu- 
tion in  different  animals.  At  the  close  of  the  work  are  given  the  general 
results  of  the  authors'  investigations ;  and  some  very  interesting  facts  are 
recorded  as  to  the  relation  of  the  volume  of  the  brain  to  that  of  the  skull,  the 
absolute  brain-weight,  and  the  relation  of  the  latter  to  the  corporeal  weight. 
Needless  to  say  that  these  investigations  tend  in  no  wise  to  a  revival  of  the 
cerebral  classification  of  Mammals  attempted  by  Owen. 

In  only  one  respect  have  we  to  find  fault  with  the  authors,  and  this  relates 
to  the  names  employed  for  some  of  the  animals  treated  of.  It  is  a  well-known 
complaint  on  the  part  of  systematists  that  anatomical  and  physiological  writers 
are  generally  remiss  in  regard  to  nomenclature,  but  it  is  seldom  that  we 
encounter  such  a  gross  anachronism  as  the  retention  of  the  name  Simla  troglo- 
dytes for  the  Chimpanzee.  Several  minor  errors  in  nomenclature  also  occur. 
And  here  it  is  desirable  to  warn  the  advocates  of  radical  changes  in  mammalian 
nomenclature  that  such  are  scarcely  ever  adopted  by  non-systematists  (who 
probably  never  see  them),  so  that  instead  of  promoting  uniformity,  which  is 
the  only  justifiable  plea  for  their  introduction,  such  changes  in  names  only  lead 
to  worse  confusion  than  ever.  The  volume  closes  with  a  comprehensive  list  of 
literature,  in  regard  to  which  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  is  a  pity  some  person 
with  a  better  knowledge  of  English  than  is  apparently  possessed  by  the  authors 
was  not  asked  to  read  the  proof-sheets. 

The  work,  when  complete,  will  doubtless  long  remain  the  standard  authority 
on  the  interesting  but  difficult  subject  of  which  it  treats. 


144  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [august 

"  OUTLINES." 

Outlines  of  Zoology.  By  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  XI.A.  Third  Edition, 
Revised  and  Enlarged.  8vo.  pp.  819,  with  332  illustrations.  Edinburgh 
&  London:   Young  J.  Pentland,  1899.     Price  15s. 

Professor  J.  Arthur  Thomson  is  to  be  heartily  congratulated  on  the  issue  of 
the  third  edition  of  this  well-known  text-book.  In  the  space  of  819  pages  the 
author  touches  upon  almost  every  side  of  zoological  science.  As  the  title  of  the 
work  explains  it  is  simply  "  Outlines,"  and  although  there  is  always  a  danger 
in  treating  of  the  multiplicity  of  subjects  herein  contained,  we  are  forcibly 
impressed  with  the  freshness  and  clearness  with  which  they  are  presented. 

This  is  the  only  zoological  text-book  in  the  English  language  which  aims  at 
a  complete  review  of  zoological  science,  and  the  best  evidence  that  such  a  work 
was  wanted  and  is  appreciated  by  teachers  and  students  of  zoology,  is  suj)plied 
by  the  issue  of  the  present  edition. 

The  correlation  of  structure  and  function  which  is  emphasised  throughout 
the  work  is  an  admirable  feature,  as  also  the  "up-to-dateness"  which  cannot 
fail  to  stimulate  the  student. 

Many  new  figures  have  been  added  and  some  corrected.  While  the  revision 
of  the  illustrations  was  taking  place  it  is  a  pity  that  some  of  those  which  have 
done  duty  for  so  long  have  not  been  eliminated,  such  for  instance  are  Fig.  73 
representing  the  proglottis  of  a  Cestode  ("Constructed  from  Leuckart")  in 
which  the  nervous  system  is  omitted,  Fig.  83  of  the  reproductive  organs  of 
Lumbricus  (after  Hering)  in  which  the  ovaries  are  incorrectly  figured,  Fig.  150 
a  "dissection  of  Helix  pomatia  (mainly  after  Leuckart")  in  which  the  position 
of  the  heart  is  wrongly  shown.  It  is  questionable  if  figures  199  and  215  are 
worth  the  space  they  occupy,  while  Figs.  234  and  235,  representing  the  urino- 
genital  organs  of  the  male  and  female  frog,  would  undoubtedly  have  been  more 
useful  if  of  Rana  temporaria  rather  than  R.  esculenta. 

In  a  fourth  edition  we  should  like  to  see  the  confused  account  of  the  renal 
and  reproductive  organs  of  the  skate  (pp.  496-497)  re-written,  and  the  terms 
Wolffian  and  MiUlerian  ducts  omitted. 

A  word  must  be  said  in  praise  of  the  tabular  form  of  summaries  of  affinities, 
etc.,  in  chapter  xx.,  as  indeed  of  those  throughout  the  work,  all  of  which  are 
admirable. 

This  delightfully  written  text-book  has  enjoyed  an  enviable  reputation  in 
the  past,  and  the  present  edition  can  only  enhance  the  same. 

Walter  E.  Collinge. 

PRACTICAL  ZOOLOGY. 

Leitfaden  fur  das  Zoologische  Praktikum.  By  Dr.  Willy  Kukenthal, 
Professor  in  Jena.  8vo,  pp.  vi.  +  284,  with  172  text-figures.  Jena: 
Gr.  Fischer,  1898.     Price,  sewn  6  marks,  bound  7  marks. 

This  is  intended  as  a  guide  for  beginners,  whether  in  a  properly  appointed 
laboratory  or  working  independently.  For  the  latter  there  are  given  many 
technical  instructions,  for  the  lack  of  which  the  elementary  student  so  often 
finds  himself  at  sea.  The  opening  chapter  is  on  apparatus  and  the  way  to  use 
it,  and  contains  many  useful  hints.  Thus  the  author  rightly  insists  on  the 
necessity  for  drawing  on  a  large  scale — "  Don't  spare  paper,  but  take  a  fresh 
page  to  each  drawing."  Then  follows  a  chapter  on  the  elements  of  histology, 
in  which,  after  an  illustrated  summary  of  the  various  tissues,  it  is  shown  how 
they  may  be  demonstrated.  The  student  is  then  led  through  nine  phyla  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  beginning  with  Protozoa  and  ending  with  Vertebrata.  Each 
of  these  is  preceded  by  a  systematic  synopsis,  enabling  the  student  to  ascertain 


1899]  PRACTICAL  ZOOLOGY  145 

the  position  of  the  species  under  investigation,  but  of  course  not  intended  to 
supplant  the  ordinary  text-book  of  systematic  zoology.  The  study  is  divided 
into  twenty  lessons,  and  at  the  beginning  of  each  is  a  short  statement  of  the 
material  and  reagents  required,  followed  by  a  general  account  of  the  Class  or 
Order.  The  directions  for  the  actual  dissection  and  demonstration  are  clear 
and  straightforward,  and  are  elucidated  by  a  number  of  figures.  Of  these 
illustrations  many  are  original,  and  due  either  to  the  author  or  to  his  pupils, 
Messrs.  Th.  Krumbach  and  A.  Giltsch.  Others  are  borrowed,  and  we  are  glad 
to  note  that  the  original  source  is  given  with  accuracy;  but  is  not  "Fig.  95. 
Organisation  von  Holothuria  tubulosa  (aus  Lang) "  really  copied  from  Milne 
Edwards  and  Carus  ?  The  drawings  are  good,  they  will  help  to  sell  the  book, 
and  the  beginner  will  be  grateful  for  them.  None  the  less,  they  may  tempt 
the  student  to  adopt  the  easier  course  of  lifting  them  into  his  note-book  instead 
of  drawing  from  the  object  before  him.  And  is  it  not  a  good  training  for  the 
student  to  direct  him  to  the  original  monographs,  and  to  let  him  copy  the 
figures  (if  he  does  it  at  all)  from  the  first  source  of  each  ?  There  is  little  in 
this  book  to  lead  the  student  on,  or  to  disabuse  him  of  the  notion  that,  when  he 
has  worked  through  what  is  here,  he  will  have  as  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  various  types  as  is  needful.  The  course  is  professedly  an  elementary  one, 
and  little  attention  is  paid  to  other  methods  than  those  of  dissection  with 
scalpel  and  needle.  But  even  so,  it  is  startling  to  find  Sepia  taken  as  the  type 
of  a  Cephalopod,  and  yet  no  description  given  of  the  cuttle-bone. 

There  are  so  many  good  books  of  the  kind  nowadays,  that  this  one  by 
Professor  Kiikenthal  is  not  likely  to  find  a  large  sale  outside  Germany,  even  if 
translated.  But  it  can  be  recommended  as  accurate,  clear,  and  adapted  to  the 
somewhat  narrow  limits  of  an  elementary  course.  F.  A.  B. 


MONTH  BY  MONTH. 

Rambles  with  Nature  Students.     By  Eliza  Brightaven,  F.E.S.     Pp.  221, 
with  many  illustrations.     London:  Religious  Tract  Society,  1899. 

Mrs.  Brightwen  has  published  another  of  her  delightful  little  books  of  talk 
about  common  things.  The  present  volume  contains  six  or  seven  short  chapters 
for  each  month,  and  with  just  a  little  help  from  the  treasures  of  her  museum 
in  the  barest  months  the  authoress  contrives  to  find  interesting  subjects 
throughout  the  year.  In  the  dull  days  she  gives  us  pretty  and  well-illustrated 
studies  of  ice-crystals,  footprints  in  the  snow,  skeleton  leaves,  birds'  feet  and 
skulls,  ventriculites,  and  various  other  matters.  During  the  brighter  months 
she  writes  simply  and  clearly  of  many  familiar  insects  and  flowev3,  and  of  some, 
too,  like  those  in  her  chapter  on  "Hidden  Lives,"  that  are  known  only  to  those 
whose  eyes  have  been  trained  to  see.  Her  descriptions  are  always  vivid  and 
interesting,  and  the  practical  directions  frequently  given  are  clear  and  simple. 
Her  neAv  book  will  prove  not  only  helpful  and  stimulating  to  those  who  have 
already  clone  some  work  for  themselves,  but  will  also  be  a  most  comforting- 
guide  for  such  easily-discouraged  little  people  as  the  twelve-year-old,  who 
abandoned  the  study  of  natural  history  because,  as  she  plaintively  said,  the 
beasts  never  had  any  habits  when  she  was  watching  them. 

The  naturalist's  delight  in  living  things  for  their  own  sake  by  no  means 
obscures  Mrs.  Brightwen's  keen  appreciation  of  their  practical  aspects.  Thus 
we  may  learn  from  her  chapter  on  the  development  of  flies  what  precautions 
should  be  taken  to  protect  our  meat  from  bluebottles,  from  the  life-story  of  the 
meal-worm  how  to  keep  up  an  unfailing  supply  of  animal  food  for  our  cage 
birds,  and  she  tells  us,  too,  that  a  tonic  beverage  may  be  made  from  acorn- 
kernels,  and  that  she  was  able  to  express  from  a  fungus,  the  "maned  agaric," 
a  serviceable  ink  whose  qualities  were  unimpaired  after  eleven  years.  The 
ingenious  way  in  which,  by  a  process  of  pith-slicing  and  repeated  ironing,  she 

10 XAT.   SC— VOL.   XV.    NO.   90. 


146  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [august 

succeeded  in  making,  from  a  papyrus  in  her  hothouse,  a  paper  exactly  resembling 
the  ancient  parchments  of  the  East,  commands  our  highest  admiration.  But 
what  shall  we  say  of  a  green  satin  banner-screen,  embroidered  with  jasmine 
sprays,  of  which  the  starry  flowers  were  simulated  by  five  otoliths  of  fishes,  and 
the  leaves  by  rose-beetle  wings?  M.  E.  T. 

A  STRANGE  MIXTURE. 

The  Philosophy  of  Memory  ;  and  other  Essays.  By  D.  T.  Smith,  M.D., 
Lecturer  on  Medical  Jurisprudence  in  the  University  of  Louisville. 
8vo,  pp.  203.  Louisville,  Ky.  :  John  D.  Morton  and  Co.,  1899. 
Price  $1-25. 

This  work  is  a  collection  of  essays  upon  very  diverse  subjects.  How  wide  is 
the  range  a  mention  of  the  different  titles  will  indicate.  Besides  the  essay  on 
the  Philosophy  of  Memory,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  book,  there  are  articles 
on  the  Functions  of  the  Fluid  Wedge,  the  Birth  of  a  Planet,  and  the  Laws  of 
River  Flow. 

The  degree  of  mental  equipment  which  the  author  possesses,  and  the  measure 
of  intelligence  which  he  brings  to  bear  upon  these  subjects  may,  perhaps,  be 
illustrated  in  the  following  manner  : — After  some  70  pages  of  argument  concern- 
ing memory,  the  author  says,  "Every  animal  in  every  part,  every  leaf  in  its 
pattern  of  shapeliness,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  "  is  now  built  up  and  developed  by  the 
forces  of  nature  playing  on  it  chiefly  from  the  worlds  beyond.  It  is  the  little 
waves  of  ether,  coming  mostly  from  the  sun,  that  build  up  the  plant,  and  by 
their  ceaseless  pelting  drive  every  atom  and  every  molecule  to  its  place  "  (p.  78). 
And  "  The  tenderest  feelings  must  have  a  higher  origin  .  .  .  than  that  of  the 
familiar  forms  of  force ;  and  nothing  appears  as  their  proximate  source  except 
the  fading  undulations  of  light  as  they  journey  through  infinite  space  —  the 
*  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades  '  "  (p.  80). 

In  the  essay  on  the  Birth  of  a  Planet  the  author  brings  forward  several,  at 
any  rate  plausible,  arguments  against  the  nebular  theory  ;  but  then  he  concludes, 
"  One  might  be  tempted  to  suggest  .  .  .  that  worlds  have  a  season  to  bring 
forth,  as  do  animals  and  plants,  and  that  in  their  proper  times  and  seasons,  fixed 
in  the  infinite  councils,  they  drop  their  ripened  fruit  of  young  worlds  into  space  " 
(p.  136).  We  are  tempted  to  suggest,  knowing  the  universal  solicitude  of  the 
British  Parliament  for  all  afflicted,  that  the  new  Mid  wives  Bill  provides  for  the 
case  of  a  world  in  labour.  We  cannot  afford  to  lose  a  world  through  the 
ministrations  even  of  a  celestial  Sairey  Gamp. 

The  essay  on  the  Laws  of  River  Flow  suffers  from  association.  The  author 
does  not  suggest  "light  from  the  Pleiades,"  or  the  "infinite  councils"  having 
any  controlling  influence  on  river  flow.  He  leaves  a  volume  of  water  to  its 
own  devices,  and  suggests  that  it  moves,  in  flowing,  "  like  two  equal  cylinders 
revolving  spirally  on  parallel  axes  in  different  directions,  outward  at  the  bottom, 
upward  at  the  margins,  inward  at  the  top,  and  downward  through  the  middle." 

The  movements  of  a  body  of  water  flowing  along  a  channel  are  evidently 
most  complicated.  Whether  among  other  movements  it  has  that  which  the 
author  suggests  might  be  determined  in  the  laboratory.  It  should  not  be 
difficult  to  devise  a  series  of  experiments  adequate  for  the  end  in  view. 

S.  S.  B. 

AN  ALPINE   GUIDE. 

Hints  and  Notes  for  Travellers  in  the  Alps.  By  the  late  John  Ball.  A 
new  edition  by  W.  A.  B.  Coolidge.  12mo,  164  pp.  London: 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1899.     Price  3s. 

The  late  Mr.  John  Ball's  "  Hints  and  Notes,"  forming  the  General  Intro- 
duction to  his   "Alpine  Guide,"  is  too  well  known  and  too  highly  appreciated 


13991  AN  ALPINE  GUIDE  147 

by  all  visitors  to  Switzerland,  to  need  more  than  a  reference  to  the  new  matter 
introduced  into  this  edition,  which  is  both  interesting  and  important.  The 
chapter  on  the  geology  of  the  Alps  has  been  practically  rewritten  by  Professor 
Bonney,  and  that  on  the  climate  and  vegetation  of  the  Alps  has  been  expanded 
by  Mr.  Percy  Groom.  In  addition  to  this,  Mr.  Sydney  Spencer  adds  a  new 
chapter  on  photography  in  the  High  Alps ;  and  the  editor  contributes  one  on 
Life  in  an  Alpine  Valley,  and  an  exceedingly  useful  Glossary  of  alpine  terms. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  volume  forms  a  complete  vacle  mecum  for 
visitors  to  the  Alps,  whether  climbers  or  ordinary  tourists,  its  small  and  compact 
size  fitting  it  admirably  for  the  pocket  or  the  knapsack. 

The  chapter  on  "  Life  in  an  Alpine  Valley,"  should  be  read  by  everyone 
who  cares  to  know  anything  about  the  social  condition  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  is  travelling.  It  treats  of  the  daily  manner  of  life  of  the  dwellers  in 
the  mountain  valleys,  the  customs  regarding  the  ownership  of  landed  property, 
the  rights  of  use  of  the  "Alps,"  and  other  details.  The  limitation  which  the 
editor  himself  lays  down  should,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader,  that 
his  description  applies  mainly  to  that  portion  of  Switzerland  with  which  Mr. 
Coolidge's  residence  at  Grindelwald  has  made  him  specially  acquainted.  Thus 
the  statement  that  "spinning  and  weaving  have  almost  disappeared"  from  the 
mountain  chalets  does  not  apply  to  the  Ausser  Rhoden  of  Canton  Appenzell. 

A.  W.  B. 

LIQUID  GASES. 

Liquid  Air  and  the  Liquefaction  of  Gases  :  Theory,  History,  Biography, 
Practical  Application,  Manufacture.  By  T.  O'Conor  Sloane,  Ph.D. 
8vo,  365  pp.,  with  illustrations.  London :  Sampson  Low,  Marston, 
&  Co. 

This  little  book  gives  a  readable  account  of  the  work  done  on  the  liquefac- 
tion of  gases,  which  has  of  late  met  with  so  much  success,  and  has  attracted  so 
much  popular  attention.  The  author  begins  with  a  short  exposition  of  the 
facts  and  scientific  principles  underlying  the  obvious  phenomena  of  change  of 
physical  state,  and  describes  the  various  appliances  necessary  for  the  measure- 
ment of  very  low  temperatures.  In  succeeding  chapters  he  shows  the  historical 
development  of  the  subject,  beginning  with  the  foundation  of  the  Pioyal  Institu- 
tion in  1799,  reviewing  briefly  the  early  work  of  Xorthmore  and  Faraday, 
describing  in  greater  detail  the  life  and  labours  of  Pictet  and  Cailletet,  finally 
to  deal  with  the  "moderns"  Dewar,  Tripler,  Linde,  and  Hampson.  The  bio- 
graphical notices  are  interesting,  and  many  of  them  are  accompanied  by  good 
portraits.  Chapters  on  experiments  with  liquid  air  and  on  the  practical 
applications  of  very  low  temperatures  conclude  the  volume.  It  is  gratifying  to 
learn  that  the  author  in  no  way  countenances  the  absurdly  exaggerated 
accounts  that  have  appeared  recently  in  many  newspapers  regarding  liquid  air 
as  a  source  of  energy.  While  he  says  (p.  356),  "  Liquid  air,  if  it  could  only  be 
produced  cheap  enough,  would  represent  an  ideal  substance  for  the  production 
of  energy,"  he  has  carefully  stated  on  a  previous  page  (p.  72)  "  The  trouble  is 
that  to  produce  liquid  air  we  have  hitherto  been  obliged  to  expend  a  great  deal 
more  available  energy  than  we  can  utilise  of  normally  unavailable  energy  by  its 
gasification."  Ch. 

HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY. 

A  Short  History  of  the  Progress  of  Scientific  Chemistry  in  our  own  Times. 
By  William  A.  Tilden,  F.R.S.  8vo,  x.  +  276  pp.  London  :  Long- 
mans, Green,  &  Co.,  1899.     Price  5s. 

Professor   Tilden   in   his    preface   says,    "  In   the   following    pages    I   have 
endeavoured  to  provide  for  the  student  such  information  as  will  enable  him  to 


148  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [august 

understand  clearly  how  the  system  of  chemistry,  as  it  now  is,  arose  out  of  the 
previous  order  of  things  ;  and  for  the  general  reader,  who  is  not  a  systematic 
student,  but  who  possesses  a  slight  acquaintance  with  the  elementary  facts  of 
the  subject,  a  survey  of  the  progress  of  chemistry  as  a  branch  of  science  during 
the  period  covered  by  the  lives  of  those  chemists  who  were  young  when  Queen 
Victoria  came  to  the  throne."  This  self-imposed  task  has  been  admirably 
accomplished.  In  brief  compass  he  sets  before  the  reader  an  easy  account  of 
the  most  striking  facts  and  theories  of  modern  chemistry  in  their  origins  and  in 
their  final  development.  Thermochemistry,  spectrum  analysis,  the  periodic 
system  of  the  elements,  the  synthetic  production  of  dyes,  drugs,  and  explosives, 
stereochemistry,  and  the  action  of  ferments,  all  receive  simple  and  adequate 
treatment.  To  both  stiident  and  general  reader  the  book  can  be  warmly 
recommended.  Ch. 

A  MUSEUM  HANDBOOK. 

The  Manchester  Museum,  Owens  College.  General  Guide  to  the  Natural 
History  Collections.  By  W.  E.  Hoyle.  8vo.  pp.  78.  Manchester 
Museum,  Publication  28,  1899.     Price  6d. 

Distinctly  a  Museum  Handbook,  in  that  it  guides  the  visitor,  gently  but 
firmly,  through  the  museum  from  case  to  case,  from  minerals  and  geological 
phenomena,  through  the  array  of  fossils  stratigraphically  disposed,  then  along 
the  animal  collections  in  the  order  of  their  arrangement  (not  always  harmonious 
with  the  text-book),  and  finally  through  the  botanical  exhibits.  Those  who 
wish  for  a  cut  -  and  -  dried  classification  will  find  in  the  form  of  appendices  : 
"A.  List  of  the  principal  divisions  of  the  Earth's  Crust;"  "  B.  List  of  the 
principal  divisions  of  the  Animal  Kingdom,"  with  a  typical  example  of  each 
class  mentioned  in  the  vulgar  tongue ;  and  C.  the  same  for  the  Vegetable 
Kingdom.  In  the  monstrously  difficult  task  of  writing  in  simple  language  an 
accurate  and  not  uninteresting  summary  of  the  Animal  Kingdom  Mr.  Hoyle  has 
achieved  as  much  success  as  is  possible.  All  the  same,  why  does  Mr.  Hoyle  say 
(p.  8)  that  the  Devonian  Crinoids  "  were  of  the  type  known  as  Cystids"?  The 
division  of  the  Crinoidea  generally  (p.  56)  into  "  sea-lilies  "  and  "  feather-stars  "  is 
due  of  course  to  the  two  volumes  of  the  Challenger  Report.  It  is  a  book- 
binder's classification.  The  account  of  the  Geological  divisions  is  as  good  as 
one  could  hope  to  find  in  a  score  of  pages.  But  the  two  pages  devoted  to  the 
Mineralogical  and  Petrological  Collection  ought  to  be  multiplied  by  at  least  ten, 
or  else  omitted.  It  is  a  pity  they  should  form  an  opening  to  the  Guide.  The 
compression  of  the  guide  to  the  Botanical  Collection  into  seven  pages  may  have 
been  enforced ;  if  so,  it  is  to  that  cause  we  will  charitably  ascribe  the  appear- 
ance of  such  unexplained  terms  as  "saprophytic,"  "  prothallium,"  "  carpellary," 
"  dichotomous,"  and  the  sweet  little  "  bulbils."  These  fancy  words  are  not  in 
the  picture  with  the  rest  of  this  excellent  handbook.  F.  A.  B. 

THE  NOTES  OF  BIRDS 

The  Cries  and  Call-Notes  of  Wild  Birds.  A  popular  Description  of  the 
Notes  employed  by  our  commoner  British  Birds  in  their  Songs  and 
Calls.  With  Musical  Illustrations.  By  C.  A.  Witchell,  Author  of 
"Evolution  of  Bird  Song,"  etc.  8vo,  pp.  xi.  +  84.  London:  L. 
Upcott  Gill,  1899.     Price  "is. 

One  of  the  greatest  charms  of  field  ornithology  is  supplied  by  the  various 
cries  and  songs  ixttered  by  different  groups  and  species  of  birds.  Much 
attention  has  been  devoted  to  this  subject  by  our  continental  confreres,  some  of 
whom  have  excelled  in  their  skill  in  rendering  upon  paper  the  love-notes  and 


1899]  THE  NOTES  OF  BIRDS  149 

alarm-cries  of  bird-colonies.  In  the  present  case,  an  English  ornithologist 
furnishes  an  interesting  collection  of  his  own  rendering  of  bird-notes.  Probably 
no  two  persons  would  express  the  more  difficult  notes  in  exactly  the  same  way, 
but  an  approximation  to  truth  is  by  no  means  impossible.  Mr.  Witchell  has 
devoted  so  much  loving  labour  to  the  study  of  his  favourite  subject,  that  many 
people  besides  professed  naturalists  will  welcome  the  present  volume,  and  find 
that  it  stimulates  their  endeavours  to  acquaint  themselves  with  all  the  different 
notes  that  enliven  our  shores  and  forest  haunts.  The  treatise  is  popularly 
written,  and  the  songs  of  a  good  many  birds  are  expressed  in  musical  notation. 

H.  A.  Macpherson. 

The  latest  number  of  the  Transactions  of  the  British  Mycological  Society 
contains  a  summary  of  the  Fungus  Foray  held  at  Dublin  in  September  1898, 
and  the  papers  read  at  the  meetings.  The  Foray  must  have  been  conducted 
with  energy,  for  160  species  were  added  to  an  already  existing  list  of  830  species 
for  the  counties  of  Dublin  and  Wicklow.  In  the  report  useful  references  to 
suitable  neighbourhoods  and  to  the  local  literature  will  be  found.  Among  the 
more  important  papers  are  those  by  Dr.  C.  B.  Plowright,  who  acted  as  president 
of  the  meeting.  His  address  on  the  Agaricini,  and  a  contribution  on  "  New  and 
rare  British  fungi,"  are  useful  and  practical.  A  summary  of  the  recent  work  of 
Eriksson,  of  Stockholm,  on  the  Uredineae  of  cereal  crops  is  particularly  valuable, 
because,  during  the  past  year,  that  author  has  given  articles  on  the  same  subject 
to  almost  every  existing  botanical  magazine,  till  he  has  landed  the  student  in  a 
hopeless  maze  of  references ;  a  clear  summary  like  this  one  was  much  needed. 
The  Dublin  members,  Mr.  Greenwood  Pirn  and  Dr.  M'Weeney,  have  contributed 
useful  papers,  the  latter  throwing  light  on  two  sclerotium  diseases  of  the  potato. 
Two  papers  in  the  number  before  us  are  merely  reprints  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion reports  of  the  1898  meeting  ;  they  are  both  rudimentary  notes  on  laboratory 
work  done  at  Cambridge,  and  it  seems  absurd  that  such  should  be  presented  in 
the  same  month  to  the  British  Association  and  again  to  the  Mycological  Society  ; 
still  more  superfluous  that  one  should  meet  them  here  for  at  least  the  fourth 
time  in  the  literature  of  botany.  Dr.  Plowright  gives  obituary  notices  on  two 
eminent  fungologists — Kev.  Canon  Du  Port  and  Mr.  H.  T.  Soppitt,  with  good 
portraits. 

We  have  received  the  first  number  of  the  Polyclinic,  being  the  journal  of  the 
Medical  Graduates'  College,  London,  a  journal  which  does  not  at  first  sight  much 
concern  readers  of  Natural  Science,  however  strongly  they  may  in  other  capacities 
sympathise  with  the  aims  of  this  admirable  institution.  Yet  as  we  turn  over 
the  pages  with  a  biological  eye,  we  feel  impressed  by  the  fact  that  while  know- 
ledge is  manifold  there  is  only  one  science.  Sir  William  Broadbent,  with  the 
progress  of  science  for  his  keynote,  Mr.  Jonathan  Hutchinson,  with  the  motto, 
"  'Tis  the  taught  already  that  profits  by  teaching,"  Dr.  Miller  Ord,  with  the 
proverb  "  Docendo  discimus,"  expound  the  aims  of  the  college ;  and  as  we  pass 
to  courses  of  lectures  we  see  "  functions  of  the  nervous  system,"  "  family  history 
in  nervous  disease,"  "diseases  of  animals,"  "experimental  teratogeny,"  "dis- 
solution of  heredity,"  "physiology  of  germinal  life,"  and  much  more,  which 
shows  that  the  journal  has  much  common  ground  with  ours.     Floreat. 

The  June  number  of  the  Journal  of  School  Geography  contains,  inter  alia, 
articles  on  Southern  California,  by  Mr.  J.  F.  Chamberlain ;  on  the  geographical 
and  geological  exhibition  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  by  Professor  K.  E.  Dodge ;  on 
pressure,  winds,  and  rainfall  over  the  British  Islands  by  Dr.  A.  J.  Herbertson. 
Among  the  exhibits  referred  to  are  the  great  relief  map  of  the  United  States, 
showing  the  curvature  of  the  globe,  and  with  the  glacial  ice-cap,  two  relief 
globes,  the  Spruner-Bretschneider  charts,  illustrating  the  development  of  Europe 
from  350  a.d.  to  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  the  series  of  37  Charakter- 


150  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [august  1899 

Bilder,  by  Holzel  of  Vienna,  the  forestry  maps  of  Sargent,  showing  the  distri- 
bution of  trees  in  North  America,  and  many  other  items  of  importance  which 
suggest,  like  the  journal  itself,  the  great  progress  at  present  being  made  in  the 
science  and  teaching  of  geography. 

In  Science  of  June  23  Prof.  R.  W.  Wood  describes  his  diffraction  process 
of  colour-photography,  which  is  really  a  variation  of  the  three-colour  method ; 
and  Prof.  E.  Thorndike  discusses  the  mental  fatigue  of  school  work,  furnishing 
additional  data  which  render  more  probable  his  previous  conclusion  that 
"  the  mental  work  of  the  school  clay  does  not "  [at  the  time]  "  produce  any  de- 
crease in  the  ability  to  do  mental  work." 

The  eye  of  the  Amphipod  Crustacean  Biblis  serrata  receives  attention  at 
the  hands  of  Dr.  S.  D.  Judd  in  the  May  issue  of  the  Proc.  Biol.  Soc.  Wash- 
ington, and  is  found  to  be  remarkably  different  from  the  corresponding  organ 
of  Gammarus.  It  appears  to  be  a  compound  eye  constructed  on  the  general 
plan  of  an  ocellus,  but  furnished  with  a  space  which  may  be  the  functional 
representative  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  vitreous  humour  in  the  vertebrate 
eye.  Further  investigations  are,  however,  needed  before  the  full  significance 
of  all  parts  of  this  organ  can  be  determined. 

The  Alaskan  Moose,  or  Elk,  has  long  been  known  to  be  the  largest  representa- 
tive of  its  kind,  and  it  appears  to  be  mainly  on  this  feature  that  Mr.  G.  S. 
Miller  relies  in  describing  it  as  a  new  species  (A/ces  gigas)  in  the  recent  issue 
of  the  serial  last  quoted.  Most  English  writers  regard  all  the  living  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Elk  as  referable  to  a  single  wide-spread  species.  In  recognis- 
ing three  specific  forms  in  what  is  essentially  one  and  the  same  animal,  Mr. 
Miller  shows  the  value  to  be  attached  to  species  recently  named  by  American 
writers  among  the  smaller  Mammals. 


'& 


Prof.  Weismann's  essay  on  regeneration  appeared  contemporaneously  in 
Natural  Science  (in  English)  and  in  the  Anatomischer  Anzeiger  (in  German). 
A  reprint  of  the  German  edition  has  been  published  in  pamphlet  form  by  Mr. 
Fischer  of  Jena,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  a  copy.  It  is  entitled  "  Thatsachen 
unci  Auslegungen  in  Bezug  auf  Regeneration,"  occupies  31  pages,  and  costs  60 
pfennigs. 


OBITUARY. 


SIR  W.  H.  FLOWER,  K.C.B.  (1831-1899). 

It  is  with  sincere  regret  that  we  have  to  record  the  death  of  Sir  William 
Henry  Flower,  which  took  place  at  his  residence  in  Stanhope  Gardens,  on  the 
afternoon  of  Saturday,  July  1,  after  a  protracted  period  of  failing  health.  It 
was  owing  to  this  ill-health  that  he  resigned,  in  August  last,  the  Directorship  of 
the  Natural  History  Branch  of  the  British  Museum  ;  and  although  a  residence 
during  the  past  winter  in  the  Riviera  led  to  a  temporary  improvement,  on  his 
return  to  Stanhope  Gardens  in  May  it  was  but  too  evident  that  no  permanent 
benefit  had  taken  place  in  his  condition,  and  that  the  end  could  not  be  far 
distant.  After  a  short  rally,  a  serious  relapse  occurred  on  the  Thursday  pre- 
ceding his  demise,  wdiich  resulted  in  a  fatal  attack  of  pneumonia. 

Sir  William  was  the  second  son  of  the  late  Edward  Fordham  Flower,  of 
Stratford-upon-Avon,  Warwickshire,  by  his  wife,  Celina,  daughter  of  the  late 
John  Greaves,  of  Radford,  Warwickshire,  and  was  born  on  November  30, 
1831,  at  his  father's  residence,  The  Hill,  Stratford-upon-Avon.  The  latter  part 
of  his  education  was  conducted  at  University  College,  London,  where  he  went 
through  the  ordinary  course  of  medical  study,  eventually  qualifying  as  a  surgeon. 
We  believe  we  are  right  in  saying  that  the  career  of  an  army-surgeon  was  not 
his  original  intention,  but  that  the  need  of  additional  surgeons  for  the  army 
induced  him  to  volunteer  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  for  service  in  the  Crimea. 
At  any  rate,  he  was  at  that  time  attached,  in  the  capacity  of  assistant-surgeon, 
to  the  63rd  regiment,  with  which  he  served  throughout  the  long  campaign, 
receiving  at  its  close  the  Crimean  medal,  with  the  Alma,  Inkerman, 
Balaclava,  and  Sebastopol  clasps,  and  also  the  Turkish  medal.  With  the  close 
of  the  war  his  services  as  an  army-surgeon  also  came  to  an  end ;  and  after  his 
return  to  England  he  was  appointed  in  1859  Assistant  -  Surgeon  and 
Demonstrator  in  Anatomy  at  the  Middlesex  Hospital.  Mr.  Flower  (as  he 
then  was)  did  not,  however,  long  retain  this  post,  which  he  vacated  in 
1861  to  take  up  the  more  congenial  duties  of  Conservator  of  the  Museum 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  a  position  which  he  occupied  till  his  trans- 
ference to  the  British  Museum  in  1884.  In  the  meantime  (1870)  he  was, 
however,  chosen  to  succeed  Owen  as  Hunterian  Professor  of  Comparative 
Anatomy  and  Physiology  to  the  College — a  post  which  he  likewise  held  till  the 
severance  of  his  official  connection  with  the  College.  The  resignation  in 
1884  of  Sir  Richard  Owen  caused  the  Directorship  of  the  Natural  History 
Branch  of  the  British  Museum  to  become  vacant;  and  to  this  important 
position  Professor  Flower  was  shortly  afterwards  appointed.  During  his 
tenure  of  the  Directorship,  he  was  successively  gazetted  C.B.  in  1887,  and 
K.C.B.  in  1892.  In  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  Sir  William's  connection 
with  the  Museum  would  have  terminated  on  his  attaining  the  age  of  sixty-five 
in  1896.  But,  on  the  earnest  recommendation  of  the  Trustees,  the  Treasury 
was  induced  to  waive  the  age-disqualification  in  his  case  ;  and  it  was  during  this 
unexpired  period  of  extension  of  service  that  Sir  William  was  compelled  by  ill- 
health  to  tender  his  resignation. 

In  addition  to  the  distinctions  conferred  by  his  Sovereign,  Sir  William 
Flower  wTas  the  recipient  of  numerous  other  honours  from  academic  and 
scientific  bodies.  In  1864,  he  was  elected  to  the  Fellowship  of  the  Royal 
Society,  from  whom,  in  company  with  Lord  Rayleigh,  he  received  the  award  of 
a  Royal  medal  in  1882.  He  served  on  the  Council  of  the  same  Society  for 
three  separate  periods,  namely  1868-1870,  1876-1878,  and  1884-1886  ;  and  from 
1884  to  1885  filled  the  office  of  a  vice-president.  He  was  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  London.     The  degrees  of  D.C.L.  and  LL.D.  were 

I5I 


152  SIR   W.  H.  FLOWER  [august 

conferred  upon  him  respectively  by  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge ; 
and  he  was  also  the  recipient  of  those  of  D.Sc.  and  Ph.D.  So  far  back  as  1851 
he  became  a  Fellow  of  the  Zoological  Society,  of  which  body  he  was  elected 
president  in  1879 — an  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death.  From  1883  till 
1885,  Sir  William  also  occupied  the  presidential  chair  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute  ;  while  in  1887  he  served  in  the  same  capacity  at  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association,  having  presided  over  the  section  of  Biology  at  the  meeting 
of  1877,  and  that  of  Anthropology  in  1881.  He  was  also  President  of  the 
section  of  Anatomy  at  the  International  Medical  Congress  at  its  London 
meeting  in  1881  ;  and  it  was  solely  due  to  ill-health  that  he  was  prevented 
from  presiding  over  the  International  Congress  of  Zoology  held  last  year  at 
Cambridge.  Both  the  Geological  and  the  Linnean  Societies  of  London  claimed 
Sir  William  as  a  Fellow. 

As  examples  of  his  devotion  to  his  own  work,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  it 
is  within  the  knowledge  of  the  present  writer,  that  Sir  William  refused  both 
the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  a  seat  in  the  Senatus  of  London 
University  (in  succession  to  Huxley),  on  the  ground  that  they  would  interfere 
Avith  his  official  duties. 

From  his  very  earliest  days  Sir  William  Flower  displayed  a  marked  love 
and  inclination  towards  natural  history  studies ;  and  in  his  last  work,  "  Essays 
on  Museums  "  (which  is  a  collection  of  articles  compiled  while  incapacitated  by 
illness  from  more  severe  labours),  he  takes  the  public  into  his  confidence  to 
tell  them  how  he  first  began  collecting  and  arranging  zoological  specimens  in 
early  boyhood.  With  his  appointment  to  the  Museum  of  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  opportunities  for  cultivating  that  branch  of  zoological  science  he 
loved  best,  namely,  the  anatomy  and  classification  of  mammals  (inclusive  of 
man),  were  abundant,  and  good  use  was  made  of  them.  Nearly  every  portion 
of  the  osteological  collection  of  the  College  still  bears  the  impress  of  his  work  ; 
the  series  of  human  skulls  and  skeletons  having  been  vastly  increased  during  his 
tenure  of  office. 

A  permanent  record  of  his  zeal  in  augmenting  and  classifying  the  Hunterian 
collection  is  afforded  by  the  two  volumes  of  "  Catalogues  "  compiled  by  him, 
with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Garson,  during  his  tenure  of  office  ;  one  of  these, 
published  in  1879,  being  devoted  to  the  osteology  of  man,  while  the  second 
(1881)  treats  of  that  of  other  mammals. 

During  his  tenure  of  the  Hunterian  chair,  Professor  Flower  regularly 
delivered  the  annual  course  of  lectures  ;  the  substance  of  the  first  series  of  these 
being  expanded  into  the  now  well-known  "  Introduction  to  the  Osteology  of 
the  Mammalia,"  the  first  edition  of  which  appeared  in  1870,  and  the  third 
(revised  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  H.  Gadow)  in  1885. 

For  several  years  after  his  appointment  to  the  British  Museum,  Sir 
William's  attention  (in  addition  to  the  routine  work  of  his  office)  was  largely 
occupied  with  the  formation  and  arrangement  of  the  "  Index  Museum,"  which 
now  occupies  the  bays  on  the  sides  of  the  central  hall ;  while  he  was  also 
engaged  with  the  acquisition  and  mounting  of  the  interesting  specimens  ex- 
hibited in  the  cases  standing  in  the  hall  itself.  When,  however,  the  office  of 
Keeper  of  the  Zoological  Department  was  held  by  him  conjointly  with  the 
Directorship,  Sir  William  in  due  course  determined  to  rearrange  at  least  the 
Vertebrate  Galleries  of  the  Museum  according  to  his  own  ideas — a  work  which 
is  still  in  progress.  As  is  well  known,  it  was  his  idea  that  ho  specimens  should 
be  exhibited  in  a  Museum  to  the  public  which  do  not  actually  teach  something; 
and  he  was  above  all  urgent  as  to  the  necessity  of  explanatory  labels,  which  he 
regarded  as  of  almost  more  importance  than  the  specimens  themselves.  The 
results  of  his  plan  are  now  exhibited  in  the  Mammal  and  Bird  Galleries. 

Although  a  diligent  student  of  the  structure  of  mammals  belonging  to  all 
orders,  Sir  William's  special  favourites  were  undoubtedly  man  on  the  one  hand 
and  whales  and  dolphins  on  the  other.     And  his  last  efforts  during  his  tenure 


1899]  OBITUARY  153 

of  the  Directorship  were  devoted  to  the  completion  of  the  life-size  series  of 
models  of  the  latter  animals,  which  now  form  such  an  attractive  feature  of  the 
Museum,  and  also  to  the  formation  of  an  anthropological  gallery  which  should 
worthily  head  the  zoological  series  of  the  museum.  Fortunately,  he  was 
enabled  to  witness  the  opening  of  the  new  whale  gallery,  which  took  place  on 
Whit  Monday  of  last  year  •  but  the  comparatively  advanced  stage  now  reached 
by  the  anthropological  series  has  been  the  work  of  other  hands  in  the  enforced 
absence  of  the  originator. 

With  regard  to  the  general  scope  and  importance  of  Sir  William  Flower's 
scientific  work,  it  is  perhaps  too  early  to  form  an  exact  opinion.  The  anatomy, 
classification,  and  distribution  of  the  Mammalia  undoubtedly  formed  his  favourite 
themes ;  and  it  is  largely  to  his  influence  and  writings  that  our  conceptions  of 
the  mutual  relations  of  the  different  members  of  the  class  are  due.  Of  course 
he  was  not  infallible,  as  the  present  views  as  to  the  relationship  of  the  mar- 
supials to  other  mammals  alone  sufficiently  attest.  But  he  was  remarkable  for 
his  devotion  to  accuracy ;  and  the  pains  he  would  devote  to  the  elucidation  of 
small  obscure  points  are  well  worthy  the  imitation  of  many  of  his  more  impetuous 
followers.  Although  no  grand  discovery  or  great  generalisation  is  associated 
with  the  name  of  Flower,  the  amount  of  solid  zoological  work  he  has  done,  and, 
above  all,  the  revolution  which  he  has  brought  about  in  our  conceptions  of  what 
a  museum  should  be,  cannot  fail  to  have  a  marked  influence  on  his  successors 
for  many  years  to  come.  We  have  not  yet  noticed  that,  in  addition  to  being  a 
zoologist,  Sir  William  was  also  a  most  competent  palaeontologist.  And  yet  to 
him  such  a  disassociation  of  ideas  as  these  terms  imply  would  have  been  in  the 
highest  degree  repugnant,  for  it  was  a  dominant  idea  of  his  that  palaeontology 
is  but  the  zoology  of  the  past,  and  that  the  two  subjects  should  be  treated  as 
one.  This  combination  of  palaeontological  and  zoological  knowledge  gave  him  a 
far  wider  conception  of  the  relations  of  the  various  groups  of  the  animal  kingdom 
than  is  held  by  many  of  his  contemporaries ;  and,  although  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances prevented  its  accomplishment,  it  was  his  earnest  desire  to  see,  so 
far  as  practicable,  the  amalgamation  of  the  recent  and  extinct  specimens  ex- 
hibited to  the  public  in  the  great  institution  confided  to  his  charge. 

Although  the  number  of  scientific  memoirs  which  stand  in  his  name  is  very 
large,  Sir  William  Flower  is  known  to  the  general  public  by  comparatively  few 
works.  Allusion  has  been  already  made  to  the  "  Catalogues  "  of  the  Museum 
of  the  Boyal  College  of  Surgeons  and  to  the  "  Osteology  of  the  Mammalia." 
To  the  ninth  edition  of  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  Sir  William  contributed 
the  important  article  "  Mammalia,"  as  well  as  a  number  of  minor  articles  on 
various  representatives  of  the  same  group.  These  articles,  together  with  a  few 
by  other  writers,  were  subsequently,  with  the  aid  of  the  present  writer,  collected 
and  expanded,  so  as  to  take  the  form  of  a  systematic  treatise  published 
under  the  title  of  "An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Mammals"  (1891).  Later 
on  in  the  same  year  appeared  a  little  volume  on  "The  Horse,"  in  the  "Modern 
Science "  series ;  while  the  above-mentioned  "  Essays  on  Museums  and  other 
Subjects  connected'  with  Natural  History "  was  published,  under  saddening 
circumstances,  only  last  year.  To  allude  to  any  of  the  numerous  memoirs  on 
technical  subjects  is  obviously  impossible  on  this  occasion.  Although  somewhat 
reserved,  and,  perhaps,  even  occasionally  cold  in  manner,  Sir  William  Flower 
was  greatly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  a  large  circle  of  friends,  both  scientific  and 
otherwise.  When  once  the  thin  veneer  of  reserve  was  penetrated,  no  man 
could  be  kinder ;  and  the  trouble  and  attention  he  would  devote  to  all  who 
claimed  his  assistance  were  almost  inexhaustible.  To  the  present  writer  (if  he 
may  be  permitted  to  say  so)  the  loss  is  a  very  real  and  a  very  personal  one. 
His  first  recollection  of  Sir  William  was  in  the  Cambridge  Natural  Science 
Tripos  of  1871,  when  the  candidate  little  thought  that  he  would  one  day  be 
asked  to  join  the  (apparently)  stern  examiner  in  writing  a  treatise  on  one  of 
the  subjects  of  examination.  B.   Lydekkee. 


NEWS. 

The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Captain  W.  de  W. 
Abney,  C.B.,  to  be  principal  assistant  secretary  of  the  Science  and  Art  Depart- 
ment ;  Dr.  G.  Agamennone,  as  director  of  the  Geodynamic  Observatory  at  Rocca 
di  Papa,  near  Rome ;  Joseph  Barrell,  as  instructor  in  geology  in  Lehigh 
University,  South  Bethlehem,  Penn.  ;  Miss  Annie  J.  Barrows,  as  assistant  in 
zoology  at  Smith  College,  U.S.A.  ;  Dr.  Tarleton  H.  Bean,  as  director  of  forestry 
and  fisheries  on  the  U.S.  Commission  to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900  ;  Dr.  C. 
Benda,  privat  docent  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  nominated  professor ;  E.  A. 
Bessey,  to  be  assistant  vegetable  pathologist  in  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture ;  Dr.  J.  Warwick  Brown,  as  external  examiner  in  zoology  in  the 
University  of  Aberdeen  ;  Dr.  E.  Wace  Carlier,  as  professor  of  physiology  at 
Birmingham  ;  J.  F.  Collins,  curator  of  the  herbarium  in  Brown  University, 
U.S.A.,  to  be  instructor  in  botany  there  ;  John  G.  Coulter,  as  instructor  in 
botany  at  Syracuse  University ;  Ulric  Dahlgren,  to  be  assistant  professor  of 
histology  in  Princeton  University ;  Dr.  J.  Dewitz,  as  resident  assistant  of  the 
Concilium  Bibliograptiicum,  whose  new  address  is  38  Eidmatt  Strasse,  Zurich  ; 
Dr.  Oliver  L.  Fassig,  as  instructor  in  climatology  in  Johns  Hopkins  University ; 
Dr.  John  Gilford,  as  assistant  professor  of  forestry  at  Cornell  ;  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
as  professor  of  geology  in  the  North-Western  University  ;  Dr.  A.  J.  Herbertson, 
as  lecturer  on  physical  geography  at  Oxford ;  Dr.  Robert  Tracy  Jackson, 
assistant  professor  of  palaeontology  in  Harvard  ;  Dr.  Bengst  Johnsson,  professor 
of  botany  at  the  Academy  at  Lund  ;  Sir  George  W.  Kekewich,  to  be  secretary 
of  the  Science  and  Art  Department  in  room  of  Sir  J.  F.  D.  Donelly  retired ; 
Dr.  B.  F.  Kingsbury,  as  assistant  professor  in  histology  and  embryology  at 
Cornell ;  Dr.  L.  Lalry,  as  correspondent  to  the  Concilium  Bibliographicum  of 
Zurich ;  Professor  Malcolm  Laurie,  as  external  examiner  in  zoology  in  the 
University  of  Glasgow  ;  Mr.  F.  R.  Lillie,  as  professor  of  biology  at  Vassar 
College  ;  Miss  Florence  M.  Lyon,  Ph.D.,  as  assistant  in  botany  at  Smith  College, 
U.S.A.  ;  Dr.  R.  S.  Macdougall,  as  lecturer  on  botany  at  the  Heriot-Watt  College, 
Edinburgh;  Dr.  Rudolf  Martin,  as  professor  extraordinarius  of  anthropology  in 
Zurich  ;  Dr.  E.  B.  Matthews,  advanced  to  the  position  of  associate  professor  of 
petrography  and  mineralogy  at  Johns  Hopkins  University  ;  Mr.  E.  A.  Minchin, 
as  professor  of  zoology  at  University  College,  London,  in  succession  to  Professor 
Weldon,  now  of  Oxford ;  Dr.  G.  Poirault,  to  succeed  Naudin  as  director  of  the 
botanical  laboratory  for  higher  instruction  at  the  Villa  Thuret,  Antibes  ;  Dr. 
Adalar  Richter,  professor  extraordinarius  of  botany  in  the  University  of  Klausen- 
burg  ;  Miss  W.  J.  Robinson,  as  instructor  in  biology  at  Vassar  College;  Dr.  Alfred 
Schaper,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  histology  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School, 
Boston,  Mass.  ;  Dr.  Frank  Schlesinger,  as  an  observer  in  the  U.S.  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey ;  W.  E.  D.  Scott,  curator  of  the  ornithological  collections  of 
the  Green  School  of  Science  in  Princeton  ;  Dr.  G.  B.  Shattuck,  advanced  to  the 
position  of  associate  in  physiographic  geology  at  Johns  Hopkins  University  ; 
M.  V.  Slingerland,  as  assistant  professor  in  entomology  at  Cornell ;  Dr.  Streckel- 
son,  privat  docent  for  geography  in  the  University  of  Basel ;  Dr.  F.  Strong  of 
Yale,  to  be  president  of  the  University  of  Oregon  ;  Professor  Ph.  van  Tieghem, 
to  the  chair  of  the  biology  of  cultivated  plants  at  the  National  Agronomic 
Institute,  Paris ;  Dr.  Tobler,  privat  docent  for  mineralogy  in  the  University  of 
Basel ;  Dr.  R.  von  Wettstein,  to  be  professor  of  botany  in  the  University  of 
Vienna  ;  Dr.  Gregg  Wilson,  as  lecturer  on  biology  at  the  Royal  (Dick)  Veterinary 
College,  Edinburgh,  and  on  zoology  at  the  Heriot-Watt  College,  Edinburgh  ; 
J.  B.  Woodworth,  as  instructor  in  geology  in  Harvard  University. 

r54 


august  1899]  NEWS  155 

Mr.  G.  A.  Stonier  has  been  appointed  specialist  in  mining  under  the 
Geological  Survey  of  India.  Mr.  Stonier  holds  the  De  la  Beche  medal  for 
mining  at  the  Royal  School  of  Mines,  London,  of  which  institution  he  is  an 
associate.  He  has  had  a  wide  experience  in  New  South  Wales,  where  he  was 
employed  a*  geographical  surveyor,  and  was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the 
Government  Prospecting  Board. 

Dr.  Adolph  Fick,  professor  of  physiology  in  the  University  of  Wiirzburg, 
has  resigned  at  the  age  of  70  years. 

The  Royal  Commissioners  for  the  Exhibition  of  1851  have  approved  the 
nomination  by  the  University  College  of  North  Wales  of  Mr.  Robert  Duncombe 
Abell,  B.Sc,  to  a  Science  Research  Scholarship  of  the  value  of  <£150  a  year. 
Mr.  Abell  is  about  to  enter  the  University  of  Leipzig,  where  he  proposes  to 
engage  in  research  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Wislicenus. 

Mr.  James  Muir,  instructor  in  Agriculture  to  the  Somerset  County  Council, 
has  been  awarded  the  prize  of  500  guineas  offered  by  the  sulphate  of  ammonia 
committee  for  the  best  essay  on  the  utility  of  this  salt  in  agriculture. 

The  Isidore  Geoffroy  Saint  Hilaire  Grand  Silver  Medal  of  the  Societe 
nationale  d'acclimatation  de  France,  has  been  awarded  to  Prof.  Cossar  Ewart 
for  his  breeding  experiments  (in  reference  to  which  he  has  also  received  the 
Neill  Prize  from  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh),  and  to  Miss  Ormerod  for  her 
entomological  work. 

The  University  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  has  conferred  the  honorary 
degree  of  D.Sc.  on  Mr.  Alexander  W.  Roberts,  of  Lovedale,  who  has  interested 
himself  in  astronomical  observations  there. 

Yale  University  has  conferred  the  degree  of  LL.D.  on  Prof.  C.  S.  Minot, 
and  Hobart  College  on  Prof.  W.  K.  Brooks,  two  of  the  most  outstanding- 
representatives  of  biology  in  America. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Pilsbry,  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences, 
whose  work  on  Mollusca  is  familiar  to  students,  has  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Science  from  the  University  of  Iowa. 

The  following  have  been  elected  foreign  members  of  the  Royal  Society  :— 
Prof.  L.  Boltzmann,  of  Vienna ;  Dr.  Neumayer,  of  Hamburg  Observatory ;  Dr. 
Anton  Dohrn,  of  Naples ;  Prof.  E.  Fischer,  of  Berlin ;  and  Dr.  M.  Treub,  of 
Buitenzorg  Botanical  Gardens. 

Sir  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  K.C.M.G.,  F.R.S.,  has  been  elected  to  an  honorary 
studentship  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

The  first  Nobel  prizes  in  physics,  chemistry,  medicine,  literature,  and  for  the 
promotion  of  peace,  each  of  the  value  of  15,000  kroner  (about  £2500),  will  be 
conferred  in  1901,  on  the  18th  December,  on  the  anniversary  of  Nobel's  death. 
Any  one  making  application  for  one  of  the  prizes  is  thereby  excluded. 

We  are  glad  to  learn  that  Mr.  Oldfield  Thomas  has  returned  to  the  British 
Museum  (Nat.  Hist.)  completely  restored  to  health. 

Prof.  Angelo  Mosso  has  gone  to  America  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  the  "  Psychic 
Processes  and  Movement "  at  the  anniversary  celebrations  at  Clark  University, 
Worcester,  Mass. 

Prof.  W.  C.  Brogger,  of  the  University  of  Christiania,  has  accepted  an  in- 
vitation to  deliver  the  second  course  of  the  George  Huntington  Williams 
memorial  lectures  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  April  1900.  Prof. 
Brogger  is  the  most  prominent  Scandinavian  geologist,  and  is  well  known  for 
his  memoirs  upon  the  geology  of  Southern  Norway.  He  will  lecture  upon 
modern  deductions  regarding  the  origin  of  igneous  rocks.  The  first  course  was 
given  two  years  ago  by  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  on  the  "  Founders  of  Geology." 


i56  NEWS  [august 

Science  reports  the  following  gifts  and  bequests  : — Mr.  B.  N.  Duke  lias  within 
the  year  given  $183,000  to  Trinity  College;  an  anonymous  donor  has  offered 
•$25,000  for  a  biological  laboratory  for  Vassar  College,  on  condition  that  an 
equal  sum  be  raised  ;  according  to  the  will  of  Mr.  Jeremiah  Halsey,  the  Norwich 
Free  Academy  receives  nearly  $100,000,  and  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  $20,000  ; 
the  Rev.  H.  Latham,  of  Cambridge,  has  given  £2000  for  the  proposed  Sedgwick 
Memorial  Museum ;  Miss  S.  Dyckmann,  $300  for  a  zoological  scholarship  in 
Columbia  University  for  the  present  year;  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearson,  $125,000  to 
Olivet  College  ;  Oberlin  College  has  received  $50,000  for  a  chemical  laboratory, 
and  two  other  anonymous  gifts  of  equal  amount ;  the  late  R.  C.  Billings  of 
Boston  left  $100,000  to  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  and  $50,000 
for  scholarships,  besides  $100,000  to  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  Mr.  Charles  H.  Senff  has  given  $5000  to  the 
zoological  department  of  Columbia  University,  which  will  be  in  part  used  for 
the  publication  of  a  memoir  on  Polypterus,  to  be  undertaken  conjointly  by 
Messrs.  Bashford  Dean,  Harrington,  M'Gregor,  Strong,  Herrick,  and  Wheeler. 
Messrs.  Harrington  and  Sumner  hope  to  make  a  second  expedition  to  the  Nile 
in  search  of  the  fish.  Prof.  E.  B.  Wilson's  recent  efforts  to  obtain  the  eggs 
were  disappointed. 

A  compromise  has  been  effected  in  regard  to  the  contested  will  of  Dr. 
Robert  Lamborn,  and  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  will 
receive  over  300,000  dollars,  or  half  of  the  testator's  bequest. 

In  Science  of  June  30  there  are  details  of  the  magnificent  endowments  of 
the  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University,  said  to  be  the  richest  University  in  the 
world.  Mr.  Stanford  left  $2,500,000  in  cash  to  the  University,  Mrs.  Stanford 
deeded  her  own  private  fortune  of  about  a  'million  dollars,  and  has  recently 
transferred  the  residue  of  the  estate,  which  would  probably  bring  in  the  market 
about  $13,000,000. 

At  the  second  of  the  two  annual  conversazioni  of  the  Royal  Society  on  June 
21,  Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester  exhibited  collections  of  mosquitoes  received  at  the 
Natural  History  Museum  for  study  in  reference  to  the  connection  between 
mosquitoes  and  malaria  ;  Dr.  P.  Manson  exhibited  the  malaria  parasite  ;  Messrs. 
Walter  Gardiner  and  A.  W.  Hill  showed  intercellular  bridges  in  plant  tissues. 

The  Geologists'  Association  is  the  real  centre  of  geological  activity  in 
London,  in  that  it  practically  demonstrates  the  science  in  the  field,  and  thus  is 
an  educational  institution  of  real  value.  It  is  as  active  as  ever  in  making  excur- 
sions to  places  of  geological  interest  in  England,  and  has  for  the  fourth  time  visited 
the  Continent.  Last  Witsun,  Dr.  Barrois  took  a  large  party  over  the  Brittany 
district,  seeing  to  every  detail  of  interest  and  comfort  in  the  most  careful  way. 
The  long  excursion  will  be  spent  in  Derbyshire  from  August  3  to  9  under 
the  general  guidance  of  Mr.  Arnold-Bemrose,  and  promises  great  things  for 
those  especially  interested  in  matters  carboniferous. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  on  July  17,  Sir  John 
Murray  gave  an  interesting  account  of  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in  the 
hydrographic  survey  of  Scottish  lakes  conducted  by  Mr.  Pullar  and  himself. 
The  biological  contrast  between  the  deep  and  shallow  lakes  was  touched  on, 
and  its  probable  partial  dependence  on  differences  of  temperature  was  hinted  at. 
Dr.  Hepburn  exhibited  a  simple  "  osteometric  board  "  for  the  more  accurate  and 
uniform  measurement  of  bones. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  on  July  3,  Dr.  Hepburn 
submitted  an  improved  form  of  craniometer  for  the  measurement  of  the 
transverse,  vertical,  and  antero- posterior  diameters  of  the  cranium.  Dr. 
Hepburn  claimed  that  by  means  of  this  improved  instrument  measurements 
of  the  cranium  would  be  more  mathematically  accurate,  and  that  fully  a  dozen 
more  measurements  might  be  taken   by  means  of  it  than  had  hitherto  been 


1899]  NEWS  157 

taken  in  connection  with  the  skull.  In  Dr.  Hepburn's  instrument  a  graduated 
bar  has  been  arranged  to  present  zero  at  its  centre,  from  which  the  figures 
proceed  in  duplicate  in  opposite  directions.  Opposite  the  centre  of  the 
graduated  bar  a  straight  pair  of  callipers  has  been  introduced.  Dr.  Hepburn 
stated  that,  so  far  as  he  was  aware,  this  was  the  only  form  of  callipers  to  which 
the  principle  of  a  third  limb  had  been  applied.  At  the  same  meeting  Professor 
Sir  William  Turner  gave  communications  on  the  Craniology  of  the  People  of 
the  Empire  of  India,  the  Hill  Tribes  of  the  North-East  Frontier  and  the  People 
of  Burma,  and  on  Decorated  and  Sculptured  Skulls  from  New  Guinea. 

At  the  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Marine  Biological  Association,  held  in 
the  rooms  of  the  Royal  Society  on  June  28,  the  president,  Prof.  E.  Bay 
Lankester,  in  the  chair,  it  was  noted  that  seventeen  naturalists  and  eleven 
students  had  worked  in  the  laboratory  during  the  past  year. 

The  Science  Section  of  the  Women's  International  Congress  was  held  in 
the  Westminster  Town  Hall  on  June  29,  and  Mrs.  Ayrton  occupied  the  chair. 
Astronomy  was  represented  by  Mile.  Klumpke  from  the  Paris  Observatory ; 
geology  by  Miss  Raisin,  of  Bedford  College ;  chemistry  by  Miss  Dorothy 
Marshall,  of  Girton ;  bacteriology  by  Mrs.  Percy  Frankland ;  and  biology  by 
Miss  Ethel  Sargant. 

The  forty-eighth  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  will  be  held  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  from  the  21st  to  the  26th  of 
August,  under  the  presidency  of  Prof.  Edward  Orton.  Ten  societies  in 
affiliation  with  the  Association  will  meet  at  the  same  time. 

The  fourth  international  congress  of  Psychology  will  be  held  at  Paris  from 
the  20th  to  25th  August  1900,  under  the  presidency  of  Prof.  Th.  Ribot.  Prof. 
Ch.  Richet  will  be  vice-president,  and  Pierre  Janet  general  secretary. 

It  is  a  cause  for  much  gratification  that  the  Government  has  conditionally 
promised  £45,000  for  the  Antarctic  expedition.  This  still  leaves  much  to  be 
raised,  since  the  best  authorities  declare  the  minimum  necessary  to  be  £100,000. 
The  Queensland  Parliament  is  to  be  asked  for  £1000. 

The  Liverpool  School  of  Tropical  Diseases  sends  out  their  newly  appointed 
lecturer,  Major  Ross,  to  the  West  African  Coast  to  investigate  malaria  and  other 
diseases. 

The  New  Mexico  Biological  Station  in  charge  of  Mr.  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell  is 
being  conducted  this  summer  at  Las  Vegas.  Geological,  anthropological,  and 
botanical,  as  well  as  zoological,  work  is  being  carried  on. 

Col.  W.  S.  Brackett,  of  Peoria,  111.,  has  organised  an  expedition  of  twelve 
mountaineers  to  explore  the  geological  features  of  the  almost  unknown  region 
between  Buffalo  Hump,  in  Idaho  county,  and  the  Nez  Pierce  Pass,  in  the  Bitter 
Root  range. 

The  United  States  Fish  Commission  is  about  to  send  out  an  expedition  on 
the  "Albatross,"  in  charge  of  Prof.  Agassiz,  to  explore  portions  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Some  of  the  islands  to  be  visited  are  the  Marshall,  Society,  Friendly, 
Fiji,  and  Gilbert  groups.  It  is  expected  that  the  trip  will  require  eight  months. 
The  party  will  leave  San  Francisco  in  August. 

There  are  already  four  polar  expeditions  under  way,  or  almost  ready  to 
start,  and  to  these  must  soon  be  added  that  of  Capt.  Bernier,  a  Frenchman. 
His  course  will  be  toward  Franz  Josef  Land,  for  the  part  lying  to  the  east  of 
Cape  Mary  Harmsworth.  After  pushing  on  as  far  north  as  possible,  he  will 
disembark  with  all  the  provisions,  dogs,  reindeer,  sledges,  etc.  He  intends 
to  pass  the  winter  at  Petermann's  Land,  and  at  the  first  opportune  moment 
to  make  a  dash  for  the  pole. 

Prof.  W.  A.  Setchell,  of  the  University  of  California,  and  some  other  botanists 
have  gone  on  an  expedition  to  study  the  flora  of  the  Aleutian  Islands. 


158  NEWS  [august 

Among  those  who  have  gone  Arctic  exploring  are  Professor  W.  Libbey,  of 
Princeton,  and  Dr.  R.  Stein,  of  the  U.S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Those  interested  in  Antarctic  exploration  look  forward  with  eagerness  to 
the  International  Congress  of  Geographers  in  Berlin,  when  Sir  John  Murray, 
Sir  Clements  Markham,  Dr.  Nansen,  Prof,  von  Drygalski,  and  others  will 
meet  and  confer. 

The  Union  Pacific  Railway  Company  arranged  in  June  a  geological  and 
palaeontological  excursion  to  the  fossil  fields  of  Wyoming  under  the  general 
direction  of  Prof.  Knight,  of  the  University  of  Wyoming. 

It  is  noted  in  Science  and  elsewhere  that  Nansen  has  resolved  to  organise  an 
Antarctic  expedition  for  1902,  in  which  he  will  endeavour  to  supplement  the 
work  of  the  British  and  German  expeditions. 

On  June  27  Prof.  Virchow  opened  the  Virchow  Pathological  Museum  in 
Berlin,  which  houses  his  magnificent  collection  of  specimens. 

A  pathological  laboratory  is  to  be  erected  at  Oxford,  the  curators  of  the 
university  chest  having  authorised  an  expenditure  of  £10,000,  in  addition  to 
£5000  from  an  anonymous  member  of  the  university. 

According  to  the  American  Geologist,  the  Minnesota  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  will  send  to  the  Greater  American  Exhibition  at  Omaha  a  collection 
illustrating  the  natural  history  of  the  Philippines. 

The  Dresser  Collection  of  Birds  has,  we  learn,  been  acquired  by  the  Manchester 
Museum.  Neither  trouble  nor  expense  were  spared  by  the  author  of  the  "  Birds 
of  Europe  "  to  make  the  collection  as  complete  as  possible,  and  more  particularly 
to  make  it  a  working  collection,  and  numerous  specialists  who  have  had  the 
privilege  of  making  use  of  it  have  united  in  expressing  their  opinion  of  its 
value  in  this  particular  direction.  In  addition  to  the  European  birds  and  the 
allied  species  from  the  Palaearctic  region  generally,  it  contains  the  materials 
used  by  Mr.  Dresser  in  preparing  his  monographs  on  the  bee-eaters  and  the 
rollers.  As  regards  the  extent  of  the  collection,  there  are  of  bee-eaters  about 
30  species  and  155  specimens,  and  of  rollers  26  species  with  112  specimens, 
whilst  the  Palaearctic  collection  contains  from  850  to  900  species,  or  more 
according  to  the  British  Museum  catalogue.  When  it  is  remembered  that  in 
almost  every  instance  these  forms  are  represented  not  merely  by  one  skin,  but 
by  several  showing  the  differences  of  plumage  due  to  sex,  age,  and  local 
variation,  it  will  be  readily  believed  that  the  collection  includes  about  10,000 
specimens.  There  are  several  types  and  numerous  rarities,  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  two  specimens  of  the  rosy  gull,  whose  nesting  -place  was  dis- 
covered by  Nansen  in  Franz  Josef  Land,  and  two  Labrador  falcons.  The  skins 
have  all  been  carefully  selected,  and  the  collection  has  been  accurately 
labelled,  all  particulars  as  to  habitat  and  other  details  being  recorded.  Many 
specimens  have  been  compared  with  rare  types  and  noted  as  agreeing  with 
them  ;  others  are  the  first  or  the  only  recorded  specimens  that  have  occurred 
within  the  western  Palaearctic  area.  Enough  has  now  been  said  (we  quote 
the  Manchester  Guardian),  to  show  that  the  acquisition  of  this  valuable  collection 
is  indeed  a  piece  of  singular  good  fortune  for  the  Manchester  Museum,  and 
therefore  for  all  students  of  ornithology  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  to  call 
forth  expressions  of  gratitude  towards  the  generous  benefactor  who  has 
rendered  it  possible  for  the  museum  to  possess  itself  of  such  treasures. 

Considerable  changes  have  recently  been  made  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
zoological  collections  at  the  Science  and  Art  Museum,  Dublin.  These  are  in 
two  rooms,  the  upper  having  a  gallery  round  it.  The  upper  room  contains 
the  general  zoological  collection,  systematically  disposed.  The  visitor  is  sup- 
posed to  ascend  to  the  gallery  by  a  staircase  marked  No.  1  ;  this  lands  him 
opposite  the  Protozoa.  Thence  he  follows  the  gallery  round  from  left  to  right, 
viewing  on   his   way  the   various  phyla   of  Invertebrata   in   ascending   order. 


1899]  NEWS  159 

Descending  by  another  staircase,  he  finds  himself  close  to  the  Tunicata,  and  so 
passes  clown  the  room  between  members  of  the  whole  Chordate  series  up  to 
man.  A  noticeable  feature  of  the  arrangement  is  the  position  of  the  Echinoderma 
at  the  head  of  the  Invertebrate  series— that  is  to  say,  next  to  the  lowest 
Chordata,  with  which  they  are  supposed  to  be  in  a  measure  connected,  owing  to 
resemblances  in  the  larval  forms.  The  lower  room  is  divided  into  three  sections 
by  large  cases  placed  back  to  back.  Section  A  contains  collections  illustrating 
the  facts  of  geographical  distribution  ;  Section  B  contains  the  Invertebrata,  and 
C  the  Yertebrata,  of  Ireland,  and  in  this  series  an  attempt  is  made  to  display 
eveiy  species  of  the  Irish  fauna.  Exigencies  of  the  museum  building  have 
rendered  it  necessary  to  maintain  the  fossils  as  a  separate  collection  ;  this  also 
is  arranged  systematically,  on  a  similar  plan.  A  guide,  sold  for  ^d.,  instructs 
the  casual  visitor  as  to  the  route  he  should  follow  in  order  to  obtain  some  idea 
of  the  classification  of  the  animal  kingdom. 

The  meeting  of  the  Museums  Association  held  at  Brighton  from  the  3rd  to 
the  6th  of  July,  though  not  largely  attended  by  either  members  from  a  distance 
or  local  well-wishers,  was  distinguished  by  the  amount  of  serious  work  and  dis- 
cussion that  was  got  through,  and  the  absence  of  purely  gaseous  matter.  The 
Mayor  of  Brighton  made  an  excellent  honorary  president,  and  delegated  the 
task  of  delivering  an  opening  address  to  Mr.  Henry  Willett,  who  scattered  over 
a  wide  field  his  suggestive  and  humorous  remarks.  Mr.  G.  H.  Carpenter 
described  the  re-arrangement  of  the  natural  history  collections  in  the  Science 
and  Art  Museum,  Dublin,  and  we  give  the  gist  of  his  paper  in  the  above  para- 
graph. Mr.  H.  Coats  sent  a  note  on  a  children's  prize  essay  competition  in  the 
Perth  Museum  ;  he  seems  to  have  met  with  success,  but  the  idea  of  inciting 
children  to  this  study  by  means  of  rewards,  was  opposed  by  some  curators 
experienced  in  this  matter.  Mr.  A.  M.  Rodger  of  Perth  showed  an  insect  box 
adapted  for  exhibition  or  for  stowing  away  as  a  drawer.  Mr.  B.  Lomax  gave 
an  interesting  account  of  the  perpetual  exhibition  of  living  plants  in  the  Brighton 
Museum.  Mr.  J.  V.  Hodgson  described  the  preparations  for  the  new  museum  at 
Plymouth,  and  was  asked  by  many  of  his  fellow-curators  whether  nothing  could  be 
done  to  render  the  valuable  Cottonian  collection  of  art  objects  more  accessible 
to  students  and  to  the  public.  Mr.  B.  H.  Mullen  again  brought  up  the  subject 
of  a  directory  to  the  Museums  of  the  United  Kingdom,  a  work  that  would  be  of 
use  to  many  besides  the  curators  themselves.  Mr.  Harlan  J.  Smith  sent  some 
valuable  suggestions  as  to  the  preservation  of  local  archaeological  evidences,  as 
well  as  a  description  of  the  Museums  of  British  Columbia,  previously  published 
in  the  American  Naturalist.  Another  previously  published  paper  was  that  on 
ink  and  paper  for  museum  labels,  by  Dr.  R.  T.  Jackson,  which  appeared  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and 
was  now  communicated  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Bather,  with  the  result  of  initiating  a  long- 
discussion.  A  paper  by  Mr.  Stewart  Culm  of  Pennsylvania  University  gave  a 
laudatory  description  of  some  museums  in  Dresden  and  Berlin.  Museum 
preparations  of  marine  animals  by  Dr.  H.  C.  Sorby,  ethnological  photographs  by 
Dr.  H.  O.  Forbes,  paper-covered  tablets  from  the  Horniman  Museum,  and  a  gorilla 
mounted  by  Brazenor  Brothers  for  the  Bristol  Museum,  were  among  the  objects 
on  view.  During  the  week  members  visited  the  Brighton  Museum  under  the 
guidance  of  Mr.  Lomax,  Mr.  E.  Crane,  Mr.  Thomas,  and  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins  ; 
and  the  Booth  Bird  Museum  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  A.  F.  Griffith  ;  the  Aquarium, 
the  apartments  of  the  Pavilion,  in  which  building  the  business  and  convivial 
meetings  were  held ;  and  finally,  in  charge  of  Mr.  E.  A.  Pankhurst,  they  went 
as  guests  of  the  local  committee  to  Lewes,  where  papers  were  read  by  Messrs. 
C  Dawson,  J.  Lewis,  and  G.  de  Paris. 

We  have  received  a  prospectus  of  the  exhibition  of  horticultural  photographs 
which  will  be  arranged  in  connection  with  the  fourteenth  "  One  and  All  "  Flower 
Show  at  the  Crystal  Palace  on  the  14th  and   19th  August.     In  one  class  the 


160  NEWS  [august  1899 

judges  will  for  educational  reasons  depart  from  their  custom  and  state  the 
grounds  on  which  the  judgments  are  based.  A  statement  of  these  will  be 
affixed  to  the  exhibits.  The  honorary  secretary  is  Mr.  Edward  Owen  Greening, 
3  Agar  Street,  Strand. 

We  learn  from  the  Daily  Chronicle  that  when  the  coal  boring  was  put  clown 
at  Dover  about  six  or  eight  years  ago  by  Mr.  F.  Brady  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Channel  Tunnel  works,  there  were  indications  in  the  cores  of  the  presence  of 
iron  ore  in  the  strata  between  500  and  600  feet  from  the  surface.  The  indica- 
tions have  now  proved  correct. 

In  the  course  of  sinking  the  No.  2  shaft,  a  bed  of  valuable  oolitic  iron  ore 
has  just  been  struck,  at  a  depth  of  rather  less  than  600  feet.  The  seam 
proves  to  be  no  less  than  12  feet  thick,  and  probably  extends  over  a  very  great 
area,  the  quantity  being  practically  unlimited.  The  diameter  of  the  shaft  is 
20  feet,  and  the  quantity  brought  to  the  surface  in  passing  through  the  12 
feet  amounted  to  about  350  tons.  Samples  of  the  ore  have  been  submitted 
to  analysis,  with  highly  satisfactory  results,  a  washed  sample  of  the  ore  yielding 
45*8  per  cent  of  iron.  The  analysis  shows  that  the  ore  is  free  from  sulphur  and 
phosphorus,  and  it  is  stated  to  be  of  much  richer  quality  than  the  Wealden 
ironstone  worked  in  Kent  and  Sussex  a  century  ago.  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins,  in 
a  paper  read  before  the  British  Association  in  1894,  described  a  sample  obtained 
from  the  original  boring.  From  this  it  appears  that  this  bed  of  iron  ore  is 
identical  with  that  described  by  Blake  and  Hudleston  at  Abbotsbury  in  Dorset, 
where  it  occurs  between  the  Kimmeridge  clay  above  and  the  Coralline  rocks 
below.  It  is  also  physically  identical  with  the  valuable  iron  ore  worked  for 
many  years  in  Westbury,  Wiltshire.  The  ironstone  presents  very  singular 
physical  characteristics.  It  is  composed  of  dark  brown,  shining  grains  of 
hydrated  oxide  of  iron,  like  millet  seed,  embedded  in  a  crystalline  base  partly 
of  calcium  carbonate  and  partly  of  iron  carbonate. 

The  last  year  has  been,  we  learn  from  the  Scientific  American,  the  most 
successful  in  the  history  of  the  U.S.  Fish  Commission.  Millions  of  shad,  trout, 
cod,  and  other  fry  have  been  distributed.  It  is  said  that  the  cost  of  shad  has 
been  decreased  to  the  consumer  by  more  than  30  per  cent. 

The  British  Medical  Journal  publishes  an  inaugural  lecture,  delivered  by 
Major  Ronald  Ross  at  the  Liverpool  School  of  Tropical  Medicine,  on  the 
possibility  of  eradicating  malaria  from  certain  localities  by  killing  off  the 
mosquitoes  {Anopheles)  from  the  puddles. 

We  learn  from  Nature  that  the  Academy  invited  its  readers  to  compose  an 
inscription  of  not  more  than  forty  words,  suitable  to  be  engraved  upon  the 
statue  of  Charles  Darwin,  recently  unveiled  at  Oxford.  The  following, 
by  Mr.  Edwin  Cardross,  was  considered  best : — "  Charles  Darwin,  the  great 
naturalist,  memorable  for  his  demonstration  of  the  law  of  evolution  in  organic 
life,  achieved  by  scientific  imagination,  untiring  observation,  comparison,  and 
research ;  also  for  a  blameless  life,  characterised  by  the  modesty,  '  the  angelic 
patience,  of  genius.' " 

The  Scientific  American  reports  that  the  North  Dakota  Senate  has  passed  a 
bill  requiring  all  applicants  for  marriage  licences  to  be  previously  examined  by 
a  board  of  physicians  as  to  their  mental  and  physical  fitness.  The  certificates 
must  show  that  they  are  free  from  hereditary  diseases,  with  special  reference  to 
insanity  and  tuberculosis.  "  Legislation  of  this  kind  is  interesting,  but  that  is 
about  all  that  can  be  said  for  it,  for  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  the  contracting 
parties  from  going  over  the  border  into  adjoining  States  to  have  the  ceremony 
performed." 

Dr.  Otto  Thilo,  Riga,  Russia,  makes  an  appeal  for  information  regarding 
the  fish  Thalassophryne,  which  he  wishes  to  investigate  in  connection  with  his 
work  on  poisonous  organs. 


Natural  Science  T~\ 


A   Monthly   Review  of  Scientific  Progress ' 

September  1899 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

Integration  in  Science. 

Under  this  title  Sir  Michael  Foster  delivered  a  stirring  address  to  the 
Yorkshire  Naturalists'  Union  last  December,  and  the  address  is  now 
reprinted  in  full  in  The  Naturalist  for  July.  Its  object  is  to 
consider  how  Naturalists'  Societies  may  be  used  to  check  the  tendency 
of  biological  science  to  disintegrate  into  separate  and  distinct  sciences, 
and  to  show  how  far  that  disintegration  has  already  proceeded,  and  how 
great  the  need  for  integration.  Sir  Michael  compares  the  Temple  of 
Science  to  that  earlier  erection  which  men  are  said  to  have  built  on 
the  plain  of  Shinar.  Both  buildings  seem  to  have  the  same  con- 
sequences, in  that,  as  they  rise,  the  builders  cease  to  understand  one 
another's  tongues.  What  then  shall  the  modern  workmen  do  to 
prevent  the  fate  of  their  prototypes  becoming  their  fate  also  ?  Has 
not  the  confusion  of  tongues  already  proceeded  so  far  that  the  work- 
men are  scattered  and  the  building  delayed  ?  As  Sir  Michael  points 
out,  not  only  have  physicist  and  chemist  learnt  to  speak  a  language 
unintelligible  to  botanist  and  zoologist,  but  worse  still,  the  erstwhile 
zoologists  are  split  into  anatomists,  physiologists,  and  systematists,  each 
of  whom  uses  a  tongue  foreign  to  his  brother.  The  extension  of  the 
examination  system  has  aggravated  the  evil,  until  to  many  a  "  zoologist " 
the  animal  form  is  seen  only  through  "  the  long  vista  of  a  lengthy 
ribbon  of  gorgeously  stained  microtome-cut  sections  of  exquisite 
thinness."  That  much  of  this  is  the  necessary  consequence  of  the 
division  of  labour  and  the  progress  of  knowledge  cannot  be  denied, 
nor  can  we  forget  that  the  "  outcome  of  the  deepest,  most  far-reaching 
biologic  inquiry  has  been  the  rehabilitation  of  the  naturalist  of  old," 
yet  the  reality  and  extent  of  the  evil  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
Sir  Michael  is  of  opinion  that  there  is  little  hope  of  remedying  it  by 
an  appeal  to  the  schools,  but  he  thinks  that  it  is  the  special  function 
of  Naturalists'  Societies  to  assist  in  the  process  of  integration,  and  to 
teach  the  academic  neophytes  something  of  the  meaning  of  the  word 
naturalist.  The  moral  is  so  excellent  that  it  seems  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  societies  other  than  that  to  which  it  was  addressed. 

11 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    91.  l6l 


1 62  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [September 


Women  and  the  Learned  Societies. 

At  the  recent  International  Congress  of  Women  in  London,  Mrs. 
Farquharson  of  Haughton,  in  the  course  of  a  paper  on  the  work  of 
women  in  biological  science,  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  at  least 
three  of  the  large  scientific  societies  still  refuse  to  admit  women  to  their 
full  fellowship,  however  fully  qualified  they  may  be.  These  three 
societies  are  the  Eoyal,  the  Linnean,  and  the  Eoyal  Microscopical.  Of 
these  the  Eoyal  Microscopical  admits  women  to  its  membership,  but 
refuses  to  permit  them  to  attend  its  meetings,  while  the  two  other 
societies  entirely  refuse  membership  on  any  terms.  Mrs.  Farquharson 
dwelt  upon  the  hardship  thus  entailed  upon  women  in  special  cases. 


British  Botany. 

That  much  still  remains  to  be  done  in  the  field  of  British  Botany — at 
any  rate  among  the  lower  plants — is  evident  from  papers  which  have 
recently  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Botany.  In  the  May  number  of 
the  Journal,  Mr.  Gepp  notes  the  occurrence  of  no  less  than  four  aquatic 
fungi,  hitherto  unrecorded  from  Great  Britain,  which  were  found  growing 
on  a  broom-handle  floating  in  a  reservoir  near  Shrewsbury.  These 
fungi  belong  to  the  genera  Achlya  and  Apodachlya,  of  the  family 
Saprolegniaceae ;  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  a  careful  study  of  the 
native  members  of  this  group,  on  the  lines  suggested  by  the  writer, 
would  result  in  other  interesting  finds. 

The  July  number  of  the  same  Journal  contains  a  description  and 
figure  of  a  fresh- water  Alga,  which  forms  not  only  an  addition  to  the 
British  flora,  but  a  variety  new  to  science.  It  is  a  filamentous  green 
Alga  allied  to  the  common  Cladophora,  and  forming,  like  the  latter, 
masses  of  tangled  green  threads,  but  of  finer  consistency  and  a  brighter 
green.  It  belongs  to  the  genus  Pithophora,  the  history  of  which  is  of 
some  interest.  The  genus  was  founded  by  the  Scandinavian  botanist 
Wittrock,  on  a  plant  which  appeared  some  years  ago  in  the  water-lily 
tank  at  Kew,  and  had  presumably  been  introduced  from  the  Amazons 
along  with  the  lilies.  Wittrock  subsequently  described  several  other 
species  from  various  parts  of  the  world.  The  original  one  has  long 
since  disappeared  from  Kew,  and  has  not  been  found  elsewhere  ;  but 
another,  the  subject  of  the  communication,  has  recently  appeared  in  the 
Reddish  Canal,  near  Manchester.  This  canal  is  a  classical  locality, 
having  supplied  a  new  Cham,  and  also  become  the  home  of  an  aquatic 
mouocotyledonous  flowering  plant,  Najas  graminea.  The  latter  is  widely 
spread  in  the  tropics  of  the  Old  World,  and  has  also  long  been  known 
from  Northern  Italy,  where  it  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  brought 


1899]  BRITISH  BOTANY  163 

from  Egypt  with  rice.  It  is  suggested  that  its  presence  near  Manchester 
is  due  to  an  introduction  of  the  seeds  along  with  Egyptian  cotton,  and 
this  view  is  supported  by  the  fact  that  the  Manchester  plant  resembles 
Egyptian  specimens  in  a  certain  anatomical  detail  of  the  leaf-structure. 
The  new  Altra  was  growing  attached  to  the  stem  and  leaves  of  the 
Najas,  and  may  have  been  similarly  introduced ;  but,  so  far,  the  genus 
Pithophora  has  not  been  recorded  from  North  Africa. 


Polemics  and  a  Parasite. 

The  Zoologischcr  Anzeiger  for  July  3  contains  an  article  by  Professor 
W.  M.  Wheeler  entitled  "  J.  Beard  on  the  Sexual  Phases  of  Myzostoma" 
(pp.  281-288),  which  is  a  fine  example  of  polemical  discussion. 
We  all  like  a  fair  fight,  even  if  we  won't  admit  it ;  and  perhaps  these 
zoological  tilts  are  like  the  combats  of  male  spiders  in  this,  that  neither 
party  is  wounded.  Wheeler  criticised  Beard,  and  Beard  criticised 
Wheeler,  and  the  bystanders  were  edified ;  and  we  cannot  but  say 
that  the  edification  continues  as  Wheeler  returns  to  the  charge.  Our 
only  doubt  is  as  to  the  wisdom  of  using  words  that  have  a  moral 
connotation,  words  like  "  garble "  and  "  misrepresent,"  which  we  see 
in  the  paper  before  us.  A  more  philosophic  note  is  struck  when  Mr. 
Wheeler  expresses  the  hope  that  "  continued  controversy  may  induce 
some  student  (we  omit  the  adjective  conscientious)  who  has  an  op- 
portunity of  working  at  the  Naples  Station  or  at  the  French  or 
Japanese  sea-side  laboratories,  to  undertake  a  renewed  study  of  the 
reproductive  organs  of  the  various  species  of  Myzostoma." 

But  what  is  the  dispute  about  ?  Beard  holds  that  M.  glabrum  is 
dimorphic,  the  species  being  represented  by  hermaphrodite  individuals 
and  by  dwarf  complemental  males.  The  latter  are  dorsicolous,  that  is, 
they  are  attached  to  the  dorsal  surface  of  the  large  hermaphrodite 
individuals  which  in  turn  adhere  to  the  peristome  of  Antedon  rosacea. 

From  a  comparative  study  of  several  species  representing  the 
morphological  extremes  of  the  genus  Myzostoma,  Wheeler  concluded 
that  M.  glabrum  is  monomorphic,  each  individual  being  from  the  first 
hermaphrodite,  i.e.  possessing  both  ovaries  and  testes,  and  being  like 
other  members  of  the  genus  (notably  M.  cirriferum  and  M.  alatum ) 
protandrous,  then  hermaphrodite,  and  ultimately  more  or  less  hystero- 
gynic.  "  In  other  words,  the  functional  male  phase  (Beard's  com- 
plemental male)  passes  into  the  functional  hermaphrodite  phase  as 
soon  as  the  first  ova  mature,  and  the  functional  female  phase  begins 
with  the  atrophy  or  disappearance  of  the  testes.  The  cysticolous  and 
endoparasitic  species  of  the  genus  tend  towards  a  condition  in  which 
the  functional  male  and  female  phases  overlap  but  little,  thus  exhibiting 
only   a   brief   functional   hermaphrodite,  phase    {M.    eremite*),   or   these 


i64  NOTES  AND   COMMENTS  [September 

phases  no  longer  overlap  and  thus  present  two  well-marked  periods  of 
sexual  maturity,  one  male  and  the  other  female  (M.  pulvinar)."  This 
Mr.  Wheeler  regards  as  a  simpler  and  more  satisfactory  "  explanation  " 
(or  rather  description)  of  the  sexual  peculiarities  of  Myzostoma  than 
has  been  offered  by  Beard  or  any  other  author.  He  proceeds  to 
criticise  Beard's  critique,  and  ends  up  by  expressing  the  hope  that 
"  every  fair-minded  zoologist  will  be  convinced  that  the  complemental 
male  of  M.  glabrum  is  one  of  those  tenuous  and  fanciful  creations  for 
which  one  could  have  wished  that  euthanasia,  that  silent  death  so 
becoming  to  pet  speculation  when  they  have  ceased  to  afford  either 
amusement  to  their  originator  or  edification  to  their  readers."  The 
temperature  of  Chicago  is  high  ! 


Life  High  and  Low. 

A  sumptuous  French  translation  has  been  published  of  an  essay  by 
Prof.  A.  L.  Herrera  and  Dr.  D.  Vergara  Lope,  on  life  on  the  high 
plateaux  l — an  essay  which  gained  honourable  mention  and  a  silver 
medal  in  the  competition  for  the  Hodgkins  prize  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institute  in  1895.  After  a  general  discussion  of  plateaux,  the  authors 
consider  the  vertical  distribution  of  plants  and  the  adaptations  exhibited 
by  those  living  at  high  altitudes.  They  then  pass  to  the  vertebrate 
animals  composing  the  plateaux-fauna,  and  show  that  here  also  special 
adaptations  may  be  detected,  especially  perhaps  in  the  function  of 
respiration.  Man's  life  on  the  heights  is  then  considered,  and  many 
facts  are  cited  and  suggestions  offered  as  to  the  therapeutic  value  of 
a  residence  on  the  plateaux.  The  work  is  laboriously  erudite  and 
carefully  planned,  and  will  be  a  welcome  addition  to  the  consulting 
library  of  biologist  and  physician  alike.  Against  the  old  theory  that 
life  at  high  altitudes  is  too  difficult  both  for  man  and  beast  to  be 
healthful,  and  that  it  brings  about  degeneration  of  body  and  mind, 
the  authors  argue  most  strenuously.  Their  central  thesis  is  that  plants, 
animals,  and  man  may  become  acclimatised  to  high  altitudes,  and 
live  a  life  of  full  vigour  "  obeying  the  eternally  true  law  :  Semper 
ascendens." 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  Mexican  plateaux  to  thirty  fathoms  below 
the  Eddystone  lighthouse,  but  the  naturalists'  problem  is  the  same : 
how  are  the  organisms  adapted  to  the  peculiarities  of  their  environ- 
ment ?  Mr.  E.  J.  Allen,  director  of  the  Plymouth  Laboratory,  has 
been  investigating  for  some  years  the  distribution  of  the  fauna  on  the 
sea-bottom  along  the  thirty-fathom  line  from  the  Eddystone  Grounds 
to  Start  Point,  with  the  particular  object  of  ascertaining  and,  where 
possible,  explaining    the    changes   which    take    place   in    the    animal 

1   "  La  vie  sur  les  hauts  plateaux,"  pp.  790,  18  tables,  numerous  plates.     Mexico,  1899. 


1899]  LIFE  HIGH  AND  LOW  165 

population  when  the  nature  of  the  bottom  deposit  changes.  It  has 
been  a  laborious  piece  of  work,  executed  with  patient  carefulness,  and 
the  results  though  not  startling  are  certainly  valuable.1 

Since  the  principal  object  of  the  investigation  was  to  study  the 
relation  of  the  fauna  to  the  bottom-deposit,  the  area  selected  for 
examination  was  so  chosen  that  the  general  physical  conditions  were 
uniform  apart  from  the  nature  of  the  deposits,  and  the  amount  of 
disturbance  of  the  bottom  water  by  the  action  of  waves  was  relatively 
small.  The  chief  results  to  be  gained  by  carefully  scanning  the 
numerous  tables — the  drawing  up  of  which  must  have  meant  a  large 
amount  of  work — relate  to  the  suitability  of  certain  kinds  of  ground 
for  certain  kinds  of  animals,  but  apart  from  this  the  memoir  is  also 
interesting  because  of  the  numerous  notes  on  the  habits  of  the  animals 
and  for  its  analysis  of  the  environmental  conditions. 

The  physical  conditions,  the  variations  of  which  influence  the  life 
of  bottom-living  species,  are  capable  of  definite  statement,  and  for  the 
most  part  of  accurate  measurement.      They  are — 

1.  The  constitution  of  the  sea- water. 

2.  The  nature  of  the  bottom-deposit. 

3.  The  movements  of  the  water,  due  to 

(a)  wave  action, 

(b)  currents, 

(c)  tides. 

4.  The  temperature  of  the  sea-water. 

5.  The  pressure,  varying  with  the  depth  of  water. 

6.  The  amount  of  light  which  penetrates  to  the  bottom. 

The  external  biological  conditions  influencing  the  distribution  of 
any  bottom-loving  organism,  due  to  the  existence  at  the  same  time  ot 
other  living  organisms,  are  often  of  a  complicated  nature. 

1.  One  organism  may  exert  an  advantageous  influence  upon  another.. 

(a)  By  serving  as  its  food-supply  ; 

(b)  By  serving  as  a  fixed  base  to  which  it  may  attach  itself ; 

(c)  By  serving  as  a  movable  base,  and  thus  extending  the 

area  over  which  a  fixed  organism  can  collect  its  food- 
supply  ; 

(d)  By  bringing  supplies  of  food   to   the   other  organism  as 

well  as  to  itself,  either  by  setting  up  a  current,  or  in 
some  other  way  ; 

(e)  By  affording  the  other  organism  means  of  protection  or 

concealment  from  its  enemies. 

2.  One    organism    may    exert    a    disadvantageous    influence    upon 

another. 
(a)   By  preying  upon  it ; 

1  "  On  the  Fauna  and  Bottom-deposits  near  the  Thirty-fathom  Line  from  the  Eddystone 
Grounds  to  Start  Point,"  Journ.  Marine  Biol.  Ass.  v.  June  1899,  pp.  365-542,  15  charts 
and  7  tables. 


1 66  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [September 

(b)  By  fixing  upon  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  destroy  it ; 

(c)  As   a    competitor   for   a   limited    food-supply,   or  for  a 

limited  amount  of  fixing  space. 
3.  The    biological    conditions    by   which    the    organisms    on    any 
particular  patch  of  ground   are  influenced  depend   not   only 
upon   the   organisms   living   on  that  ground    itself,   but   also 
upon  the  nature  and  abundance  of  the  organisms  living  upon 
neighbouring  grounds. 
We  have  quoted  the  above  analysis  because  it  seems  to  us  admir- 
able, and  indicative  of  the  careful   manner  in  which  Mr.  Allen   has 
dealt  with  his  problem.      And  although  the  research  has  a  less  obvious 
practical  outcome  than  that  on  plateau-life,  with  which  we  have  coupled 
it,   this  justification   is   not  awanting,  for  it  helps  towards  an  under- 
standing of  the  local  distribution  of  food-fishes. 


As  Regards  Protoplasm. 

Those  acquainted  with  Trof.  E.  B.  Wilson's  work  entitled  "  The  Gell 
in  Development  and  Inheritance  "  will  remember  that  he  is  no  optimist, 
and  will  not  be  surprised  to  find  him  saying  in  a  more  recent  deliver- 
ance (Science,  x.  1899,  pp.  33-45,  4  figs.): — "If  we  except  certain 
highly  specialised  structures,  the  hope  of  finding  in  visible  protoplasmic 
structure  any  approach  to  an  understanding  of  its  physiological  activity 
is  growing  more,  instead  of  less,  remote,  and  is  giving  way  to  a  con- 
viction that  the  way  of  progress  lies  rather  in  an  appeal  to  the  ultra- 
microscopical  organisation  and  to  the  chemical  processes  through  which 
this  is  expressed."  He  starts  in  his  lecture  with  a  familiar  object — 
the  egg  of  the  sea-urchin — and  defines  the  problems  suggested  by  it : 
(1)  What  is  the  actual  structure  that  gives  the  appearance  of  a  mesh- 
work  ?  (2)  How  faithfully  does  the  preserved  structure,  as  seen  in 
sections,  reproduce  that  existing  in  life?  (3)  What  is  the  relation  of 
the  astral  systems  to  it  ?  (4)  What  is  the  finer  structure  and  origin 
of  the  meshwork  ?  (5)  Can  this  structure  be  taken  as  typical  of  all 
protoplasm  ;  and  if  not,  what  is  its  relation  to  other  forms  of  proto- 
plasmic structure?  And  incidentally,  still  another  interesting  question 
arises :  Is  it  possible  to  identify  any  one  of  the  three  visible  com- 
ponents— granules,  continuous  substance,  ground -substance — as  the 
living  substance  or  protoplasm  proper,  as  distinguished  from  a  lifeless 
metaplasm,  and,  if  so,  what  are  its  structural  relations  ? 

To  propose  dogmatic  answers  to  these  questions  would  be  at  present 
absurd,  and  Professor  Wilson  is  of  no  such  mood.  He  has,  however, 
specialised  in  cytological  work,  and  his  conclusions  are  therefore  of 
value  to  less  intimately  initiated  workers. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  meshwork  he  concludes  that  in  the  resting 


1899]  AS  REGARDS  PROTOPLASM  167 

cell  it  is  in  reality  an  alveolar  structure  —  an  emulsion  —  such  as 
Biitschli  has  described.  The  living  stuff  of  an  Echinoderm  ovum  is 
in  the  form  of  a  fine  emulsion  consisting  of  a  continuous  substance  in 
which  are  suspended  drops  of  two  orders  of  magnitude  and  of  different 
chemical  nature,  the  larger  drops  determining  the  primary  alveolar 
structure  as  described  by  Biitschli,  the  smaller  drops  determining  the 
secondary  or  finer  alveolar  structure  as  described  by  Beinke.  As  to 
the  astral  rays  in  the  sea-urchin  egg  and  elsewhere,  they  involve  a 
radial  arrangement  of  the  alveoli,  but  they  involve  more,  namely, 
definite  flbrillae  which  grow  by  progressive  differentiation  out  of  the 
general  cytoplasmic  meshwork. 

The  phrasing  of  the  last  sentence  suggests  a  more  general  con- 
clusion—  "that  alveolar,  granular,  fibrillar,  and  reticular  structures 
are  all  of  secondary  origin  and  importance,  and  that  the  ultimate 
background  of  protoplasmic  activity  is  the  sensibly  homogeneous  matrix 
or  continuous  substance  in  which  those  structures  appear."  Not  that 
the  author  puts  his  finger  upon  this,  so  to  speak,  and  says  this  is  the 
living  matter,  for  "  in  its  fullest  meaning  the  word  living  implies  the 
existence  of  a  group  of  co-operating  factors  more  complex  than  those 
manifested  by  any  one  substance  or  structural  element  in  the  cell, 
nevertheless,  we  are  perhaps  justified  in  maintaining  that  the  continuous 
substance  is  the  most  constant  and  active  element,  and  that  which 
forms  the  fundamental  basis  of  the  system,  transforming  itself  into 
granules,  drops,  fibrillae  or  networks  in  accordance  with  varying 
physiological  needs."  Thus  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
physical  basis  of  life  is  in  the  invisible  organisation  of  a  substance 
which  seems  to  the  eye  homogeneous.  Beyond  this,  as  far  as 
morphological  aspects  are  concerned,  all  is  hypothesis,  and  the  form 
of  hypothesis  which  Professor  Wilson  favours  is  "that  the  homogeneous 
or  continuous  substance  may  be  composed  of  ultra-microscopical  bodies, 
by  the  growth  and  differentiation  of  which  the  visible  elements  arise, 
and  which  differ  among  themselves  chemically  and  otherwise,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  larger  masses  to  which  they  give  rise." 


The  Darmstadt  Museum. 

Although  the  new  building  of  the  Grossherzogliche  Museum  at 
Darmstadt  is  unfinished  and  untenanted,  the  plan  of  the  zoological 
portion  has  been  carefully  worked  out  by  Dr.  G.  von  Koch,  the  director, 
and  some  idea  of  its  main  features  can  be  gained  from  his  programme 
and  from  the  newer  cases  in  the  old  museum. 

In  the  "  Schausammlung  "  or  show  collection  intended  for  general 
instruction,  there  is  of  course  a  systematic  series,  but  prominence  is 
given   to  cases  showing   things   more  or   less  as   they  are   in   nature  or 


1 68  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [September 

grouped  to  illustrate  some  particular  fact  or  adaptation.  Thus  we  see 
a  beech  wood  in  wiuter  with  its  withered  leaves,  squirrels,  and  wood- 
peckers ;  the  bank  of  a  stream  with  its  wagtails,  kingfishers,  and  other 
tenants ;  a  tree  with  distinctive  nests  at  the  various  levels,  and  so  on. 

Other  cases — more  difficult  to  work  out  naturally — are  beginning 
to  illustrate  geographical  distribution,  so  that  he  who  runs — and  such 
is  too  often  the  museum  pace — may  almost  read.  The  posing  of 
many  of  the  birds,  such  as  the  albatross,  in  flying  attitude ;  the  juxta- 
position of  the  stuffed  creature  and  its  skeleton  (as  in  the  case  of 
Ateles  geoffroyi) ;  the  arrangement  of  lenses  over  selected  corals ;  the 
models  showing  musculature  in  natural  size,  e.g.  of  the  elephant's  skull 
and  fore-limb,  and  other  features,  struck  us  as  we  walked  through,  and 
lead  us  to  look  with  expectation  to  the  opening  of  the  new  museum. 
Dr.  Koch  evidently  believes  in  keeping  the  detailed  collection  for 
workers  in  a  form  which  will  be  convenient  to  the  student  and  will 
save  the  laity  from  embarrassment,  and  in  making  each  exhibit  of  the 
so-called  show  collection  really  teach  something. 


An  Annelid  from  the  Devonian. 

The  lamentable  condition  of  fossils  found  in  the  Devonian  rocks  of  the 
south  coast  of  Cornwall  makes  a  communication  by  Mr.  Upfield  Green 
to  the  Royal  Geological  Society  of  Cornwall  of  more  than  ordinary 
interest.  This  consists  of  a  brief  record  with  figures  of  the  impression 
of  an  annelid  to  which  he  has  given  the  name  of  Nereitopsis  comubicus. 
The  specimens  come  from  the  slates  of  Polruan,  Polyne,  and  two  un- 
known localities,  and  are  four  in  number.  They  are  identical  in 
structure,  and  are  certainly  impressions  of  different  individuals  of  the 
same  species.  As  Mr.  Green  has  not  ventured  to  describe  them,  it 
may  be  well  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  the  original  specimens,  which  are 
faithfully  represented  by  the  figures  of  life  size.  From  the  central  rod, 
now  represented  by  a  hollow,  and  which  shows  traces  of  segmentation, 
spring  pairs  of  impressions  of  parallel  striae,  the  distal  end  of  each  of 
which  terminates  in  a  >  shaped  point.  Each  pair  of  impressions 
increases  in  size  from  the  tail  towards  the  head  (not  seen  in  any  of  the 
specimens).  The  tail  appears  to  have  a  swollen  and  tuberculated 
aspect,  but  is  obscure.  Such  in  few  words  is  a  description  of  these 
curious  fossils,  which  have  been  illustrated  and  published  in  the  hope 
that  better  material  may  be  forthcoming  now  that  attention  has  been 
drawn  to  them.  The  originals  are  in  the  Museum  of  the  Royal 
Geological  Society  of  Cornwall  at  Penzance. 


1899]  CULTIVATION  OF  THE   VINE  IN  ESSEX  169 

Cultivation  of  the  Vine  for  Wine  in  Essex. 

A  question  relative  to  the  above  heading  was  asked  in  the  Essex 
County  Chronicle  for  Dec.  9,  1898,  and  has  produced  a  paper  on  the 
subject  in  the  Essex  Naturalist  (Jan.-March  1899)  from  the  pen  of 
Mr.  Miller  Christy.  This  paper,  which  is  of  considerable  interest, 
deals  with  the  matter  historically,  and  collects  together  a  great  deal  of 
valuable  information.  For  instance,  no  fewer  than  eight  records  of 
vineyards  in  Essex  occur  in  Domesday  Book,  and  other  records  occur 
for  1130,  1252,  1303,  1380,  1540,  16(37,  etc.  AVine  was  produced, 
according  to  these  records,  in  1086,  1130,  and  1667,  the  produce  of 
the  latter  year  being  mentioned  by  Pepys  as  grown  at  Walthamstow. 
Reference  is  made  to  the  place  names,  and  to  hop-growing,  and  to  the 
fact  that  the  vine  is  largely  grown  at  the  present  day  for  the  sale  of 
the  grapes  themselves,  rather  than  for  the  wine  the  grapes  might  yield. 


Did  Palaeolithic  Man  Inhabit  Scotland  ? 

In  a  brochure  by  the  Rev.  Frederick  Smith  of  Cromlix,  entitled  "  Some 
Investigations  into  Palaeolithic  Remains  in  Scotland  "  (a  reprint  from 
the  Proceedings  of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow,  read  30th 
November  1898),  the  author  claims  to  have  discovered  palaeolithic 
implements  in  many  localities  throughout  Scotland,  including  the 
valleys  of  the  Forth,  Tay,  Earn,  Allan,  Dee,  and  Don  (Aberdeen),  as 
well  as  the  Clyde  estuary. 

That  such  implements  have  not  been  hitherto  recognised  in  Scot- 
land is,  according  to  Mr.  Smith,  due  to  the  fact  that  "  the  searchers 
were  looking  for  the  wrong  thing.  The  accepted  forms  being  of  flint, 
flint  specimens  were  sought  in  Scotland ;  or,  on  the  supposition  that 
other  materials  than  flint  might  have  been  used,  specimens  of  equally 
fine  form  and  elaboration  were  expected.  But  no  flint  exists  in  Scot- 
land ;  hence  flint  specimens  could  not  have  been  anticipated."  No 
objection  can  be  taken  to  the  logic  of  the  above  statement,  but  it  is 
equally  certain  that  if  palaeolithic  man  did  not  inhabit  Scotland,  as 
has  hitherto  been  assumed,  the  products  of  his  hands  need  not  be 
looked  for.  With  regard  to  Mr.  Smith's  reported  discoveries,  the  main 
question  which  has  to  be  determined  is,  whether  the  objects  are,  or  are 
not,  of  human  workmanship.  Should  this  be  decided  in  the  affirma- 
■tive  the  next  step  would  be  to  ascertain  if  they  were  actually  found 
in  circumstances  which  would  lead  us  to  regard  them  as  the  handiwork 
of  Palaeolithic  Man  ?  On  both  these  points  the  author  is  very  con- 
fident of  a  favourable  verdict.      He  tabulates  his  results  as  follows : — 

(1)   "Angular — i.e.  unrolled — stones,  in  shape  similar  to  the  flints 


170  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [septembeb 

of  the  Somme,  but  wanting  the  characteristic  flaking,  were 
found  in  the  soils  of  the  higher  areas  of  the  lower  Tay 
valley,  but  were  entirely  absent  from  those  of  the  50 -feet 
and  lower  terraces." 

(2)  "  Similar  stones  found  in  Kaims  and  the  most   ancient  river 

deposits,  but  more  or  less  rolled  or  water- worn." 

(3)  "  These   stones   entirely  absent,  under   ordinary  circumstances, 

in  recent  river  deposits ;  if  present,  so  completely  water- 
worn  as  to  be  practically  unrecognisable." 

There  exists,  no  doubt,  a  borderland,  in  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  distinguish  natural  productions  from  the  ruder  works  of  man  ;  but 
so  long  as  this  indefmiteness  characterises  Mr.  Smith's  specimens,  no 
archaeologist  would  be  justified  in  concluding  from  them  as  to  the 
presence  or  absence  of  man  in  the  district.  Until  this  problem  is 
settled  we  need  not  inquire  into  the  merits  of  the  subsidiary  one. 
For  the  clear,  methodical,  and  terse  manner  in  which  Mr.  Smith  has 
laid  the  facts  before  the  public  he  deserves  a  word  of  encouragement, 
but  we  cannot  say  that  he  has  proved  his  case. 


Insects  and  Tobacco. 

The  Year-Book  of  the  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1898  con- 
tains an  interesting  paper  by  Dr.  L.  0.  Howard  on  insects  injurious  to 
the  tobacco  plant.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  plant,  though  native  in 
North  America,  is  less  subject  to  insect  ravages  than  are  cereals  and 
other  imported  crops.  The  most  destructive,  of  the  enemies  mentioned 
here  is  a  small  "  flea-beetle,"  Epitrix  parvula,  which  eats  holes  in  the 
leaves,  and  renders  them  liable  to  further  damage  through  the  entrance 
of  fungus-spores.  The  caterpillars  of  two  large  hawk-moths  and  of 
several  noctuids,  including  species  so  familiar  to  British  entomologists 
as  Agrotis  saucia  and  Heliothis  armigera,  are  also  noticed.  Even  when 
prepared  for  consumption  in  another  way  by  vertebrate  admirers, 
tobacco  is  still  sought  after  by  hungry  arthropods ;  the  "  cigarette 
beetle,"  Lasioderma  scrricorne,  bores  into  all  kinds  of  stored  tobacco. 
"An  entomological  acquaintance,"  writes  Dr.  Howard,  "insists  that 
he  buys  infested  'short  cut'  by  preference,  both  because  he  can 
get  it  cheaper,  and  because  the  bodies  of  the  insects  impart  a  distinct 
and  not  disagreeable  flavour  to  the  tobacco.  He  admits,  however, 
that  it  is  a  cultivated  taste." 


1899]  ICHTHYOSA  UR US  AT  HOME  1 7 1 


Ichthyosaurus  at  Home. 

One  of  the  shortest  cuts  to  a  realisation  of  Ichthyosaurus  is  a  journey 
to  the  Museum  in  Stuttgart.  It  may  be  that  the  Saurian's  rehabilita- 
tion is  still  caviare  to  the  general,  but  there  are  many  accessory  attrac- 
tions by  the  way.  The  Stuttgart  Museum — the  Naturalien-Cabinet 
as  they  call  it — is  indeed  a  treasure-house  for  students  of  palaeon- 
tology, whether  they  are  interested  in  tertiary  mammals  or  the  teeth 
of  Microlestcs,  crustaceans  or  Steinheim  molluscs,  Labyrinthodonts  or 
Saurians,  and  it  is  said  that  the  thicket  of  mammoth  tusks  from 
Cannstadt  has  proved  so  impressive  that  it  is  mentioned  in  Eaedecker, 
which  surely  means  an  Ultima  Tlmle  of  fame. 

The  museum  as  a  whole  is  painfully  suggestive  of  what  museolo- 
gists  call  "  the  fat  boy,"  except  in  this  respect  that  it  seems  in  no  wise 
somnolent.  But  it  puzzles  the  inquisitive  visitor  to  imagine  where  a 
single  additional  specimen  could  possibly  be  stored.  The  most  in- 
geniously crowded  cases  of  "  Vermes,"  for  instance,  are  positively 
heartrending,  and  one  feels  that  a  few  more  exchanges  would  leave 
only  the  labels  visible  on  the  ascending  staircase  of  bottles. 

Among  the  striking  features  may  be  noted  the  extraordinarily  rich 
series  of  Pheasants  and  Birds  of  Paradise ;  the  fine  representation  of 
the  Wiirttemberg  fauna,  including  that  strange  phenomenon — Eatten- 
konig — of  many  rats  entangled  by  their  tails,  and  with  a  wealth  of 
duplicates,  e.g.  of  Pelias  verus,  which  must  surely  embarrass  anyone  but 
a  student  of  variations ;  a  skilfully  displayed  set  of  insects  injurious  to 
herbs  and  trees ;  besides  various  fascinating  rarities  like  the  Great 
Auk. 

Yet  the  feature  of  the  collection  is  doubtless  the  series  of  Saurians 
(in  the  wide  sense)  on  which  Dr.  Fraas — one  of  the  custodians  of  the 
museum — has  worked  with  so  much  success.  It  was  among  these 
that  we  recently  spent  two  happy  forenoons,  and  it  was  the  wealth  of 
species  and  individuals  of  Ichthyosaurus — from  one  measuring  twelve 
metres  in  length  to  a  little  foetus  within  its  mother — which  suggested 
the  title  of  our  note,  written  not  for  the  learned  palaeontologist  at 
home,  but  for  the  amateur  naturalist  abroad,  in  the  hope  that  among 
the  thousands  of  English  visitors  who  pass  annually  through  the 
charms  of  Stuttgart,  this  may  possibly  arrest  some  to  enjoy  the 
glimpse  into  an  ancient  world  which  the  palaeontological  museum 
affords.  There  are  of  course  many  richer  collections,  but  it  will  be 
hard  to  find  one  equally  rich  of  which  it  can  be  said  that  all  the 
treasures  are  local.  Perhaps  even  the  Stuttgarters  themselves  are  but 
dimly  aware  that  the  Naturalien-Cabinet  is  a  much  more  marvellous 
treasure-house  than  even  the  wonderful  Moorish  Palace  of  which  they 
are  justly  proud.  Similarly,  there  are  but  few  elect  Dundonians  who 
have  any  notion  of  the  wealth  of  Prof.  D'Arcy  Thompson's  collection 


1 72  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [sept.  1899 

in  University  College.  Onr  point,  however,  was  that  to  realise 
Ichthyosaurus,  to  see  it  disporting  itself  with  its  flukes,  to  verify  its 
dorsal  fins,  to  inquire  into  the  contents  of  its  stomach,  to  peer  even 
into  its  oviduct,  one  must  go  to  Stuttgart  and  sit  at  the  feet  of  Fraas. 


A  Note  on  Zoos. 

Again  and  again  it  has  been  remarked  that  zoological  gardens  flourish 
on  the  continent  in  towns  whose  population  is  less  than  that  of  British 
centres  in  which  the  institution  of  a  "  Zoo  "  would  be  regarded  as  fore- 
doomed to  failure.  The  reasons  for  this  are  doubtless  manifold  : — the 
treacherous  British  climate  is  largely  to  blame ;  we  are  given  to  take 
our  pleasure  sadly ;  there  is  the  little  item  of  delectable  uninjurious 
beer  with  which  British  brewers  still  leave  us  unprovided,  and  so  on. 

The  pros  and  cons  have  been  often  discussed,  and  we  have  had 
some  opportunity  of  considering  them.  Our  verdict  is  that  a  "  Zoo  " 
would  flourish  and  pay  in  Edinburgh,  for  instance  (where  the  project 
has  been  recently  discussed  with  more  or  less  vague  enthusiasm),  just 
as  well  as  in  Stuttgart,  if  only  a  company  would  select  a  scientific 
person  with  brains  to  run  it. 

After  visiting  the  garden  in  Frankfurt,  which  is  in  some  ways 
almost  luxurious  in  its  wealth  of  exhibits,  we  were  glad  for  our 
country's  sake  to  see  the  little  aSTil-Garten  at  Stuttgart.  For  Edin- 
burgh all  at  once  to  start  a  zoological  garden  on  the  scale  of  the 
Frankfurt  one  is  as  unlikely  as  that  there  should  be  an  independent 
Edinburgh  Antarctic  Expedition ;  but  that  a  company  of  enthusiastic 
Edinburgh  naturalists  and  business  men  should  not  be  able  to  run 
as  good  a  garden  as  there  is  in  Stuttgart  is  absurd. 

So  far  as  we  could  gather,  it  seems  to  be  "  run  "  by  one  man,  and 
there  were  few  irrelevant  attractions.  Yet  the  garden  was  an  interest- 
ing one,  with  its  Echidna,  a  very  fine  Myrmecojphaga  jubata,  a  sloth,  an 
orang,  a  chimpanzee,  the  usual  galaxy  of  monkeys,  a  fair  sample  of 
carnivores  and  ungulates,  a  lot  of  quite  happy  birds,  a  great  somnolent 
giant  salamander  and  silurus,  and  so  on. 

There  was  not  perhaps  anything  new  to  the  expert  naturalist,  but 
there  was  enough  for  even  his  observation  for  an  hour  or  two. 
The  collection  seems  to  have  started  with  monkeys,  but  it  has 
broadened  out,  and  it  is  at  once  a  credit  to  the  town  and  an  example 
to  others  who  might  go  farther  for  suggestion  and  fare  worse !  One 
thing,  however,  a  visitor  to  the  Stuttgart  garden  must  feel,  that 
without  a  good  water-supply  a  thoroughly  successful  and  beautiful  Zoo 
is  impossible. 


ORIGINAL    COMMUNICATIONS. 

The  Original  Rock  of  the  South  African  Diamond. 

By  Professor  T.  G.  Bonney,  D.Sc,  LL.D.,  V.P.RS. 

In  1867  the  first  diamond  was  discovered  in  South  Africa,  one  having 
been  found  in  some  gravel  from  the  Orange  Eiver.  Three  years 
afterwards  it  was  obtained  in  a  peculiar  deposit  of  a  yellowish  colour, 
like  a  rotten,  rather  saponaceous  shale,  about  15  miles  away  from 
the  stream  and  near  the  present  site  of  Kimberley.  There  was  a  rush 
to  the  spot,  and  excavations  were  soon  opened.  For  some  time  the 
mining  places  were  only  four  in  number,  and  near  Kimberley ;  a  fifth 
was  afterwards  added,  but  all  of  them  lie  within  a  circle  of  about 
3-J-  miles  in  diameter.  Since  then  similar  deposits  have  been 
found  elsewhere,  and  the  Newlands  Mines,  in  West  Griqualand,  to 
which  I  shall  more  especially  refer,  are  about  42  miles  to  the  N.W. 
of  Kimberley.  The  diamantiferous  "  yellow  ground,"  as  the  miners 
called  it,  was  found,  as  it  was  worked  downwards,  to  change  gradually 
into  a  rather  more  coherent  rock,  of  a  dull  dark  green-blue  colour, 
named  "blue  ground";  this  became  more  solid  as  the  workmen  followed 
it  downwards,  till  at  a  depth  of  1200  to  1400  feet  it  is  nearly  as 
consistent  as  a  limestone.1  In  this  matrix  the  diamond  occurs,2 
together  with  a  number  of  other  minerals,  such  as  garnets  (chiefly 
pyrope),  olivine,  pyroxenes  (including  enstatite,  chrome-diopside,  and 
smaragdite),  a  brownish  mica  passing  locally  into  a  chlorite,  ilmenite, 
and  magnetite,  with  small  fragments  of  zircon  and  kyanite.3  The 
ferro-magnesian  minerals  are  more  or  less  serpentinised,  and  the  pyropes 
are  often  surrounded  by  a  kelyphite  rim,  much  of  it  consisting  of  brown 
mica.      The   diamonds,    it   may   be   added,  are    often   found,  by   their 

1  I  believe  that  1800  feet  has  been  reached  in  the  De  Beers  Mines,  but  I  have  not  heard 
whether  the  hardness  of  the  rock  has  materially  increased  ;  probably  it  has  not. 

2  According  to  the  De  Beers  Consolidated  Mines  Report,  1889-90,  the  average  yield  in 
that  mine  is  from  li  to  1J  carats  per  load  (about  1600  pounds)  ;  the  Kimberley  is  much 
the  same.     In  Bulfontein  and  Du  Toit's  Pan  it  varies  from  £  to  §  of  a  carat  per  load. 

3  See  Lewis,  "Genesis and  History  of  the  Diamond,"  for  a  very  full  history  and  account 
of  the  minerals,  large  and  small. 

173 


174  T.   G.  BONNE  Y  [September 

anomalous  optical  character,  to  be  in  a  condition  of  strain,  and  they  are 
sometimes  only  fragments  of  crystals. 

The  matrix,  in  which  the  above-named  minerals  are  rather 
irregularly  scattered,  consists  of  serpentine,  somewhat  fragmentary  in 
aspect,  mixed  with  about  16  per  cent  of  a  carbonate — calcite  or  dolomite, 
granules  of  iron  oxide  and  perovskite  ;  sometimes  tiny  flakes  of  brown 
mica — apparently  of  secondary  origin — are  generally  disseminated.  To 
some  investigators  the  rock  seems  to  be  porphyritic,  to  others  brecciated, 
several  of  the  minerals  looking  rather  rounded.  Anmilar  rock  fra<r- 
ments — shales,  grits,  diabases,  and  the  like  (the  first  of  these  sometimes 
apparently  a  little  altered) — are  also  present,  though  in  variable  quantity. 
The  country  rock  is  a  shale,  often  dark,  interbedded  with  hard  grits,  and 
associated  with  flows  or  sills,  and  with  dykes  of  igneous  rocks,  mostly 
basalt  or  diabase.  Dykes  also  occasionally  cut  the  diamantiferous 
rock.  The  latter  occurs  in  pipes  which  bear  a  general  resemblance  to 
volcanic  necks.  These  vary  in  size,  the  largest,  named  Du  Toit's  Pan, 
being  about  45  acres  in  area. 

This  very  brief  sketch  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the  South 
African  diamonds  have  been  hitherto  found  may  suffice  for  our  present 
purposes,  since  so  much  has  now  been  written  on  the  subject.1  The 
facts  which  have  been  briefly  summarised  have  received  very  diverse 
interpretations,  though  all  admit  that  the  rock  has  been  considerably 
affected  by  secondary  mineral  changes,  which  have  been  brought  about, 
in  all  probability,  by  the  action  of  heated  water.  Some  writers,  how- 
ever, maintain  that  the  rock  is  a  breccia,  and  that  the  diamond,  like 
the  garnets,  pyroxenes,  olivines,  etc.,  was  formed  elsewhere,  the  parent 
rock  or  rocks  having  been  shattered  by  some  form  of  explosion. 
Others,  while  taking  the  same  view  as  to  the  character  of  the  blue 
ground,  believe  that  the  diamond  was  formed  in  situ,  probably  by  the 
action  of  highly  heated  water  (under  considerable  pressure)  on  the 
carbonaceous  material  of  the  country  rock  (Karoo  shale 2).  Others, 
again,  agree  with  the  late  Professor  Carvill  Lewis  in  regarding  the 
"  blue  ground "  as  a  serpentinised  and  otherwise  altered  peridotite  of 
somewhat  peculiar  form.  For  this  he  proposed  the  name  Kimberlite, 
thus  defining  it  "  a  porphyritic  volcanic  peridotite  of  basaltic  structure, 
or,  according  to  Eosenbusch's  nomenclature,  the  palaeovolcanic  '  Erguss 
form'  of  a  biotite-bronzite-dunite,  being  an  olivine-bronzite-picrite- 
porphyrite,  rich   in  biotite  ...   it  is  a  rock  sui  generis,  dissimilar  to 

1  I  think  it  needless  to  attempt  a  bibliography.  The  earlier  more  important  papers, 
with  some  which  cannot  be  so  designated,  will  be  found  in  Carvill  Lewis's  "The  Genesis 
and  Matrix  of  the  Diamond,"  1897.  Some  of  later  date  are  mentioned  in  my  paper  on 
"The  Parent  Rock  of  the  Diamond  in  South  Africa,"  read  to  the  Royal  Society  on  1st  June 
of  this  year.  The  classic  paper  of  Professor  Maskelyne  and  Dr.  W.  Flight  (Quart.  Journ. 
Geol.  Soc,  xxx.  1874.  p.  406)  contains  the  first  thorough  investigation  of  the  associated 
minerals,  and  much  information  will  be  found  in  De  Launay,  "  Les  Diamants  du  Cap," 
Paris,  1897,  and  in  Max  Bauer,  "  Edelsteinkunde,"  Leipzig,  1896,  both  of  them  most 
valuable  works  of  reference. 

2  This  is  referred  to  the  Triassic  period. 


1899]  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  DIAMOND  175 

any  other  known  species.  Three  varieties  of  Kimberlite  may  be 
distinguished:  (1)  Kimberlite  proper,  a  typical  porphyritic  lava; 
Kimberlite  breccia,  the  same  lava  broken  and  crushed  by  volcanic 
movements  and  crowded  with  included  fragments  of  shale  ;  (3)  Kimber- 
lite tuff,  being  the  fragmental  and  tufaceous  portion  of  the  same 
volcanic  rock.  These  varieties  pass  by  insensible  gradations  one  into 
another,  so  that  no  sharp  line  can  be  drawn  between  them,  and  all 
occur  together  in  the  same  neck  or  crater." l  He  held  that  the 
diamond  was  produced  in  situ,  the  basic  magma  of  the  peridotite 
offering  so  little  facility  for  the  oxidation  of  the  carbon. 

In  this  diversity  of  opinion  two  points  had  to  be  settled  before  the 
genesis  of  the  diamond  could  be  determined :  (a)  whether  that 
mineral  was  authigenous — crystallised  on  the  spot — in  the  so-called 
Kimberlite ;  and  (b)  what  was  the  true  nature  of  that  rock.  If  it 
were  a  serpentine,  there  was  then  a  high  probability  (though  not 
certainty)  that  the  diamond  was  authigenous  and  the  date  of  its  birth 
later  than  the  Triassic  period ;  if,  however,  the  rock  were  a  breccia 
(produced  by  some  form  of  volcanic  explosion),  it  was  then  more 
probable  that  the  diamond,  like  many  of  the  other  minerals,  had  been 
obtained  from  the  shattering  of  some  more  ancient  crystalline  rock. 

My  connection  with  this  interesting  and  amicable  controversy 
began  in  189 1,2  when,  at  the  request  of  Professor  Eupert  Jones,  I  ex- 
amined with  Miss  C.  A.  Eaisin  some  minerals  and  small  rock  fragments 
which  he  had  received  from  South  Africa.  Of  the  former  specimens 
nothing  more  need  be  said  since  they  were  those  usual  in  "washings"; 
but  the  latter  were  clearly  pieces  of  a  coarse  eclogite,  consisting  mainly 
of  a  red  garnet  and  a  green  augite  (that  now  identified  as  chrome- 
diopside) ;  both  being  minerals  found  in  the  Kimberlite.  This 
investigation  caused  me  to  pay  closer  attention  to  the  question,  and  the 
circumstances  mentioned  in  the  Preface  to  the  "  Genesis  and  Matrix  of 
the  Diamond,"  by  my  lamented  friend  Professor  Carvill  Lewis,  led  to 
my  undertaking  (with  the  kind  aid  of  Professor  Ptosenbusch)  to  see 
his  manuscripts  on  this  subject  through  the  press.  But  before  these 
reached  me  I  had  the  opportunity  of  examining  two  remarkably  well- 
preserved  blocks  of  the  breccia,  brought  from  Kimberley  by  Sir  J.  B. 
Stone,  M.P.  He  kindly  presented  one  of  these  to  me,  and  a  descrip- 
tion of  it  and  some  other  specimens  is  published  in  the  Geological 
Magazine.3     I  came  to   the   conclusion,  as  there  expressed,   that  the 

1  "Genesis  and  Matrix  of  the  Diamond,"  p.  50.  I  may  add  that  neither  in  Professor 
Lewis's  microscopic  slices  which  I  studied,  nor  in  the  rather  numerous  collection  which  I 
possess,  some  of  them  unusually  well  preserved,  have  I  been  able  to  recognise  these 
three  varieties.  I  have  been  for  some  years  convinced  that  the  rock  was  a  breccia,  and  my 
latest  studies  (Gcol.  Mag.,  1897,  p.  448)  proved  to  me  that  certain  fragments  which  I  had 
thought  might  possibly  represent  a  compact  peridotite  after  serpentinisation,  must  have 
had  quite  another  origin. 

2  Gcol.  Mag.,  1891,  p.  412. 

3  By  myself  and  Miss  Raisin,  with  a  prefatory  note  by  Sir  J.  B.  Stone,  Ckol.  Mag., 
1895,  p.  496. 


176  T.   G.  BONNE  Y  [.September 

rock  was  a  true  breccia.  That  opinion  was  not  altered  by  the  study  of 
Professor  Lewis's  manuscripts,  but  I  thought  it  possible  that  his 
Kimberlite  might  be  represented  in  certain  very  compact  fragments  of 
serpentinous  aspect,  the  nature  of  which  I  had  been  unable  to  deter- 
mine, owing  to  the  want  of  definite  characters  and  to  my  own  ignorance 
of  what  a  serpentine  formed  from  a  glassy  or  very  compact  peridotite 
would  be  like.  Apart  from  this  possibility,  my  views  on  the  main 
question  differed  from  those  put  forward  by  my  friend.  It  was, 
however,  my  obvious  duty  to  keep  the  difference  of  opinion  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  background,  and  to  endeavour  to  act  as  a  simple  channel 
for  the  publication  of  the  views  of  one  who  was  no  longer  able  to  speak  for 
himself.  Not  long  after  the  book  had  been  published,  Sir  W.  Crookes 
allowed  me  to  examine  a  piece  of  breccia  which  had  been  obtained  at  a 
depth  of  1320  feet,  and  was  in  even  better  preservation  than  any 
which  I  had  hitherto  seen.  About  the  same  time  Sir  J.  B.  Stone 
forwarded  to  me  another  set  of  specimens  which  he  had  received 
from  Kimberley.  Among  these  were  two  or  three  blocks,  in  almost  as 
good  a  condition  as  that  just  named,  and  from  an  even  greater  depth, 
viz.  1400  feet.  After  study  of  these  *  I  was  more  than  ever  convinced 
that  the  Kimberlite  was  a  true  breccia,  formed  by  the  explosive  de- 
struction of  some  coarsely  crystalline  rocks,  such  as  eclogites  and  peri- 
dotites  (including  representatives  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  of  the  region). 
I  was  also  able  to  ascertain  the  true  nature  of  those  fragments  which 
hitherto  I  had  thought  might  possibly  be  serpentine  of  an  exceptional 
character ;  they  proved  to  be  in  reality  nearer  to  argillites,  but  to  have 
undergone  certain  alterations,  in  all  probability  partly  from  contact 
action,  and  partly  from  water,  perhaps  at  a  rather  high  temperature, 
and  no  doubt  at  a  later  time.  Thus  I  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that 
the  so-called  Kimberlite  was  not  an  altered  peridotite,  but  a  breccia,  in 
which  the  diamond,  like  the  olivine,  pyroxenes,  garnet,  etc.,  was  not 
authigenous,  but  a  derivative  from  some  older  rock.  This  I  thought 
very  probably  was  a  peridotite,  for  an  a  priori  argument,  as  we  may 
call  it,  which  Professor  Lewis  had  used  seemed  valid,  even  though 
he  mi"'ht  have  misunderstood  the  nature  of  the  Kimberlite,  and 
his  idea  that  a  very  basic  rock  would  be  the  birthplace  of 
diamonds  was  confirmed  by  their  occurrence  in  meteoric  iron  (Canon 
Diablo  2)  and  their  manufacture  by  Moissan  through  the  intervention 
of  that  metal. 

Two  suggestive  discoveries  must  next  be  mentioned,  of  which, 
however,  I  was  ignorant  till  within  the  last  few  months.  A  diamond 
had  been  obtained  in  1892  embedded  in  a  garnet  (pyrope);  and  in 
another  specimen  no  less  than  six  diamonds  occurred  closely  associated 

1  See  Gcol.  Mag.  1897,  p.  448. 

2  Another  occurrence  of  diamond  (not  very  pure)  in  a  meteorite  which  fell  at  Novo 
Urei,  Russia,  Sept.  22,  1886,  is  mentioned  hy  Professor  Kuntz,  Eighteenth  Ann.  Report 
of  the  U.S.  Gcol.  Survey,  Part  V.  p.  1195. 


1899]  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  DIAMOND  177 

with,  or  indenting,  or  actually  embedded  in  a  fairly  large,  somewhat 
irregularly  shaped  pyrope.  The  one  specimen  came  from  Kimberley  ; 
the  other  from  the  Newlands  Mines,  West  Griqualand,  and  it  was  found 
by  Mr.  G.  Trubenbach,  the  managing  director  in  England  of  the 
Company,  during  a  visit  to  South  Africa. 

In  these  mines,  as  in  the  I)e  Beers  Mine,1  rounded  boulders  occa- 
sionally occur  in  the  diamond-bearing  rock — the  blue  ground  (soft  or 
hard,  as  the  case  may  be).  Mr.  Trubenbach  brought  some  of  these 
from  the  former  locality  to  England,  and  a  small  diamond  was  then 
observed  to  be  exposed  on  the  surface  of  one  of  them  ;  the  boulder  was 
broken  and  others  were  disclosed.  One  fragment  was  sent  to  Sir  W. 
Crookes,  to  obtain  the  benefit  of  his  opiuion,  and  he  showed  it  to  me. 
Though  I  saw  it  by  artificial  light,  I  felt  certain  that  the  rock  was  not 
any  variety  of  the  breccia,  but  a  true  eclogite,  and  expressed  that 
opinion.  He  most  kindly  asked  me  to  examine  the  rock,  and  obtained 
from  the  directors  permission  for  me  to  cut  off  as  much  as  I  thought 
necessary  for  a  satisfactory  investigation.  I  am  deeply  indebted  to  him 
for  this  kindness,  and  to  Mr.  Trubenbach  for  aiding  me  with  other 
specimens  from  the  mines  and  responding  so  willingly  to  my  inquiries. 
An  account  of  my  examination  of  the  whole  series  was  communicated 
to  the  Eoyal  Society  on  1st  June,'"2  and  the  following  are  the  principal 
results  : — 

The  boulders  of  eclogite  were  six  in  number,  but  all  prior  to 
fracture  had  been  well  rounded.  Stones  of  similar  shapes  might 
readily  be  found  in  the  bed  of  an  Alpine  torrent  after  a  course  of 
several  miles  —  in  other  words,  I  am  sure  they  are  water-worn. 
Three  are  of  one  species  of  eclogite,  and  three  of  another ;  two  of  the 
former  beino;  known  to  contain  diamonds.  That  in  which  this  mineral 
was  first  discovered  is  apparently  from  a  quarter  to  a  third  of  an  ellip- 
soidal boulder,  its  axial  measurements  being  roughly  4  in.  x  3  in.  x  '2  in. 
The  other  specimen,  probably  about  a  quarter  of  the  original,  measured 
in  the  same  way  about  5|-  in.  x  5  in.  x  3^  in.  The  outer  surface  of  the 
former  specimen  is  smooth  ;  the  pyropes  3  barely,  if  at  all,  projecting. 
So  it  has  been  in  the  other,  but  the  surface  now  is  slightly  corroded. 
Near  the  exterior  the  pyropes,  as  is  often  the  case,  are  covered  by  a 
dark  outer  film,  thicker  than  the  thumb-nail,  but  this  is  hardly  per- 
ceptible near  the  centre. 

The  first-named  specimen  is  comparatively  rich  in  diamonds. 
Two  are  visible  on  the  smooth  outer  surface,  a  third  on  one  of  the 
fractured   faces,  and  seven   on   the   other,  but  two   of  these   (partially 

1  The  occurrence  of  boulders  in  the  blue  ground  of  this  mine  (among  them  granite  and 
eclogite)  was  mentioned  so  long  ago  as  1S93  by  A.  W.  Stelzner,  Sitzungber.  u.  Abkandl. 
der  Isis,  Dresden,  1893,  p.  71. 

2  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  London,  1899. 

3  I  follow  previous  writers  in  applying  that  name  to  the  red  garnet  of  this  rock  and  the 
washings.  Its  accuracy  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  magnesia-mica  is  so  abundant  in  the 
kelyphite  rim. 

12 XAT.   SC. VOL.    XV.    NO.   91. 


178  T.   G.  BONNE  Y  [September 

covered  by  matrix)  possibly  may  be  in  reality  a  twin  ; 1  five  are 
exposed  within  a  space  abont  three-quarters  of  an  inch  square,  three 
of  them  appareutly  in  linear  contact.  These  diamonds  are  octahedra 
(stepped  faces),  with  an  excellent  lustre,  perfectly  colourless  and  clear. 
They  vary  in  diameter  from  nearly  0-15  inch  to  0'05  inch,  and  all 
apparently  are  embedded  in  the  green  part  of  the  rock.  In  the 
second  specimen  only  one  diamond  is  visible,  and  this  has  been 
exposed  by  a  slight  flaking  away  from  the  outer  surface.  It  is  in  all 
respects  similar  to  those  just  mentioned.  Each  of  these  boulders,  on 
microscopic  examination,  is  found  to  be  holocrystalline  and  to  consist 
almost  entirely  of  pyrope  and  a  chrome-diopside.  In  a  thin  slice  the 
former  mineral  is  a  light  tawny  red  colour,  is  generally  clear,  but  is 
much  and  irregularly  cracked,  and  is  occasionally  traversed  by  wavy 
bands  of  minute  enclosures,  one  set  being  branching  and  root-like, 
probably  cavities,  the  other  filmy,  apparently  a  variety  of  brown  mica, 
and  indicative  of  incipient  decomposition.  The  "  skin  "  enveloping 
many  of  the  garnets,  especially  towards  the  exterior  of  the  boulder,  is 
mainly  composed  of  a  mica  of  the  biotite  group,  which  in  the  latter 
case  appears  to  be  associated  with  a  chlorite  (by  passage)  and  perhaps 
with  a  little  fibrous  hornblende.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  variety  of  the 
kelyphite  rim,  to  which  attention  has  often  been  called,  but  the 
radial  structure  is  less  marked  than  usual  (so  far  as  my  experience 
goes),  the  mica  flakes  showing  a  tendency  to  parallelism.  The 
chrome-diopside  is  the  mineral  described  under  that  name  by  Professor 
Lewis  ;  by  others  as  omphacite  or  sahlite.  In  these  slices  it  is  a  pale, 
dullish  green  colour,  inclining  to  olive.  The  crystals  are  sometimes 
partially  converted  (at  the  exterior  and  along  cracks)  into  a  mineral, 
generally  in  minute  matted  fibres,  but  occasionally  in  grains  large 
enough  to  show  cleavage ;  these  give  the  extinction  of  hornblende,  and 
are  no  doubt  the  result  of  secondary  change.  The  unaltered  pyroxene 
shows  one  strongly  marked  cleavage  (not  so  close  as  is  usual  in 
diallage),  and  a  second  less  developed,  sometimes  almost  at  right  angles 
to  it.  The  former,  as  already  noticed  by  Professor  Lewis,  is 
parallel  to  the  clinopinacoid,  and  by  measuring  some  flakes  I  obtained 
extinction  angles  up  to  quite  35°.2  This  diopside  occasionally 
encloses  a  small  rounded  spot,  consisting  apparently  of  a  serpentinous 
mineral,  much  blackened  by  opacite.  I  presume  that  a  very  few 
small  grains  of  a  ferriferous  olivine  were  originally  present,  being 
among  the  first  minerals  to  separate  from  the  magma.  In  one  of  my 
slices  the  brown  mica  attains  a  larger  size  (about  0'03  inch  in 
diameter)  than  at  the  margin  of  a  garnet  (from  which  it  is  dissociated), 
and  exhibits  a  fairly  idiomorphic  outline   (hexagonal  prism).      In   this 

1  The  point,  of  course,  could  easily  be  settled,  but  as  it  is  unimportant  I  have  preferred 
to  leave  things  as  they  were. 

2  Professor  Lewis  obtained  an  angle  of  39°.     My  measurements  were  rough,  intended 
only  for  identilication  of  the  mineral. 


1899]  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  DIAMOND  179 

case  it  is  generally  associated  with  a  little  calcite,  and  in  one  place 
with  a  radiating  acicnlar  mineral,  probably  a  zeolite;  in  another  the 
calcite  is  mixed  with  a  serpentinons  mineral.  Larger  grains  of  iron 
oxide  appear  to  be  wanting,  and  I  have  not  observed  zircon  or  spinel, 
or  even  rntile  or  pseudobrookite.  Some  of  them  might  turn  up,  as  a 
diamond  might  do,  if  more  slices  were  cut,1  but  obviously  they  are  not 
at  all  common.  The  second  boulder  corresponds  so  closely  in  mineral 
composition  with  that  just  described  that  a  separate  description  is 
needless.  I  have  also  examined  a  fragment  from  a  third  rounded 
boulder,  which  when  perfect  must  have  been  about  a  foot  in  diameter. 
The  rock  is  practically  identical  with  that  of  the  other  two  boulders, 
but  no  diamonds  are  visible. 

Three  boulders,  apparently  without  diamonds,  represent  another 
variety  or  species  of  eclogite.  One  is  a  fragment  measuring  about 
7  in.  x  4^  in.  x  3^-  in.;  another  an  unbroken  boulder,  the  girth  of  which, 
measured  in  three  directions  at  right  angles,  is  approximately  20^-  in. 
X  19^-  in.  X  17^-  in.;  and  the  third  is  a  fragment  about  3  in.  x  'l\  in. 
x  2  in.  In  all  these  the  outer  surface  is  rather  more  decomposed 
than  in  the  three  described  above,  and  the  same  appears  true  of  the 
rock  throughout.  It  obviously  consists  of  three  principal  constituents, 
with  a  few  scattered  flakes  of  a  brownish  mica.  Two  of  them,  the 
pyrope  and  the  diopside,  do  not  differ  from  those  described  above, 
except  that  the  former  is  slightly  pinker  in  colour ;  the  third  con- 
stituent is  an  altered  enstatite.  The  mica  is  only  moderately 
pleochroic,  resembling  phlogopite ;  a  small  grain  or  two  of  serpentinised 
olivine  (as  before)  may  be  present.  Apparently  the  minerals  have 
formed  in  the  following  order :  (a)  pyrope,  (b)  diopside,  (c)  mica,  (d) 
enstatite.  I  had  slices  cut  only  from  the  first  specimen,  as  I  preferred 
to  leave  the  second  intact,  and  the  third  was  more  decomposed  than 
the  others.  This  rock  obviously  is  closely  related  to  the  normal 
eclogites  and  to  the  eulysites — differing  from  the  one  in  the  conspicuous 
presence  of  a  rhombic  pyroxene ;  from  the  other  in  containing  that 
mineral  instead  of  olivine.  If  a  special  name  be  recpiired  I  should 
propose  Newlanclite,  but  personally  should  be  satisfied  with  enstatitc- 
eclogite,  for  I  prefer  to  call  attention  to  relationships  rather  than  to 
distinctions. 

In  connection  with  this  rock  an  interesting  specimen  may  be 
noticed,  which  was  obtained  from  the  blue  ground.  It  is  an 
irregular  fragment  between  three  or  four  inches  long,  consisting  of 
crystals  of  a  greyish-green  rhombic  pyroxene,  in  which  one  cleavage 
is  strongly  developed,  but  with  a  barely  metalloidal  lustre.  They  are 
approximately  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  between  them  small  pyropes 
are  rather  irregnlarly  interspersed.  As  I  was  reluctant  to  injure  the 
specimen  by  cutting  off  a  slice,  I  removed  a  few  small  flakes,  which  on 
examination  with   convergent  light  proved   the   mineral   to   belong  to 

1  Five  were  made  from  the  first  boulder,  three  from  the  second,  two  from  the  third. 


180  T.    G.   BONNE  Y  [September 

the  bastite  group,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  the  one  present  in  the 
boulders  just  mentioned.  The  specimen  accordingly  represents  a  very 
coarse  garnet-bearing  bastitite.1 

One  more  boulder  still  remains,  though  it  requires  only  a  passing 
notice.  It  is  a  compact  greenish  rock  with  spots  of  a  light-coloured 
mineral.  This  proves  on  examination  to  be  a  rather  felspathic  diabase, 
with  amygdaies  consisting  chiefly  of  calcite,  with  chlorite,  and  a  few 
small  groups  of  zeolite. 

These  diamantiferous  plots  in  West  Griqualand,  though  on  a 
smaller  scale  than  at  the  older  mines  near  Kimberley,  occur  in  a 
similar  way,  and  are  formed  of  a  rock  practically  identical.  Those 
now  beiiJLr  worked  are  three  in  number,  two  at  least  of  them  being 
connected  by  a  line  of  fissure.  The  rock  has  now  been  proved,  and 
galleries  have  been  driven  to  a  depth  of  over  300  feet,  and  the 
boulders  above  mentioned  were  found  at  various  levels  down  to  this 
from  nearly  100  feet.  A  section  obtained  just  south  of  the  middle 
"  pipe  "  is  interesting.  Here  a  gallery  was  driven  between  two  walls  of 
diabase  (?  dykes)  about  four  yards  apart,  and  in  the  interval  were  four 
ribs  of  blue  ground,  parted  by  country  rock,  which  is  a  grey  mudstone, 
sometimes  pebbly.  The  total  amount  of  the  two  was  nearly  the  same, 
but  the  thinnest  rib  of  "  blue  "  (very  decomposed)  was  about  an  inch 
in  width,  while  the  thickest  was  rather  under  four  feet.  It  is  strange 
that  the  characteristic  "  breccia  "  (though  rather  a  finer  variety  than 
usual)  should  have  penetrated  into  so  narrow  a  fissure.2  The  principal 
areas,  however,  appear  to  be  "  blow-holes,"  formed  in  the  same  way  as 
parasitic  cones  along  a  crack  on  the  flank  of  a  volcano. 

Thus  the  diamond  has  been  found  to  be  a  constituent  of  an 
eclogite,  and  the  parent  rock  occurs  as  boulders  in  the  ordinary 
diamantiferous  material  (blue  ground).  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
claiming  this  coarsely  holocrystalline  eclogite  as  an  igneous  rock, 
though  I  am  aware  that  some  uncertainty  has  been  expressed  on  this 
point ;  but,  as  it  happens,  I  have  had  several  opportunities  of  studying 
eclogites,  not  only  under  the  microscope,  but  also  in  the  field,  and  am 
convinced  that  they  are  as  truly  igneous  rocks  as  granites,  syenites,  or 
diorites.  They  are,  indeed,  rather  closely  allied  with  the  last  named, 
perhaps  also  with  certain  dolerites.  The  relationship  may  be  expressed 
by  the  homely  direction  :  "  Put  some  salt  into  the  magma  of  an  ordinary 
eclogite  and  it  will  crystallise  as  one  of  the  less  acid  diorites." 

The  diamond  then  is  shown  to  be  an  accidental  constituent  of  the 

1  Pyroxenites  (diallagite,  bastitite,  etc.)  not  unfrequently  run  very  coarse,  but  (so  far 
as  I  happen  to  have  seen)  in  rather  thin  dykes  or  veins.  See  Quart.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc.  vol. 
lv.  (1899),  p.  290. 

-  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Kimberlite  of  Elliot  County,  Kentucky,  appears  to 
occupy  a  branching  fissure  (Lewis,  "  Genesis  and  Matrix  of  the  Diamond,"  p.  64).  As 
this  section  was  obtained  in  a  gallery  at  a  depth  of  300  feet  it  may  possibly  be  misleading, 
and  some  of  the  blocks  of  mudstone  may  not  be  in  situ,  but  only  great  fragments  which 
have  fallen  into  the  fissure. 


1899]  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  DIAMOND  181 

eclogite,  as  a  zircon  is  of  a  granite  or  syenite.  It  may  prove,  how- 
ever, not  to  be  restricted  to  this  one  species  of  rock.  I  see  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  also  occur  in  the  enstatite-eclogite  already  described  ; 
while  the  fact  that  at  Kiniberley,  if  not  at  Newlands,  olivine  is 
abundant  in  the  diamantiferons  blue  ground  suggests  the  possibility 
that  the  diamond  may  also  be  a  constituent  of  a  peridotite.  In  fact, 
though  I  was  unable  to  accept  my  late  friend  Professor  Carvill  Lewis's 
view  that  the  Kimberlite  was  an  altered  peridotite,  I  fully  expected 
that  sooner  or  later  it  would  be  traced  back  to  some  very  basic  rock, 
probably  to  a  peridotite.  The  diamond  hitherto  has  only  been  proved  to 
occur  in  meteoric  iron1  (Canon  Diablo),  and  it  was  made  artificially 
by  Professor  Moissan  by  the  intervention  of  that  metal.  Indeed,  on  a 
priori  grounds  I  should  have  expected  to  find  it  in  a  rock  less  acid  than 
an  eclogite.  I  venture,  accordingly,  to  suggest  that  the  crystallisation 
of  the  carbon  may  possibly  have  occurred  in  some  very  basic  magma 
which  was  afterwards  invaded  by  one  more  acid,  the  eclogite  being  the 
result  of  the  mixture.  This,  however,  is  a  speculation  ;  the  fact,  I 
think,  cannot  be  disputed  that  the  diamond  has  been  traced  back  to  an 
igneous  rock  (eclogite)  and  was  not  formed  in  the  "  blue  "  (Kimberlite). 

The  boulders  described  above  appear  to  me  truly  water- worn ;  so  also 
are  not  a  few  of  the  smaller  fragments.  I  suspected  this  some  time 
ago  when  examining  a  parcel  of  "  washings  "  from  the  De  Beers  Mines 
(where  also  boulders  have  occurred),  but  those  sent  to  me  from 
Newlands  have  placed  it  beyond  doubt ;  half  a  small  pebble  of 
eclogite  is  present,  while  many  of  the  minerals  are  so  well  rounded 
that  the  darker  kinds  could  only  be  determined  by  fracture.  But  if 
this  be  so,  if  many  of  the  constituents  are  water-worn,  how  can  the 
so-called  Kimberlite  be  an  altered  porphyritic  peridotite  ?  We  are 
compelled  to  regard  it  as  a  clastic  rock,  formed  by  explosions,  which 
have  mingled  the  shattered  constituents  of  the  coarsely  crystalline  floor 
with  materials  derived  from  the  overlying  sediments.  The  comparative 
abundance  of  diamonds  in  the  blue  ground  suggests  that  they  are  fairly 
common  in  some  members  at  least  of  the  holocrystalline  series.  Hence 
it  may  be  possible,  by  carefully  observing  the  larger  minerals  found 
with  diamonds,  to  infer  which  of  them  are  really  its  associates.  At 
present,  garnet,  chrome-diopside,  and  perhaps  iron  oxides,  can  alone  be 
named,  but  I  fully  anticipate  other  pyroxenes  and  olivine  to  be  added. 

Hence,  as  the  blue  ground  is  not  an  altered  peridotite,  the 
name  Kimberlite  must  be  removed  from  the  list  of  that  group,  and 
must  disappear  from  science,  unless  it  be  retained  for  this  peculiar 
breccia  in  which  the  diamond  very  commonly  is  an  accidental  con- 
stituent. The  mode  of  occurrence,  structure,  and  contents  of  this 
breccia  suggest  that  it  is  the  result  of  some  kind  of  volcanic  action,  but 
the  general  abseuce  of  scoria  makes  it  probable  that  the  explosions  were 
due  to  accumulated  steam,  and  were  thus  of  an  exceptional  character. 

1  The  Novo  Urei  meteorite,  however,  is  said  to  contain  some  ferro-magnesian  minerals. 


182  T.   G.  BONNE  Y  [sept.  1899 

Discharges  of  lava  occurred  during  the  Karoo  period  and  probably 
afterwards  (for  both  the  pipes  and  the  surrounding  sedimentary  rocks 
are  pierced  by  dykes),  while  the  marked  changes  in  the  matrix  of  the 
blue  ground  (what  has  been  one  of  the  great  difficulties  in  determining 
its  real  nature)  suggest  that  for  a  long  time  it  wras  acted  upon  by 
water  at  a  high  temperature.  Thus  the  volcanoes  did  not  go  beyond 
the  sol f atari c  stage.  They  occur  over  a  rather  extensive  district 
and  are  fairly  numerous — comparable,  in  fact,  with  the  volcanic  necks 
of  Fifeshire. 

The  diamantiferous  boulders  obviously  have  no  connection  with  any 
existing  alluvia.  Probably  they  have  come  from  a  conglomerate  at  the 
base  of  the  sedimentary  series,  resting  directly  on  the  crystalline  floor. 
Thus  far  we  have  no  means  of  determining  what  the  age  of  the  latter 
may  be,  but  the  Dwyka  conglomerate  of  South  African  geologists — 
generally  assigned  to  the  Permian  system  —  very  probably  extends 
beneath  the  Karoo  beds  of  the  diamantiferous  region,  and  may 
repose  on  the  crystalline  floor.  On  that  point,  however,  we  must 
await  further  evidence ;  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  genesis  of  the 
diamond  in  South  Africa  was  not  a  phenomenon  of  Mesozoic  or 
later  times,  but  must  be  yet  more  ancient. 


23  Denning  Road, 
London,  N.W. 


The  Scope  of  Natural  Selection. 

Continued  from  page  129. 

By  J.  Lionel  Tayler. 

The  Primitive  Characteristics  of  Protoplasm. 

In  this  section  I  wish  to  briefly  recapitulate  a  few  well-known 
facts  and  generalisations,  which  appear  to  me  to  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  natural  selection  acting  on  variations  has  been  the 
sole  means  of  producing  divergence  and  evolution  in  the  organic 
world,  that  protoplasm  is  never  really  modifiable,  although  it  may  be 
and  has  been  adapted  to  a  marvellous  degree. 

In  the  evolution  of  organisms  certain  generalisations  have  been 
shown  to  be  in  the  main  true.  From  the  lower  to  the  higher  forms 
organisation  tends  to  grow  more  complex  and  also  more  specialised  ; 
this  development  consists  in  a  qualitative  and  a  quantitative  change. 
In  estimating  the  value  of  any  theory  which  claims  to  be  able  to 
largely  explain  the  process  of  evolution  this  quantitative,  as  well  as 
the  qualitative,  change  must  be  kept  in  mind.  If  a  study  of  the 
lower  forms  of  life  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  even  here  elimination 
brings  about  adaptation,  and  that  there  is  little  or  no  evidence  for 
modification  of  structure,  while  when  we  compare  the  higher  and 
lower  forms  we  find  that  the  differences  are  very  largely  due  to  an 
increase  in  complexity,  and  that  the  qualitative  difference  is  merely  a 
further  development  or  accentuation  in  the  more  advanced  organism  of 
a  property  which  is  always  present  in  the  less  advanced,  then  it  will 
be  evident  that  the  facts  are  largely  in  favour  of  a  purely  selectionist 
theory  of  evolution.  That  a  study  of  the  facts  does  lead  to  such  a 
conclusion  I  shall  now  endeavour  to  demonstrate. 

In  the  lowest  forms  of  life  we  are  confronted  with  a  kind  of  sub- 
stance (protoplasm)  which  manifests  certain  peculiarities  which 
appear  at  first  to  sharply  distinguish  it  from  inorganic  material. 
Protoplasm  from  its  commencement,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  examine 
it,  appears  to  exist  in  two  more  or  less  distinct  forms ;  these  forms  are 
not  sharply  marked  off,  but  more  or  less  shade  into  each  other,  but 
still  are  sufficiently  clear  and  distinct  to  have  led  apparently  to  widely 

183 


1 84  /   LIONEL  TAYLER  [September 

different  results.  These  two  forms  have  developed  on  their  separate 
lines  and  have  resulted  in  the  most  important  divisions  of  organic 
life,  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms ;  and  the  most  marked 
difference  between  these  two  kinds  of  protoplasm  appears  to  lie  in 
the  fact  that  one  has  to  exist  on  comparatively  complex  foods,  the 
other  on  comparatively  simple.  Excluding  this  and  other  differences, 
for  the  moment,  from  consideration,  there  remain  three  peculiarities 
which  distinguish  protoplasm  from  inorganic  material: — (1)  It  is 
extremely  complex  in  structure  ;  (2)  it  is  remarkably  unstable  ;  and 
(3)  it  has  the  power,  when  placed  under  suitable  conditions,  of  build- 
ing up  from  its  environment  material  similar  to  or  identical  with  its 
own. 

Lewes,  Spencer,  and,  in  a  crude  unscientific  form,  many  early 
writers,  have  noticed  certain  resemblances  between  some  kinds  of  dead 
and  living  material ;  these  resemblances  have  steadily  multiplied  in 
number,  while  they  have  become  far  more  forcible  in  character  during 
the  last  forty  to  fifty  years,  so  that  many,  perhaps  most,  scientists  are 
beginning  to  assume,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  that  purely  physical 
and  chemical  causes  are  or  soon  will  be  sufficient  to  explain  the  lower 
and  possibly  also  the  higher  forms  of  life.1  Let  us  take  first  the  pecu- 
liarities of  protoplasm  which  are  apparently  most  allied  to  chemical  and 
physical  phenomena,  its  extreme  instability  and  complexity.  Making 
a  general  statement  of  the  characteristics  of  the  chemical  elements,  it 
appears  that  they  may  be  grouped  into  three  more  or  less  ill-defined 
divisions — those  with  marked  affinities,  others  with  very  ill-marked 
tendencies,  and  a  third  intermediary  division.  Stability  is  usually 
associated  in  chemistry  with  simple  molecular  structure ;  satisfied 
affinities  and  compounds  are  generally  stable  when  they  are  made  up 
of  elements  which  exhibit  strong  mutual  affinities,  combined  in  such  a 
way  that  each  tendency  is  more  or  less  completely  balanced  by  others. 
The  more  perfectly  the  elements  are  brought  into  contact,  the  more 
combination  of  these  elements  is  accelerated,  and,  finally,  there  is  an 
evolution  of  energy  whenever  the  less  stable  passes  into  the  more 
stable. 

Chemical  instability,  on  the  other  hand,  is  associated  with  weak 
affinities,  great  complexity,  and  a  combination  of  elements  in  a  form 
which  by  readjustment  might  lead  to  the  formation  of  simpler 
and  more  stable  compounds.  As  there  is  always  an  evolution  of 
energy  when  the  less  stable  passes  into  the  more  stable,  there  is 
manifestly  a  storage  of  potential  energy  in  the  unstable  forms.  The 
instability  and  complexity  of  protoplasm  is  therefore  really  not  a 
difference  from,  but  a  resemblance  to,  non-living  substances,  because 
its  instability  and  complexity  apparently  exist  under  similar,  though 
accentuated,  conditions  to  those  cases  where  the  complexity  and  in- 
stability is  purely  chemical.      The  distinctive  characteristic  of  living 

1  Verworn  in  his  "General  Physiology"  gives  a  fairly  complete  summary  of  tins  position. 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  185 

as  opposed  to  non-living  substances  therefore  must  be  found,  if  it  exist 
at  all,  in  some  other  property  of  living  matter,  and  it  may  possibly  lie 
in  the  third  feature  that  has  been  noticed,  its  power  of  maintaining  a 
constant  mass  of  unstable  substance  under  conditions  which  appear  to 
make  for  disintegration  of  the  substance ;  and  we  notice  in  addition 
another  fact,  namely,  that  while  life  lasts  a  continuous  series 
of  chemical  changes,  at  some  periods  less  active,  at  others 
more,  but  never  entirely  ceasing,  are  always  present.  Now  in 
this  perpetual  chemical  change  some  energy  is  wasted,  and  passes 
off1  into  the  environment  in  the  form  of  heat,  motion,  etc.  How 
does  the  organism  get  sufficient  extra  energy,  not  merely  to  maintain 
but  even  to  frequently  increase  its  complex  and  unstable  substance  ? 
The  extra  energy  might  obviously  be  obtained  if  the  organism  con- 
tinually assimilated  more  complex  and  unstable  food  than  the  ultimate 
products  into  which  this  disintegrated  protoplasm  broke  down.  In 
confirmation  of  this  position  it  is  noteworthy  that  plant  tissues  which 
have  reached  a  much  lower  point  of  evolution  than  animal,  and  whose 
tissue  change  is  less  active,  require  less  complex  food  than  animals. 
For  synthesis  energy  is  required,  and  this  could  be  obtained  as  above 
from  the  food  material ;  in  addition  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  a 
very  slightly  conducting  substance,  such  as  we  have  in  protoplasm,  to 
prevent  energy  from  being  too  rapidly  dissipated,  while  every  chemical 
reaction  must  be  extremely  rarefied,  as  any  marked  evolution  of  energy 
would  obviously  lead  to  the  destruction  of  the  whole  organism.  The 
essentials  for  the  physical  aspect  of  protoplasmic  life  would  therefore 
appear  to  be,  a  certain  small  but  constant  amount  of  surplus  energy 
which  leads  to  a  very  gradual  substitution  of  the  less  complex  into  the 
more  complex,  and  then  the  gradual  breaking  down  of  the  more  com- 
plex protoplasm  thus  formed,  by  equally  gradual  stages,  into  simpler 
products  than  those  which  had  been  utilised  as  food. 

It  seems,  therefore,  conceivable,  supposing  chemical  and  physical 
conditions  to  be  favourable,  that  a  purely  chemical  product  might  be 
found  which  would,  if  situated  in  a  suitable  medium,  manifest 
synthetical  and  analytical  changes  without  any  additional  force  being 
required.  As  further  movements  somewhat  analogous  in  character  to 
the  amoeboid  have  been  shown  to  be  obtainable  by  chemical  and 
physical  conditions  alone,  as  in  the  experiments  of  Quincke,  Biitschli, 
and  others,  and  also  the  various  phenomena  associated  with  chemio- 
taxis,  phagocytosis,  etc,  appear  to  lead  to  the  same  conclusions,  it 
would  seem  that  the  earliest  forms  of  life  might  be  accounted  for  on 
an  entirely  physical  basis. 

In  many  forms  of  bacteria,  almost  all  the  above  conditions  are 
complied  with  ;  they  do  not  include  any  special  phenomena  of  move- 
ment, or  show  any  marked  reaction  to  stimuli.  There  is  usually  a 
special  temperature  at  which  they  grow  most  perfectly,  while  below 
and  above  this  their  growth  and  metabolism  tend  to  cease,  and  they 


1 86  /   LIONEL  TAYLER  [September 

will  only  grow  on  or  in  certain  media.  From  a  purely  chemical  stand- 
point, there  is  therefore  nothing  in  protoplasmic  activity  which  suggests 
any  new  element ;  that  bacteria  thrive  under  certain  conditions  hut 
not  under  others,  being  dependent  on  their  powers  of  combination  and 
subject  to  the  laws  of  chemical  change,  is  consequently  easily  explain- 
able. It  may,  however,  be  urged  that  while  it  is  true  that  bacteria 
are  sometimes  influenced  by  some  slight  alterations  in  their  environ- 
ment, they  are  often  capable  of  standing  great  extremes  in  other 
directions,  and  in  this  respect  do  not  resemble  unstable  and  complex 
chemical  compounds  ;  even  this  difference,  however,  does  not  hold,  since 
there  are  many  chemically  complex  and  unstable  compounds  which 
appear  relatively  stable  under  certain  conditions  while  they  are  equally 
unstable  under  others.  There  are,  therefore,  a  set  of  conditions 
associated  with  early  primitive  life,  which,  except  for  the  phenomena 
of  fission  which  Spencer  has  shown,  is,  like  the  other  properties  of 
early  protoplasm,  capable  of  a  physical  explanation — are  all  explain- 
able by  the  laws  of  chemical  change,  osmosis,  diffusion,  etc. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  fallacies  to  which  one  is  liable  in 
dealing  with  such  a  question  ;  thus  the  extreme  minuteness  of  the 
organisms,  and  our  necessarily  imperfect  knowledge  of  their  life- 
history  and  structure  make  it  probable  that  any  present-day  explana- 
tion will  be  incomplete. 

I  only  wish  to  note  that  this  resemblance  is  likely  to  be  at  least 
partially  true.  That  this  apparent  closeness  of  connection  between 
chemical  change  and  bacterial  metabolism  may  appear  to  future 
generations  less  close  than  it  does  to  us  is  possible,  still  the  increased 
knowledge  of  the  higher  organisms,  the  relation  of  food-supply  to 
bodily  exertion,  the  recent  work  on  digestion,  blood-supply,  and  tissue 
change,  do  not  lead  to  a  less  but  a  more  close  chemical  analogy ;  in 
any  case  the  inference,  as  far  as  the  present  time  is  concerned,  is  in 
favour  of  a  very  close  connection  between  the  laws  of  chemistry  and 
physics  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  forms  of  vital  activity  on  the  other. 

Now,  as  far  as  this  inference  has  weight,  it  must  tell  against 
climatic  modification  in  favour  of  climatic  and  inter-organismal 
adaptation,  inasmuch  as  chemical  elements  have  definite  affinities, 
enter  into  definite  combinations  in  fixed  proportions ;  and  as  any 
alteration  in  a  compound,  however  complex,  must  proceed  along 
definite  lines,  it  follows  that  each  form  or  variety  of  protoplasm,  in  so 
far  as  it  is  chemical  in  nature,  can  only  grow  and  keep  active  by 
being  fed  by  certain  foods  which  it  can  make  use  of,  and  by  being 
.  under  certain  conditions  more  or  less  favourable  to  its  organisation  ; 
and  when  a  sufficient  number  of  these  favourable  conditions  are  not 
present,  the  surplus  energy  of  the  organism  must  in  time  run  down, 
and  the  organism  will  die  because  it  cannot  utilise  other  conditions. 

At  the  commencement  of  this  article  I  endeavoured  to  emphasise 
the    importance    of    keeping  in    mind    the    fundamental   distinctions 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  187 

between  accommodations  which  are  the  direct  result  of  environ- 
mental influence,  just  as  wood  becomes  altered  in  its  composition  by  a 
sufficient  amount  of  heat,  and  those  other  forms  of  accommodations 
which  are  the  result  of  the  organismal  response  to  its  environment,  and 
I  pointed  out  that  only  in  the  former  set  of  conditions  was  it  strictly 
correct  to  speak  of  acquired  modifications,  and  further  that  this 
somatic  responsiveness  was  not  in  the  least  discordant  with  the 
principle  of  selection — it  would,  in  fact,  aid  selectional  development 
making  the  process  of  evolution  more  rapid.  Now  just  as  the 
chemical  analogy  tells  against  climatic  modification,  and  in  favour  of 
use-development  or  organismal  response  with  elimination  of  the  less 
responsive,  so  I  hope  to  show  in  this  concluding  portion  of  the  paper 
that  every  broad  generalisation  tells  against  climatic  modification,  and 
in  favour  of  organismal  response,  and  I  shall  endeavour  to  show  that 
the  somatic  response  becomes  increasingly  separated  off  from  the 
germinal,  not  through  any  special  isolation  of  the  germinal  products, 
but  for  precisely  similar  reasons  as  other  organs  have  become  separated, 
namely,  by  increasing  specialisation  and  complexity  of  structure.1  In 
this  concluding  portion,  therefore,  of  the  article,  I  wish  to  keep  these 
distinctions  constantly  in  view  : — (1)  The  direct  climatic  response,  an 
external  influence  or  influences  producing  internal  modifications ; 
except  in  so  far  as  these  external  forces  are  destructive,  I  believe  this 
influence  to  be  negligible.  (2)  The  response  of  the  organism  whether 
it  lie  uni-  or  multicellular  to  external  conditions  and  alterations  that 
will  ensue  through  elimination  of  the  less  fitted  and  preservation  of 
the  more  fitted,  internal  response  to  external  conditions,  and  external 
elimination  of  the  less  responsive  organisms.  (3)  The  relation,  if 
any,  that  the  somatic  response  bears  to  germinal  variability. 

In  considering  the  chief  differences  between  plants  and  animals, 
we  find  certain  more  or  less  constant  conditions  which  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  protoplasm  is  not  directly  modifiable  ;  thus  a  broad 
general  difference  is  found  between  these  two  great  divisions  of  the 
living  world  in  the  fact  that  vegetable  organisms  live  on  simpler  foods 
than  animal.  The  fact  that  the  fungi  and  certain  insectivorous  plants 
form  a  partial  exception  to  this  rule,  only  increases  the  strength 
of  the  selectionist  position,  for,  from  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of 
the  various  forms  of  vegetable  life  do  live  on  simpler  foods  than 
animal,  we  may  infer  that  the  difference  in  the  structure  of  the 
protoplasm  was  not  easily  overcome,  while  the  constancy  of  the 
character  of  the  exceptions  now  that  a  change  has  been  produced  is 
almost  positive  proof  that  if  organisms  can  be  directly  modified  by 
climatic  action  it  must  be  to  a  very  slight  degree.  The  same  line  of 
argument  applies  to  the  other  differences  observable  between  plants 
and  animals.        On  the  assumption  that  this  difference  of  metabolism 

1  Lloyd  Morgan,  in  his  "Animal  Life  and  Intelligence,"  has  put  forward  a  theory  of 
reproductive  specialisation  to  which  I  am  greatly  indebted. 


1 88  /   LIONEL  TAYLER  [September 

is  due  to  a  structural  difference  existing  in  the  protoplasm  itself,  that 
the  assimilative  power  of  an  organism  depends  not  on  its  environment 
but  upon  its  structure,  and  that  these  structural  peculiarities  are  never 
modifiable,  although  they  may  be  adapted  through  elimination  of 
unfit  and  less  fit,  and  subsequent  reproduction  among  the  surviving 
favoured  organisms,  and  repetition  of  this  process  until  a  better  and 
better  adapted  organism  is  produced,  we  have  an  explanation  which 
satisfactorily  accounts  for  both  the  constancy  and  the  variability  of 
the  many  forms  of  plant  life. 

Again,  the  constancy  of  all  low  forms  of  life  under  varying 
conditions  is  often  remarkable.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  these 
unicellular  organisms  are  not  easy  to  keep  under  constant  observa- 
tion, that  their  reproductive  power  is  often  enormous,  and  that  it 
is  at  present  very  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  place  them  under 
test  conditions  to  prove  whether  or  no  they  are  capable  of  being 
directly  modified  by  changes  in  temperature,  food,  etc.,  it  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  few  recorded  experiments  have  taken  years  and  not 
months  or  weeks  to  induce  any  change  in  the  organism,  and  this 
suggests  elimination  rather  than  direct  modification  as  the  main  if  not 
sole  agent. 

The  science  of  bacteriology  is  surely  strong  presumptive  evidence 
that  no  very  rapid  modification  of  form  and  habits  is  affected  by 
altered  conditions  in  these  low  forms  of  life ;  the  constancy  of  the 
characters  of  diseases  known  to  be  produced  by  these  forms  of  micro- 
organisms, and  the  fact  that  the  bacteriologist  can  frequently  tell  by 
the  form  and  behaviour  of  the  bacillus,  micrococcus,  etc.,  what  disease 
it  will  induce,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  immense  capabilities  for 
modification  under  changed  conditions,  etc.,  that  its  habits  afford, 
are  all  arguments  against  direct  climatic  accommodation. 

Another  point  which  appears  to  me  to  throw  very  considerable 
light  on  the  subject  is  the  behaviour  that  all  organisms,  as  far  as 
I  know,  without  exception,  exhibit  towards  their  environment. 
Local  conditions  of  light,  heat,  food-supply,  do  not  appear  to  modify 
organisms  in  a  certain  definite  manner  as  one  would  expect  were 
direct  climatic  accommodation  possible ;  on  the  contrary,  the  action  of 
every  organism  to  its  environment,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest, 
appears  to  be  selective,  the  response  of  certain  internal  activities  to 
outside  conditions.  Kecent  observations  made  on  the  phagocytes  of 
the  blood  show  that  the  determination  of  their  movements  is  partly 
chemical,  that  they  move  away  from  some  and  towards  other  products  ; 
their  action  is  selective.  Plants  living  on  the  same  soil  do  not  make 
use  of  the  same  material,  and  it  is  perfectly  extraordinary  what 
minute  quantities  of  a  substance  can  be  utilized  if  it  be  needed  by  the 
organism.  Iodine  and  its  selection  from  sea-water  by  some  forms 
of  sea-weed  is  a  case  in  point.  Precisely  similar  results  occur  in  the 
animal  kingdom.      The   same  choice  of  food  is  manifested  in   different 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  189 

animals  choosing  different  foods,  the  same  blood  circulating  in  the 
body  of  one  animal  yet  has  different  substances  extracted  from  it  by 
different  tissues  ;  wherever  we  look  we  see  life  display  this  selective 
action  towards  its  environment ;  if  the  materials  that  supply  its  needs 
are  not  present,  the  organism  dies.  This  constant  and  universal 
tendency  in  living  tissue  to  select  out  of  many  substances  its  own 
particular  foods  is  not  favourable  to  any  theory  of  direct  climatic 
modification ;  it  does,  however,  favour  the  principle  of  selective 
adaptation. 

The  phenomena  grouped  around  reproduction,  in  so  far  as  it 
consists  in  conjugation  and  sex  differentiations,  seem  to  me  to  be 
explainable  only  on  the  assumption  that  protoplasm  is  scarcely,  if  at 
all,  climatically  modifiable.  The  simplest  form  of  reproduction  is  that 
of  simple  fission  ;  the  single  celled  organism  in  which  it  occurs  splits 
into  two  or  more  divisions.  Spencer  has  suggested  that  the  reason  for 
this  division  may  be,  that  unless  very  exceptional  conditions  of  growth 
arise,  there  will  be  a  constant  tendency  for  volume  to  increase  relatively 
to  surface,  and  consequently  that  a  point  would  at  last  be  reached 
when  certain  portions  of  the  cell  would  be  insufficiently  nourished. 
To  decrease  bulk  and  increase  surface  division  would  be  necessary ; 
such  a  theory  of  fission  formed  on  mechanical  grounds  offers  no 
difficulty  to  selection  or  other  theories. 

But  if  the  relation  that  bulk  bears  to  surface  determines  fission, 
it  follows  that  fission  will  be  favoured,  as  we  have  seen,  by  poor  food- 
supply  and   by  rapid  metabolism,  while  the  opposite  conditions  will 
favour    slow  metabolism ;   under    the    first   set   of   conditions  a   small 
rapidly    dividing    cell    would    be    favoured,    while    conditions     that 
favoured    slow    metabolism    would    produce    a    large    cell.       On    any 
system    of    climatic    inheritance,    the    structure    and    needs     of    the 
organism  would  be  modified  according  to  the  environment,  hence  one 
can    see  no   need  for    conjugation.      On    any  hypothesis    that    relies 
mainly  or  wholly  on   selection,  it   is,  on  the   contrary,  easy  to   under- 
stand   that   union    of   two    nearly    allied    individuals    would    tend    to 
preserve    the   stability   in    so    far    as    they   were    allied,   and    would 
promote   variability   on    the    unallied    smaller    portion ;    there    would 
be  as  a  result  an  increased  number  of  possible  variations   to  select 
from,   and    those    organisms    in    which    conjugation    occurred    would 
be  more  likely  to  survive  under   all  conditions,  as  they  would  always 
tend    to    adapt    more    readily.       A    certain    limited    unlikeness    in 
the  two  cells  which  entered  into  combination  would  be  favoured  by 
natural  selection,  in  order  to  preserve  this  necessary  variability.     This 
unlikeness  might  be  the  beginning  of  sex  differentiation.      The  fact 
that  conjugation  occurs  at  all,  may  be  explained   in   part   by  the   fact 
that  all  living  tissue  has  a  certain  selective   affinity  (and  in   this   it 
presents    many   analogies  to  non-living)  for  what    it    has   need   of; 
conjugation  might  be  merely  the  satisfaction  of  an   organismic   need. 


i go  /.   LIONEL  TAYLER  [September 

The  fact  that  the  male  cell  is  in  some  cases  attracted  to  the  female  by 
chemical  products x  is  some  confirmation  of  this  view.  Conjugation 
would  thus  be  allied  to  the  phenomena  associated  with  assimilation. 

So  far,  therefore,  the  evidence  appears  to  be  in  favour  of  proto- 
plasm not  being  at  any  period  directly  influenced  by  climatic 
conditions.  Protoplasm  everywhere  exhibits  a  tendency  to  select  its 
food  from  its  environment,  and  when  it  is  unable  to  obtain  such  food, 
or  is  subject  to  conditions  of  environment  which  are  unsuitable,  it 
appears  not  to  be  rapidly  modified,  but  is  apparently  eliminated. 
Protoplasm  manifests  in  its  different  forms  considerable  resemblance 
to  the  more  complex  non-living  chemical  products,  and  this,  so  far  as 
the  inference  is  justifiable,  points  to  the  conclusion  that  certain 
conditions  are  essential  for  its  development,  that  different  forms  of 
protoplasm  require  different  conditions  of  environment,  and  that  when 
any  organism  is  not  in  sufficient  harmony  with  its  surroundings  it  is 
unable  to  live  and  is  therefore  eliminated.  The  constancy  of  the 
differences  of  the  early  forms  of  life  would  seem  also  to  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  protoplasm  is  never,  or  at  most  with  extreme  difficulty, 
directly  modified  by  external  influences.  Lastly,  the  facts  associated 
with  conjugation  and  sex  differentiation  are  apparently  only  explain- 
able on  a  pure  or  nearly  pure  selectionist  hypothesis. 

Turning  to  another  aspect  of  the  facts  relating  to  life,  we  find 
that  while  very  considerable  specialisation  may  be  developed  in 
unicellular  organisms,  yet  when  these  organisms  multiply  they  do  so 
with  very  little  alteration  of  the  mother  plasm,  reproduction  consisting 
in  the  separation  of  a  portion  of  this  mother  substance,  this  portion, 
whether  small  or  large,  becoming  a  separate  organism. 

In  multicellular  organisms,  on  the  other  hand,  we  see,  besides  this 
method  of  reproduction,  another  kind,  which  very  early  in  biological 
evolution  takes  precedence  over  the  more  primitive  method.  The 
younger  organism  is  developed  from  a  structure  that  is  not  represented 
in  the  adult  form,  and  the  younger  organism  begins  to  closely  resemble 
the  older  only  after  a  period  of  development.  In  what  respect  is  this 
latter  kind  of  reproduction  superior  to  the  former  ?  In  the  hydra 
we  have  an  organism  in  which  these  two  types  co-exist.  A  new 
organism  is  sometimes  developed  as  a  simple  out-growth  of  the 
mother  substance,  develops  a  mouth  and  tentacles,  and  with  this  new 
mode  of  obtaining  nutriment  gradually  loses  its  connection  with  the 
parent  organism  and  becomes  independent.  In  other  cases  we  find 
interstitial  cells  collecting  into  groups  at  different  parts  of  the  organism, 
in  some  of  these  groups  the  inner  cells  becoming  slightly  altered  in 
shape,  and  developing  thin,  ribbon-shaped  pieces  of  protoplasm  or  tails, 
by  the  aid  of  which  they  become  capable  of  considerable  powers  of 
movement,  and  thus  provided  escape  from  the  hydra  into  its  surround- 
ing medium.      Other  groups  of  cells  undergo  a  different  change,  one 

1  Hertwisr's  work  on  "  The  Cell  "  wives  a  brief  resume  of  some  of  these  cases. 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  19 1 

cell,  again  occupying  an  internal  position  in  the  group,  enlarges  at  the 
expense  of  the  surrounding  cells,  and  when  it  has  attained  a  certain 
size  ruptures  from  the  capsule  which  surrounded  it,  extrudes  two 
nuclear  portions  of  its  substance  (polar  bodies),  and  if  one  of  the 
smaller  active  cells  comes  into  contact,  and  fuses  with  it,  it  will 
commence  a  series  of  cell  divisions  accompanied  by  increasing  growth, 
and  develop  into  an  adult  hydra  similar  to  its  parent.  This  sexual 
mode  of  reproduction  very  rapidly  supplants  all  other  forms ;  it  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  there  is  some  immediate  advantage  resulting 
to  the  organisms  which  reproduce  in  this  way  rather  than  by  budding. 
The  most  obvious  difference  in  these  two  methods  is  that  there  is  a 
great  reduction  of  tissue  material,  much  less  being  required  for  this 
mode  of  development  than  the  other ;  it  is  therefore  less  expensive  to 
the  parent  organism.  Apart  from  this  there  is  the  additional  factor 
that  it  would  be  the  most  suitable  for  development,  if  direct  climatic 
accommodation  does  not  take  place,  owing  to  its  being  the  best  means 
of  obtaining  the  requisite  amount  of  variability.  This  reduction  must 
presumably  be  largely  quantitative  and  not  qualitative,  since  we  find 
that  under  very  dissimilar  conditions  a  complex  hydra  can  be  formed, 
provided  portions  of  both  ectoderm  and  entoderm  are  preserved. 

Now,  where  this  sexual  mode  of  reproduction  arises,  we  have  to 
consider  a  new  set  of  conditions ;  we  find  that  each  individual 
appears  to  go  through  a  stage  of  development,  maturity,  and  decay, 
and  that  during  maturity  the  reproductive  power  of  the  whole 
organism  is  best  developed. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  facts  associated  with  the  higher 
forms  of  life  is  that  these  three  periods  of  growth,  maturity,  and 
decay  in  the  whole  organism  do  not  correspond  in  time  to  similar 
periods  in  the  several  different  parts  of  the  organism  in  question. 
This  fact  appears  to  be  universal  in  its  application ;  how  is  it  to  be 
explained  ?  Now,  as  I  have  already  noted,  the  most  marked  differ- 
ence between  unicellular  and  multicellular  reproduction  consists  in  the 
fact  that  the  latter  develops  chiefly  by  a  quantitative  evolution  from 
a  cell  which  is  quantitatively  undifferentiated,  while  the  former 
reproduce  by  splitting  off  a  portion  of  their  structure,  so  that  in  most 
particulars,  except  size,  the  parent  and  the  offspring  are  identical. 
Now  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  development  and  growth  in  one  of  the 
higher  organisms  is  just  this  quantitative  development,  and  we  must 
assume  that  the  morphological  element  is  present,  for  it  is  inconceiv- 
able that  actual  differentiation  of  structure  could  arise  without  some 
structural  difference  for  its  starting-point.  We  are  bound  therefore  to 
assume  two  positions  as  essential  to  development:  (1)  Some  basis  for 
the  differences  that  are  found  in  individual  development  which  must 
be  of  a  structural  and  not  a  physiological  nature,  whether  we  call 
them  gemmules,  physiological  or  morphological  units,  biophors  or 
stirp ;    (2)   that    development    consists    largely  in    a    reduplication   of 


i92  /.  LIONEL  TAYLER  [septembee 

parts  which  at  the  time  of  fertilisation  are   somehow  or   other  quali- 
tatively represented  in  the  fertilised  ovum. 

In  development  every  organism  passes  through  a  series  of  stages 
which   are  more  or   less   proportional   to   its  specialisation  and  com- 
plexity,  and   the    definite   stages    are   passed   through    in    a    definite 
order,  the  highest   specialisations,  except  where   definite    atavisitic   or 
degenerative  phenomena  intervene,  always  coming  at  the  later  periods 
of  development.      When  decay  sets  in  in  the  organism  we  not  uncom- 
monly find  that  this  order  is  reversed,  the   higher  being  the   first  to 
disappear,  just  as  they  were  the  last  to  come.      In  the  action  of  many 
drugs  we  see  the  same  tendency  ;  if  their  action  is  general,  the  highest 
nerve-centres   go   first,  the   lowest   fail   last.      Now   this    sequence    in 
development,  since  it  is  so  universal,  must  serve  some  purpose.      The 
very  early  stages  of  segmentation  appear  to  be  little  else  than  quanti- 
tative in  character,  but  later  qualitative  differentiation   begins  to  be 
manifested.      The  study  of  life  in  recent  years  has  shown  conclusively 
what    an    enormously   important   part   the  various   products   of  tissue 
metabolism  exert  over  life ;  the  toxic  and  anti-toxic  theories  in  disease, 
phenomena  associated  with  internal  secretion,  the  iniluence  of  vege- 
table  alkaloids   on    different   animal   tissues,  etc.,  all   go   to  show  that 
tissue  activity  is  very  dependent  on  its  surroundings  for  its  activity. 
Some   facts  of  embryology  lead  to   the  conclusion   that   some  organs 
have  an  almost  purely  developmental  significance,  and  are  of  little  use 
to  the  developed  organism.      We  know  also   that  organs  vary  in   their 
relative  importance  and  size  to  the  whole  organism  at  different  periods 
of  its  development.      How  are  we  to  explain  the  cause  of  this  atrophy 
of  some  organs  while  others  are  developing,  except  on  the  assumption 
of  a   chemical   food  sequence  ?      If  we  assume  that,  with  a  growing 
specialisation,  itself  induced  by  the  liberation  of  metabolic  products  in 
the  preceding  stages,  there  is  a  growing  specialisation  of  ferments  and 
other  material  necessary  to  a  more  developed  organism,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence a  growing  specialisation  of  all  food  material,  we  shall  have  a 
theory  in   accordance  with   facts,  and  which   can  explain  many  other- 
wise incomprehensible  phenomena.      The  more    specialised    the    food 
products  circulating  in  the  organism,  the  less  favourable  the  conditions 
for  the  more  generalised  tissues  ;  hence  the  progressive  development  of 
some  tissues,  and  atrophy  of  others,  would  be  explainable. 

The  sequence  in  development  would  then  be  itself  explainable,  as 
the  higher  could  only  be  developed  from  the  lower  through  this 
sequence  ;  hence  the  necessity  of  recapitulation  of  the  ancestral  types  in 
development.  Eudiments  would  on  this  theory  disappear  in  proportion 
to  the  generalised  character  of  the  rudiment  as  compared  with  organismal 
specialisation,  and  this  would  apply  to  germinal  and  somatic  develop- 
ment. On  this  theory  the  whole  organism  would  continue  specialising 
so  long  as  the  morphological  elements  allowed  of  further  differentia- 
tion ;  when   this   limit   of  specialisation   was   reached    the    organism 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  193 

would  arrive  at  maturity,  and,  so  long  as  each  tissue  remained  pro- 
portionately active,  health  would  result,  but  when  this  balance  failed 
degeneration  and  disease  would  result. 

We    come    now   to    the    concluding    question,   the    relation    that 
germinal  development  bears  to  somatic 

As  an  organism  reaches  maturity,  the  phenomena  associated  with 
reproduction  become  manifest ;  this  fact  is  practically  universal,  it 
holds  good  for  multicellular  and  unicellular  organisms  alike,  and  for 
both  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  In  unicellular  organisms, 
as  we  have  seen,  it  is  probable  that  there  is  a  mechanical  limit  to  the 
size  of  the  cell,  beyond  which  growth  as  a  single  cell  becomes 
impossible  ;  this  growth  limit  will  not  be  the  same  under  all  conditions, 
but  must  ultimately  be  reached  in  all  forms  of  single-celled  organisms. 
In  the  metaphyta,  under  suitable  conditions,  there  appears  to  be  a 
nearly  constant  tendency  to  growth  at  any  place  where  a  breach  of 
continuity  is  formed  in  a  living  tissue  or  tissues  ;  in  the  lower  forms 
of  metazoa  removal  of  a  portion  of  tissue  is  nearly  always  followed  by 
growth  of  the  remaining,  so  that  more  or  less  complete  repair  results ; 
in  the  higher  animals,  on  the  other  hand,  this  local  reparative  process 
is  much  less  complete,  yet  even  here  some  attempt  is  always  present. 

The  fact  that  removal  of  tissue  tends  to  produce  activity  and 
growth  at  the  seat  of  injury  suggests  that  possibly  some  mechanical 
limit  to  growth  is  one  of  the  causes  of  cessation  of  growth. 

The  inferences  so  far  necessary  to  determine  the  relation  that 
somatic  development  bears  to  germinal  may  now  be  summarised  as 
follows.  I  have  endeavoured  to  point  out  that  facts  do  not  favour 
direct  climatic  modification,  and  I  accept  the  Neo-Darwinian  con- 
clusion and  believe  that  there  is  very  little  evidence  for  the  trans- 
mission of  somatic  responses.  From  a  study  of  facts  which  have 
universal  applications  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  (1)  that  growth 
and  reproduction  are  in  some  way  closely  related  ;  (2)  that  facts  justify 
the  inference  that  an  increasingly  complex  food  sequence  prepares  the 
way  for  morphological  quantitative  specialisation ;  (3)  that  some 
morphological  explanation  of  heredity  is  necessary  to  explain  the  facts. 
Some  such  provisional  theory  as  the  following  would,  I  believe, 
explain  the  facts  of  heredity,  growth,  decay,  and  certain  facts  which 
have  reference  to  disease,  better  than  previous  theories : — 

1.  That  there  is  a  mechanical  nutritional  limit  of  growth  for  each 
cell,  that  this  bulk  limit  varies  according  to  physical  conditions  and 
food  supply,  but  is  reached  sooner  or  later  by  all  growing  cells 
(Spencer).  When  this  limit  is  reached,  cell  division  takes  place, 
which  may  be  equal,  as  in  fission,  or  unequal  as  in  budding,  etc, 

2.  Under  conditions  which  demand  variability  of  the  organism, 
conjugation  of  similar  organisms  placed  under  similar  conditions  would 
be  favourable  for  the  attainment  of  this  requisite  variability.  If 
protoplasm  is  never  directly  modified  by  climatic  conditions,  then  the 

13 NAT.  SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.   91. 


T94  /   LIONEL   TAYLER  [September 

best  chances  of  survival  and  adaptation,  either  to  old  or  to  new  con- 
ditions, would  be  through  conjugation.  Selection  would  therefore 
favour  conjugation  (Weismann). 

3.  If  for  some  reason,  possibly  nutritional  in  origin,  fission  in  an 
organism  had  not  been  quite  complete,  and  the  cells  instead  of  separat- 
ing had  remained  together,  then  as  each  new  division  reached  maturity 
it  would  divide  and  the  process  of  division  would  continue  till  in- 
terfered with  by  some  outside  condition,  many  different  forms  of  these 
masses  of  cells  would  thus  be  produced,  examples  of  which  may  be 
found  in  the  different  forms  of  sponges.  Now,  if  for  any  reason  a 
curved  single  layer  of  cells  was  formed,  it  would  go  on  growing  in 
all  directions  until  it  met  other  cells  of  the  same  collective  cell 
colony ;  a  multicellular  growth  limit  would  thus  be  reached.  Now, 
assuming  this  growth  capacity  to  remain  constant,  one  of  three  things 
can  happen.  With  a  somewhat  irregular  hollow  sphere  of  cells,  it 
would  be  conceivable  that:  (1)  a  bending  in  at  one  of  the  weaker 
points,  or  (2)  a  bending  out  would  occur,  many  cells  being  involved 
in  this  yielding;  or  (.">)  each  cell  might  bud  off  a  certain  portion  in- 
dependently. Of  the  first  or  outward  yielding,  and  the  formation  of 
buds,  we  have  many  examples  occurring  in  nature,  as,  for  example, 
bud  development  in  the  hydra ;  of  the  inward  yielding,  the  passage 
from  the  blastoderm  to  the  gastrula  stage,  through  the  process  of 
invagination  occurring  in  the  development  of  many  animals,  affords  an 
example  of  the  second  means  of  satisfying  this  growth  tendency ; 
while  in  the  third  case  division  of  the  individual  cell,  and  separation 
from  its  parent  tissue,  occurs  in  the  formation  of  red  blood  corpuscles 
in  mammals,  etc. 

4.  It  is  obvious  that  the  general  structure  of  the  organism  would 
be  least  disturbed  by  each  individual  cell  throwing  off  buds,  and 
therefore  the  more  specialised  the  organic  structure  the  less  likelihood 
of  those  organisms  that  reproduced  by  any  collective  alteration  of  the 
the  organism  surviving.  With  growing  specialisation  each  tissue  will 
become  less  and  less  able  to  reproduce  other  than  its  own  specialisa- 
tion, hence  reproduction  will  occur  only  when  the  buds  from  the 
requisite  differentiations  meet ;  now  in  the  case  of  the  hydra  it 
appears  to  be  only  necessary  to  have  representatives  of  two  classes  of 
cells,  the  ecto-  and  entoderm,  and  these  thrown-off  portions  of  cell 
structure  would,  when  the  requisite  number  met,  owing  to  perhaps 
some  stronger  growth  tendency,  tend  to  push  up  the  cells  above  them, 
and  as  the  most  likely  place  for  the  ectoderm  and  entoderm  units  to 
meet  would  be  hetwcen  these  two  layers,  we  should  expect  develop- 
ment to  commence  from  this  position.  With  increasing  differentia- 
tion reproductive  centres  would  tend  more  and  more  to  be  localised 
to  one  centre.  Hence  with  increasing  specialisation  there  would  be 
progressively  less  power  of  local  or  somatic  reproduction. 

5.  A    special    kind    of    organism    survives    for    two    reasons:   (1) 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  195 

because  it  is  suited  to  its  environment;  (2)  because  it  can  repro- 
duce similar  organisms  in  sufficient  number  to  maintain  or  increase 
its  relative  position  in  its  environment.  The  more  perfect  the 
organism  the  less  its  chance  of  elimination,  consequently  so  long  as 
its  reproductive  power  is  successfully  maintained  it  is  to  its  advantage 
if  it  can  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  loss  incurred  by  the  organism  in 
successful  reproduction  ;  it  will  follow,  therefore,  that  the  cells  which 
throw  off  least  reproductive  material  from  the  adult  structure  will 
require  less  nutriment,  and  therefore  the  collective  organism  will, 
other  conditions  equal,  survive  under  competitive  conditions.  For  this 
reason  protoplasmic  growth  will  be  reduced  as  far  as  possible  when 
beyond  the  needs  of  the  organism,  and  the  reproductive  buds  or  units 
from  each  cell  will  tend  to  be  reduced  both  in  size  and  number.  For 
these  reasons  it  would  obviously  be  of  advantage  if  merely  the  mor- 
phological elements  were  extruded  from  the  different  cells,1  and  these 
when  collected  in  the  reproductive  centre  would  form  the  material  for 
the  new  individual. 

6.  As  differentiation  of  reproductive  function  continued  run- 
ning a  parallel  course  with  other  specialisations  of  structure,  natural 
selection  continuing  to  favour  the  best -formed  individual  and  off- 
spring that  environments  could  allow,  two  tendencies  would  become 
manifest :  (1)  a  tendency  to  reproductive  economy,  by  which  every 
unnecessary  development  would  be  eliminated  so  as  to  make  reproduc- 
tion a  less  and  less  expensive  process  to  the  organism  ;  (2)  owing  to 
increased  complexity,  specialisation,  and  evolution  of  structure,  repro- 
duction would  become  a  more  and  more  delicate  process,  and  would 
constantly  have  to  be  conducted  with  increasing  care,  and  the  stages 
of  development  of  the  organism  would  therefore  become  increasingly 
prolonged.  The  development  of  the  individual,  and  the  capacity  of 
that  individual  when  developed  for  competition  with  other  individuals, 
would  form  two  partly  competing  and  partly  complementary  elements 
of  race  progress,  and  the  resultant  of  the  two  would  correspond 
to  the  line  of  progressive  adaptation  and  development.  With  the 
increasing  length  of  the  period  of  development  differentiation  of  sex 
■becomes  first  an  advantage  and  then  a  necessity. 

7.  A   progressively   specialised    method    of   food   supply   will   be 
required  to  keep  pace  with  the  other  specialisations. 

In  applying  these  conceptions  to  the  interpretation  of  phenomena, 
certain  points  must  be  specially  emphasized : — 

(«)  Every  important  specialisation  of  structure  must  be  represented. 

(6)  As,  however,  one  of  the  causes  of  evolution  of  structure 
is  quantitative  complexity,  it  follows  that  every  quantita- 
tive element   need  not  be  represented,  but   only  the   right 

1  In  the  extrusion  of  the  polar  bodies  from  the  ovum,  we  may  possibly  have  an  instance 
of  what  on  a  smaller  scale  is  universal  anions;  multicellular  organisms. 


196  /  LIONEL  TAYLER  [September 

proportions    preserved     between     the    various     qualitative 
specialisations. 

(c)  Eeproduction  on  this  theory  commences  when  full  or  nearly 
full  development  of  a  structure  is  reached,  when  its  growth 
capacity  is  in  excess  of  its  demands  ;  from  this  it  will  follow 
that  the  reproductive  units  will  be  collected  in  the  repro- 
ductive organs  in  the  order  of  their  evolution. 

id)  A  progressively  specialising  food  supply  would  determine  the 
development  and  the  atrophy  of  the  different  reproductive 
units. 

(e)  The  later  a  specialisation  was  developed  either  in  the  history  of 
the  species  or  the  individual  the  less  chance  of  its  obtaining 
a  foothold  in  reproduction,  and  conversely  these  must  be 
the  first  to  be  eliminated  under  stress  conditions.  It  will 
follow  from  this  that  the  effects  of  use  and  disuse,  in  so  far 
as  they  are  of  a  somatic  nature,  will  be  very  little  if  at 
all  transmitted  to  the  germinal  structures,  since  develop- 
ment, in  so  far  as  the  major  part  of  the  organism  is  con- 
cerned, will  be  completed  early. 

The  first  advantage  of  a  theory  like  the  preceding  is  that   it  has 
no  need   for   the    supposition    of   any  isolated    germ    structure,  use- 
inheritance  being  largely  negatived  by  specialisation.      The  relation 
of  germinal  to  somatic  development  is  on  this  theory  understandable. 
It  would  account  for  recapitulation  in  development,  not  on  the  ground 
of  a  tendency  in  the  organism  to  repeat  certain  ancestral  characters, 
but  simply  as  the  necessary  preparatory  specialisations  out  of  which 
the  later  ones  are  built.1      It  would  divide   all  anomalies  into — (1) 
those  cases  of  faulty  representation  due  to  the  missing  of  some  prior 
stage  in  development,  as  in  the  case  of  cretins,  where  the  morpho- 
logical element  is   there  but  the  means   of  developing  it  is   not,  or 
where  deficiency  of  the  element  itself  as  possibly  happens  in  the  case 
of   mongoloid    idiots ;    (2)   disproportionate    representation  (quantita- 
tive anomaly),  leading  to  dichotomy,  etc. ;   (3)  under  rare  conditions 
the  reappearance  of  real  ancestral  characters. 

If  therefore  the  recapitulation  theory  lias  a  different  meaning  from 
that  of  ancestral  repetition,  and  if  most  cases  of  so-called  atavism  can 
be  explained  on  the  assumption  of  incomplete  development,  if  it  is 
further  borne  in  mind  that  given  the  power  of  segmentation  then  all 
that  is  chiefly  required  is  a  proportionate  representation  of  germs, 
then  the  complexity  of  the  germ  plasm,  although  very  great,  need  not 
be  so  inconceivably  great  as  that  which  involves  the  representation  of 
a  large  number  of  ancestral  as  well  as  all  living  characteristics. 
Normal    sexual    reproduction    would    on    this    theory   be    the    right 

1  In  a  limited  sense,  however,  these  stages  would  represent  the  history  of  the  individual 
ancestral  line. 


1899]  THE  SCOPE  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION  197 

principle  for  selection  to  rely  upon,  since  the  male  and  female  lines  of 
heredity  would  be  largely  in  harmony  over  the  earlier  stages  of 
development,  the  tendency  to  vary  being  increased  towards  the  later 
stages,  thus  the  requisite  stability  and  variability  would  be  largely 
obtained.  Finally,  this  theory  involves  no  very  great  assumption  ;  it 
is,  when  examined,  very  little  more  than  a  series  of  inferences  drawn 
from  peculiarities  of  life  that  appear  to  be  nearly  or  completely  uni- 
versal in  application,  being  dependent  solely  on  the  assumptions  of 
mechanical  and  chemical  limits  to  growth,  the  latter  being  no  longer 
an  assumption,  but  an  established  fact  in  some  instances,  on  the 
innate  capacity  for  growth,  qualitative  and  quantitative  specialisa- 
tion, and  upon  the  conclusion  that  protoplasm  is  never  directly  in- 
fluenced by  climatic  conditions.  The  theory  of  co-incident  variability 
and  the  non-inheritance  of  acquired  responses  would  equally  accord 
with  this  theory  as  with  Weismann's,  while  it  would  account  for  those 
cases  of  modifications  which  have  been  effected  during  the  early  stages 
of  development. 

In  conclusion,  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  reason  for  believing 
that  the  principle  of  selection,  when  rightly  viewed,  is  the  only  theory 
which  is  capable  of  explaining  the  various  phenomena  in  their  entirety; 
that  the  properties  existing  in  the  lowest  forms  of  life  do  afford 
sufficient  material  for  natural  selection  to  act  upon,  and  therefore,  until 
it  can  be  shown  that  another  theory  is  in  more  complete  accordance 
with  the  facts,  that  natural  selection  must  be  regarded  as  the  dominant 
factor  of  evolution. 


The  Ghotto, 
Hamfton-on-Tiiajies. 


Suggestions  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Australian 

Flora. 

By  Spencer  Moore,  B.Sc,  F.L.S. 

Of  all  the  problems  which  have  engaged  the  attention  ot  those 
biologists  for  whom  questions  relating  to  the  distribution  of  life  upon 
our  globe  have  possessed  special  interest,  none  has  appealed  with  more 
fascinating  insistence  than  that  one  which  concerns  the  stocking  of 
Australia  with  its  animal  and  vegetable  inhabitants.  Many  are  the 
memoirs  wherein  this  subject  is  treated  either  as  a  whole  or  in  some 
special  and  subsidiary  aspect.  The  former  method,  the  method 
adopted,  for  instance,  with  so  much  brilliancy  by  Mr.  Wallace,  is, 
of  course,  the  more  satisfactory  one,  inasmuch  as  the  same  general 
principles  must — due  regard  being  paid  to  special  circumstances  in 
their  application  to  each  individual  case — have  been  operative  in  all 
departments  of  both  kingdoms  of  nature.  But  although  only  the 
scantiest  reference  to  zoological  problems  is  made  in  the  following- 
pages,  it  is  believed  that  the  views  maintained  in  them  are  in  no  way 
discordant  with  the  ascertained  facts  and  recognised  deductions  of 
zoology :  indeed,  were  this  not  the  case,  the  task  I  have  set  myself 
would  be  a  hopeless  one.  But  it  is  otherwise  difficult  enough,  involv- 
ing, as  it  does,  rejection  of  views  which  have  received  such  weighty 
advocacy,  both  here  and  on  the  Continent,  as  has  raised  or  almost 
raised  them  into  the  rank  of  axioms  of  science. 

Before  explaining  my  ideas,  however,  it  will  be  necessary  to  dwell 
for  a  time  upon  one  theory  to  which  general  adhesion  has  been  given, 
in  my  opinion,  without  sufficient  warrant.  Basing  their  conclusions  to 
some  extent  on  zoological  data,  and  swayed  by  the  bias  imparted  by 
those  data,  botanists  have  assumed  that  the  Australian  flora  is  of  a 
lower' and  less  specialised  type  than  that  of  the  northern  hemisphere 
and  the  tropical  regions.  It  exists  to-day,  we  are  told,  simply  because 
it  has  remained  isolated  from  the  great  land  areas  of  the  Old  World, 
and  but  for  this,  an  exotic  flora  would  have  overrun  the  island- 
continent  as  certainly  as,  without  the  interposition  of  the  ocean,  the 
Marsupial  and  Monotrematous  fauna  would  have  disappeared  before 
the  inroads  of  higher  Mammalia  better  adapted  to  the   conditions  of 

198 


sept.  1899]  ORIGIN  01  AUSTRAIIAN  FLORA  199 

existence.  It  is  proposed  now  to  throw  the  search-light  of  analysis 
upon  this  theory,  with  the  object  of  ascertaining  whether  it  rests  on  a 
real  substantive  basis  or  no. 

The  first  point  to  be  dealt  with  is  the  idea  that  species  belonging 
to  genera  predominantly  extra-Australian  must  necessarily  have  had 
their  origin  outside  Australia,  whither  they  have  migrated,  some  in- 
herent superiority  possessed  by  them  over  forms  truly  endemic 
having  enabled  them  to  maintain  themselves  and  gain  ground  in  their 
new  home.  In  this  relation  the  two  floras  of  special  concern  are  the 
Scandinavian  and  the  Indo-Malayan.  "  The  Scandinavian  asserts  his 
privilege  of  ubiquity,"  writes  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,1  and  the  same  botanist 
tells  us  he  regards  "  the  Indian  plants  in  Australia  to  be  as  foreign  to 
it,  botanically,  as  the  Scandinavian,  and  more  so  than  the  Antarctic." 
Mr.  Darwin 3  goes  so  far  as  to  ascribe  the  "  aggressive  power  "  of  the 
Scandinavian  flora  to  the  fact  of  that  flora  having  been  differentiated 
iu  the  most  extensive  land-area  of  the  globe,  where  competition  has 
been  most  severe  and  long-contiimed.  But  the  supposed  long  con- 
tinuance of  this  competition  traverses  well-established  geological  data, 
which  teach  us  that  the  undisputed  sway  of  this  flora  over  Northern 
Europe  and  Asia  dates  only  from  post-Miocene  times ;  while  as  regards 
the  nature  of  the  competition,  who  can  possibly  say  that  European 
plants  have  been  subjected  to  greater  stress  than  those  of  the  old  and 
new  world  tropics,  of  South  Africa,  or  of  Australia  itself?  Mr. 
Wallace4  has  no  doubt  about  this  Scandinavian  predominance,  though 
he  is  neutral  as  regards  Mr.  Darwin's  explanation  of  it ;  and  Professor 
Tate,5  who  has  recorded  his  recent  experiences  in  Central  Australia  in 
an  ingenious  and  suo-oestive  memoir,  finds  warrant  for  the  belief  that  an 
exotic  vegetation  is  there  gaining  the  upper  hand  over  the  indigenous 
flora.  In  the  face  of  such  authority,  and  more  could  be  cited  were 
it  necessary,'5  it  will,  I  hope,  be  believed  that  the  attempt  here  made 
to  maintain  a  contrary  opinion  is  undertaken  in  a  spirit  of  diffidence, 
and  without  the  slightest  desire  of  asserting  a  rebellious  originality. 

It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  during  past  ages  facilities  have  existed 
for  the  transport  of  northern  forms  through  the  tropical  highlands  into 
southern  countries  and  vice  versa.  Whether  this  migration  has  been 
largely  favoured  by  cooling  of  the  tropics  during  glacial  periods,  or 
whether,  as  is  perhaps  more  plausible,  it  has  been  in  great  part  due  to 
transport  by  ordinary  agencies  such  as  the  winds,  the  movements  of 
birds,  etc.,  is  not  a  question  we  have  here  to  discuss.  Under  the 
first  supposition  it  is  difficult  to  understand,  as  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  has 
pointed  out,7  how  tropical  species  could  have  survived,  though,  as  the 

1  "Flora  of  Tasmania,"  Introd.  Essay,  p.  ciii.  -  Loc.  cit. 

3  "  Origin  of  Species,"  ed.  vi.  p.  340.  4  "  Island  Life,"  p.  511. 

5  "  Botany  of  the  Horn  Expedition,"  p.  120. 

6  These  remarks  being  of  the   nature  of  suggestions  merely,   I   have   refrained    from 
quoting  bibliography  except  when  that  course  seemed  unavoidable. 

7  Trans.  Linn.  Soc.  xxii.  p.  259. 


uj    LIBRARY    r;] 


200  SPENCER  MOORE  [September 

supposition  deals  with  secular  changes,  that  is  with  conditions  entirely 
outside  the  limited  range  of  our  experience,  speculations  on  the  subject 
cannot  be  said  to  be  quite  conclusive.  The  fact  we  have  to  recognise 
is  that  migration  has  taken  place,  whatever  may  have  been  the  agency 
or  agencies  whereby  it  was  effected. 

Now,  the  most  successful  migrants  should  be  herbs,  for  the  seeds 
of  herbaceous  annuals  falling  upon  favourable  soil  will  rapidly 
germinate,  and  the  seedlings  will  run  through  their  life-history  in  a 
season  lasting  only  a  few  weeks.  So,  too,  free-seeding  biennials  and 
perennials  will  take  possession  of  an  unoccupied  area,  and  produce 
offspring  soon  ready  in  their  turn  to  extend  the  range  of  the  species 
whenever  occasion  offers.  Far  otherwise  is  it  with  shrubs  and  trees, 
which  require  several  years  before  they  bear  seeds.  Competition,  too, 
between  trees  and  shrubs  will  be  much  keener  than  between  herbs  ; 
for  each  of  the  former  must  have  a  considerable  space  for  the  support 
of  its  assimilating  organs;  their  area  also  will  be  limited  by  such  a 
condition  as  depth  of  soil,  and  they  are  liable  to  destruction  by  storms. 
Moreover,  unoccupied  spaces  are  left  between  them,  and  here  herbs  can 
flourish.  And  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  stepping-stones,  as  it 
were,  which  have  been  made  use  of  in  the  transport  of  plants  across 
the  tropics — the  mountain-ranges,  that  is  to  say  —  are  especially 
adapted  to  herbs,  many  of  them  living  above  the  regions  of  trees  and 
shrubs,  we  see  how  great  an  advantage  in  migration  has  been  enjoyed 
by  herbaceous  plants  over  woody  ones. 

We  come  now  to  the  next  point,  which  is,  that  while  in  the  north 
part  of  the  northern  hemisphere  the  proportion  of  herbs  to  shrubs  and 
trees  is  so  large  as  to  justify  our  calling  this  portion  of  the  globe  a 
herbaceous  zone,  the  south  part  of  the  southern  hemisphere,  where  it 
is  not  occupied  by  the  ocean  or  by  glaciated  land,  comes  for  the  most 
part  within  what  I  shall  term  a  dendritic  zone,  meaning  by  this  a  zone 
where  woody  vegetation  predominates  over  herbaceous.  New  Zealand, 
temperate  Australia,  South  Africa,  the  greater  part  of  extra-tropical 
South  America  are  all  dendritic  lands.  Given,  therefore,  opportunities 
of  transport  from  either  hemisphere  into  the  other  under  conditions 
similar  or  approximately  similar  to  those  now  existing,  and  herbs 
being  better  adapted  to  transport  than  woody  plants,  the  probabilities 
are  that  the  preponderating  trend  of  migration  will  be  from  north  to 
south,  and  this  without  any  inherent  superiority  in  the  northern  flora 
due  to  competition  in  the  largest  land-area  of  the  world,  or  to  any 
other  cause  whatsoever. 

"  But,"  one  fancies  an  objector  saying,  "  consider  how  large  a 
number  of  northern  species  have  passed  over  into  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, and  how  few  and  far  between,  and  even  then  how  limited  in 
their  range  north  of  the  Equator,  are  the  southern  types  which  have 
succeeded  in  gaining  a  foothold  in  the  northern  hemisphere."  But 
this  statement  assumes  our  possession  of  more  knowledge  than  is  at 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  201 

our  command.     Is  it  so  certain  that  all  the  species  of  the  Scandinavian 
flora  have  originated  in  the  northern  hemisphere  ?      Sir  Joseph  Hooker, 
it  is  true,  guards  himself  verbally  from  this  assumption  by  enumerating 
certain   genera  found  south   as  well  as   north    of  the  tropics  as  "  emi- 
nently characteristic  "  of  the  northern  flora.      But  the  inference  remains 
nevertheless,  and  we  have  only  to  consider  the  case  of  the  Marsupials 
and   Monotremes — orders  "  eminently  characteristic  "  of  Australia,  but 
which  we  know  upon  zoological  evidence  not  to  have  originated  there — 
we  have  only  to  consider  this  case  to  see  how  unjustified  is  the  inference, 
and  how  liable  we  may  be,  by  adopting  it,  to  fall   into  complete  error. 
And  it  will  be  well  here  to  deal,  by  way  of  example,  with  a  few  genera 
usually   regarded   as   of  northern   origin,  but   which,  it  is  maintained, 
may  have   originated   in    the   southern   hemisphere.      There  is  Senecio, 
for    instance,   a    genus   strongly    represented    in    extra-tropical    South 
America   (Philippi   enumerates   no   less   than  117  species  as  members 
of  the   Chilian  flora  alone)   and   in    South  Africa,  and  less  strongly  in 
Australia  and  New  Zealand.      The  general  view  about  such  a  case  as 
this  is  that  the   areas  just   mentioned   are   isolated  from   each   other, 
while   each   is   in   complete    or    almost   complete   connection   with   the 
great   northern   continent ;    hence    the    probability  is    that    they   were 
stocked  from  the  latter.      But,  given  a  means  whereby  the  species  of 
Senecio  could   pass   from  north   to   south,  there    is   no   inherent   reason 
why  they  might  not   have  migrated   in   the   opposite  direction,  say,  for 
example,  from  South  Africa  by  way  of  Eastern  Asia  into  America  on 
the    one   hand,   and   via  what    is    now  the    Indian    Archipelago    into 
Australia    on    the    other,  and   certain   affinities    between   the   floras   of 
South  Africa  and  Australia  seem  to  show  that  some  such  migration 
has  actually  occurred.      Again,  take  Drosera,  a  genus  which,  from  the 
bias  of  early  association,  is  usually  regarded  as  having  originated  in  the 
northern  hemisphere,  but  which,  in  point  of  numbers  and  of  differentia- 
tion, is  far  better  represented  south  of  the  Equator  than  north  of  it,  and 
very    strongly    in    Australia    itself.        Then    there    is    Veronica,  with 
15   Australian  and    no   less    than   40   New   Zealand   species,  with  18 
species  in    India,  chiefly  the  Himalayas,  about    20    species   in   North 
America,  and   not  quite   so   many  in   China.      Out   of  a  total  of  some 
160   species   for    the  whole  world    rather    more    than    one-third    are 
natives  of  Australia  or  New  Zealand  or  both.      Aster,  too,  is  a  case  in 
point,  for  though  the  Australian  Olearia  and  the  South  African  Felicia 
have  been  separated  from  it,  and  may  still  be  kept  up  for  convenience 
sake,  in   no   essential  respect   do   they  differ   from  Aster,  of  which  over 
200  species  are  North  American,  while  there  are  about  50  species  of 
Felicia  and   nearly  70  species   of  Olearia  in  Australia  and  20  in  New 
Zealand.      Now  Aster  is  a  genus  eminently  characteristic  of  the  nearctic 
portion  of  the  great  northern  land-mass,  but  if  it  had  a  northern  origin, 
why  is  it  so  rare  in  Europe,  a  region  where  many  of  its  species  have 
become  naturalised  and  are  able  to  maintain   themselves  ?      Why  may 


202  SPENCER  MOORE  [September 

not  the  geuus  have  originated  in  Australia  and  passed  thence  via 
Eastern  Asia,  where  it  is  represented  by  several  species,  into  North 
America  ?  Only  on  the  hypothesis  that  a  genus  must  have  arisen  in 
a  larger  area  and  that  its  presence  in  a  smaller  area  must  be  due  to 
migration,  which  is  a  mere  begging  of  the  question,  can  the  possibility 
of  a  southern  origin  for  Aster  be  denied.  Mention  may  be  made,  too, 
of  Bassia,  in  Mueller's  sense  of  the  term,  that  is,  as  comprising  Chenolea, 
Selerolaena,  Anisacantha,  Threlkeldia,  and  part  of  Kochia  as  understood 
by  Bentham.  Of  these  Selerolaena,  Anisacantha,  and  Threlkeldia  are 
endemic  in  Australia,  and  the  two  species  of  Kochia,  referred  to  Bassia  by 
Mueller,  are  also  endemic  there,  Chenolea  alone  being  extra-Australian 
with  nearly  one-third  of  its  species  restricted  to  the  island-continent. 
Yet  Bassia  is  held  by  Professor  Tate  to  be  a  genus  exotic  to  Australia  ! 
So,  too,  Kochia  proper  has  19  Australian  species,  all  endemic,  leaving 
only  13  to  be  shared  between  South  Europe,  temperate  Asia,  North 
and  South  Africa,  India,  and  North-West  America ;  and  when  wo 
remember  that  several  peculiar  genera  allied  to  Kochia  are  exclusively 
Australian,  is  there  anything  extravagant  in  the  opinion  that  proba- 
bilities point  to  this  genus  as  having  originated  in  Australia  ?  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  A  triplex,  of  which  many  species  are  Australian, 
and  some  of  them  extraordinarily  abundant  in  individuals  ?  The 
evidence  for  a  southern  orio;iu  of  such  oenera  as  Ranunculus  and 
Clematis,  Myosurus  and  Samolus  is  not  so  strong  ;  but  when  we  come 
to  aquatics,  such  as  Callitriche  and  Cercdophyllum  and  Potaniogcton,  all 
very  extensively  distributed,  I  do  not  see  upon  what  grounds  the 
possibility  of  a  southern  origin  for  some  of  them  can  be  scouted,  and  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  Myriophyllum  belongs  to  an  order  reaching 
its  maximum  of  species  in  Australia.  Then  take  the  Grasses,  an  order 
very  abundant  in  both  hemispheres.  Why  may  not  such  genera  as 
Deyeuxia,  Hierochloa,  Stii^a,  and  Eragrostis,  to  mention  a  few  only,  have 
originated  in  some  southern  land  or  lands,  and  migrated  thence  to  their 
present  homes  in  the  north  ? 

These  are  merely  a  few  cases  mentioned  by  way  of  example  :  by 
no  means  do  they  exhaust  the  list  of  genera  for  the  southern  origin  of 
which  there  is  at  least  some  probability.  But  it  may  be  objected  that 
most  of  the  genera  cited  above  are  not  found  in  antarctic  lands,  and 
how,  it  will  be  asked,  is  their  absence  explained  if  they  had  a  southern 
origin  ?  I  reply  that,  for  all  we  know  to  the  contrary,  antarctic  lands 
may,  at  some  former  time,  have  supported  many  supposed  northern 
genera  now  not  found  there.  This  traverses  Mr.  Darwin's  opinion 
when  he  says  : 1  "  I  am  inclined  to  look  in  the  southern  as  in  the 
northern  hemisphere  to  a  former  and  warmer  period,  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  last  glacial  period,  when  the  antarctic  lands,  now 
covered  with  ice,  supported  a  highly  peculiar  and  isolated  flora."  But 
with  all  deference  to  Mr.  Darwin,  why  should  the  pre-glacial  antarctic 

1   "  Origin  of  Species,"  6th  ed.  p.  341. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  20 


6 


flora  necessarily  have  been  peculiar  and  isolated  ?  If  there  is  one 
point  on  which  students  of  biological  geography  are  agreed  it  is  this, 
that  the  antarctic  continent  must  formerly  have  extended  considerably 
farther  north  than  it  does  now,  an  extension  which  permitted  the 
migration  of  certain  animal  forms  from  South  America  to  New 
Zealand,  and  must  equally  have  allowed  the  southward  migration  of 
South  American  and  New  Zealand  plants.  This  stocking  of  the 
antarctic  continent  may  have  occurred  comparatively  early  in  Tertiary 
times,  and  so  long  as  glaciation  did  not  supervene,  a  large  and  by  no 
means  peculiar  or  isolated  flora  may  have  flourished  in  the  antarctic 
continent.  But  now,  communication  with  lands  lying  to  the  north 
being  cut  off,  if  a  glacial  period  occurred,  the  result  in  the  southern 
hemisphere  would  be  very  different  from  one  in  the  northern,  for 
while  in  the  latter  there  would  be  nothing  to  hinder  the  southward 
migration  of  plants,  their  escape  from  the  antarctic  continent  would 
be  cut  off  by  the  ocean,  and  since  all  antarctic  lands  must  have  been 
covered  with  an  ice-cap  during  a  glacial  period,  all,  or  almost  all,  but 
the  lowliest  organisms  must  necessarily  have  perished.  Obviously  the 
nature  of  the  flora  of  the  antarctic  continent  previous  to  the  last 
glacial  period  must  have  depended  upon  the  occurrence  or  no  of  a 
glacial  period  or  of  glacial  periods  intercalated  between  the  last  of 
such  periods  and  the  stocking  of  the  continent  when  it  was  in  connec- 
tion or  close  relation  with  lands  to  the  north.  If  no  such  period 
intervened,  then  the  flora  must  have  consisted  of  a  mixture  of  South 
American,  New  Zealand,  and  possibly  to  some  extent  of  Australian 
types,  or  of  descendants  from  such,  together  with  endemic  genera,  of 
which  many,  for  all  that  we  know,  may  have  been  identical  with 
genera  characteristic  of  northern  lands.  But  if  a  glacial  period  was 
intercalated,  and  that  after  the  connecting  lands  to  the  northward  had 
disappeared  beneath  the  waves,  then  the  flora  of  the  antarctic  con- 
tinent during  the  subsequent  warm  period  must  have  been  closely 
similar  to  that  of  other  antarctic  lands,  since  it  would  have  been 
derived  from  the  same  source  or  sources ;  while  if  the  connection  with 
lands  to  the  north  was  still  open  at  the  commencement  of  the  interca- 
lated glacial  period  or  periods,  the  antarctic  flora  would  have  migrated 
northward,  and,  the  connection  being  still  maintained,  would  have 
advanced  southward  on  the  return  of  warmer  conditions,  so  that  it 
would  have  borne  approximately  the  same  fades  after  as  before  the 
glaciation  of  the  continent.  If  this  reasoning  be  sound,  therefore,  in 
no  event  does  it  seem  likely  that  the  antarctic  flora  could  have  been 
in  any  special  sense  isolated  and  highly  peculiar. 

As  an  instance  of  the  way  in  which  the  brief — if  the  term  may  be 
allowed  without  offence — for  the  predominance  of  the  northern  flora  has 
been  handled,  I  shall  cite  the  assumption  that  glaciation  first  affected  the 
northern  hemisphere.  Let  us  hear  Mr.  Darwin.  After '  alluding  to 
the  southward  migration   of  species   when  glacial   conditions   obtained 


2o4  SPENCER  MOORE  [September 

in  the  north,  "  then,"  he  says,  "  in  the  regular  course  of  events  the 
southern  hemisphere  would  in  its  turn  be  subject  to  a  severe  glacial 
period,  with  the  northern  hemisphere  rendered  warmer ;  and  then  the 
southern  temperate  forms  would  invade  the  equatorial  lowlands.  The 
northern  forms  which  had  before  been  left  on  the  mountains  would 
now  descend  and  mingle  with  the  southern  forms.  These  latter,  when 
the  warmth  returned,  would  return  to  their  former  homes,  leaving  some 
few  species  on  the  mountains,  and  carrying  southward  with  them  some 
of  the  north  temperate  forms  which  had  descended  from  their  mountain 
fastnesses.  Thus  we  should  have  some  few  species  identically  the 
same  in  the  northern  and  southern  temperate  zones  and  on  the  moun- 
tains of  the  intermediate  tropical  regions."  x  Now  we  have  as  much 
right  to  assume  that  glaciation  first  affected  the  southern  hemisphere  ; 
and  a  clear  idea  of  the  result  will  be  gained  if  the  reader  will  sub- 
stitute "  south  "  for  "  north,"  and  vice  versd  in  the  above  admirable 
quotation.  Yet  what  a  different  idea  of  the  trend  of  migration  it 
gives  us ! 

But  my  imaginary  opponent  now  proposes  to  crush  me  with  an 
argument  he  has  carefully  held  in  reserve.  "  Consider,"  he  exclaims, 
"  the  evidence  furnished  by  introduced  plants.  Wherever  man  settles, 
his  footsteps  are  dogged  by  Scandinavian  species,  which  rapidly 
establish  themselves  in  their  new  home  and  at  the  expense  of  the 
indigenous  vegetation ;  how  could  this  happen  unless  there  is  some 
potency  inherent  in  northern  forms  over  and  above  that  possessed  by 
the  southern  flora  ?  "  While  admitting  that  a  considerable  number  of 
northern  plants  have  become  naturalised  in  southern  lands,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  some,  though  a  far  smaller  number,  of  southern 
species  have  gained  a  foothold  north  of  the  equator.  But  in  order  to 
estimate  properly  the  value  of  this  preponderant  naturalisation  of 
northern  forms,  we  must  not  be  contented,  although  even  Mr.  Darwin 
seems  to  have  been  contented,  with  merely  drawing  up  lists  of  the 
colonists  of  either  hemisphere  ;  before  ascribing  any  aggressive  power 
to  the  northern  flora,  we  must  ascertain  that  no  other  explanation  of 
the  facts  is  possible.  And  firstly,  we  note,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  great 
importance,  that  almost  all  the  plants  naturalised  in  southern  lands 
are  herbaceous.  We  may  take  as  an  example  Sir  Joseph  Hooker's 
list  of  introductions  into  New  Zealand.2  It  amounts  to  170  species, 
of  which  fully  half  are  annuals,  thirteen  are  biennials,  and  over  fifty  of 
the  remainder,  although  perennial,  are  herbaceous.  Now  what  has 
happened  in  New  Zealand  since  the  first  batch  of  colonists  landed  on 
its  shores  ?  The  densely  clothed  forest-lands  have  been  cleared  to 
make  room  for  the  herbaceous  vegetation  on  which  man  depends  for 
his  sustenance  ;  in  other  words,  a  dendritic  zone  has  been  artificially 
converted  into  a  herbaceous  one.      And   not  this   only,   but   the   seeds 

1  "Origin  of  Species,"  6th  ed.  p.  339. 

2  "Handbook  New  Zealand  Flora,"  p.  7.r>7. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  205 

of  these  economic  plants  have  been  introduced  from  the  north,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  seeds  of  other  plants  accustomed  from  time 
immemorial  to  flourish  in  association  with  them,  as  well  as  the  seeds 
of  species  which  have  been  allowed,  for  the  sake  of  old  recollections, 
to  obtain  a  foothold  in  the  new  homes  of  the  race.  We  have  seen 
how  advantageous  it  is  for  a  migrating  species  to  be  herbaceous,  and 
a  still  greater  advantage  should  obtain  where  migration  has  been  so 
effectually  assisted  by  human  effort.  Then  again,  a  point  we  ought 
to  have  information  about,  for  it  has  material  bearing  on  the  case,  is 
whether  the  indigenous  herbaceous  vegetation  has  benefited  by  the 
introduced  changes.1 

But  the  case  becomes  still  stronger  when  we  take  Australia  into 
consideration.      The  fierce  droughts  experienced  by  so  large  a  part  of 
that  country  have  brought  about  the  survival  of  a  vegetation  to  a  very 
large  extent  xerophilous.      Now  there  is  one  peculiar  feature  about  all 
desert  countries  except  the  very  dryest,   a  feature   necessarily   tending 
to  favour  the  spread  of  any  herbaceous  vegetation  of  which  the  seeds 
may  chance  to  be  introduced  into  them,  namely,  that  at  least  during 
some  part  of  the  year  there  are  always  places  where  water  is  apt  to 
collect,  and  where  the  ground  will  remain  moist  during  the  short  time 
while  the   life-history  of  a  herb  is  being  enacted.2     This   is    simply 
what  one   sees   in  the  interior  of  Western  Australia.      For  a  period 
Ion"  enough  to  ensure  the  maturation  of  their  seeds,  introduced  plants 
enjoy,  in  normal  seasons,  conditions   precisely  similar  to  those   obtain- 
ing  in  their  native  habitats.      But   no   sooner   does   the   sun   gain   in 
power,  and  the  ground  become  dry  and  warm,  than   these  herbs   com- 
pletely disappear ;   they  show,  in  fact,  none  of  that  capacity  for  adapt- 
ing themselves  to  their  altered  surroundings  which  we   should   expect 
members  of  an  "  aggressive "  flora  to  possess.      This  is,  however,  not 
the    only   advantage  "  Scandinavian "   species    enjoy   when    introduced 
into  a  country  with  a  dry  climate  such  as  Australia.      If  one  or  more 
seasons  of  drought  supervene,  what  happens  ?      Considerable  though 
varying  power  of  latency  is  possessed  by  the  great  majority  of  seeds, 
and  under  these  circumstances  the  introduced  herb  is  in  precisely  the 
same  position  as  the  indigenous,  both  having  to  await  a  favourable 
season  in  order  that  their  seeds  may  germinate.      Contrast  this  now 
with  the  fate  awaiting  seeds  of  dry  southern  climates  introduced  into 
a  country  with  a  climate  like  ours.      A  short  spell  of  warmth   sets   in, 

1  Authoritative  information  on  this  suhject  has  recently  come  to  hand  (vide  T.  Kirk, 
Presidential  Address  to  the  Wellington  Philosophical  Society,  1895  ;  abstracted  in  Journ. 
of  Botany,  1896,  p.  338).  From  this  it  is  clear  that  in  some  cases  indigenous  species  have 
benefited  by  changes  due  to  human  agency. 

2  The  conditions  in  Australia  are  specially  favourable  to  the  introduction  of  cold 
temperate  herbs,  inasmuch  as  it  is  only  when  the  temperature  is  low,  that  is,  when  the  con- 
ditions approximate  to  those  of  the  summer  of  Northern  Europe,  that  the  ground  remains 
moist  for  any  length  of  time.  Then  is  the  only  chance  for  herbaceous  vegetation  whether 
endemic  or  introduced. 


206  SPENCER  MOORE  [September 

and  under  its  influence  the  seeds  germinate  ;  hereupon  the  temperature 
suddenly  falls,  and  the  young  .and  tender  seedlings  are  exposed,  at  a 
critical  period  in  their  career,  to  entirely  new  and  unfavourable  con- 
ditions, and  they  perish  accordingly.  It  is  therefore  no  matter  for 
wonder,  and  still  less  for  drawing  conclusions  as  to  "  aggressive  power  " 
and  "  superiority  "  of  the  northern  species,  if  introductions  from  the 
northern  hemisphere  are  enabled  to  exist  and  multiply  in  the  southern, 
while  an  embargo  is  placed  upon  southern  species  in  Northern  and 
Central  Europe.  Moreover,  that  this  is  the  real  reason  why  southern 
species  are  not  domiciled  with  us  seems  clear  when  it  is  remembered 
how,  in  northern  countries  where  the  conditions  are  approximately 
similar  to  those  obtaining  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  southern  intro- 
ductions are  able  to  maintain  themselves.  One  may  cite,  for  example, 
the  Western  Mediterranean  seaboard  and  the  coast  of  Portugal,  where 
a  fair  number  of  southern  species — most  of  them,  it  is  true,  South 
African,  from  greater  facility  of  intercourse — have  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing themselves,  and  apparently  at  some  expense  to  the  indigenous 
flora. 

There  is  one  country  north  of  the  equator  where  Australian  species 
readily  become  naturalised.      Botanists  who  hold  fast  by  the  theory 
that  the  Australian  flora  is  a  mere  geographical  survival  have  been 
puzzled — -as   assuredly  they   ought  to   be   puzzled — by   the    headway 
that   species    from    Australia   make    when    introduced    into    Southern 
India ;    nor    does    Mr.    Wallace's    solution    of   the    problem,    ingenious 
though  it  be,  at  all  relieve  matters.      Mr.  Wallace  cheerily  avers  that 
this   fact    is  quite   in   harmony  with  the  presumed  predominance  of 
northern  forms.      "  For,"  he  says,  "  not  only  is  the  climate  favourable, 
but   the   entire   Indian  peninsula  has  existed   for  untold   ages   as   an 
island,  and   thus   possesses   the    insular   characteristics   of   a   compara- 
tively poor  and  less  developed  flora  and  fauna  as  compared   with  the 
truly  continental  Malayan  and   Himalayan   regions.      Thus   Australian 
plants    can    compete    with    a    fair    chance    of    success." 1       But    what 
evidence  is  there  for  Mr.  Wallace's  idea  ?     We  venture  to  maintain, 
on  the  contrary,  that  the  Indian  flora  is,  in  all  essentials,  a  continental 
one,  and,  moreover,  the  "  untold  ages "   Mr.   Wallace  alludes    to   are 
scarcely  in  point,  for  what  we  want  is  evidence  as  to  the  continued 
insularity,  in  a  botanical  sense,  of  a  region  which,  for  many   thousands 
of  years  at  least,  has  ceased  to  be  an  island.      But  why  travel  so  far 
in  search  of  an  explanation  when  one  is  ready  to  hand  ?     Why  not 
admit   that   Australian    species   flourish    in    the    Neilgherries    simply 
because  the  present  climate  of  that  district  is  suitable  to  them  ?     And 
why  not  go  a  step  further,  and  allow  that  if  a  land  connection  existed 
between    Australia    and    South    India,    and    the    intervening    country 
enjoyed  a   climate   like   that   of   Australia,  a   considerable   number  of 

1   "Island  Life,"  p.  496,  note.     The  fact  there  cited  was  communicated  to  Mr.  Wallace 
by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  207 

Australian  species,  or  of  descendants  from  such,  would  to-day  form 
part  of  the  Indian  flora  ?  But  if  this  be  admitted,  and  it  is  only  a 
logical  deduction  from  the  facts,  the  theory  of  the  predominance  of 
northern  forms  collapses,  and  the  restricted  area  occupied  by  Aus- 
tralian species  must  no  longer  be  viewed  as  depending  upon  some 
inherent  inferiority  to  northern  forms,  but  simply  upon  fortuitous 
geographical  conditions.1 

But  we  are  told  that  the  Australian  flora  stands  less  high  in  the 
scale  and  is  less  specialised  than  are  the  floras  of  northern  climates, 
and  if  this  be  true,  the  point  I  am  trying  to  argue  must  at  once  be 
given  up.  But  is  it  true  ?  In  what  respect,  it  may  be  asked,  is  the 
flora  of  Australia  less  highly  specialised  ?  Are  not  most  of  the  great 
natural  orders  strong  constituents  of  it  ?  Trees,  some  of  them  of 
gigantic  size,  shrubs,  undershrubs  and  herbs,  parasites  and  saprophytes, 
climbing  and  carnivorous  species,  flowers  adapted  to  profit  by  the 
visits  of  insects,  and  sometimes  provided  with  a  complex  mechanism  to 
ensure  such  profit,  all  these  are  met  with  in  Australia,  In  addition, 
we  have  wonderful  adaptations  to  a  dry  climate,  and  in  this  respect, 
taking  into  account  the  variety  of  ways  in  which  the  destructive  effects 
of  a  scorching  sun  and  parched  soil  are  guarded  against,  the  Australian 
flora  is  without  a  parallel  the  world  over.  And  if  these  be  not 
evidences  of  high  specialisation,  it  is  difficult  to  know  where  one  must 
look  for  such.  In  one  respect,  and  in  one  only,  is  any  inferiority 
shown,  namely,  in  the  comparatively  small  number  of  seeds  produced. 
But  this  does  not  apply  to  the  herbs,  and  as  for  the  woody  species,  it 
is  absolutely  essential  that  the  ripening  seeds  be  safeguarded  against 
drought,  and  the  laying  on  of  thick  tissues  to  this  end  may  well  be 
effected  at  some  cost  as  regards  fecundity. 

But  Mr.  Wallace  himself  gives  us  an  instance  where  land  adjoining 
the,  according  to  him,  previously  isolated  home  of  the  Australian  flora 
has  been  stocked  to  a  considerable  extent  with  Australian  forms.  As 
I  shall  have  something  to  say  hereafter  about  this  supposition,  I  will 
now  merely  assume  its  truth  for  argument's  sake.  Mr.  Wallace,2  then, 
supposes  the  greater  part  of  Northern  Australia,  previously  submerged 
beneath  the  ocean,  to  have  become  dry  land  in  the  middle  or  latter  part 
of  the  tertiary  period,  and  the  area  so  exposed  to  have  been  colonised 
partly  by  Indo-Malayan  forms  from  the  north,  partly  by  Australian 
forms  from  the  south.  Now,  assuming  with  Mr.  Wallace  that  the 
species  with  Indo-Malayan  facies  in  Northern  Australia  were  emigrants 
from  the  north,  their  considerable  numbers  prove  that  there  could  have 
been  but  slight,  if  any,  embargo  upon  migration  from  the  north  when 

1  Since  this  passage  was  written,  Mr.  C.  B.  Clarke  has  informed  me,  upon  his  personal 
knowledge  of  the  Neilgherries,  that  the  success  of  Australian  species  there  has  been  much 
exaggerated.  In  spite  of  this,  I  prefer  to  leave  the  paragraph  as  it  stands,  for  it  shows,  at 
any  rate,  to  what  lengths  an  upholder  of  the  "northern  predominance"  theory  may  be 
inclined  to  go  when  in  search  of  an  argument  to  meet  alleged  facts  hostile  to  the  theory. 

2  "  Island  Life,"  p.  493. 


208  SPENCER  MOORE  [.September 

Northern  Australia  was  stocked.  Why,  then,  if  Australian  forms  are 
less  highly  differentiated,  and  less  capable  of  adaptation  than  Indo- 
Malayan,  do  we  find  them  holding  their  own  to-day  side  by  side  with 
the  more  favoured  northern  migrants  ?  Assuredly  this  is  precisely 
what  we  ought  not  to  expect  if  the  theory  of  northern  predominance 
be  sound.  We  ought  rather  to  expect  that  those  migrants  from  the 
south  which  happened  to  penetrate  into  the  newly  raised  area  would 
have  been  rapidly  overcome  by  their  better  adapted  competitors ;  and 
the  fact  that  they  have  not  been  so  overcome  should  suffice  to  convince 
us  that,  supposing  Mr.  Wallace's  view  of  the  stocking  of  Northern 
Australia  to  be  correct,  Australian  species  can  compete  not  unsuccess- 
fully with  Indo-Malayau  ones  in  the  struggle  for  existence  on  a  fresh 
area.  In  short,  what  Mr.  Wallace  supposes  to  have  actually  happened 
in  Northern  Australia  is  exactly  what  I  have  just  now  surmised  might 
have  happened  in  India,  but  for  the  wide  stretch  of  intervening  sea 
which  has  prevented  Australian  forms  from  entering  the  Indian 
peninsula. 

And  when  we  come  to  consider  the  extinctions  that  have  taken 
place  in  the  Australian  flora  since  earlier  tertiary  times,  we  find 
ourselves  face  to  face  with  a  number  of  facts  which  contradict  in  toto 
the  doctrine  of  northern  predominance.  The  only  way  of  escaping 
from  these  facts  is  to  deny  the  soundness  of  the  conclusions  upon 
which  they  are  based,  that  is,  to  throw  doubt  upon  the  determinations 
of  the  palaeontologists.  This  is  the  position  taken  up  by  Professor 
Drude,1  who  not  only  denies  that  a  flora  in  many  respects  more 
northern  than  the  present  flora  formerly  flourished  in  Australia,  but 
also  questions  the  former  presence  in  the  European  flora  of  many 
species  belonging  to  orders  now  characteristic  of  Australia.  Professor 
Drude  cites  as  an  example  the  genus  Quercus,  which  has  a  wide  dis- 
tribution in  space,  and  contains  species  showing  much  adaptability  to 
diverse  conditions,  facts  rendering  it  difficult  to  understand  how  such  a 
genus  could  disappear  from  any  large  area  it  formerly  occupied.  This 
instance,  however,  is  not  a  very  happy  one,  for  Quercus  is  now  known 
to  flourish  in  New  Guinea,  and  it  may  still  be  found  living  in  Australia 
when  the  northern  part  of  the  island- continent  has  been  more 
thoroughly  examined.  Moreover,  we  are  only  imperfectly  informed  as 
to  why  species  become  extinct.  Why,  for  example,  should  so  few 
Brachiopods  now  tenant  our  seas  ?  Why  is  it  that  the  great  group  of 
the  Ammonitidae,  so  abundant  in  Mesozoic  times,  is  represented  to-day  by 
but  one  solitary  survivor,  or,  as  some  may  say,  by  none  ?  What  reason 
can  be  given  for  the  extinction  of  the  numerous  mammals  characteristic 
of  earlier  tertiary  times  ?  The  general  principle  underlying  extinction 
is,  of  course,  a  mere  commonplace  to-day  :  it  is  the  application  of  it  to 
individual  instances  that  is  obscure ;  so  much  so  indeed  that,  in  spite 
of  Mr.  Darwin's  injunction  to  a  contrary  view,  I  do  hold,  with  all  due 

1   "  Handbuch  der  Pflanzengeographie,"  s.  450. 


1899J  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  209 

deference,  that  a  fact  such  as  the  survival  of  Lingula  through  countless 
ao-es,  while  multitudes  of  closely  related  and  equally  effective  forms 
have  long  been  extinct,  is  not  devoid  of  the  element  of  mystery.  Such 
a  consideration  as  that  adduced  by  Professor  Drude  seems  wholly 
insufficient  to  outweigh  the  life -labours  of  men  like  Unger  and 
Goeppert,  Heer,  Ettingshauseu,  and  others.  True,  their  determina- 
tions may  sometimes  be  open  to  objection  ;  but  in  such  a  case  as  this 
there  seems  no  alternative  but  to  accept,  as  correct  in  the  main,  the 
conclusions  unanimously  recorded  by  specialists  in  this  branch  of  the 
science.  When,  therefore,  one  finds  in  the  Australian  tertiary  flora 
such  characteristically  northern  genera  as  Myrica,  Bctula,  Ainu .s, 
Qucrcus,  Salix,  Fagus,  Laurus,  Magnolia,  all  of  which,  with  the  exception 
of  Fagus,  now  scantily  represented  on  the  south-eastern  highlands, 
and  possibly  of  Qucrcus  as  mentioned  above,  have  vanished  like  the 
fantasies  of  a  dream,  one  cannot  repress  a  feeling  of  wonder  that  such  a 
phrase  as  "  the  Scandinavian  privilege  of  ubiquity  "  should  ever  have 
been  called  into  use.  Most  of  the  above  genera,  if  present  distribution 
is  to  be  relied  on,  and  present  distribution  is  the  main  support  of  the 
northern  predominance  theory,  have  had  their  origin  in  the  most 
extensive  land  area  of  the  globe,  where,  according  to  Mr.  Darwin,  com- 
petition has  been  most  severe  and  long-continued,  and  moreover  they 
are  still  important  elements  in  the  northern  flora.  On  the  current 
hypothesis  these  favoured  forms  should  have  entirely  or  partially 
eliminated  their  competitors,  instead  of  which  they  have  themselves 
<>one  to  the  wall.  But  besides  this  we  are  not  entitled  to  assume  that 
Australia  was  inhabited  in  earlier  tertiary  times  by  no  other  "  northern  " 
genera  than  have  already  been  found  in  tertiary  deposits  there.  It  is 
also  inconceivable  that  herbaceous  vegetation  did  not  then  exist  side  by 
side  with  the  shrubs  and  trees  whose  harder  parts  have  ensured  their 
preservation  in  the  fossil  condition.  But  before  we  are  in  a  position 
to  state  what  this  herbaceous  vegetation  really  was,  Australian  tertiary 
deposits  must  be  examined  in  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Clement  Iieid  is 
now  examining  our  tertiary  beds  with  such  interesting  results,  for  the 
ordinary  organs  of  herbs  are  of  too  fragile  and  evanescent  a  nature  to 
allow  of  their  preservation,  and  recourse  must  be  had  to  the  evidence 
yielded  by  fruits,  and  especially  by  seeds,  involving  a  tedious  opera- 
tion indeed,  but  one  which  must  be  undertaken  before  we  can  feel 
•ourselves  on  safe  ground.  Meanwhile  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the 
possibility  that  a  fair  number  of  herbaceous  species  belonging  to 
"  northern "  genera  may  have  become  extinct  in  Australia  since  the 
time  when  the  "  primitive  tertiary  flora  "  flourished  there. 

And  while  we  recognise  how  favourable  to  the  northern  flora  are 
the  geographical  and  climatal  conditions  of  Northern  Europe  at  the 
present  time,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  such  was  not  always  the 
case.  In  Miocene  times,  for  instance,  when  Greenland  enjoyed  a 
climate   similar   to    that   of   Southern   Europe   to-day,  where   was   the 

14 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   91. 


2io  SPENCER  MOORE  [September 

"  Scandinavian  "  flora  ?  A  considerable  portion  of  it  must  have  been 
in  existence  then,  and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  the  ancestors  of  so 
large  and  important  an  element  in  the  earth's  vegetation  could  have 
found  sufficient  room  in  the  few  extreme  northern  lands  then  suitable 
to  them.  But  during  Eocene  and  Miocene  times  a  large  part  of 
the  antarctic  continent  must  have  had  a  climate  suitable  to  the 
support  of  "  Scandinavian  "  forms  ;  and  if  we  can  suppose,  and  there 
seems  little  difficulty  in  the  supposition,  warranted  as  it  is  by  facts  of 
distribution,  that  the  antarctic  continent  was  then  continuous  with 
South  America,  and  had  outlying  lands  permitting  of  interchange  with 
South  Africa  and  Australia,  a  portion,  and  no  inconsiderable  portion,  of 
the  flora  now  considered  to  be  of  northern  origin  may  well  have  taken  its 
rise  in  these  southern  lands.  It  was  probably  during  the  Pliocene 
period  that  the  Scandinavian  flora  first  became  important  in  Northern 
Europe.  Pliocene  times  must  have  been  highly  favourable  to  the 
diffusion  of  herbs  which  flourish  best  in  colder  temperate  climates,  for 
not  only  did  cold  conditions  then  prevail,  but  there  were  ready  for 
colonisation  large  areas  raised  during  the  mountain-making  Eocene  and 
Miocene  periods.  It  is  conceivable,  therefore,  that  much  interchange 
between  northern  and  southern  lands  may  have  taken  place  during 
this  period. 

But  it  may  perhaps  be  that  the  Pliocene  age  is  too  recent  for  such 
a  relation  as  has  been  sketched  to  have  existed  between  the  antarctic 
continent  and  lands  lying  to  the  north  of  it,  though  the  recent 
discovery  in  South  America  of  a  carnivorous  Marsupial  allied  to 
Thylacinus  suggests  that  such  a  relation  existed  during  later  tertiary 
times.  Yet  the  point  to  be  remembered  is  that  large  areas  in  the 
south  have  enjoyed  a  climate  eminently  suitable  to  the  evolution  of 
forms  best  fitted  to  flourish  in  the  colder  temperate  zones,  and, 
moreover,  that  during  long  periods  the  larger  extent  of  such  areas  has 
been  in  the  south.  The  problem,  too,  how  southern  forms  could  have 
reached  the  north  is  no  greater  than  the  problem  how  northern  forms 
could  have  penetrated  into  antarctic  lands.  All  we  know  is  that  a 
genus  could  have  had  its  origin  in  but  one  area,  and  that,  as  regards 
temperate  forms,  there  is  much  generic  resemblance  between  the 
northern  flora  and  the  southern  ;  but  there  is  no  justification  for  the 
view  that  all  the  genera  common  to  both  had  their  origin  in  the  north 
and  none  of  them  in  the  south. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  receive  with  grave  doubt  any  conclusion 
relative  to  the  inherent  superiority  of  certain  floras  as  a  whole  over 
others,  and  this  although  several  species  of  supposed  northern  origin 
are  capable  of  ready  acclimatisation  in  foreign  lands,  and  can  some- 
times flourish  at  the  expense  of  endemic  forms;  for  in  every  flora  there 
are  species  more  widely  diffused  and  with  greater  powers  of  adaptation 
than  others.  Has  anybody  ever  argued,  from  the  rapid  spread  of 
Anacharis  alsinastrum  in  our  streams  a  few  years  back,  from  the  way 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  A  USTRALIAN  FLORA  2 1 1 

in  which,  for  instance,  Galinsoga  parviflora,  and  species  of  Aster  are 
enabled  to  maintain  themselves  in  Europe,  any  inherent  superiority  of 
the  American  flora  over  the  European  ?  Yet  argument  of  this  kind  we 
find  constantly  applied  to  the  flora  of  Australia.  Nor  is  present  dis- 
tribution an  infallible  index  to  the  place  of  origin  of  a  genus  or 
species.  To  take  two  instances  showing  the  general  trend  of  argument 
on  this  subject  as  bearing  on  the  flora  of  Australia  :  Hclichysum  and 
Hdiptcrum,  although  well  represented  in  Australia,  are  found  also  in 
other  countries  ;  consequently,  it  is  said,  they  are  exotic  genera  which 
have  at  some  time  migrated  into  Australia.  Why  may  not  they,  as 
well  as  other  genera,  be  descendants  from  the  constituents  of  the 
"  primitive  tertiary  flora  "  ?  Professor  Tate  partially  adopts  this  view, 
for  he  remarks,  apropos  of  certain  genera  found  fossil  in  tertiary 
deposits,  such  as  Ficus,  Loranthus,  Pittosporum,  Santalum,  and  Cassia — 
that  most  of  these  genera,  "  when  viewed  by  their  present  geographical 
distribution,  are  considered  Oriental ;  but  in  regard  to  their  distribution 
in  time  they  belong  to  a  cosmopolitan  flora,  which  originated  in  late 
Cretaceous  times  in  Europe,  North  America,  and  Australia  ;  hence  their 
modern  representatives  may  actually  be  descendants  of  primitive 
Australian  species,  and  not  modified  immigrant  forms."1  But  though 
he  makes  this  highly  important  admission,  in  practice  he  adopts  the 
conventional  view,  for  we  find  him  distinguishing  "immigrant"  genera 
and  species  from  "  endemic  "  ones  with  confidence  as  serene  as  though 
he  had  himself  been  privileged  to  watch,  through  long  ages,  all  the 
various  steps  in  the  stocking  of  Australia.  Of  course  the  view  I  am 
advocating  cuts  both  ways.  The  Cambodian  Centrolcpis,  for  instance, 
may  possibly  be  the  sole  Indo-Malayan  survivor  of  a  genus  which  had 
its  origin  in  the  Indo-Malayan  region,  and  migrated  thence  into 
Australia.  So  too  Patcrsonia  may  be  of  Indo-Malayan  origin  :  even 
Casuarina  equisctifolia  may  be,  for  all  we  know,  the  original  species 
from  which  its  Australian  congeners  have  been  derived.  Not  until  all 
later  secondary  and  tertiary  deposits  have  been  thoroughly  ransacked, 
and  their  respective  relations  in  time  established  beyond  dispute,  will 
it  be  possible  to  fix  upon  that  part  of  the  earth  where  a  genus  or  a 
species  first  made  its  appearance.  Until  this  is  accomplished  our  con- 
clusions can  rest  on  nothing  more  satisfactory  than  inferences  from 
present  distribution,  which,  unless  they  be  applied  with  the  utmost 
caution,  may  lead  us  far  from  the  truth. 

The  most  recent  and,  as  having  been  deduced  with  full  knowledge 
of  modern  geological  discoveries  and  after  personal  inspection  of  part 
of  the  country,  the  most  authoritative  conclusions  relative  to  the  origin 
of   the   Australian   flora  are   those    of   Professor  Tate.2      The    Darling 

1  "Botany  of  the  Horn  Expedition,"  p.  131. 

-  Professor  Tate's  three  memoirs,  The  Influence  of  Physiographic  Changes  in  the  Dis- 
tribution of  Life  in  Australia;  Australia's  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
(1887)  ;  Inaugural  Address,  in  the  Association's  volume  for  1893,  and  the  "  Botany  of  the 
Horn  Expedition  "  (1896),  are  most  interesting  contributions  to  the  subject  under  notice. 


212  SPENCER  MOORE  [sept.  1899 

range,  lie  tells  us,  which  is  of  granite,  is  capped  by  conglomerates 
doubtfully  referred  by  Mr.  F.  T.  Gregory  to  the  Devonian  age,  but, 
perhaps,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Etheridge,  really  Mesozoic.  Since  Upper 
Devonian  times  there  have  always  been  land  surfaces,  at  any  rate  in 
Eastern  Australia,  where  there  was  partial  interruption  to  absolute 
continuity  daring  deposition  of  the  Carboniferous  rocks.  The  country 
presented  the  aspect  of  a  vast  archipelago  while  the  extensive  marine 
cretaceous  beds  occupying  the  low -level  tracts  of  the  interior  were 
being  deposited  ;  and  not  until  the  close  of  the  Cretaceous  period  was 
the  continent  formed.  These  marine  beds — the  so-called  Rolling 
Downs  formation,  of  Lower  Cretaceous  age — wTere  laid  down  in  a  com- 
paratively narrow  sea  connecting  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria  with  the 
Great  Australian  Bight,  and  there  is  no  evidence  for  the  existence  of 
interoceanic  connection  since  that  age,  that  is  to  say  for  the  tertiary 
sea  of  Professor  Duncan  and  Mr.  Wallace.  Following  close  upon  the 
end  of  the  Cretaceous  epoch  was  another  submergence  during  deposition 
of  the  older  tertiary  strata  ;  but  this  did  not  involve  so  large  an  area, 
as  these  marine  tertiary  beds  are  not  found  more  than  fifty  miles  inland 
except  round  the  Great  Australian  Bight  and  in  the  Murray  Desert. 
After  this,  by  unequal  movements  of  depression,  Central  Australia 
became  a  lacustrine  area,  for  the  low-level  deposits  of  this  region  are 
of  lacustrine  origin  as  their  remains  prove.  Lacustrine  conditions 
continued  into  Pliocene  times,  unless  the  formation  known  as  the 
desert  sandstone,  which  is  of  Pliocene  age,  be  eolian,  as  Mr.  Tenison- 
Woods  conceives.  The  extinct  rivers,  the  circumscribed  lacustrine 
basins  marked  by  their  coincident  sand-beaches,  and  the  remains  of 
large  herbivores  prove  the  climate  of  Central  Australia  to  have  been,  up 
till  comparatively  recent  times,  much  moister  than  it  is  to-day.  The 
subsequent  history  of  the  district  has  been  one  of  gradually  increasing- 
desiccation. 

(To  be  continued.) 


FRESH    FACTS. 


Microscopic  Vivisection.  Eugene  Penard.  "  Sur  les  mouvements 
autonomes  des  pseudopod.es,"  Arch.  Sci.  Phi/s.  Nat.  vii.  1899,  pp.  434-445. 
Mr.  Penard  has  made  numerous  experiments  with  excised  pseudopodia  of 
Difflugia  lebes,  which  go  to  show  that  detached  (non-nucleated)  fragments  behave 
for  a  time  as  if  they  formed  a  complete  organism.  During  their  ephemeral 
life  they  exhibit  movements ;  they  are  attracted  by  plasmas  identical  with  their 
own,  and  repelled  by  those  which  are  unlike. 

A  Wonderful  House.  H.  Lohmann.  "  Das  Gehause  der  Appendicularien 
nach  seiner  Bildungsweise,  seinem  Bau  und  seiner  Function,"  Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii. 
1899,  pp.  206-214,  4  figs.  Dr.  Lohmann  studied  at  Messina  the  history  of  the 
house  of  Oikopleura.  The  foundations  are  laid  in  3  to  4  hours  by  the  energetic 
secretory  activity  of  special  oikoplast  cells  which  form  the  component  membranes 
and  fibrils.  The  house  once  begun  is  quickly  finished,  and  has  not  been  more 
than  a  few  hours  in  use  before  another  begins  to  be  built.  But  what  is  its  use  1 
The  answer  to  this  is  perhaps  the  chief  interest  of  this  paper,  for  Lohmann 
finds  that  it  is  justified  in  three  ways.  It  forms  an  effective  trap  for  food 
particles  ;  it  serves  as  a  locomotor  organ  ;  and  it  protects  the  inmate,  who  can 
"  blitzschnell "  leave  its  encasement  and  escape  with  its  life. 

Notochordal  Canal  in  Man.  A.  C  F.  Eternod.  "II  y  a  un  canal 
notochordal  clans  Fembryon  humain,"  Anat.  Anzeig.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  131-143, 
17  figs.  The  author  has  satisfied  himself  that  there  is  in  the  very  early  human 
embryo  a  distinct  trace  of  a  notochordal  or  archenteric  canal  which  does  not 
differ  in  its  essential  features  from  that  known  in  other  mammals. 

Hibernating  Swallows  Once  More.  Alan  Owston.  "Swallows  in 
Mid-Winter,"  Annot.  Zool.  Japon.  iii.  1899,  p.  29.  In  a  letter  to  our  Japanese 
contemporary,  Mr.  Alan  Owston  of  Yokohama  notes  that  on  the  16th  of 
December  1896  he  saw  a  number  of  swifts  (Cypselus  pacificus)  flying  about,  and 
that  on  the  1st  of  January  1898  he  observed  a  couple  of  swallows  {Hirundo 
rustica  gutturalis)  catching  flies  on  the  beach.  "  Is  it  possible  that  some  swifts 
and  swallows  remain  here  throughout  the  whole  winter,  and  if  so  do  they 
hybernate  in  caves  like  bats  1 " 

When  a  Snail  Leaves  its  Shell.  R.  Welch.  "  Helices  abandoning  their 
Shells,"  Journ.  of  Conchology,  ix.  July  1899,  p.  217.  We  had  thought  that  a 
snail  would  leave  its  shell  when  the  Greek  Kalends  came  round,  or  a  canny 
Scot  committed  himself  to  a  definite  opinion  on  the  weather,  but  we  were  wrong- 
again.  For  there  have  been  repeated  stories  of  late  in  circulation  about  snails 
wandering  about  in  indecent  nudity.  The  fama  arose  in  regard  to  Limnaea 
peregra,  but  it  seems  that  the  more  sedate  Helix  piscina  and  Helix  lactea  have 
gone  in  for  similar  frolics.  They  were  well  fed,  Mr.  Welch  assures  us,  and  not 
handled  in  any  way.  This  is  a  "  curiosity "  which  some  one  will  surely  soon 
convert  into  an  interesting  fact  by  telling  us  the  reason  why.  Is  it  an  atavism 
before  death — a  return  to  ancestral  nuditv  1 


214  FRESH  FACTS  [September 

Facts  of  Inheritance.  William  Bateson  and  Miss  I).  F.  M.  Pertz. 
"  Notes  on  the  inheritance  of  variation  in  the  corolla  of  Veronica  buxbaumii," 
Proc.  Cambridge  Phil.  Soc.  x.  1899,  pp.  78-92,  1  pi.  Abnormal  flowers  are  of 
common  occurrence  in  this  species,  and  certain  symmetrical  forms  of  variation 
are  especially  frequent.  Flowers  taken  at  random  on  heavy  clay  arable  land 
near  Cambridge  showed  about  6  per  cent  with  3  petals,  and  about  1  per  cent 
with  two  petals,  and  so  on.  The  experiments  described  in  this  paper  were 
undertaken  to  test  whether  there  is  any  difference  between  offspring  raised  from 
abnormal  flowers,  and  the  offspring  of  normal  flowers  borne  by  the  same  plant. 
The  evidence,  though  scanty,  goes  on  the  whole  to  show  that  there  is,  at  all 
events  in  the  case  investigated,  no  well-marked  difference  between  the  offspring 
of  normal  and  abnormal  flowers. 

A  Pathological  Pigeon.  Michael  F.  Guyer.  "  Ovarian  structure  in  an 
abnormal  pigeon,"  Science,  ix.  1899,  pp.  876-877.  In  a  bird  which  was  a 
hybrid  between  a  Vienna  white  (Columba  alba)  and  a  common  ring-dove  (Turtur 
risorius),  the  ovary  showed  a  large  number  of  double  eggs,  that  is,  two  or  more 
eggs  within  a  common  follicle.  Most  of  the  larger  eggs  showed  vacuoles 
appearing  in  connection  with  the  substance  of  the  sphere  or  yolk-nucleus  ;  the 
nuclei  in  many  cases  seemed  degenerating ;  mitotic  division  of  the  nucleus  was 
never  observed ;  many  of  the  eggs,  especially  the  larger  ones,  were  undergoing 
absorption  by  means  of  phagocytes  which  were  the  transformed  follicle  cells. 
The  doubling  of  the  eggs  seemed  to  be  due  in  most  of  the  smaller  ones  to 
division  of  the  primordial  egg  cell  and  in  the  larger  ones  to  fusion  of  contiguous 
cells.  It  is  not  determined  that  such  abnormalities  are  connected  with 
hybridisation. 

Sex  in  Beetles.  Gilbert  J.  Arrow.  "  On  sexual  dimorphism  in  beetles 
of  the  family  Butelidae,"  Trans.  Entomol.  Soc.  London,  1899,  pp.  255-269.  The 
recorded  examples  of  sexual  dimorphism  among  beetles,  other  than  those  which 
consist  in  differences  of  development  of  various  parts,  such  as  the  legs,  antennae, 
or  mandibles,  are  at  present  very  few  ;  but  this  is  partly  due  to  the  mistake  of 
referring  males  and  females  to  separate  species.  In  the  heterogeneous  assem- 
blage slumped  in  the  genus  Anomala  there  is  colour  dimorphism  in  species 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  distinction  consists  not  in  any  fundamental 
difference,  but  in  the  degree  of  development  of  the  colouring  matter,  the  male 
(except  in  two  exceptional  Mexican  species)  exhibiting  a  greater  exuberance  than 
the  female,  or  the  superposition  of  a  darker  hue.  In  Anomala  imperialis, 
discussed  in  this  paper,  there  is  another  apparent  exception,  the  colours  of  the 
two  sexes  appearing  to  be  unrelated.  But  experiment  shows  that  the  metallic 
purple  colour  characteristic  of  the  male  of  this  species  is  transformed  by  exposure 
to  sunlight  into  a  green  like  that  of  the  female,  so  that  here  also  the  male  form 
is  obtained  by  an  addition  to  that  characteristic  of  the  female. 

The  Age  of  the  Manx  Slates.  H.  Bolton.  "  The  Palaeontology  of  the 
Manx  Slates  of  the  Isle  of  Man,"  Manchester  Memoirs,  xliii.  May  4,  1899, 
No.  1,  pp.  15,  1  pi.  In  this  paper  (also  issued  as  "  Notes  from  the  Manchester 
Museum,  No.  5  ")  are  described  specimens  of  Dictyonema  sociale  and  Dendro- 
graptus  Jfexuosus,  found  by  the  writer  in  small  splintery  masses  of  these  slates. 
These  indicate  that  "  the  stratigraphical  position  of  the  slates  will  be  found 
ultimately  to  be  either  amongst  the  uppermost  beds  of  the  Cambrian  system, 
or  in  the  Arenig  Series."  This  conclusion  does  not  conflict  with  the  evidence 
of  the  worm  castings  referred  to  Palaeochorda  and  Chondritis,  or  the  doubtful 
Asaphus  also  discovered  by  Mr.  Bolton,  or  the  yet  more  doubtful  Lingulella, 
figured  by  E.  W.  Binney  in  1877.  The  author  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the 
light,  little  though  it  be,  that  he  has  been  able  to  throw  on  this  particularly 
obscure  problem. 


1899]  FRESH  FACTS  215 

Sexual  Dimorphism  in  Jurassic  Nautili.  G.  C.  Crick.  "  Description 
of  new  or  imperfectly  known  species  of  Nautilus  from  the  Inferior  Oolite,  pre- 
served in  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History),"  Proc.  Malacol.  Soc.  iii.  pp. 
117-139,  Dec.  1898.  The  observations  of  Willey  on  sexual  dimorphism  in  the 
recent  Nautilus  have  satisfactorily  dispelled  any  doubts  as  to  the  existence 
of  such  a  character,  and  divergences  between  individuals  of  any  fossil  species 
may  therefore  be  interpreted  as  due  to  sex.  Of  the  eleven  species  here  de- 
scribed, seven  appear  to  present  both  a  broader  form  (male)  and  a  narrower 
form  (female)  occurring  at  the  same  locality  and  horizon.  In  some  specimens 
also  it  has  been  possible  to  trace  very  clearly  the  position  of  the  anterior 
boundary  of  the  muscular  attachment.  A  specimen  of  JY.  bradfordensis  shows 
the  black  layer  as  a  band  enveloping  the  whorl  immediately  in  front  of  the 
aperture.  A  few  non-adult  specimens  are  described  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  British  Museum  specialist  definitely  accepts  the  approximation  of 
the  last  two  septa  as  a  criterion  of  maturity. 

A  False  Fossil.  J.  S.  Diller.  "  Origin  of  Palaetrochis,"  Amer,  Joum. 
Science,  vii.  1899,  pp.  337-342.  In  1856  Professor  Ebenezer  Emmons  described 
two  species  of  Paleotrochis  from  the  so-called  Taconie  rocks  of  Montgomery 
County,  in  North  Carolina,  and  regarded  them  as  siliceous  corals,  and  as  the 
oldest  representatives  of  animal  life  upon  the  globe.  But  Hall,  Marsh,  J.  A. 
Holmes,  and  others  denied  their  organic  nature,  whilst  C.  H.  White  almost  as 
strongly  advocated  it.  Mr.  Diller  determines  the  Palaetrochis  rock  as  an  acid 
volcanic  full  of  spherulites,  and  concludes  "  that  Paleotrochis,  where  most 
perfectly  developed  and  composed  of  granular  quartz,  is  the  result  of  deposition 
after  the  spherulitic  growths  about  it  and  within  it  had  developed,  but  whether 
this  deposition  followed  soon  after  that  of  the  spherulites  in  the  course  of  solidi- 
fication, or  took  place  in  hollow  spherulites  (lithophysae),  or  resulted  perhaps 
long  subsequently  at  the  time  of  rock  alterations,  is  not  so  clear."  But  this 
seems  clear  that  the  Paleotrochis  is  no  reputable  coral. 

Diplospondyly.  W.  G.  Eidewood.  "  Some  observations  on  the  caudal 
diplospondyly  of  sharks,"  Joum.  Linn.  Soc.  (Zool.)  xxvii.  1899,  pp.  46-59. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  Selachian  fishes  the  vertebrae  of  the  tail  are  twice 
as  numerous  as  the  caudal  segments  as  marked  by  the  spinal  nerves  and  the 
intermuscular  septa.  Dr.  Bidewood  reviews  the  facts  and  comes  to  the  conclu- 
sion, "  that  the  condition  of  diplospondyly  in  the  tail  of  sharks  is  secondary,  but 
of  ancient  date  ;  and,  further,  that  it  is  purely  adaptive,  being  calculated  to 
maintain  a  due  proportion  between  length  of  centrum  and  width  of  body,  with- 
out diminishing  the  length  of  the  muscle-segments.  In  the  region  of  the  body 
from  the  cloaca  to  the  caudal  fin,  the  demand  for  increased  flexibility  is  pre- 
potent over  the  normal  tendency  of  the  chondrified  chordal  sheath  to  segment 
in  such  a  way  that  the  centra  are  as  numerous  as  the  myotomes." 

Teratologia.  Bertram  C.  A.  Windle.  "  Ninth  report  on  recent  terato- 
logical  literature,"  Joum.  Anat.  Physiol,  xxxi.  pp.  507-526.  In  this  valuable 
record,  for  the  continuation  of  which  all  biologists  should  be  grateful,  Prof. 
Windle  gives  a  clear  and  terse  summary  of  recent  progress.  He  gives  references 
to  83  papers,  and  arranges  the  results  under  the  headings  : — experimental, 
general,  duplicity,  head  and  neck,  thorax,  abdomen,  genitalia,  and  extremities. 


SOME  NEW  BOOKS. 


THE  SILURIAN  ROCKS  OF  BRITAIN. 

Memoirs  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  United  Kingdom  :  The  Silurian 
Rocks  of  Britain.  Vol.  I.  Scotland.  By  B.  N.  Peach,  F.R.S., 
A.R.S.M.,  F.G.S.,  and  John  Horne,  F.R.S.E.,  F.G.S.,  with  Peno- 
logical Chapters  and  Notes  by  J.  J.  H.  Teall,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S. 
Royal  8vo,  pp.  xviii.  +  749  ;  xxvii.  plates,  121  figures  in  the  Text, 
and  a  coloured  Map  on  the  scale  of  ten  miles  to  the  inch.  Published 
by  order  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  H.M.  Treasury,  1899.  Price 
15s. 

For  some  reason  that  has  not  yet  been  discovered,  the  older  rocks  of  Scotland 
appear  to  have  been  formed  under  somewhat  different  conditions  from  those 
which  prevailed  when  rocks  of  the  same  age  were  in  process  of  formation  in 
other  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Not  only  is  this  the  case  with  regard  to  their 
original  characters,  but  it  is  equally  so  with  regard  to  their  subsequent  history. 
Nature's  forces  appear  to  have  attacked  the  older  rocks  of  Scotland  more 
energetically  than  has  been  the  case  elsewhere  ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  their 
present  arrangement  is  much  more  difficult  to  make  out  than  that  of  those, 
for  example,  which  are  in  the  Lake  District.  The  Cambrian  and  Pre-Cambrian 
Rocks  of  Scotland  have  been  deformed,  and  their  order  deranged,  to  an  extent 
which  is  almost  without  a  parallel  outside  of  the  Alps  ;  and  even  those  rocks 
which  were  formed  between  the  close  of  the  Cambrian  period  and  the  com- 
mencement of  Devonian  times  have  fared,  in  this  respect,  hardly  any  better 
than  their  predecessors.  Hence  the  task  of  deciphering  the  geological  history  of 
the  Ordovician  and  Silurian  Rocks  of  Scotland  has  presented  so  many 
difficulties  that  it  has  repeatedly  baffled  the  efforts  of  even  the  ablest 
geologists.  It  is  quite  true  that  each  observer  who  has  tried  to  work  out  the 
geological  structure  of  these  rocks  has  added  something  of  value  to  the  com- 
mon stock  of  information  ;  but  it  is  now  obvious  to  those  who  look  back  upon 
the  methods  of  work  adopted  by  these  earlier  geologists,  that  most  of  them  had 
gone  upon  the  wrong  lines.  As  a  consequence  of  this  fundamental  error,  our 
knowledge  of  the  succession  of  geographical  events  to  which  these  rocks  were 
due,  proved  to  be  almost  as  defective  as  was  our  knowledge  of  the  sequence  of 
biological  events  of  which  these  rocks  contain  a  record. 

The  reason  why  so  many  able  men  failed  to  read  the  history  of  these 
Scottish  Ordovician  and  Silurian  strata  aright  is  sufficiently  plain  to  us,  now 
that  our  eyes  are  opened.  It  lay  in  the  fact  that,  for  some  inexplicable  reason, 
it  has  long  been  the  fashion  in  Scotland  to  ignore  the  fact  that  geology  is  quite 
as  much  concerned  with  the  past  history  of  Life  upon  the  Earth  as  it  is  with 
the  physical  history  of  the  old  sediments  in  which  the  vestiges  of  that  life  have 
been  entombed.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases  a  student  has  been  trained  to 
regard  the  mineral  constitution  of  some  rock,  let  us  say,  for  example,  a  dyke, 

2t6 


sept.  1899]  THE  SILURIAN  ROCKS  OF  BRITAIN  217 

as  a  matter  of  vastly  greater  importance  than  the  history  of  the  fossils  occurring 
in  the  strata  which  that  dyke  happens  to  cross.  Whether  the  dyke  consisted 
of  basalt  or  of  "  melaphyre,"  or  whether  it  should  be  called  a  dolerite  or  a 
"  diabase,"  has  in  Scotland  only  too  often  been  considered  a  question  of  far 
greater  importance  than  whether  the  graptolites  which  occur  in  the  strata 
traversed  by  that  dyke  indicate  that  the  rocks  are  of  Arenig  age,  or  whether 
they  date  from  Wenlock  times,  or,  again,  whether  they  represent  any  period  of 
intermediate  age.  We  cannot  all  be  specialists,  it  is  true  ;  but,  clearly,  every 
modern  geologist  should  be  familiar  with  at  least  the  zonal  fossils  of  the  rocks 
amongst  which  he  is  at  work.  One  would  also  think  that  his  work  would 
prove  of  much  greater  interest  to  him  if  he  knew  something  of  the  biological 
relationships  of  the  organic  remains  with  which  he  is  likely  to  meet.  As  things 
stand  at  present,  it  may  be  confidently  stated  that,  taking  the  whole  of  Scot- 
land, the  number  of  those  who  are  really  working  at  fossils  of  any  kind  may  be 
counted  on  one  hand — one  of  the  authors  of  the  present  work  being  one  of 
them.  And  even  the  number  of  those  who  are  systematically  making  collec- 
tions of  fossils  probably  does  not  exceed  a  score.  The  case,  of  course,  is  very 
different  south  of  the  Border,  where  nearly  every  geologist  takes  a  more  or  less 
keen  interest  in  Palaeontology. 

That  these  defects  will  soon  be  made  good  no  one  who  carefully  studies  the 
most  admirable  historical  introduction  given  in  one  of  the  earlier  chapters  of  the 
book  under  notice  can  for  a  moment  doubt.  The  whole  of  that  history  leads  up 
to  a  triumphant  vindication  of  the  claims  of  Palaeontology  to  occupy  a  foremost 
place  in  the  studies  of  all  geological  students  in  the  future,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  light  which  that  science  throws  upon  the  evolution  of  existing  forms  of  life, 
but  also  on  account  of  the  invaluable  aid  it  affords  in  unravelling  the  complicated 
structure  of  districts  like  that  of  Girvan,  or  of  the  Valentians  or  Southern 
Uplands  of  Scotland.  Had  it  not  been  that  Professor  Lapworth  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  rocks  of  these  districts  a  combination  of  skill  in  field  work  with 
an  extensive  knowledge  of  Palaeontology,  we  should  probably  still  have  been 
no  wiser  regarding  the  true  history  of  the  rocks  in  question  than  we  were  thirty 
years  ago. 

On  taking  up  the  work  whose  contents  have  suggested  these  remarks,  the 
reader  will  do  well  to  give  a  full  consideration  to  the  section  of  the  book 
referred  to.  He  will  find  in  it  evidence  of  a  strongly-marked  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  authors  to  deal  in  a  generous  spirit  with  the  work  of  all  previous 
observers,  and  he  will  further  see  how  each  man  has  added  something  of  his 
own  to  our  knowledge  of  these  difficult  rocks,  and  how  that  intellectual  giant 
amongst  geologists,  Professor  Lapworth,  largely  by  working  out  the  zonal 
distribution  of  the  Graptolites,  has  enabled  us,  in  the  end,  to  gain  a  clear  view 
of  the  true  succession  of  the  Scottish  Ordovician  and  Silurian  Kocks.  By  the 
light  thus  presented,  Messrs.  Peach  and  Home,  with  Mr.  Macconochie,  have 
laboriously  worked  over  the  whole  area  where  these  rocks  occur,  and,  bringing 
to  bear  upon  them  the  results  of  wide  experience,  they  have  completed  the 
survey  of  the  whole  area  of  which  this  book  treats.  It  is  from  the  vast  mass  of 
material  collected  in  the  course  of  this  work  that  Mr.  Home  has  completed  the 
present  Memoir.  No  one  who  takes  the  trouble  to  read  any  section  of  it 
can  fail  to  see  that,  in  all  respects,  it  forms  a  perfect  model  of  what  such  a  book 
should  be.  It  may  truly  be  said  to  present  all  that  can  be  known  at  present 
regarding  the  geology  of  the  group  of  rocks  to  which  it  specially  refers,  and 
Sir  Archibald  Geikie  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  production  by  his  staff 
of  a  Survey  Memoir  in  which  the  work  of  eminent  specialists  like  Mr.  Teall, 
Professor  Lapworth,  Dr.  Traquair,  as  well  as  Professor  Laurie  and  Mrs.  Robert 
Gray,  has  been  skilfully  incorporated  with  the  vast  mass  of  information  collected 
by  the  above-named  members  of  the  field  staff  of  the  Survey. 

It  may  be  well  to  mention  here  that  the  various  geological  maps,  rock 
specimens,  and  most  of  the  fossils,  referred  to  in  the  Memoir,  are  exhibited  in 


2i8  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

the  Gallery  devoted   to    Scottish   Mineralogy  and  Geology  in  the  Edinburgh 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art. 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  give  a  summary  of  the  contents  of  a  book  which 
contains  in  a  highly-condensed  (though  perfectly  lucid)  form,  so  enormous  an 
accumulation  of  facts.  To  the  readers  of  Natural  Science  probably  the  chief 
interest  of  the  work  will  centre  upon  the  palaeontological  portion,  and  upon 
such  parts  of  the  work  as  are  more  or  less  directly  concerned  with  the  Life  of 
the  Past  ;  but  we  may,  nevertheless,  briefly  notice  its  contents  as  a  whole  : — 

The  earlier  chapters  of  the  history  bring  before  us  records  of  a  submarine 
volcanic  episode,  during  the  latter  part  of  which  the  chief  organic  remains 
which  were  entombed  in  the  sediments  belonged  to  the  Tetragraptidae,  Phyllo- 
graptidae,  and  a  few  other  Arenig  forms  of  graptolites,  together  with  one  or 
two  Phylloped  Crustacea,  and  a  few  Inarticulata,  representing  the  Brachiopoda. 
Next  follows  a  record  of  much  deeper  water  conditions,  during  which  a  large 
area  of  what  is  now  Southern  Scotland  would  appear  to  have  lain  at  the 
bottom  of  an  ocean  more  than  2500  fathoms  in  depth.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  the  now  well-known  Arenig  Radiolarian  Chert  was  formed.  (It  may  not 
be  generally  known  that  Mr.  Peach  was  really  the  first  to  recognise  the  true 
nature  of  this  deposit,  and  that  named  specimens  of  it  were  exhibited  in  the 
Gallery  of  Scottish  Geology  and  Mineralogy  in  Edinburgh  a  year  or  more 
before  any  published  description  appeared.)  Following  this  ancient  oceanic 
ooze  comes  a  record  of  frecpient  oscillations  of  level,  and  of  a  gradual  elevation  of 
at  least  the  western  part  of  the  district  to  above  the  level  of  the  waves.  In 
the  meantime  the  Arenig  forms  of  graptolites  had  died  out,  new  generations 
of  Rhabdophora  had  gradually  come  into  being,  and  the  conditions  favourable 
for  the  evolution  of  group  after  group  of  new  species  and  genera  appear  to 
have  continued,  in  certain  areas,  as  around  Moffat,  for  an  interval  of  time  of 
incalculable  length.  Then  follows  another  and  lengthy  period,  during  which 
we  have  perfectly  clear  evidence,  in  other  areas,  of  the  gradual  appearance  and 
disappearance  of  whole  families  of  Coelentera,  Brachiopoda,  Trilobita,  and 
Arthropoda,  as  well  as  of  other  organisms  ;  and  evidently  also  (although  the 
earlier  chapters  of  this  part  of  the  history  are  yet  wanting)  of  the  gradual 
evolution  of  the  ancestral  forms  of  the  Vertebrata.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
features  in  the  book  is  the  record  of  the  discovery  of  fish  remains  in  the  higher 
beds  of  the  Silurian  Rocks.  These  fossils  have  already  enabled  Dr.  Traquair 
to  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  some  points  that  had  previously  remained  in 
obscurity  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  we  shall  shortly  learn  more  still, 
as  the  beds  that  yielded  these  organisms  continue  to  be  diligently  searched. 
The  closing  episode  of  the  Silurian  Period  in  Scotland  was  one  in  which  the 
marine  conditions  which  had  so  long  endured  gradually  came  to  an  end. 
Continental  conditions  took  the  place  of  oceanic,  terrestrial  volcanoes  arose 
upon  what  had  formerly  been  the  sea-bottom,  and  the  Silurian  sea  finally  gave 
place  to  the  deserts  within  which  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  was  formed. 

It  is  chiefly  in  connection  with  the  eruptive  and  metamorphic  rocks  which 
date  from  this  Devonian  period,  that  Mr.  TealPs  numerous  and  valuable  contri- 
butions have  been  given.  Like  the  Stratigraphical  and  the  Palaeontological 
parts  of  the  book  this  Petrographical  part  cannot  be  summarised,  for  the  simple 
reason  that,  from  beginning  to  end,  the  work  is  already  as  closely  condensed  as 
it  can  possibly  be. 

Regarding  the  book  as  a  whole  one  may  confidently  state  that  it  is  the 
finest  geological  monograph  that  has  yet  appeared,  at  home  or  abroad,  and 
that  it  reflects  the  highest  credit  upon  every  one  concerned  in  its  production. 

J.  G.  G. 


1899]  THE  PROPER  STUDY  OF  MANKIND  219 


THE  PROPER  STUDY  OF  MANKIND. 

Man  Past  and  Present.  By  A.  H.  Keane.  Cambridge  Geographical  Series. 
Pp.  xii.  +  584,  with  12  plates.  Cambridge  University  Press:  C.  J. 
Clay  &  Sons.      1899.     Price  12s. 

Linguistic  and  literary  attainments  are  as  essential  to  the  specialist  in 
the  field  of  Ethnology,  as  keen-edged  tools  are  to  the  skilled  artizan.  A 
perusal  of  "  Man  Past  and  Present,"  by  Prof.  Keane,  amply  proves  that,  in 
addition  to  these  accomplishments,  the  author  is  conversant  with  the  vast 
amount  of  anthropological  literature  which  has  come  into  existence  since  the 
banner  of  Evolution  was  first  raised  by  Darwin  and  Wallace  some  forty  years 
ago.  The  volume  now  before  us  is  the  second  which  has  appeared  within  the 
last  few  years  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Keane  on  the  same  fascinating  subject.  The 
first,  under  the  title  of  "Ethnology"  (1895),  was  upon  the  whole  well  received 
by  general  anthropologists,  although  several  critics  pointed  out  its  inadequacy 
to  supply  the  recognised  want  of  a  compendious  handbook  to  Ethnology  in  the 
English  language.  The  subject-matter  was  treated  in  two  divisions — (1)  Funda- 
mental ethnical  problems,  and  (2)  the  primary  ethnical  groups — the  first  being 
unnecessarily  long,  and  the  second  irritatingly  short,  and  altogether  unsatis- 
factory. The  present  volume  furnishes,  at  least  to  some  extent,  the  deficiencies 
of  the  former.  But  unfortunately  in  avoiding  Scylla  the  author  has  fallen  into 
Charybdis,  by  having  to  repeat  in  his  new  book  much  of  what  had  already  been 
said.  In  "  Ethnology "  the  ethnical  groups  (less  than  half  the  volume)  are 
discussed  under  Homo  Aethiopicus,  11.  Mongolicus,  H.  Americanus,  and  //. 
Caucasicus.  In  "Man  Past  and  Present"  the  subject  is  continued  in  several 
chapters  on  "Negroes,"  "Mongols,"  "American  Aborigines,"  and  "  Caucasic 
Peoples."  It  is  like  an  author  who,  having  four  tales  to  relate,  and  finding 
that  he  could  not  do  so  in  one  volume,  publishes  the  first  half  of  each  tale  in 
one  book,  and  the  concluding  portions  in  a  second  book,  both  volumes  being 
actually  under  different  names.  We  greatly  regret  this  disposition  of  the 
materials,  as  we  are  convinced  that  by  a  little  re-arrangement  of  the  anthropolo- 
gical problems,  together  with  a  curtailment  of  lengthy  disquisitions  on  secondary 
details,  so  as  to  bring  them  more  into  harmony  with  the  ethnological  section,  Mr. 
Keane  had  the  opportunity  of  producing  one  book  which  would,  undoubtedly, 
have  been  a  great  boon  to  students.1  Moreover,  both  volumes  are  weakened  by 
a  division  of  the  illustrations.  We  have,  however,  pleasure  in  quoting  the 
following  remarks  from  the  preface  which,  while  explanatory  of  the  raison  d'etre 
of  two  separate  books,  gives  an  excellent  resume  of  the  contents  of  the  volume, 
as  well  as  a  specimen  of  the  author's  style : — ■ 

"  In  the  preface  to  the  '  Ethnology '  a  promise  was  held  out  that  it  might 
be  followed  by  another  dealing  more  systematically  with  the  primary  divisions 
of  mankind.  The  present  volume  appears  in  part  fulfilment  of  that  promise. 
In  the  '  Ethnology '  were  discussed  those  more  fundamental  questions  which 
concern  the  human  family  as  a  whole — its  origin  and  evolution,  its  specific 
unity,  antiquity,  and  primitive  cultural  stages,  together  with  the  probable  cradle 
and  area  of  dispersion  of  the  four  varietal  divisions  over  the  globe.  Here  these 
divisions  are  treated  more  in  detail,  with  the  primary  view  of  establishing  their 
independent  specialisation  in  their  several  geographical  zones,  and  at  the  same 
time  elucidating  the  difficult  questions  associated  with  the  origins  and  inter- 
relations of  the  chief  sub-groups,  and  thus  bridging  over  the  breaks  of  continuity 
between  '  Man  Past  and  Present.' 

"  The  work  is  consequently  to  a  large  extent  occupied  with  that  hazy  period 
vaguely  called  pre-historic,  when  most  of  the  now  living  peoples  had  already 

1  Such  an  ideal  work  already  exists  in  the  French  language  in  "  Les  Races  Humaines," 
by  Dr.  R.  Verneau. 


220  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

been  fully  constituted  in  their  primeval  homes,  and  had  begun  those  later 
developments  and  migratory  movements  which  followed  at  long  intervals  after 
the  first  peopling  of  the  earth  by  pleistocene  man.  By  such  movements  were 
brought  about  great  changes,  displacements,  and  dislocations,  involving  fresh 
ethnical  groupings,  with  profound  modifications,  or  even  total  effacements  of 
racial  or  linguistic  characters,  and  complete  severance  from  the  original  seats  of 
the  parent  stocks.  In  some  cases  the  connecting  ties  are  past  recovery,  so 
that  the  ethnical,  like  the  geological,  record  must  always  remain  to  some  extent 
a  mutilated  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  humanity.  But  in  our 
times  many  of  the  more  serious  gaps  have  been  often  most  unexpectedly  made 
good  by  the  combined  efforts  of  philologists,  physical  anthropologists,  and 
especially  archaeologists,  who  have  come  to  the  welcome  aid  of  the  palethnolo- 
gist,  hitherto  groping  almost  helplessly  in  this  dark  field  of  human  origins." 

Mr.  Keane  is  a  "  monogenist,"  and  maintains  that  all  the  varieties  of  the 
human  race  can  be  traced  back  to  one  centre  of  evolution.  The  first  splitting 
of  the  main  stem  was  almost  simultaneously  into  the  three  types — Negro, 
Mongol,  and  Caucasian — which  still  represent  mankind  on  the  globe.  Homo 
A  in ericanus  is  a  great  puzzle  to  ethnologists,  more  especially  as  the  tendency 
of  the  most  recent  investigations  is  decidedly  against  the  theory  that  palaeo- 
lithic man  of  quaternary  times  ever  existed  on  the  North  American  continent. 
By  successive  divergences  from  these  three  primary  branches  under  the  mould- 
ing influences  of  cross-breeding,  and  climatal,  geographical,  and  other  changes 
in  the  environment,  Mr.  Keane  accounts  for  all  the  varieties  of  shadings  which 
characterise  and  distinguish  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  globe.  The  "  cradle- 
land,"  from  which  Homo  sapiens  first  emerged  and  bade  farewell  to  his  con- 
geners of  the  brute  creation,  was,  according  to  the  author,  a  lost  continent, 
"Indo- African,"  now  represented  only  by  Madagascar  and  a  few  islands  in  the 
Indian  Ocean.  Of  the  three  divisions  of  mankind  still  living,  the  Negroid 
("Negrito")  type  is  regarded  as  most  nearly  approaching  the  original  form  of 
tertiary  man.  On  the  modus  operandi  of  this  primary  stage  of  humanity  he 
quotes  from  Dr.  Munro's  writings  on  the  influence  which  the  erect  posture 
played  in  the  higher  development  of  the  brain,  with  regard  to  which  he  states 
(page  7)  : — "  This  greatly  strengthens  the  view  always  advocated  by  me  that 
man  began  to  spread  over  the  globe  after  he  had  acquired  the  erect  posture,  but 
while  in  other  physical  and  in  mental  respects  he  still  differed  not  greatly  from 
his  nearest  akin." 

The  three  chapters  dealing  with  the  Caucasic  peoples  will  be  found  of 
greatest  interest  to  general  readers  of  anthropology.  Here  some  of  the  more 
burning  problems  of  the  hour,  bearing  on  early  European  civilisation,  are 
intelligently  discussed  ;  nor  does  the  author  by  any  means  submerge  his  own 
individuality  in  the  various  controversies  which  he  summarises  for  his  readers. 
He  follows  Prof.  Sergi  in  assigning  the  Iberians,  Ligurians,  Pelasgians,  etc.,  to 
an  original  home  in  North  Africa.  The  "  Mediterranean  race,"  from  whom  a 
stream  of  "  migration  set  steadily  and  uninterruptedly  into  Europe  throughout 
both  8tone  Ages,"  was  dolichocephalic,  short  in  .stature,  and  of  a  dark  brown 
colour. 

The  task  which  Mr.  Keane  has  set  before  himself  in  the  compilation  of  this 
most  readable  book  is  one  which  few  anthropologists  would  undertake,  and 
which  still  fewer  are  competent  to  execute.  He  gathers  his  materials,  apparently 
with  great  linguistic  facilities,  from  far  and  wide — not  always,  however,  from 
the  original  investigators,  who  are  too  often  allowed  to  disappear,  Avhile  the 
second-hand  compilers  are  brought  to  the  front.  But,  in  extenuation,  this  much 
must  be  acknowledged,  that  his  authorities  are  most  faithfully  given — and  this 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  the  book.  Scarcely  a  subject  in  the 
whole  range  of  Anthropology  and  pre-historic  Archaeology  is  omitted  by  this 
versatile  author.  Archaeologists,  geologists,  philologists,  folklorists,  and  even 
modern  globe-trotters  come  on  and  go  off  the  stage  with  startling  suddenness. 


1899]  THE  PROPER  STUDY  OF  MANKIND  221 

Yet,  amidst  the  diversified  and  world-wide  dramas  thus  depicted  in  a  long  series 
of  bygone  civilisations,  the  author  moves  with  much  freedom  and  elasticity, 
bestowing  here  and  there,  as  the  case  may  be,  a  -word  of  praise  or  dispraise. 
Altogether,  Mr.  Keane's  book  (of  course  including  its  predecessor  as  an  integral 
part)  is  to  be  highly  commended,  not  only  on  account  of  the  general  soundness 
of  the  opinions  upheld,  but  also  because  of  the  interesting  manner  in  which  he 
has  marshalled  his  facts.  Nor  will  beginners  in  the  study  of  Anthropology 
object  to  read  the  two  volumes,  notwithstanding  a  certain  amount  of  repetition, 
for  in  both  the  author  carries  with  him  the  attention  of  intelligent  readers. 

E.  M. 


THE  ZOOLOGISTS  IN  CONGRESS. 

Proceedings  of  the  Fourth  International  Congress  of  Zoology. 
8vo.      Pp.  xv.  +  422,  15  pis.      London,  1899. 

This  bulky  volume  forms  no  exception  to  the  rule  that  the  official  "  Proceed- 
ings "  of  Societies  or  Congresses  are  usually  somewhat  disappointing.  It  is  true 
that  the  value  of  an  international  meeting  of  zoologists  can  hardly  be  estimated 
by  that  of  brief  abstracts  of  papers  and  speeches,  but  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  a 
slight  feeling  of  disappointment  that  the  personal  contact  of  so  many  specialists 
should  produce  apparently  so  little  result,  and  that  so  many  of  the  discussions 
should  end  in  nothing. 

On  general  subjects  one  of  the  most  interesting  papers  is  that  by  Prof. 
Mitskuri  on  zoology  in  Japan.  In  a  brief  historical  sketch  of  the  progress  of 
natural  science  in  that  country,  he  shows  that  the  common  belief  in  its  sudden 
rise  within  recent  years  is  quite  unfounded,  and  that  the  present  condition  of 
affairs  is  merely  the  natural  outcome  of  generations  of  preparation.  From  the 
interesting  account  of  scientific  education  at  the  present  clay  in  Japan  we  cull 
one  little  fact  only.  The  biological  students  of  Tokyo  University  are  required 
to  spend  at  least  one  season  at  the  Marine  Station  in  connection  with  the 
University,  while  those  who  take  up  zoology  as  a  speciality  spend  much  more 
time  than  this  at  the  seaside.  We  recommend  this  regulation  to  the  notice 
of  some  Western  Universities. 

Of  the  general  discussions  those  on  the  position  of  sponges  and  on  the 
origin  of  mammals  are  reported  in  some  detail.  As  to  the  sponges  there  seems 
practical  unanimity  that  they  are  not  Coelenterates,  but  there  is  more  doubt  as 
to  whether  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  separate  phylum  of  the  Metazoa,  or  as 
having  originated  from  the  choanoflagellate  Protozoa  independently  of  the  other 
Metazoa.  The  position  adopted  depends  upon  the  views  held  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  reversal  of  the  germinal  layers  during  metamorphosis,  but  the  discussion 
of  this  point  when  pushed  to  extremes  largely  resolves  itself  into  a  juggling 
with  words. 

The  discussion  of  the  origin  of  mammals  contains  much  that  is  interesting. 
While  Professor  Haeckel  still  adheres  to  the  earlier  position  that  the  placentals 
are  descended  from  a  marsupial  stock,  most  other  zoologists  seem  to  regard 
Hill's  discovery  of  a  deciduous  allantoic  placenta  in  Ptrameles  as  conclusive 
proof  that  placentals  and  marsupials  have  arisen  from  a  common  stock  and 
form  parallel  phyla.  As  to  the  more  remote  ancestry  there  is  much  more 
doubt  and  great  difference  of  opinion.  Prof.  Osborn  believes  that  mammals 
arose  from  the  theriodont  division  of  the  anomodont  reptiles,  and  that  they 
are  diphyletic,  the  marsupio-placental  stock  arising  at  the  time  when  the 
Theriodontia  conserved  a  number  of  Amphibian  characters.  Prof.  Seeley,  on 
the  other  hand,  believes  that  anomodonts  are  not  the  ancestors  of  mammals, 
but  that  both  originated  from  a  common  unknown  stock.  On  the  other  hand, 
Prof.  Marsh  rejected  the  suggestion  of  reptilian  affinities  altogether,  and 
looked  for  the  ancestors  of  mammals  among  early  amphibians.     All  were  agreed 


222  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

in  placing  the  point  of  origin  far  back,  in  Silurian  or  Devonian  times,  so  that 
there  is  a  certain  fitness  in  the  closing  speech,  that  of  Mr.  Sedgwick,  in  which 
"  p re-Cambrian  times  "  are  suggested  as  the  period  of  origin,  not  of  mammals 
only,  but  of  all  the  "great  classes  of  the  animal  kingdom."  Mr.  Sedgwick 
suggests  that  "  the  main  part  of  the  evolution  of  organisms  must  have  taken 
place  under  totally  different  conditions  to  those  now  existing,  and  must  remain 
for  ever  unknown  to  us."  We  duly  altered  our  belief  in  Recapitulation  to  meet 
Mr.  Sedgwick's  criticisms,  and  have  learnt  to  hold  the  cell-doctrine  lightly  at  his 
bidding,  but  this  new  instance  of  "  thiitige  Skepsis  "  makes  so  heavy  a  demand 
upon  our  credulity  that  we  prefer  to  regard  it  as  a  delicate  piece  of  sarcasm. 

Among  other  interesting  papers  is  one  by  Messrs.  Mesnil  and  Caullery  on 
polymorphism,  and  the  occurrence  of  epitokous  forms  in  the  common  littoral 
annelid  Dodecacaria  concharum.  They  find  that  the  common  form  (Form  A)  is 
viviparous,  and  apparently  reproduces  parthenogenetically ;  males  at  least  have 
not  been  found,  and  reproduction  takes  place  at  a  time  when  the  males  of  the 
other  forms  are  not  yet  ripe.  The  second  form  (Form  B)  is  rare,  and  occurs  in 
both  atokous  and  epitokous  forms.  The  modifications  of  form  displayed  are  in 
all  respects  similar  to  those  displayed  by  the  Nereids  and  Syllids.  The  epitokous 
forms  leave  their  tubes  and  become  free-swimming.  Very  rarely  a  third  form 
was  found  (Form  C),  which  likewise  becomes  epitokous,  but  the  changes  are 
less  marked  than  in  B.  Of  this  form  females  only  were  found.  The  authors 
are  uncertain  whether  these  forms  are  to  be  regarded  as  allied  species  or  as 
constituting  a  polymorphic  species.  The  point  of  special  interest  is  that  the 
phenomenon  of  epitoky  has  not  previously  been  described  in  sedentary 
Polychaetes.  It  seems  probable  that  it  occurs  much  more  frequently  among 
Polychaetes  than  is  at  present  suspected. 

The  volume  is  furnished  with  a  bulky  appendix,  a  considerable  portion  of 
which  is  taken  up  by  "  Correspondence  on  the  Nomenclature  of  Lepidoptera," 
being  the  classified  answers  to  questions  circulated  among  certain  entomologists 
by  Sir  George  Hampson.  Whether  this  will  advance  the  science  of  entomology 
or  not,  we  cannot  undertake  to  say,  but  it  can  be  confidently  recommended 
alike  to  the  psychologist  and  the  student  of  human  nature.  If,  as  we  are  led 
to  believe,  systematic  or  other  work  is  almost  impossible  to  the  entomologists, 
on  account  of  the  difficulties  of  nomenclature,  there  seems  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  occupy  their  time  instead  in  classifying  the  views  of  their  fellow- 
workers  on  various  subjects,  but  the  result  seems  slightly  ludicrous  to  the 
onlooker. 

The  appendix  also  contains  in  full  Prof.  Hubrecht's  paper  on  the  "  Develop- 
ment of  the  Placenta  in  Tardus  and  Tupaia,  with  Observations  on  its 
Importance  as  a  Haemopoietic  Organ,"  which  is  fully  illustrated  by  plates. 
The  volume  contains  abstracts  of  numerous  other  papers  in  addition  to  those 
mentioned,  but  most  of  these  have  been  previously  published  elsewhere. 

N. 

INSECTS. 

Insects  (Part  II).  By  David  Sharp,  M.A.,  M.B.,  F.R.S.  Being  Vol.  VI.  of 
the  Cambridge  Natural  History.  Edited  by  S.  F.  Harmer  and  A.  E. 
Shipley.  Pp.  xii.  +  626  with  293  figures.  London:  Macmillan,  1899. 
Price,  17s.  net. 

A  hearty  welcome  will  be  given  by  all  students  of  insects  to  this  concluding- 
portion  of  Dr.  Sharp's  monumental  work,  the  commencement  of  which  appeared 
four  years  ago  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  "  Cambridge  Natural  History."  The 
volume  now  before  us  deals  with  the  higher  Hymenoptera,  the  Coleoptera,  the 
Lepidoptera,  the  Diptera,  the  Thysanoptera,  and  the  Hemiptera.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  this  arrangement  of  the  orders  of  insects  is  unsatisfactory ;  the 
Lepidoptera,   for  example,  are  removed  far   from  their  allies  the  Trichoptera 


1899]  INSECTS  223 

(included  among  the  Neuroptera  in  Part  I.),  and  placed  next  to  the  Beetles, 
with  which  they  have  no  near  relationship. 

The  treatment  of  the  various  groups  is,  however,  admirable.  No  fewer 
than  180  pages  are  devoted  to  the  Bees,  Wasps,  and  Ants,  and  the  external 
form  and  habits  of  these  most  interesting  of  insects  are  fully  described  after  the 
observations  of  Janet,  Verhoeff,  Marchal,  Wasmann,  and  other  recent  natur- 
alists. Internal  structure  should  perhaps  have  received  more  attention  ;  some 
details  of  the  digestive  and  reproductive  systems  of  the  honey-bee  might  fairly 
have  been  expected.  Dr.  Sharp  writes  on  the  economy  of  the  social  insects 
with  charming  enthusiasm,  freshness,  and  human  interest.  After  recording 
Holler's  confirmation  of  Godart's  statement — made  200  years  ago — "that  a 
'  trumpeter-bee '  is  kept  in  some  nests  to  rouse  the  denizens  to  work  in  the 
morning,"  the  suggestion  is  hazarded  that  the  hour  when  the  trumpeting  occurs 
(3  or  4  a.m.),  caused  the  observation  to  remain  discredited  for  two  centuries  1 
The  section  on  ants  and  their  ways  is  particularly  good. 

Most  of  Dr.  Sharp's  own  entomological  work  has  been  done  on  the 
Coleoptera,  and  his  account  of  this  order  will  therefore  be  scanned  with  special 
interest.  Undoubtedly  some  grouping  of  the  numerous  families  of  beetles  into 
large  divisions  is  very  convenient  and  desirable.  Our  author  adopts  the  well- 
known  Lamellicornia  (placed  at  the  head  of  the  order),  Adephaga,  Heteromera, 
Phytophaga,  and  Rhynchophora,  while  the  many  families  which  will  not  fit 
into  any  of  these  —  the  Clavicornia  and  Serricornia  of  former  writers — are 
relegated  to  a  group  appropriately  called  the  Polymorpha.  The  account  of 
each  family  is  illustrated  by  a  figure  of  a  typical  species  with  its  larva ;  an 
original  figure  of  the  remarkable  stridulating-organ  of  a  Passalid  grub  (p.  192)  is 
worthy  of  special  mention.  The  enigmatic  Strepsiptera  are  doubtfully  regarded 
as  an  aberrant  group  of  Coleoptera. 

The  section  on  the  Lepidoptera  is  full,  more  attention  than  usual  being- 
devoted  to  internal  structure.  In  the  account  of  the  wing-nervuration  it  is  a 
pity  that  the  American  nomenclature — familiar  to  readers  of  Natural  Science 
through  the  papers  of  Mr.  A.  R.  Grote — is  not  mentioned.  In  classification,  Sir 
G.  Hampson  is  followed,  his  key  to  the  families  from  the  "Moths  of  India" 
being  reproduced  in  full.  Dr.  Sharp's  views  on  protective  coloration  and 
mimicry  are  far  from  "  orthodox."  It  is  doubtless  well  that  the  Batesian  and 
Mullerian  theories  should  not  be  dogmatically  preached  as  they  have  been  by 
many  writers.  At  the  same  time,  Dr.  Sharp  is  hardly  as  fair  as  usual  when  he 
writes,  "  We  think  it  is  clear  that  the  explanation  from  our  point  of  view  is  of 
but  little  importance,"  and  when  he  refers  to  Prof.  Poultoms  "  Colours  of 
Animals  "  as  "  the  case  as  stated  by  an  advocate."  Dr.  Dixey's  recent  suggestive 
work  in  support  of  the  positions  attacked  is  not  mentioned. 

That  most  difficult  order  of  insects,  the  Diptera,  is  next  dealt  with,  and 
the  account  of  the  outer  form,  classification,  and  larvae  of  flies  is  admirably  clear 
and  well  balanced,  though  the  internal  organs  and  the  formation  of  the  parts  of 
the  imago  in  the  grub  and  pupa  might  well  have  received  more  attention.  The 
Fleas  are  treated  as  a  sub-order  of  Diptera.  There  is  a  good  account  of  the 
small  but  interesting  group  Thysanoptera,  which  is  rightly  regarded  by  Dr. 
Sharp  as  forming  a  distinct  order.  In  the  reference  to  UzePs  recent  beautiful 
monograph  on  these  insects,  it  is  implied  that  the  work  is  entirely  in  Bohemian, 
whereas  it  contains  a  rather  full  German  summary. 

The  concluding  chapter,  devoted  to  the  Hemiptera,  is  admirable  both  in  its. 
morphological  and  systematic  portions.  The  Lice  (Anoplura)  are  doubtfully 
treated  as  a  sub-order.  The  volume  is  beautifully  illustrated,  and  the  footnote 
references  to  literature  are  full  and  instructive.  Indeed,  little  complaint  can  be 
made  except  to  "  ask  for  more."  Could  not  the  author  have  added  a  chapter 
giving  us  his  views  on  insects  as  a  whole,  the  relationships  between  their  orders, 
the  probable  course  of  their  evolution  1  Only  the  faintest  echoes  are  to  be 
found  in  this  book  of  the  bold  and  suggestive  paper  on  insect  classification  read 


224  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

by  Dr.  Sharp  last  year  at  Cambridge  before  the  International  Zoological 
Congress.  Here  he  restricts  himself  to  a  record  of  the  facts  of  insect  life  and 
structure,  and  perhaps  by  the  absence  of  any  trace  of  a  phylogenetic  tree  he 
silently  rebukes  the  rashness  of  younger  men.  Geo.   H.   Carpenter. 

DR.    WILLEY'S    RESULTS. 

Zoological  Results  based  on  Material  from  New  Britain,  New  Guinea, 
Loyalty  Islands,  and  elsewhere.  Collected  during  the  years  1895, 
1896,  and  1897.  By  Arthur  Willey,  D.Sc.  (Loud.),  Hon.  M.A. 
(Cantab.)  Part  III.  pp.  207-356,  pis.  xxiv.-xxxiii.  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Press,  1899.      Price  12s.  6d. 

Part  III.  of  Dr.  Willey's  "Zoological  Results "  contains  articles  by  Dr. 
Gadow,  Mr.  Shipley,  and  the  author.  Dr.  Gadow  gives  an  interesting  account 
of  the  variations  to  be  found  in  the  carapace  of  young  chelonians.  We 
must  assume  that  the  course  of  evolution  in  the  chelonian  branch  of  reptiles  has 
been  in  the  direction  of  a  steady  reduction  in  the  number  of  scutes  covering  the 
carapace,  in  accordance  with  a  "widespread  evolutionary  law"  of  the  "specialised 
few"  replacing  the  "generalised  many." 

The  turtlets  show  a  greater  percentage  of  abnormalities  in  the  carapace  than 
the  older  individuals.  "  Our  Turtlets  start  with  many,  with  at  least  24  dorsal 
scutes  (leaving  out  the  marginals),  and  then  reduce  them  to  16.  In  other 
genera  the  reduction  has  advanced  to  14,  to  13,  and  individually  to  12.  This 
means  onward  development.  The  ideal,  the  goal  for  the  young  Caretta,  is  the 
possession  of  a  16-scuted  shell.  Those  which  start  with  24  perhaps  never  reach 
the  ideal,  but  this  failure  does  not  seem  to  hurt  them,  natural  selection  remains 
indifferent.  Others  start  with  22,  21,  20,  19,  or  18  scutes,  and  the  latter 
individuals  are  rather  common  in  the  newly-hatched  stage,  and  all  of  these  seem 
to  reach  the  goal.  .  .  .  These  variations  from  the  normal  type  all  lie  in  the 
direct  line  of  descent,  and  the  more  serious  the  variation  the  farther  back  it 
points.  Moreover,  the  changes  necessary  to  turn  any  given  variation  into 
another  one  less  abnormal,  until  ultimately  the  normal  condition  is  reached,  are 
not  erratic,  but  stand  in  strict  correlation  with  each  other,  and  proceed  strictly 
on  definite  lines.  I  therefore  call  this  kind  of  atavistic  variation  ort/wgenetic." 
This  orthogenetic  variation  in  young  chelonians  appears  to  be  a  very  striking 
example  of  Van  Baer's  law  in  its  modern  application. 

Dr.  Willey  follows  with  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
Enteropneusta,  Firstly,  he  gives  a  synopsis  of  the  groups  under  the  three 
families  of  Ptychoderidae,  Spengelidae,  and  Balanoglossidae,  followed  by  a  detailed 
description  of  Pti/chodera  fiava,  P.  carnosa  n.  sp.,  P.  ruficollis  n.  sp.,  with 
Spenc/elia  porosa,  Willey,  and  >$'.  alba  n.sp.,  with  notes  upon  the  West  Indian 
species  Pt.  biminiensis  n.sp.,  and  Pt.  jamaicensis  n.  sp. 

There  are  many  interesting  points  upon  which  one  could  dwell  in  these 
descriptions,  but  space  will  not  permit.  Spengelia  appears  to  offer  some 
remarkable  features,  including  the  so-called  vermiform  process  of  the  stomochord 
(the  latter  is  a  useful  name  suggested  by  the  author  for  the  "  notochord  "  of 
the  Enteropneusta),  and  the  presence  of  truncal  canals.  Dr.  Willey  finishes  his 
paper  by  a  discussion  of  the  "  Morphology  of  the  Enteropneusta."  He  pro- 
pounds a  theory  of  the  origin  of  gill-slits,  based  principally  ou  their  relation- 
ship to  the  gonads  in  this  group. 

Gill-slits  primarily  arose  as  inter-zonal  depressions  between  the  zonary, 
metamerically  repeated  gonads,  functioning  for  the  oxygenation  of  the  gonads. 
Later  they  acquired  openings  into  the  pharyngeal  wall,  and  were  used  for  the 
respiration  of  the  individual. 

Further,  he  comes  to  important  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  stomochord  of 
Enteropneusta   and   related   organs  in   Cephalodiscus  and  Actinotrocha,  which 


1899]  DR.  WILLEY'S  RESULTS  225 

cannot  be  dealt  with  here,  especially  as  they  are  more  fully  stated  elsewhere. 
He  restates  his  former  well-known  conclusion  of  the  homology  of  the  vertebrate 
thymus  with  the  branchial  tongue-bars  of  Enteropneusta,  and  further  finds  the 
homologue  of  the  endostyle  in  the  parabranchial  ridges,  paired  ciliated  tracts 
which  pass  forwards  to  unite  with  the  epibranchial  band.  This  suggestion 
may  be  further  compared  with  Garstang's  comparison  of  the  echinoderm  ad-oral 
band  with  the  endostyle. 

Enough  has  here  been  said  to  show  the  value  of  Dr.  Willey's  contribution. 

The  third  memoir  is  by  Mr.  Shipley,  who  takes  the  occasion  to  give  a 
systematic  revision  of  the  groups  of  Echiurids.  Bonellia  viridis  and  four  species 
of  Thalassema  are  comprised  in  Dr.  Willey's  collection.  The  author  gives  a 
useful  summary  of  the  most  valuable  specific  characters,  of  which  the  number  of 
nephridia  and  the  enumeration  of  muscle  bundles  appear  the  most  important. 
The  five  genera,  Bonellia,  Echiurus,  Hamingia,  Saccosoma,  and  Thalassema,  are 
dealt  with. 

From  these  brief  remarks  it  will  be  noted  that  Part  III.  of  the  "  Zoological 
Results  "  is  full  of  interest  alike  to  the  morphologist  and  the  systematist,  and 
the  author  is  to  be  congratulated  upon  his  own  labours  and  upon  the  able 
assistance  which  he  has  obtained.  A.  T.  M. 


REASONING  MADE  SIMPLE. 

The  Psychology  of  Reasoning,  based  on  Experimental  Researches  in 
Hypnotism.  By  Dr.  Alfred  Binet.  Translated  by  A.  G.  Whyte, 
B.Sc.  8vo,  pp.  191.  Chicago:  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company, 
1899.     Price  3s.  6d. 

Dr.  Alfred  Binet's  name  is  well  known  in  association  with  that  of  Dr. 
Charles  Fere  (placed  on  the  dedication  page  of  this  little  book),  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism.  He  here  makes  these  phenomena 
throw  such  light  as  they  can  on  the  psychology  of  reasoning.  His  treatment 
has  the  advantage  of  perfect  lucidity  and  of  a  simplicity  which  is,  we  venture 
to  think,  delusively  alluring. 

Reasoning  is  not  regarded  by  Dr.  Binet  as  a  specialisation  of  conscious 
activity,  and  a  differentiation  only  reached  at  a  late  stage  of  mental  evolution, 
but  rather  as  the  general  form  of  all  psychical  life.  "  To  sum  up,"  Ave  are  told, 
"  all  forms  of  mental  activity  are  reducible  to  a  single  one — reasoning."  "  Three 
images  which  succeed  each  other,  the  first  evoking  the  second  by  resemblance, 
and  the  second  suggesting  the  third  by  contiguity — that  is  reasoning.  Submit 
any  reasoning  to  analysis,  and  you  will  find  nothing  else  at  the  bottom  of  the 
crucible.  But  it  would  be  an  error  to  believe  that  this  process  belongs  specially 
to  reasoning.  Far  from  it.  We  meet  with  it  in  all  intellectual  operations ;  it 
is  the  single  theme  upon  which  nature  has  embroidered  the  infinite  variations 
of  our  thought."  When  a  three-day-old  chick  avoids  a  cinnabar  caterpillar  as 
the  result  of  previous  experience  of  like  objects,  we  have  the  three  successive 
images ;  this  caterpillar  evoking  images  of  certain  others  by  resemblance,  and 
these  others  suggesting  the  nastiness  which  was  unpleasantly  contiguous. 
Changing  for  convenience  the  order  of  formulation,  and  leaving  out  one  little 
word,  Dr.  Binet  gives  for  comparison — 

This  is  a  crystal ; 

All  crystals  have  planes  of  cleavage  • 

This  has  a  plane  of  cleavage. 

Here,  he  says  in  effect,  this  crystal  is  on  all  fours  with  this  caterpillar ;  other 
crystals  suggested  by  resemblance  take  the  place  of  other  caterpillars  similarly 
suggested  ;  while  experience  suggests  cleavage  in  the  one  case  just  as  it  sug- 
gested nastiness  in  the  other.     But  where  does  the  therefore  come  in  1     In  the 

15 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   91. 


226  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

present  state  of  psychological  nomenclature  it  seems  open  to  an  author  to  define 
any  term  in  accordance  with  his  special  predilections.  We  think,  however,  that 
the  majority  of  reasoning  men  believe  that  the  process  demands  a  due  compre- 
hension of  that  subtle  relationship  among  thoughts  which  we  symbolise  by 
.•.  or  v  But  this  is  perhaps  because  it  is  consonant  with  our  own  special 
predilections.  C.  LI.  M. 

A  WELCOME  WORK. 

The  Origin  of  the  British  Flora.     By  Clement  Reid,  F.R.S.     8vo,  pp.  vi. 
+  191.     London:  Dulau  and  Co.,  1899. 

Few  works  on  the  British  flora  possess  greater  interest  or  importance  than 
this,  which  deals  with  the  evidence  gained  during  recent  years  from  investiga- 
tions into  the  vegetable  remains  of  the  later  Tertiary  and  the  Post-Tertiary 
deposits  in  Britain.  These  investigations  rest  mainly  on  the  work  of  Mr.  Reid 
himself,  ably  supplemented  by  Mr.  James  Bennie  and  other'  careful  observers. 
Their  results  have  been  published  through  varied  channels ;  and  Mr.  Reid  has 
laid  all  interested  in  the  flora  of  Britain  under  an  obligation  by  bringing  these 
results,  and  a  good  deal  of  other  information,  within  easy  reach.  The  author  is 
peculiarly  well  fitted  to  perform  such  a  work.  Long-continued  personal  researches 
in  Britain  have  been  supplemented  by  wide  acquaintance  with  the  labours  of 
others,  both  in  Britain  and  throughout  the  north  of  Europe.  He  has  produced 
a  book  that  will  do  much  to  stimulate  others  to  extend  the  work  and  to  fill  the 
gaps  in  the  record  in  so  far  as  that  can  be  done.  One  part  Mr.  Reid  might  have 
extended  with  advantage  to  the  recruits  that  the  book  is  likely  to  enlist.  The 
hints  that  he  has  given  as  to  the  most  productive  localities,  and  the  methods  of 
preparation  of  plant  remains  from  the  Tertiary  and  the  Post-Tertiary  deposits  in 
Britain,  make  one  feel  how  helpful  a  fuller  treatment  of  both  topics  would  have 
been.  His  remarks  about  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  fruits  and  seeds  of  existing 
plants  with  which  to  compare  the  fossils,  emphasise  strongly  how  imperfect 
herbaria  are,  as  a  rule,  in  the  provision  of  complete  examples  of  these  parts. 

The  introductory  chapters  deal  with  the  leading  peculiarities  and  divisions 
of  the  existing  British  flora,  the  means  of  dispersal  of  the  seeds  met  with  among 
its  members,  and  their  consequent  fitness  for  ready  distribution ;  the  changes  in 
the  form  of  the  islands  and  their  relation  to  the  continent  of  Europe  in  former 
periods,  and  the  evidences  of  changes  of  climate  and  their  influence  on  the  flora. 
A  careful  study  of  these  chapters  will  aid  much  in  arriving  at  clear  views  of  the 
true  nature  of  the  problems  involved  in  explaining  "  the  origin  of  the  British 
flora,"  and  in  accounting  for  its  more  marked  peculiarities  when  compared  with 
the  floras  of  the  adjoining  countries. 

Next  follows  an  enumeration  of  the  various  localities  in  Britain  (arranged 
alphabetically)  from  which  these  fossils  have  been  recorded,  with  a  notice  of  the 
probable  age  of  each  deposit,  and  a  list  of  the  species  identified  from  it.  Some 
continental  localities  are  similarly  treated.  Then  comes  a  list,  in  systematic 
order,  of  all  existing  British  plants  that  have  been  identified  as  fossils,  with  a 
list  under  each  of  the  localities  in  Britain  in  which  it  has  been  found  fossil,  or 
on  the  European  Continent,  if  not  yet  found  fossil  in  Britain  ;  and  the  age  of  each 
plant  as  a  fossil  is  given.  The  chief  facts  under  this  are  briefly  summed  up  in 
a  "Table  showing  the  range  in  time  of  the  British  Flora." 

It  is  no  mere  form  of  words  to  say  that  the  book  is  indispensable  to  all  who 
wish  to  gain  a  clear  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  British  flora.  This  is  evident 
from  a  single  perusal  of  its  pages ;  but  its  full  value  will  be  realised  only  after 
frequent  and  continued  reference.  Only  six  species,  no  longer  found  in  a  wild 
state  in  Britain,  have  as  yet  been  identified  with  certainty  as  living  in  our  islands 
in  the  later  Tertiary  or  Post-Tertiary  times.  These  are  :• — Acer  monspessulanum, 
Trapa  nutans,  Salix  polaris,  Picea   excelsa,   Naias  graminea,  J¥.   minor.     A 


1899]  A    WELCOME   WORK  227 

number  of  others  are  indicated  by  seeds  or  other  remains  that  have  not  yet  been 
determined,  and  there  is  evidently  much  work  to  be  done  in  the  field  of  study 
so  well  opened  by  Mr.  Reid.  J.  W.  H.  Trail. 

MICROSCOPY  FOR  BEGINNERS. 

Chats  about  the  Microscope.     By  Henry  C.  Shelley.     8vo,  pp.  101 
(8  blank).     The  Scientific  Press  Ltd.,  London,  1899.     Price  2s. 

This  is  a  nicely  written  and  nicely  printed  little  book,  beginning  with  a 
brief  account  of  the  compound  microscope,  methods  of  mounting,  etc.,  and  going 
on  to  descriptions  of  various  objects  living,  and  otherwise  suitable  for  examination. 
The  descriptions  are  rather  flowery  than  detailed  ;  the  lines  are  "heavily"  leaded 
(Anglice,  wide-spaced)  to  correspond  with  the  extreme  meagreness  of  the  text. 
It  belongs  to  a  type  nearly  extinct ;  and,  on  the  whole,  we  think  it  would  be 
nearly  as  welcome  a  gift-book  to  a  lad  fond  of  natural  history  as  Wood's 
"  Common  Objects  of  the  Microscope,"  and  more  up  to  date.  Most  of  the  30 
figures  are  at  least  fair,  but  the  plate  of  the  hyaline  Stephanoceros  is  nearly  as 
grimy  as  one  of  Phil  May's  "  Three  Black  Pearls,"  and  the  lovely  Micrasterias 
Crux-melitensis  is  vilely  caricatured.  Still  we  think  that  it  may  have  a  fair 
sale  through  the  opticians.  M. 

A  PROFESSOR  OF  PHYSICS  DEALS  WITH  ORGANIC  EVOLUTION. 

Die  Enstehung  des  Lebens  aus  mechanischen  Grundlagen  entwickelt.  By 
Dr.  Ludwig  Zehnder,  A.  0.  Professor  of  Physics  in  the  University  of 
Freiburg  i.  B.  Erster  Teil.  Moneren.  Zellen.  Protisten.  8vo,  pp.  256, 
with  123  figs.  Freiburg  i.  B.  :  J.  C.  B.  Mohr  (Paul  Siebeck),  1899. 
Price  6  marks. 

The  author  has  previously  endeavoured  in  his  "  Mechanik  des  Weltalls  "  to 
refer  all  known  physical  and  chemical  forces  to  gravitation  ;  and  he  here  attacks 
the  problem  of  life.  From  atoms  he  leads  the  reader  gently  to  molecules,  and 
from  molecules  to  "  Fistellen  "  (molecules  aggregated  in  hollow  cylinders),  and 
before  we  quite  know  Avhere  we  are  we  have  reached  the  Protists.  On  the 
ascending  path,  the  gradient  of  which  has  been  skilfully  made  easy,  our  con- 
fidence is  increased  by  two  fundamental  biological  principles  :  the  first,  that 
substance  endeavours  to  multiply  ;  the  second,  that  substance  endeavours  to 
adapt  itself  to  the  conditions  of  existence.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the 
molecules  and  fistellae  multiply  in  nutritive  conditions,  and  have  their  struggle 
for  existence  like  full-fledged  organisms.  A  full  discussion  of  the  soul  is 
reserved  for  the  third  part  of  the  book.  Perhaps  by  that  time  the  learned 
author  may  have  realised  that  the  organism  is  not  so  simple  as  his  theory 
suggests.  In  particular,  we  should  desire  more  detail  in  regard  to  the  origin  of 
its  power  of  adapting  itself.  X. 

CHILD-STUDY. 

Anthropological  Investigations  on  One  Thousand  White  and  Coloured 
Children  of  both  Sexes,  the  Inmates  of  the  NeAv  York  Juvenile  Asylum. 
By  Dr.  Ales  Hrdlicka.     8vo,  86  pp.     New  York,  1899. 

The  principal  aim  of  these  investigations  is  to  learn  as  much  as  possible 
about  the  physical  state  of  children  who  are  being  admitted  to  and  kept  in  juvenile 
asylums.  In  the  second  place,  this  study  is  a  part  of  the  general  anthropological 
work  of  the  author,  which  is  expected  to  result  in  an  addition  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  normal  child,  and  of  several  classes  of  children  who  are,  morally  or  other- 

15A 


228  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [septembkh 

wise,  abnormal.  Cases  where  the  parents  were  known  have  also  furnished 
some  data  in  regard  to  inheritance.  The  work  has  been  carefully  done,  and  the 
author's  scientific  temper  is  indicated  by  his  refraining  at  present  from  any 
generalisations.  We  would  echo  his  recommendation  that  the  State  Boards, 
and  here  as  well  as  in  America,  should  give  their  official  sanction  and  support 
to  such  studies  (without  which  our  ameliorative  devices  will  linger  long  on  an 
empirical  level),  and  should  extend  them  gradually  to  correctional  and  other 
institutions,  provided,  of  course,  that  the  services  of  expert  and  unprejudiced 
investigators  can  be  secured. 

A  PRACTICAL  COURSE  ON  CYTOLOGY. 

Praxis  und  Theorie  der  Zellen-  und  Befruchtungslehre.  By  Dr.  Valentin 
Hacker,  A.  0.  Professor  in  Freiburg  i.  Br.  8vo,  pp.  viii.  +  260,  with 
137  figures.     Jena:  Gustav  Fischer,  1899.     Price  7  marks. 

This  book  had  its  origin  in  the  practical  course  of  studies  on  the  cell  and 
fertilisation  given  in  the  Zoological  Institute  at  Freiburg  i.  Br.  Experience  was 
thus  gained  in  choosing  the  best  material  to  illustrate  particular  points,  and  Dr. 
Hjicker  has  made  this  available  to  other  workers.  The  result  is  a  practical 
handbook  of  great  utility.  It  consists  of  lessons  for  sixteen  clays,  and  deals 
with  forty  objects,  such  as  staminal  hairs  of  Tradescantia,  epidermis  of  sala- 
mander larva,  Amoeba  and  Pelomyxa,  Stylonichia  mytilus,  living  nuclei  from 
the  bladder  wall  of  the  salamander,  ovarian  ova  of  newts,  spermatozoa  of  the 
salmon  and  trout,  leaf- epidermis  of  Leucojum,  Stentor  coeruleus,  root-hairs, 
ovarian  tubes  of  insects,  corneal  epidermis,  testes  of  salamander,  ova  of  Ascaris, 
Tliysanozoon,  Canthocamptus,  Anodonta,  Myzostoma,  Tegenaria,  Echinus,  etc., 
hybrid  larvae  of  sea-urchins,  antherozoids  of  ferns,  and  so  on.  In  each  case  the 
methods  to  be  followed  are  clearly  indicated.  The  lessons  are  intended  to 
illustrate  the  structure  of  the  cell,  cell-division,  oogenesis,  spermatogenesis, 
reducing  divisions  and  maturation,  fertilisation,  etc.,  and  short  discussions  are 
interspersed  dealing  with  the  established  facts  and  the  current  theories.  Brief 
historical  sketches  of  the  progress  of  research  are  also  given,  and  carefully 
selected  references  to  literature.  A  brief  general  chapter  on  the  cell  concludes 
the  volume.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  the  choice  of  objects,  but  all  will 
probably  agree  that  it  was  a  happy  thought  on  Dr.  Hacker's  part  to  place  the 
results  of  his  experience  at  the  disposal  of  workers  in  other  schools. 

J.  A.  T. 

THE  FRIEND  OF  THE  FISHERMAN? 

The  Lancashire  Sea  Fisheries  :  A  Lecture  delivered  in  the  Chadwick 
Museum,  Bolton.  By  C.  L.  Jackson,  M.Tnst.C.E.,  etc.,  Presid.  of 
Bolton  Microsc.  Soc.  Pp.  vii.  +  85.  Manchester  :  Abel  Hey  wood  and 
Son.     London:  Simpkin,  Marshall  and  Co.,  1899.     Price  2s. 

This  was  probably  an  amusing  lecture  to  listen  to,  and  interesting  because 
of  the  personal  reminiscences  ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  author  has  been  induced 
by  friends  (so  he  tells  us)  to  rush  into  print,  and  the  little  book,  we  fear,  will 
serve  no  useful  purpose  and  may  be  mischievous.  Twenty  to  thirty  years  ago 
Mr.  Jackson  was  evidently  active  as  a  fisherman  and  observer.  He  quotes 
from  Buckland  and  Walpole,  "  Land  and  Water,"  and  Reports  of  Fisheries 
Commissions  of  that  date  ;  and  for  him  these  statements  are  evidently  con- 
clusive, and  the  investigation  of  the  sea  which  has  been  carried  on  since  by 
nearly  every  civilised  country  either  does  not  exist,  or  is  only  a  fit  subject  for 
scoff  and  sneer. 

The  book  is  a  venomous  attack  upon  the  Lancashire  Sea  Fisheries  Com- 
mittee, their  methods  and  their  administration,  and  is  evidently  written  from 


1899]  THE  FRIEND  OF  THE  FISHERMAN?  229 

the  point  of  view  of  one  section  of  the  fishing  community — the  shrimpers. 
The  "  Friend  of  the  Fisherman  "  is  much  in  evidence,  and  nothing  is  too  bad 
for  those  who  propose  fishery  regulation.  Mr.  Dawson  and  Dr.  Herdman  come 
in  for  a  large  share  of  the  abuse. 

The  bane  of  so  much  "  popular "  fisheries  literature  at  the  present  day 
(perhaps  it  was  always  so)  is  that  the  writers  seem  to  think  solely  of  what 
would  be  best  for  this  or  that  set  of  men  with  whom  they  happen  to  have 
sympathy,  instead  of  considering  what  is  required  in  the  interests  of  the  public 
as  a  whole,  not  this  year  nor  next,  but  for  years  to  come.  Y. 

PETROLOGY  FROM  COOLGARDIE. 

The  Geology  of  the  Coolgardie  Goldfield.  By  Torrington  Blatchford, 
B.A.,  F.G.S.  Geological  Survey  of  Western  Australia,  Bulletin  No.  3. 
Perth,  1899.      Pp.  98  and  2  plates. 

This  publication  opens  with  a  short  account  of  the  boundaries  and  history 
of  the  Coolgardie  Goldfield,  together  with  a  statement  of  the  opinions  enter- 
tained by  previous  observers  on  the  geology  of  the  district.  Then  follow  the 
author's  personal  observations.  He  cites  Mr.  T.  A.  Richard's  description  of  the 
deposits,  in  which  the  auriferous  cement,  having  an  average  thickness  of  2h 
feet,  is  stated  to  rest  upon  a  surface  of  decomposed  granite.  A  capping  of 
kaolin  and  sand-rock,  the  latter  with  seams  of  pipe-clay,  rests  upon  the  cement, 
this  capping  barely  exceeding  the  thickness  of  the  latter.  The  cement  is  less 
coherent  than  the  "  Banket "  of  South  Africa.  The  observations  of  Mr.  Goczel 
on  these  deposits  are  also  quoted.  The  Kanowna  Lead  is  described  and  its 
output  given,  the  total  yield  of  gold  being  estimated  at  191,478  oz.  10  dwt. 
22  gr.  The  ironstone  gravel  beds  are  next  described,  and  then  follow  very 
admirable  accounts  of  the  granite,  amphibolites,  diorites,  andesites,  and  schists 
of  the  district.  The  author  is  of  opinion  that  the  schists,  which  are  horn- 
blendic,  or  occasionally  talcose,  result  from  the  surface  weathering  of  amphi- 
bolites, and  he  adds  :  "  As  regards  the  amphibolites,  there  is  little  doubt  in  my 
opinion  that  they  are  so  closely  associated  with  the  diorites  as  to  be  inseparable 
from  them."  The  question  of  water-supply  with  details  of  borings  is  next  dealt 
with,  followed  by  important  but  concise  descriptions  of  reefs.  A  couple  of 
pages  are  devoted  to  an  account  of  minerals  found  associated  with  the  ore- 
bodies.  Pages  51  to  78  give  descriptions  of  the  mines  of  the  district.  The 
remainder  of  the  work  is  occupied  by  statistics,  a  diagrammatic  representation 
showing  the  annual  output  of  gold,  and  a  coloured  geological  map  of  Cool- 
gardie. Altogether  this  little  publication  is  an  admirable  piece  of  work,  one  of 
which  any  survey  might  be  justly  proud,  for  besides  being  a  treatise  of  great 
utility  to  a  mining  population,  it  is  also  a  valuable  contribution  to  petrology. 

F.  R. 

THE  LINNAEAN   NAMES. 

An  Index  to  the  Generic  and  Trivial  Names  of  Animals  described  by  Linnaeus 
in  the  10th  and  12th  editions  of  his  "  Systema  Naturae."  By  Charles 
Davies  Sherborn.  Manchester  Museum,  Publication  25.  8vo,  pp. 
viii.  +  108.  London  :  Dulau  and  Co.  Manchester  :  J.E.Cornish,  1899. 
Price  3s.  6d. 

It  should  be  known  to  zoologists  that  the  author  of  this  Index  has  for  some 
years  been  engaged  in  the  compilation  of  an  "  Index  Animalium."  Pecuniary 
aid  has  been  received  from  the  British  Association  and  from  the  Zoological 
Society  of  London,  and  we  understand  that  nearly  all  zoological  writings  from 
1758  to  1800  inclusive  have  been  worked  through,  and  that  the  names  con- 
tained therein  have  been  entered  in  duplicate  on  a  slip-catalogue.     It  is  hoped 


23o  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [September 

that  the  question  of  printing  and  publishing  this  portion  of  the  accumulated 
material  will  soon  be  ripe  for  discussion.  Meanwhile  the  book  before  us, 
published  by  the  enterprise  and  liberality  of  the  Manchester  Museum,  serves  as 
a  ballon  d'essai.  It  is  in  itself  a  work  of  much  utility,  and  it  shows  the  method 
that  will  be  followed  in  the  larger  "  Index  Animalium."  From  that,  however, 
the  present  index  differs  in  the  omission,  as  unnecessary,  of  the  author's  name 
(e.g.  Linnaeus,  "Syst.  Na£.")  after  each  item,  as  well  as  of  any  indication  to  what 
class  of  the  animal  kingdom  each  genus  belongs. 

Such  a  work  scarcely  lends  itself  to  criticism.  The  text  appears  to  us  both 
clear  and  accurate.  Mr.  Sherborn  has  indexed  the  sponges,  which  are  omitted 
from  the  German  Zoological  Society's  reprint  of  the  tenth  edition.  He  has 
included  the  numbers  which  indicate  the  position  of  each  species  in  its  genus, 
a  matter  of  some  importance.  In  an  Introduction  he  gives  an  annotated  list 
of  the  editions  of  the  "  Systema  Naturae,"  and  points  out  the  changes  involved 
by  accepting  the  tenth  instead  of  the  twelfth  edition  as  the  al>  urbe  condita  of 
systematic  zoology.  Among  these  appears  the  name  of  the  Dodo,  henceforward 
to  be  known,  not  as  Didus  ineptus,  but  as — well,  buy  the  book  and  find  out ! 

We  have  received  a  descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Tunicata  in  the  Australian 
Museum,  Sydney,  N.S.W.,  by  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman  (8vo,  xviii.  and  139  pp., 
with  45  plates;  Liverpool,  1899).  It  is  what  it  professes  to  be,  a  descriptive 
catalogue,  and  not  a  monograph,  but  its  usefulness  is  increased  by  an  intro- 
ductory account  of  the  structure  and  life-history  of  a  typical  Ascidian,  and  by  a 
list  as  complete  as  possible  of  the  Tunicate  fauna  of  Australian  seas.  The 
Trustees  of  the  Museum  were  fortunate  in  securim;-  the  services  of  Prof.  Herd- 
man,  who  is  one  of  the  highest  authorities  on  Tunicata/  and  the  catalogue  will 
be  welcomed  by  zoologists  at  home  as  well  as  in  Australia.  The  liberal  allow- 
ance of  plates  adds  greatly  to  the  value  of  the  work. 

In  Science  for  June  30  there  is  an  interesting  short  article  by  Mr.  Sylvester 
D.  Juclcl,  on  birds  as  weed  destroyers.  "  The  goldfinches  and  native  sparrows 
are  more  beneficial  to  agriculture  than  a  number  of  other  species,  such  as  the 
English  sparrow  and  blackbirds,  which  at  times  injure  grain  and  fruit,  but  there 
are  some  fifty  species  of  birds  engaged  in  the  work  of  weed-seed  destruction,  and 
the  number  of  species  of  weeds  which  they  tend  to  eradicate  amounts  to  more 
than  three  score." 

In  the  scientific  section  of  the  current  number  of  The  Literary  Digest,  which 
is  conspicuously  up-to-date,  there  are  translations  of  papers  on  the  alleged  germ 
of  cancer  (Bra's  organism)  ;  on  how  to  make  coloured  people  white  (E.  Gautier) 
by  "  depigmenting  "  them  electrically — a  paper  which  shows  that  the  Ethiopian 
may  at  considerable  expense  and  with  no  obvious  utility  change  his  skin ;  on 
the  age  of  the  Niagara  Falls  (Prof.  G.  F.  Wright)  ;  on  experiments  as  to  the  sen- 
sitiveness of  school  children,  by  that  arduous  worker  Dr.  Arthur  Macdonald ; 
and  more  besides. 

In  the  number  of  the  Scientific  American,  dated  July  8,  Dr.  E.  Murray- 
Aaron  tells  of  the  habits  of  the  "  honey-birds  "  which  guide  explorers  to  stores 
of  honey,  but  with  their  own  gratification  for  their  "  end  and  aim."  It  is  also 
noted  in  the  same  number  that  some  of  the  insects  which  pollinate  the  Smyrna 
fig  have  been  made  to  establish  themselves  in  California,  The  flavour  of  the 
"  fruit "  is  said  to  depend  upon  the  number  of  ripened  seeds. 


In  Science  for  July  7  there  is  an  excellent  lecture  by  Prof.  Charles  Sedg- 
wick Minot  on  "  Knowledge  and  Practice,"  one  of  the  central  sentences  being : — 
"  Our  greatest  discovery  in  scientific  teaching  is  the  discovery  of  the  value  of  the 
laboratory  and  its  immeasurable  suj:>eriority  to  the  book  in  itself."  Other  points 
are  the  insistence  on  biology  as  an  essential  introduction  to  the  study  of  modern 


1899]  SERIALS  231 

medicine,  and  the  inculcation  of  the  value  of  the  comparative  method,  not  in 
anatomy  alone,  but  in  physiology,  pathology,  embryology,  and  further. 

Nature  for  July  G  has  an  interesting  review  of  the  latest  work  on 
Mammalian  distribution  : — "  The  Geography  of  Mammals,"  by  W.  L.  and  P.  L. 
Sclater, — a  work  which  should  also  have  been  sent  to  Nat.  Set.  The  review  is 
of  particular  interest  because  of  the  antithesis,  half  expressed,  and  half  repressed, 
between  the  reviewer's  conclusions  and  those  of  the  authors,  an  antithesis  which 
forcibly  suggests  the  rapid  progress  in  this  department  of  zoology. 

Mr.  L.  L.  Otler,  a  vice-president  of  the  Selborne  Society,  proposes  to  have 
published  "The  Naturalist's  Calendar  or  Diary,"  kept  by  Gilbert  White  of 
Selborne  from  January  1768  to  June  1793  ;  and  subscriptions  to  this  interesting 
work  may  be  addressed  to  A.  J.  Western,  Secretary  of  the  Selborne  Society, 
20  Hanover  Square,  W.  The  price  to  subscribers  is  30s.  a  copy,  to  others 
£2  :  2s.  net. 

The  Geological  Survey  of  Belgium  is  about  to  publish  a  "  universal  repertory 
of  geological  work,"  entitled  "  Bibliographia  Geologica,"  edited  by  Michel 
Mourlon,  Directeur  du  Service  geologique  de  Belgique,  with  the  collaboration 
of  G.  Simoens,  D.Sc. 


j> 


In  Nature  Notes  for  June  is  an  article  reprinted  from  the  Standard  news- 
paper entitled  the  "Vanishing  African  Fauna,"  which,  however,  contains  little, 
if  anything,  that  is  not  already  recorded  in  Mr.  Bryden's  "  Nature  and  Sport  in 
South  Africa,"  on  which  work  it  is  apparently,  indeed,  mainly  based. 

Of  more  interest  is  a  note  in  the  same  serial  by  Mr.  R.  Morley,  calling- 
attention  to  the  very  serious  diminution  in  the  numbers  of  a  West  African 
Guercza  Monkey  (Colobus  vellerosus),  on  account  of  the  persecution  to 
which  it  is  subjected  for  the  sake  of  its  beautiful  and  valuable  skin.  The 
Government  of  the  Gold  Coast  (which  is  the  one  concerned)  should  intervene 
with  a  strong  hand,  and  at  once  prohibit  such  destruction. 


OBITUARIES. 

CARL  CLAUS. 

Born  at  Kassel  in  Hessen,  January  2,  1835 ;  Died,  January  18,  1899. 

Prof.  Karl  Grobben  briefly  reviews 1  the  life  and  work  of  the  late  Prof.  Claus 
of  Vienna,  and  gives  a  full  list  of  his  memoirs.  The  majority  dealt  with  the 
Coelentera  and  the  Crustacea,  and  a  few  with  the  more  general  problems  of 
Biology.  Of  his  writings  that  which  was  most  widely  read  was  the  work  which 
underwent  many  changes  of  form  and  title  since  its  first  (1868)  publication  as 
"Grundziige  der  Zoologie,"  and  its  final  (1883-1897)  issue  as  "Lehrbuch  der 
Zoologie."  The  Lehrbuch  was,  as  Prof.'  Grobben  informs  us,  Claus's  "Lieblings- 
werk,"  and  enjoyed  an  extraordinary  and  widespread  popularity.  As  a  teacher 
Claus  emphasized  the  importance  of  adequate  practical  work,  and  as  director  of 
the  Zoological  Station  at  Trieste  was  enabled  to  supply  his  students  with  living- 
material.  The  result  was  seen  not  only  in  the  founding  of  the  journal  in  which 
the  present  memoir  appears,  but  also  in  the  numerous  students  trained  under 
him  who  now  occupy  professorial  chairs  in  Austria  and  Germany.  The  personal 
character  of  Prof.  Claus  is  summed  up  in  the  two  phrases  : — he  was  a  "hervor- 
ragender  Forscher  "  and  a  "  lebhafter  Kampfer." 

The  following  deaths  are  announced  : — On  June  24,  at  the  age  of  55,  Charles 
William  Baillie,  marine  superintendent  of  the  Meteorological  Office,  well 
known  for  his  invention  of  a  sounding  machine  ;  at  Boston,  from  typhoid  fever, 
W.  W.  Norman,  professor  of  biology  in  the  University  of  Texas ;  Dr.  Carl 
Schonlein,  assistant  in  the  zoological  station  at  Naples,  aged  40  ;  Dr.  Thomas 
O.  Summers,  professor  of  anatomy  at  the  St.  Louis  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  on  June  19  ;  Mr.  Lawson  Tait,  the  eminent  surgeon,  on  June  13,  in 
his  55th  year,  one  of  the  earlier  investigators  of  digestion  in  insectivorous 
plants  ;  Gianpaolo  Vlacovich,  professor  of  anatomy  at  Padua,  Italy  ;  Prof.  E. 
G.  Balbiani,  professor  of  comparative  embi-yology  in  the  College  de  France, 
well  known  for  his  work  on  the  development  of  insects,  the  conjugation  of  Pro- 
tozoa, the  rule  of  the  nucleus,  and  in  many  other  departments  ;  on  August  16, 
Prof.  B.  W.  Bunsen,  F.R.S.,  the  illustrious  Heidelberg  chemist,  in  his  88th 
year;  on  August  1,  John  Cordeaux,  of  Great  Cotes-house,  Lincolnshire  (born 
1831),  a  keen  ornithologist,  who  helped  not  a  little  to  organise  a  systematic 
study  of  bird-migration ;  on  August  9,  Sir  Edward  Frankland,  the  famous 
chemist  (born  1825);  on  July  18,  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  Prof.  H.  R.  Geiger, 
formerly  of  Wittenberg  College,  and  lately  connected  with  the  U.S.  Geological 
Survey  ;  on  July  16,  W.  P.  Johnson,  LL.D.,  President  of  Tulane  University, 
New  Orleans,  and  a  regent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution ;  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Thompson,  of  Stamford,  Conn.,  a  liberal  patron  of  science,  founder  of  the 
Elizabeth  Thompson  Fund  for  the  promotion  of  scientific  research. 

1  Arbeit,  zool.  Inst.  Univ.   Wien,  xi.  1899,  pp.  i. -xii. 


232 


NEWS. 


The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Mr.  A.  F.  Stanley  Kent, 
as  professor  of  physiology  in  University  College,  Bristol ;  J.  L.  M'Intyre,  as 
lecturer  in  comparative  psychology  in  the  University  of  Aberdeen ;  C.  F. 
Marbut,  promoted  to  full  professorship  of  geology  in  the  Missouri  State 
University ;  Dr.  R.  Martin,  as  professor  of  physical  anthropology  at  Zurich  ; 
J.  L.  North,  as  curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Society  at  Regents' 
Park ;  Dr.  A.  Philippson,  privat  docent  in  geography  at  Bonn,  to  the  title  of 
professor ;  Dr.  W.  Somerville,  professor  of  agriculture  at  the  College  of 
Science,  Newcastleon-Tyne,  to  the  new  professorship  of  agriculture  in  Cam- 
bridge University;  Dr.  E.  H.  Starling,  F.R.S.,  to  the  Jodrell  professorship  of 
physiology  in  University  College,  London,  in  succession  to  Prof.  E.  A.  Schafer  now 
of  Edinburgh  ;  Dr.  E.  V.  Wilcox,  lately  professor  of  zoology  in  the  University  of 
Montana,  to  a  position  in  the  Agricultural  Department  at  Washington,  where 
he  will  have  charge  of  the  zoological  items  in  the  Experiment  Station  Record  ; 
Miss  H.  V.  AVhitten,  as  tutor  in  geology  in  the  University  of  Texas  ;  Mr.  D. 
L.  Wilder,  as  assistant  on  the  Iowa  Geological  Survey ;  Mr.  J.  H.  Burkill,  M.A., 
as  Principal  Assistant  in  the  Directors'  Office,  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. 

The  Duke  of  Bedford  has  been  elected  president  of  the  Zoological  Society 
of  London  in  place  of  the  late  Sir  William  Flower. 

The  degree  of  LL.D.  has  been  conferred  by  the  University  of  Glasgow  on 
Mr.  R.  L.  Jack,  Government  geologist  of  Queensland. 

The  degree  of  LL.D.  has  been  conferred  by  Clark  University  on  Professors 
Boltzmann,  Picard,  Mosso,  Ramon  y  Cajal,  and  Forel,  who  lectured  at  the 
recent  decennial  celebration. 

Prof.  K.  von  Zittel  has  been  elected  president  of  the  Munich  Academy  of 
Sciences. 

Surgeon-General  Sir  J.  Fayrer,  author  of  the  "  Thanatophidia  of  India" 
and  other  works  on  snakes,  has  had  a  pension  of  £100  per  annum  conferred 
upon  him  for  distinguished  service. 

The  Baly  Gold  Medal  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  of  London,  for 
distinguished  work  in  physiology  in  the  two  years  preceding  the  award,  has 
been  awarded  to  Prof.  C.  S.  Sherrington. 

Prof.  J.  Wiesner,  the  well-known  botanist  of  Vienna,  has  been  elected  a 
member  of  the  Berlin  Academy  of  Sciences. 

Dr.  Maxwell  T.  Masters,  F.R.S.,  the  well-known  author  of  "Vegetable 
Teratology,"  etc.,  has  been  made  an  officer  of  the  Order  of  Leopold  by  the  King 
of  the  Belgians. 

Prof.  Purser's  work  as  a  teacher  of  physiology  for  the  last  twenty-five  years 
at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  is  being  gracefully  recognised  by  his  former  pupils, 
who  are  raising  funds  for  a  "  Purser  medal,"  which  will  be  awarded  annually  to 
the  candidate  showing  greatest  proficiency  in  physiology  and  histology  in  the 
professional  examination. 

It  is  announced  in  Science  that  the  Berlin  Academy  of  Sciences  has  given 
Prof.  Engler  a  grant  of  4000  marks  for  his  botanical  work. 

233 


234  NEWS  [SEPTEMBER 

Dr.  Charles  Drury  Edward  Fortnum,  who  died  on  March  6,  left  the  bulk  of 
his  estate,  valued  at  £41,247,  and  his  collections  to  the  Ashmolean  Museum  of 
Oxford. 

Mr.  George  Averoff,  who  died  at  Alexandria  on  July  27,  has  bequeathed 
£20,000  to  create  an  agricultural  school  in  Thessaly,  and  £50,000  to  the  Poly- 
technic schools  and  Odeon  at  Athens.  Among  his  other  bequests  is  one  of 
£40,000  for  the  revival  of  the  Olympic  games,  to  which  he  devoted  a  similar 
sum  in  1896. 

Science  announces  the  following  gifts  and  bequests  : — The  Medical  School  of 
Harvard  University  is  said  to  have  received  over  $100,000  by  the  will  of  the  late 
Lucy  Ellis  of  Boston.  The  California  Academy  of  Sciences  has  received  from 
Mr.  J.  W.  Hendrie  securities  to  the  value  of  $10,000,  which  will  go  to  form  a 
publication-fund.  By  the  will  of  the  late  Frau  M.  Jankowska  of  Warsaw,  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  at  Cracow  receives  20,000  roubles.  O.  Holterholf,  a 
banker,  has  bequeathed  about  1,000,000  marks  to  the  University  of  Bonn. 

The  supplementary  vote  of  £65,000  required  to  bring  about  the  housing  of 
the  University  of  London  in  the  Imperial  Institute  having  been  agreed  to,  and 
the  formal  concurrence  of  the  parties  concerned  having  been  obtained,  the  matt 
problem  of  structural  adaptation  is  now  being  considered. 

The  University  Court  of  St.  Andrews  has  adopted  a  scheme  for  training- 
candidates  with  a  view  to  the  Indian  and  Home  Civil  Services,  which  have 
again  been  brought  more  within  the  reach  of  Scottish  students  by  the  recent 
raising  of  the  age  limit.  Lecturers  in  political  economy,  Sanskrit,  ancient 
history,  political  philosophy,  etc.,  have  been,  or  will  be,  appointed. 

We  quote  from  Science  the  following  interesting  note  : — Twenty-two  per 
cent  of  the  professors  in  the  German  universities -are  engaged  in  lecturing  or 
laboratory  supervision  2-6  hours  a  week,  and  fifty-one  per  cent  from  7-12 
hours.  Of  the  associate  professors  sixty  per  cent  are  engaged  from  2-6  hours 
per  week,  and  of  the  privat  docents  eighty-two  per  cent.  Only  four  per  cent  of 
all  privat  docents  are  engaged  in  lecturing  or  laboratory  supervision  more  than 
12  hours  a  week.  This  relative  leisure  may  account  in  part  for  the  great 
amount  of  research  work  done  in  German  universities. 

The  summer  meeting  of  University  Extension  Students  at  Oxford  in  August 
was  attended  by  about  1000  students,  including  about  180  foreigners;  and 
University  Extension  work  in  England  is  reported  to  be  prospering. 

Science  notes  that  during  the  past  summer  session  there  were  4997  students 
matriculated  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  349  more  than  in  1898,  and  including 
655  foreigners. 

It  is  reported  that  the  number  of  candidates  last  July  for  the  Bachelor's  degree 
in  Science  was,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  University  of  London,  much 
greater  than  the  number  presenting  themselves  for  examination  in  Arts.  This 
interesting  change  is  attributed  to  the  increasing  demand  for  science  teachers  in 
schools  and  colleges. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Times  of  August  15,  Professor  Raphael  Meldold  expresses 
the  views  of  many  interested  in  the  advancement  of  scientific  education  when 
he  calls  attention  to  the  real  danger  involved  in  the  inadequate  representation 
of  science  and  of  scientific  interests  among  those  in  authority.  "  If  the 
direction  of  the  science  teaching  in  secondary  schools  is  at  this  crisis  allowed 
to  fall  into  wrong  hands  the  progress  of  the  country  will  be  retarded  for 
generations." 

It  is  announced  that  at  the  seventy-first  meeting  of  German  naturalists  and 
physicians  at  Munich  (September  17-23)  lectures  will  be  given  by  Dr.  Nansen 
on  the  results  of  his  expedition,  and  by  Prof.  Chun  on  the  German  Deep  Sea 
Expedition.  Profs.  Marchand  and  Rabl  will  discuss  the  relation  of  pathology 
to  embryology. 


1899]  NEWS  235 

On  August  9  Professor  V.  Pritchard  opened  the  International  Otological 
Congress  with  an  inaugural  address  on  the  history  and  recent  advances  of 
otology,  and  the  retiring  president,  Prof.  Grazzi  of  Florence,  also  gave  an 
address. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Society  on  the  10th,  the  Duke 
of  Teck  was  reTelected  president.  The  number  of  new  fellows  and  members 
joining  during  1898  was  108,  and  since  the  beginning  of  this  year  165  have 
been  elected.  The  total  number  of  fellows  is  2102,  but  the  society  is  reported 
to  be  still  struggling  against  the  common  malady  of  too  small  an  annual  income. 

The  second  annual  "  Summary  of  Progress  "  of  the  Geological  Survey  records 
the  revision  and  extension  of  the  maps  of  various  districts.  With  regard  to 
results,  special  attention  is  directed  to  the  researches  among  the  younger 
granites  of  the  Highlands,  the  numerous  Cambrian  fossils  found  in  Skye,  the 
discovery  of  more  new  fishes  in  the  Upper  Silurian  rocks  of  Lanark  and  Ayr- 
shire, the  evidence  of  the  existence  of  volcanoes  in  Somerset  belonging  to  the 
time  of  the  Carboniferous  Limestone,  the  new  light  thrown  on  the  structure  and 
probable  extension  of  the  North  Staffordshire  coalfield,  fresh  information  as  to 
the  volcanic  history  of  the  western  mainland  of  Scotland  and  the  Inner  Hebrides, 
and  further  data  as  to  the  successive  stages  of  the  Ice  Age. 

On  Saturday,  September  9,  the  Geologists'  Association  makes  an  excur- 
sion to  Charlton,  Erith,  and  Crayford,  and  on  September  11  to  the  British 
Museum,  Jermyn  Street  Museum,  and  Natural  History  Museum. 

Dr.  L.  L.  Hubbard  has  resigned  his  position  as  state  geologist  of  Michigan. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  the  excursions  of  advanced  students  of  natural 
science,  e.g.,  at  present  of  geological  students,  to  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  are 
reckoned  as  a  regular  part  of  the  University  work  in  Chicago. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  the  State  Zoologist  of  Minnesota,  Prof.  H.  F. 
Nachtrieb,  has  equipped  a  house-boat  for  the  study  of  the  fauna  of  the  Minnesota 
and  Mississippi  rivers. 

The  Russo-Swedish  Scientific  Expedition  to  Spitzbergen  has  established 
winter  quarters  at  Horn  Sound.  Later  on  they  will  proceed  by  land  to  the 
western  side  of  the  Stor  Fiord  where  they  will  engage  in  geodetic  work. 

The  Belgica,  with  the  members  of  the  Belgian  Antarctic  Expedition  on  board, 
left  Buenos  Ayres  for  Europe  on  August  14. 

Henry  G.  Bryant  of  Philadelphia,  who  led  a  search  party  for  Lieut.  Peary  a 
few  years  ago,  is  about  to  attempt  an  ascent  of  Mount  Assiniboine. 

Prince  Johann  Lichtenstein  has  given  the  Vienna  Academy  of  Sciences 
25,000  florins  for  explorations  in  Asia  Minor. 

The  Arctic  Club  of  America,  we  are  told  by  The  Scientific  American,  was 
organised  in  New  York  in  1894,  with  Prof.  W.  H.  Brewer  as  president,  to  pro- 
mote a  live  interest  in  Arctic  matters  and  to  disseminate  accounts  of  the  results 
of  expeditions.  "The  club  has  a  banner  of  its  own,  which  is  now  being  borne 
toward  the  North  Pole  by  Lieut.  Peary,  Walter  Wellman,  and  others." 

The  slightly  cracked  specimen  of  the  egg  of  the  Great  Auk  sold  by  auction 
in  July  at  Stevens's  Rooms  in  London  realised  300  guineas ;  a  carefully  made 
model  should  cost  under  three  shillings. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  on  July  27  the  president 
awarded  the  Bisset  Hawkins  Gold  Medal  to  Dr.  James  Burn  Russell,  M.D., 
LL.D.  Glasg.,  medical  adviser  of  the  Local  Government  Board  of  Scotland, 
and  late  medical  officer  of  health  for  the  city  of  Glasgow.  This  is  the  first 
award  which  has  been  made  of  this  medal,  which  was  founded  in  1896  in 
memory  of  the  late  Dr.  Francis  Bisset  Hawkins,  to  be  given  triennially  to  a 
medical  practitioner,  being  a  British  subject,  who  has  during  the  preceding  ten 


236  NE IVS  [sept.  1899 

years  done  such  work  in  advancing   sanitary  science  or  in  promoting  public 
health  as  in  the  opinion  of  the  College  deserves  special  recognition. 

The  structural  alterations  which  have  to  be  made  at  the  Imperial  Institute 
in  order  to  provide  a  home  for  the  University  of  London  will  cost  ,£7000.  The 
Treasury  minute  showed,  among  other  arrangements  detailed  in  it,  that  the 
Government  would  pay  off  the  mortgage  of  £40,000  on  the  Institute  building, 
and  also  discharge  the  floating  debt  of  £15,000.  This  accounts  for  £62,000  of 
the  vote  of  £65,000  which  was  agreed  to.  The  remaining  £3000  is  for 
the  half-year's  maintenance  and  repairs,  with  fuel,  lighting,  and  necessary 
furniture. 

Dr.  Henry  Woodward  of  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History)  has  been 
granted  an  additional  term  of  service  for  two  years  by  the  Treasury.  This 
dates  from  October  next,  and  is  the  second  time  Dr.  Woodward  has  been  so 
privileged. 

The  glazing  of  the  great  sauria  in  the  gallery  of  fossil  reptiles  at  the  British 
Museum  (Natural  History)  is  now  fast  approaching  completion.  The  space 
gained  by  the  alteration  made  in  this  gallery  is  considerable,  and  with  the 
exception  of  the  upper  four  feet  no  trouble  is  caused  by  the  reflection  of  light. 
Some  slight  alteration  of  the  blinds  will  no  doubt  easily  make  the  whole  perfect. 
Below  the  frames  of  sauria  is  a  bare  space  of  some  few  feet,  and  this  we 
presume  will  be  utilised  for  table  cases  in  the  early  future. 

The  Geologists'  Association  of  London  issued  the  usual  annual  pamphlet  in 
connection  with  the  long  excursion  to  Derbyshire.  This  consisted  of  advance 
copies  of  the  number  of  the  Proceedings  which  will  be  issued  at  the  end 
of  the  month,  and  forms  one  of  a  series  of  valuable  treatises  on  the  local 
geology  of  this  county.  The  district  dealt  with  includes  the  north  and  north- 
west portions  of  Derbyshire,  and  roughly  coincides  with  the  whole  of  the  High 
Peak  Division  and  the  northern  half  of  the  Western  Division  of  the  county. 
The  subjects  included  are  mountain  limestone,  Yoredale  rocks,  millstone  grit, 
sands  and  fire-clays,  glacial  drift,  infas,  igneous  rocks,  and  there  is  a  special 
chapter  on  petrology.  Mr.  H.  H.  Arnold  Bemrose  is  author,  and  was  also 
principal  director  of  the  excursion ;  the  pamphlet  can  be  had  from  the  secretary 
for  the  usual  eighteenpence. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Dear  Sir — I  shall  be  glad  if  you  will  correct  an  impression  which  may  be 
conveyed  by  a  partial  quotation  from  the  evidence  of  the  Select  Committee  of 
the  Cape  Parliament  on  Trawling,  and  appearing  in  a  recent  number  of  your 
valuable  paper.  The  full  quotation  is  :  "  the  evidence "  (i.e.  of  the  fishermen 
examined)  "  has  shown  that  we  know  absolutely  nothing  about  the  spawn  of 
the  fish,  or  very  little."— Yours  truly,  J.  G.  F.  Gilchrist. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
Cape  Town,  21st  June  1899. 

[We  regret  that  our  colleague  who  reviewed  the  paper  referred  to  appears 
to  have  misunderstood  the  sentence. — Ed.  Nat  Sci.] 


•■•  S  A  R  Y 


Natural  Science      »>$ 

A  Monthly  Review  of  Scientific   Progress 

October  1899 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

The  Scientific  Spirit. 

In  his  eloquent  presidential  address  to  the  British  Association  at 
Dover,  Sir  Michael  Foster  raised  an  interesting  question  when  he 
inquired  into  the  characteristics  of  the  scientific  spirit.  It  was  after 
reminding  his  audience  of  the  great  strides  in  natural  knowledge  since 
1799,  and  of  the  resulting  increase  in  man's  mastery  over  nature, 
that  he  roused  expectation  by  pausing  to  inquire  whether  all  this  has 
had  any  effect  on  the  mind  itself.  The  scientific  spirit  has  been 
developed,  he  allowed,  but  what  is  this  scientific  spirit  ? 

Surely  the  learned  Professor  must  have  thought  that  his  audience 
could  not  stand  much  psychology,  for  his  treatment  of  the  interesting- 
problem  which  he  raised  was  easy-going.  He  pointed  out  that  the 
features  of  the  fruitful  scientific  mind  were  in  the  main  three — truth- 
fulness, alertness,  and  courage.  To  the  objection  that  these  qualities 
are  not  the  peculiar  attributes  of  the  man  of  science,  but  may  be 
recognised  as  belonging  to  almost  every  one  who  has  commanded  or 
deserved  success,  whatever  may  have  been  his  walk  in  life,  he 
answered  that  this,  was  exactly  what  he  wished  to  insist — that  the 
men  of  science  have  no  peculiar  virtues,  no  special  powers,  being 
ordinary  men  with  characters  common,  even  commonplace.  Science, 
as  Huxley  said,  is  organised  common-sense,  and  men  of  science  are 
common  men,  drilled  in  the  ways  of  common-sense. 

This  may  be  true  enough — and  it  speaks  volumes  for  the  candour 
and  tolerance  of  the  British  Association  that  such  plain-speaking  was 
even  applauded — but  it  was  none  the  less  an  evasion  of  an  interesting- 
problem.  What  we  wished  was  an  analysis  of  the  intellectual  quali- 
ties of  the  scientific  mood.  It  may  have  been  useful  to  point  out 
that  science  is  not  something  per  se,  apart  from  other  intellectual 
products,  and  that  the  scientific  mood  is  germinal,  at  least,  in  most 
healthy  people,  but  it  would  have  been  interesting  if  Sir  Michael 
Foster — as  one  of  the  most  scientific  men  in  Britain — had  told  us 
what  differentiates  the  mood  expressed  in,  for  instance,  his  "  Text-Book 

16 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    92.  237 


238  NOTES  AND  CO  MAI E  NTS  [octobek 

of  Physiology  "  from  that  expressed  in  Green's  "  Prolegomena,"  or  in 
Newman's  "  Sermons,"  or  in  Whistler's  "  Gentle  Art,"  or  in  Meredith's 
"  Ballads  of  the  Earth."  Altogether  apart  from  subject-matter,  the 
intellectual  note  of  these  is  quite  different  from  that  which  characterises 
the  immortal  text-book  referred  to,  and  what  we  wished  was  that  the 
Professor  had  told  us  what  his  particularly  well-marked  differentiating 
feature — obscured  by  the  word  "  scientific  " — really  meant. 

Much  more  satisfactory  was  the  concluding  part  of  the  address,  in 
which  the  President  discussed  the  solidarity  and  internationalism  of 
science.  "  The  man  of  science,"  he  said,  "  cannot  sit  by  himself  in  his 
own  cave,  weaving  out  results  by  his  own  efforts,  unaided  by  others, 
heedless  of  what  others  have  done  or  are  doing.  He  is  but  a  bit  of  a 
great  system,  a  joint  in  a  great  machine,  and  he  can  only  work  aright 
when  he  is  in  due  touch  with  his  fellow-workers.  If  his  labour  is  to 
be  what  it  ought  to  be,  and  is  to  have  the  weight  which  it  ought  to 
have,  he  must  know  what  is  being  done,  not  by  himself,  but  by  others, 
and  by  others  not  of  his  own  land  and  speaking  his  tongue  only,  but 
also  of  other  lands  and  other  tongues."  That  this  is  being  increasingly 
recognised  is  made  evident  in  many  ways — by  international  congresses 
and  bibliographies,  by  international  co-operation  in  great  enterprises 
like  the  Antarctic  Expedition,  and  in  smaller  endeavours  like  the  pro- 
duction of  Natural  Science. 


More  Pleurococcus. 

Another  filament-forming  Alga,  to  which  its  discoverer,  Miss  Snow 
{Annals  of  Botany,  vol.  xiii.  No.  4,  p.  189),  has  provisionally  given  the 
name  Pseudo-Pleurococcus,  has  been  separated  from  the  aggregate  of 
small  unicellular  green  forms,  so  long  known  under  the  collective  name 
of  Pleurococcus  vulgaris.  The  new  form  differs  in  the  unicellular  state 
from  the  true  Pleurococcus  vulgaris,  which  we  are  glad  to  see  Miss 
Snow  still  recognises  as  a  constant  non-filament-forming  species,  by 
the  possession  of  a  pyrenoid  and  of  a  lateral  aperture  in  the  chloro- 
plast,  while  it  has  the  power  of  forming  filaments  when  grown  in 
certain  nutritive  solutions. 

It  appears  also  to  be  distinct  from  the  filamentous  form  of  Pleuro- 
coccus described  by  Chodat,  in  which  the  pyrenoid  was  absent,  and 
which  could  not  be  distinguished  in  the  unicellular  state  from  the  true 
Pleurococcus.  In  truth,  the  layer  of  green  unicellular  organisms  so 
frequently  met  with  on  the  bark  of  trees,  etc.,  seems  to  consist,  not  of 
a  single  polymorphic  species,  but  rather  of  a  considerable  number  of 
real  species,  which  may  be  isolated  from  one  another  only  by  the 
employment  of  certain  modifications  of  the  well-known  methods  of 
bacteriology,  especially  by  rigid  attention  to  the  sterility  of  cultures. 


1899]  ASEXUAL  NUCLEAR  FUSLONS  239 

Asexual  Nuclear  Fusions. 

Fusion  of  nuclei,  whether  it  accompanies  the  union  of  so-called  sexual 
cells,  or  occupies  a  position  in  the  life-history  which  apparently  denies 
it  that  dignity,  must  for  some  time  remain  a  subject  of  absorbing 
interest,  not  only  on  account  of  its  complexity,  but  also  owing  to  the 
important  biological  questions  involved. 

Professor  Percy  Groom  draws  attention  in  a  recent  paper  {Trans. 
Bot.  Soc.  Edin.  1S9S-99,  pp.  132-144)  to  the  number  of  such  fusions 
of  other  than  a  distinctly  sexual  character,  which  we  now  know  to 
occur  in  the  vegetable  kingdom. 

Among  fungi,  in  the  Uredineae  and  Ustilagineae,  the  union  takes 
place  in  the  teleutospore,  which,  originally  binucleate,  contains  but  one 
nucleus  at  the  period  of  germination,  when  it  gives  rise  to  the  short 
sporidium-bearing  promycelium.  In  Proto-  and  Autobasidiomycetes 
the  fusion  takes  place  in  the  homologue  of  the  teleutospore,  viz.  the 
young  basidium,  which,  when  mature,  represents,  according  to  Brefeld, 
the  Uredine  promycelium,  and  bears  basidiospores.  Finally,  in  Ascomy- 
cetes  the  same  phenomenon  may  be  observed  in  the  young  ascus,  which 
de  Bary  regards  as  a  reduced  sporophytic  generation  parasitic  on  the 
parent  plant.  Apart  from  fungi  similar  nuclear  fusions  are  only 
known  to  occur  among  Angiosperms,  where  the  union  of  two  polar 
nuclei  in  the  embryo  sac  precedes  the  formation  of  the  endosperm, 
which,  by  the  way,  we  are  pleased  to  see  the  Professor  regards  as 
homologous  with  that  of  Gymnosperms,  and  consequently  with  the 
prothallus  of  the  lower  forms,  its  appearance  having  been  postponed 
owing  to  functional  degeneration.  These  fusions  are  thus  always 
interpolations,  and  distinctly  asexual  in  character,  as  is  shown  by 
the  position  they  occupy  in  the  life-history  of  such  forms  as  the 
Ascomycete  Sphaerotheca  and  the  Angiosperms,  in  both  of  which  the 
union  takes  place  along  with  and  subsequent  to  a  well-marked  sexual 
act,  viz.  the  union  of  the  antheridial  and  oogonial  nuclei  in  the  former, 
and  that  of  the  nuclei  of  the  pollen-tube  and  egg-cell  in  the  latter. 
In  every  known  case  they  take  place  in  a  portion  of  the  life-history, 
which  has  undergone  degeneration,  and  which  is  at  the  same  time 
fructificative  in  development,  as  well  as  frequently  parasitic  in 
character  and  sometimes  at  least  homologous  with  the  host  plant  (?). 

Professor  Groom  suggests  that  if  this  fusion  can  be  taken  as 
evidence  of  vegetative  degeneration  in  one  segment  of  the  life  cycle, 
it  may  be  possible  to  employ  it  as  a  means  of  distinguishing  between 
antithetic  and  homologous  alternation  of  generations  among  plants  ;  but 
whatever  be  the  physiological  rationale  of  such  fusions — and  an 
adequate  explanation  seems  still  far  to  seek — they  appear  to  have 
much  in  common  with  the  similar  phenomena  which  constantly  accom- 
pany the  union  of  sexual  cells,  and  both  will  in  all  probability  be 
ultimately  found  to  perform  similar  functions  in  the  life  of  the  plant. 


24o  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [october 

Inheritance  of  Malformations. 

The  inheritance  of  monstrous  characters  is  a  subject  the  examination 
of  which  may  be  expected  to  shed  increased  light  on  many  important 
and  still  obscure  questions,  though  it  has  hitherto  failed  to  receive  the 
attention  it  deserves.  In  a  recent  paper  {Revue  Ge'ne'rale  de  Botanique, 
April  1899,  pp.  136-151)  Hugo  de  Vries  describes  the  results 
of  a  series  of  experiments,  which  he  has  for  several  years  successfully 
carried  on  with  regard  to  the  inheritance  of  accidentally  acquired 
fasciatious  in  wild  plants.  By  means  of  rigid  selection  and  isolation 
of  the  parents,  followed  by  careful  cultivation  of  the  offspring,  he  has 
been  able  not  only  to  transmit  the  peculiarity  through  several  genera- 
tions, but  even  to  increase  the  degree  of  fasciation.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  tendency  to  reversion  appears  to  be  very  strong,  and  not- 
withstanding the  closest  attention  the  resulting  races  never  attain  the 
permanency  of  those  ornamental  varieties  so  commonly  cultivated  in 
gardens.  The  plants  examined  were  all  facultative  annuals,  that  is, 
species  which  are  capable  of  giving  rise  to  both  annual  and  biennial 
individuals,  and  the  differences  between  these  are  of  some  interest,  if 
difficult  of  explanation.  The  annual  forms,  for  example,  never  show 
fasciation  till  late  in  the  season,  and  the  malformation  is  confined  to 
the  upper  part  of  the  flowering  stem,  while  those  stems  which  spring 
in  the  second  year  from  fasciated  rosettes  are  fasciated  throughout 
their  whole  length,  and  the  malformation  is  more  marked  than  in 
those  of  only  annual  duration,  though  even  in  these  it  may  be  con- 
siderably increased  by  early  sowing  under  glass,  or  by  any  other 
method  of  cultivation  which  tends  to  increase  the  vigour  of  the  young- 
plant  previous  to  the  formation  of  flowering  stems. 


The  Nucleolus  in  Heredity. 

The  nucleolus  has  hitherto  played  with  becoming  dignity  the  some- 
what passive  part  of  a  spectator  in  the  nuclear  quadrille,  but  Mr.  H. 
H.  Dixon  {Annals  of  Botany,  vol.  xiii.  June  1899,  p.  269)  has  in 
these  latter  days  dragged  it  from  its  inglorious  repose,  and  it  must 
now  share  the  labours  of  the  chromatin  as  a  carrier  of  the  hereditary 
substance.  During  division  the  chromosomes  perform  their  accustomed 
task,  but  as  soon  as  the  cell  enters  a  resting  state  the  hereditary 
substance  is  divided  between  the  newly  formed  nucleoli  and  the 
chromatic  filament,  the  former  taking  the  dormant  idioblasts,  which 
are  not  required  for  the  functional  development  of  the  individual  cell, 
while  the  remainder  are  left  in  the  chromatin.  On  this  hypothesis 
the  apparent  absence  of  the  reducing  division  in  higher  plants  is 
accounted  for  by  supposing  that  the  necessary  elimination  of  excessive 


1899]  THE  NUCLEOLUS  LN  HEREDLTY  241 

germ-plasm  is  brought  about  by  the  extrusion  of  nucleoli,  while  the 
deficiency  of  chromatin,  so  often  remarked  in  the 'nuclei  of  mature 
specialised  cells,  as  compared  with  the  large  size  of  their  nucleoli, 
would  be  a  natural  consequence  of  a  reduction  in  the  number  of 
active,  and  an  increase  in  the  number  of  dormant,  idioblasts,  which 
might  be  expected  to  accompany  specialisation  if,  as  seems  probable 
from  the  phenomena  of  vegetative  regeneration,  every  mature  cell 
must  contain  all  the  hereditary  substance  required  for  the  develop- 
ment of  an  individual. 


Inheritance  of  Longevity. 

Wallace,  Weismann,  and  others  have  suggested  that  the  normal 
length  of  life  of  organisms,  which  differs  so  much  in  different  species, 
has  been  determined  by  natural  selection.  A  creature  lives  as  long 
as  is  good  for  the  species.  This  was  a  general  suggestion — prompted 
partly  by  the  strange  irregularity  and  apparent  capriciousness  of  the 
length  of  life  in  different  animals — and  the  preliminary  question  was 
not  raised,  "  Is  longevity  a  heritable  character  ? "  This  is  obviously 
a  very  important  question,  since  natural  selection  could  not  determine 
or  fix  the  fit  duration  of  life  unless  that  character  were  inherited. 
We  are  indebted  to  Miss  Mary  Beeton  and  Professor  Karl  Pearson  for 
a  contribution  towards  the  required  answer.  In  a  paper  entitled 
"  A  first  study  of  the  inheritance  of  longevity,  and  the  selective  death- 
rate  in  man,"  read  before  the  Ptoyal  Society  of  London  on  15th  June, 
the  authors  show  that  directly  and  collaterally  duration  of  life  is  certainly 
inherited  in  the  male  line  in  man.  They  believe  this  to  be  the  first 
quantitative  measure  of  the  inheritance  of  life's  duration.  Further 
data  for  the  inheritance  of  this  character  in  the  female  line,  and  for 
the  study  of  the  inheritance  of  "  brachybioty,"  or  short-livedness  as 
distinguished  from  longevity,  are  being  collected.  The  inquiry  should 
be  interesting  to  actuaries  as  well  as  to  biologists. 

The  second  part  of  the  paper  is  not  less  important.  "  In  the 
presidential  address  at  the  Oxford  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
we  were  told  that  no  one  had  seen  natural  selection  at  work.  In  a 
criticism  then  published  by  one  of  us,  it  was  suggested  that  every 
one  who  had  examined  a  mortality  table  had  seen  natural  selection  at 
work.  .  .  .  All  individuals  die,  but  some,  better  suited  by  their  con- 
stitution and  characters  to  their  environment  than  others,  survive 
longer,  and  so  are  able,  or  better  able,  to  reproduce  themselves,  and 
to  protect  for  a  longer  time  their  offspring.  To  assert  that  natural 
selection  does  not  exist,  is  to  assert  that  the  whole  death-rate  is  non- 
selective, or  is  not  a  function  of  the  constitution  and  characters  of 
the  individual.  Looked  at  from  this  standpoint  the  existence  of 
natural  selection  really  becomes  a  truism.      All  that  remains  when  we 


242  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [october 

desire  to  see  it  at  work  is  to  determine  the  relative  amounts  of  the 
selective  and  non-selective  parts  of  the  death-rate  for  individuals 
living  under  the  like  environment.  If,  therefore,  individuals  living 
under  much  the  same  conditions  are  dealt  with,  the  determination  of 
the  selective  and  non  -  selective  death  -  rates  is  a  measure  of  the 
quantitative  amount  of  natural  selection." 

One  method  of  dealing  with  the  problem  has  been  followed  by 
Professor  Weldon,  who  selected  a  certain  structural  part  (in  crabs), 
and  sought  to  determine  whether  the  death-rate  is  a  function  of  the 
dimensions  of  this  part.  Another  method  has  been  followed  by  the 
authors.  "  We  do  not  attempt  to  select  any  organ  whatever,  but 
select  individuals  having  any  general  resemblance  in  their  constitution, 
or  in  the  whole  complex  of  organs  and  characters,  and  correlate  their 
fitness  for  surviving.  Now  relations  or  members  of  the  same  family 
are  precisely  such  individuals.  If  there  were  no  selective  death-rate, 
there  would  be  no  correlation  between  the  ages  of  death  of,  say, 
brothers.  If  there  were  no  non-selective  death-rate,  we  ought  to  find 
that  the  correlation  between  ages  of  death  of  brothers  takes  the  value 
determined  for  the  coefficient  of  heredity^ in  brothers,  c.<j.  the  '4-  of 
stature,  fore-arm,  cephalic  index,  eye-colour,  etc.  Actually  we  find  it 
to  be  something  sensibly  less  than  *4.  Our  investigation  shows  that, 
in  round  numbers,  about  80  per  cent  of  the  death-rate  is  selective  in 
the  case  of  mankind.  To  that  extent  natural  selection  is  actually 
at  work." 

The  authors  close  the  abstract  of  their  interesting  preliminary 
paper  with  an  appeal  for  biological  experiment.  "  Various  types  of 
life  ought  to  be  submitted  to  ordeals  of  a  kind  like  to  those  which 
occur  in  nature,  and  the  correlation  between  the  powers  of  resistance 
to  these  ordeals  existing  in  members  of  the  same  family  or  brood 
determined.  We  shall  thus  be  able  to  ascertain  under  a  variety  of 
circumstances  the  relative  proportions  of  the  selective  and  non- 
selective death-rates.  .  .  .  One  may  venture  to  express  the  hope  that 
in  a  comparatively  few  years,  if  enough  workers  can  be  found  for 
the  experimental  side  of  the  subject,  we  shall  no  longer  hear  natural 
selection  spoken  of  as  hypothetical,  but  rather  its  quantitative  measure 
given  for  various  organisms  under  divers  environments." 


A  Verbose  Vitalist. 

Natukalists  of  an  earlier  day  would  probably  be  surprised — if  not 
shocked — at  some  of  the  contents  of  modern  biological  journals.  We 
refer  to  the  now  frequent  occurrence  of  pages  thickly  strewn  with 
equations  and  mathematical  symbols,  of  others  bristling  with  "categories" 
and  "  principles,"  of  others  where  the  author  seems  at  first  to  be  living  in 


1899]  A   VERBOSE   VITALISE  243 

another  world  peopled  by  strange  creatures  called  biophors  and  deter- 
minants, and  worse.  These  things  do  not  of  course  surprise  or  shock 
us,  for  we  have  realised  the  value  of  the  statistical  study  of  variations, 
the  need  of  keeping  on  good  terms  with  philosophy,  and  that  Weis- 
mann's  symbols  are  "  not  mere  fanciful  images,  but  realities,"  as  he 
says,  "  in  the  same  sense  in  which  chemical  atoms  and  molecules  are 
realities."  We  are  not  surprised  at  these  papers ;  what  surprises  us 
is  that  so  few  people  seem  to  read  them.  A  fragment  of  skin  from  a 
Patagonian  cave  seems  to  excite  more  interest  than  one  of  Karl 
Pearson's  mathematical  contributions  to  the  study  of  evolution ;  the 
problem  of  trituberculy  is  familiar,  but  Mr.  Sandeman's  "  Problems  of 
Biology  "  remains  unheeded ;  discussions  of  mimicry  abound,  but  we 
might  almost  count  on  our  fiugers  the  English  references  to  Weismann's 
essay  on  Germinal  Selection.  Is  it  that  we  have  forgotten  our 
mathematics,  is  it  that  we  have  become  after  many  lessons  "  philo- 
sophie-scheu,"  or  is  it  that  our  love  of  the  concrete  is  too  strong  ? 
There  are  these  and  other  reasons  on  our  side,  but  it  must  be  allowed 
that  the  fault  is  not  wholly  ours.  It  is  certain  that  one  reason  why 
contributions  to  the  philosophy  of  biology  are  so  frequently  dis- 
regarded, is  the  author's  low  standard  of  lucidity.  Enigmatical 
sentences,  tense  with  meaning,  may  be  gloated  over  if  they  are  written 
by  Browning,  but  not  if  they  come  from  a  biologist.  Aphorisms 
which  sound  as  if  they  meant  much  (as  they  probably  do),  which 
seem,  however,  only  successful  in  keeping  their  meaning  hidden,  may 
be  entertaining  in  a  novel  by  Meredith,  but  they  are  only  irritating  in 
an  essay  on  morphogenesis.  Thus,  through  the  carelessness  of  authors 
and  the  busy  preoccupation  of  readers,  we  are  left  to  continue  our 
work  but  slightly  influenced  by  the  constantly  growing  mass  of  occult 
biological  literature.  We  know  of  a  prominent  worker  who  bundled 
up  one  of  these  voluminous  riddles,  labelled  it  "  Davidson's  Secret," 
and  threw  it  on  the  top  shelf ;  and  we  quite  sympathise  with  any  busy 
biologist  who  should  similarly  treat  the  little  book  before  us.  It  is 
called  "  Die  Lokalisation  morphogenetischer  Vorgange.  Ein  Beweis 
vitalistischen  Geschehens  "  (Engelmann  :  Leipzig,  1899,  pp.  82,  3  figs.). 
It  might  be  flippantly  called  "  The  Mystery  of  Hans  Driesch." 

It  was  begun,  we  are  told,  at  San  Martino  de  Castrozza  9  ix.  98, 
finished  at  Naples  19  xi.  98  ;  and  it  was  originally  published  in  the 
Archiv  fur  Entwickelungsmechanih  cler  Organismen.  Its  importance,  we 
read,  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  not  merely  suggests  but  proves  the 
necessity  of  recognising  a  new  and  peculiar  orderliness  (Gesetzlichkeit) 
in  certain  vital  phenomena.  It  contains  a  proof  of  vitalism.  And  by 
vitalism  is  here  meant  the  recognition  of  the  unique  character  of 
organisms,  the  recognition  of  what  transcends  the  categories  of 
mechanism, — "  diejenige  Auffassung,  welche  in  Lebensgeschenissen 
Vorgange  mit  ihnen  eigenthumlicher  Elementargesetzlichkeit  erblickt." 

The  key-note  is  in  the  word  "  localisation."      It  is  especially  the 


244  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [october 

"  localisation  "  of  developmental  processes  which  appears  to  the  author 
to  bring  out  clearly  the  distinctive  character  of  an  organism  as  opposed 
to  an  inanimate  system.  The  first  illustration  given  may  make  the 
matter  plainer. 

Some  four  years  ago  Driesch  showed  that  if  a  fully-formed 
gastrula  of  a  sea-urchin  {Sphaerechinus  granularis)  be  halved  equa- 
torially,  so  that  each  half  has  half  of  the  ectoderm  and  half  of  the 
archenteron,  both  portions  heal  up  and  become  spherical  again,  and 
both  soon  show  a  gut  divided  in  the  normal  proportions  into  three 
parts.  This  is  a  simple  instance  of  a  familiar  kind  of  phenomenon 
which  appears  to  the  author  to  prove  the  necessity  of  vitalistic  inter- 
pretation.     No  chemico-physical  interpretation  will  suffice. 

We  cannot  here  summarise  the  author's  argument,  not  that  it  is 
particularly  difficult — for  Driesch's  style  is  limpid  compared  with  that 
of  many — but  because  of  the  difficulty  of  translating  the  terminology. 
It  may  be  all  right  in  German  and  in  Germany,  but  we  doubt  if  the 
conversion  of  English  biologists  is  likely  to  be  attained  by  discussions 
on  "Der  primar-regulatorische  Charakter  der  Differenzirung  har- 
monisch-aquipotentieller  Systeme,"  and  the  like.  The  little  book  was 
written  in  about  two  months;  it  seems  to  us  that  in  this,  and  even 
more  in  other  cases,  it  would  have  been  well  if  the  author  had  spent 
an  equal  amount  of  time  in  making  the  wisdom  of  his  counsel  more 
generally  available  to  busy  biologists. 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  the  subject-matter.  The  machine 
theory  of  an  organism  is  insufficient,  since  some  of  the  most  char- 
acteristic vital  phenomena  seem  to  transcend  the  categories  of 
mechanism.  And  even  if  we  come  to  understand  a  living  creature  as 
we  understand  a  steam-engine,  there  remains  the  idea  behind  them 
both.  Sooner  or  later  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  an  unknown 
"  Gesetzlichkeit."  The  author's  contention  is  that  there  is  in  the 
organism  an  elementary  irreducible  "  Gesetzlichkeit."  To  overlook 
this,  he  says,  is  like  overlooking  the  spider  in  our  science  of  the  web. 


Morphology  of  the  Sting  in  Hymenoptera. 

The  embryological  researches  of  the  last  twenty  years  seem  to  have 
securely  established  that  the  stinging  apparatus  in  ants,  bees,  and 
wasps  is  derived  in  part  from  ventral  segmental  outgrowths,  and  in 
part  from  the  integumentary  skeleton  of  certain  segments.  In  a 
recent  paper  (Zeitschr.  wiss.  Zool.  lxvi.  1899,  pp.  289-333,  2  pis.) 
Dr.  Enoch  Zander  has  analysed  the  apparatus  in  a  number  of  repre- 
sentative forms,  and  has  shown  in  detail  how  much  of  it  is  referable 
to  (the  11th  and  12th)  segments  of  the  abdominal  skeleton,  and  how 
much  to  the  genital  appendages  or  gonapophyses.      He  shows   further 


1899]  MORPHOLOGY  OF  THE  STING  IN  HYMENOPTERA   245 

that  the  latter  are  not  developed  until  the  larval  stage  is  reached,  and 
are  therefore  in  no  wise  comparable  to  the  abdominal  appendages 
which  appear  and  disappear  during  the  strictly  embryonic  period.  In 
fact,  he  confirms  the  conclusion  of  Heymons  that  the  leg -rudiments 
and  the  gonapophysal  rudiments  are  in  their  nature  quite  distinct. 


Factors  in  the  Growth  of  Muscle. 

We  have  previously  noticed  Mr.  Alexander  Meek's  interesting  conclu- 
sion that  in  the  post- embryonic  history  of  striped  muscles  in  various 
mammals  (cat,  sheep,  field  vole,  white  rat)  there  is  a  reduction  in  the 
number  of  fibres  accompanied  by  a  considerable  hypertrophy  of  the 
survivors.  Dr.  B.  Morpurgo  got  a  different  result  in  examining  the 
white  rat,  and  Mr.  Meek  briefly  answered  him,  maintaining  his  position 
that  there  really  is  in  the  history  of  a  muscle  "  a  struggle  of  parts 
within  the  organism,"  and  a  resulting  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

In  a  more  recent  paper  (Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology, 
xxxiii.  1899,  pp.  596-608)  he  discusses  the  question  in  greater  detail, 
and  as  the  subject  is  one  of  much  practical  and  theoretical  interest,  we 
quote  his  summing-up.  "  The  life-history  of  muscle  seems  to  be 
determined  by  (1)  inherited  qualities,  present  in  the  fertilised  ovum, 
the  evolution  of  which  is  controlled  by  (2)  internal  influences — internal 
secretion  (including  the  effects  of  'sex'),  the  mutual  influence  of  the 
muscles  upon  one  another,  and  of  the  fibres  upon  one  another,  and 
the  internal  variations  amongst  the  fibres ;  and  by  (3)  external 
circumstances — work,  food,  habit,  and  indeed,  the  ordinary  and 
extraordinary  conditions  of  extra-uterine  life." 

"  Up  to  the  time  of  birth,  in  at  any  rate  the  higher  mammals, 
perhaps  in  all  the  Eutheria,  hyperplasia  characterises  the  growth  of 
muscle  ;  while  after  or  about  birth,  hyperplasia  ceases,  and  extra- 
uterine life  brings  about  a  selection  of  some  of  the  fibres  at  the  expense 
of  their  neighbours.  In  other  words,  during  extra-uterine  life,  muscle, 
according  to  its  position,  suffers  more  or  less  a  reduction  in  the  number 
of  its  fibres,  the  degree  of  which  is  expressive  of  its  functional  import- 
ance. The  surviving  elements  are  at  the  same  time  greatly  hyper- 
trophied,  and  the  extent  to  which  this  takes  place  is  also  expressive  of 
the  work  which  the  muscle  performs,  or  of  which  it  is  capable." 


Water- Plants  as  Land -Winners. 

In    The  Naturalist   for  August  Mr.   Albert  Henry  Pawson    makes    a 
brief  contribution  to  the  study  of  the  influence  of  water-plants  on  the 


246  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [october 

land  surface.  "  There  are  several  ways  in  which  these  plants  tend  to 
diminish  the  water-space  and  to  increase  the  dry  land.  By  their  own 
decay  they  form  vast  masses  of  vegetable  soil  in  shallow  waters  and  on 
water  margins ;  by  occupying  running  streams  they  moderate  the  flow 
of  the  current  and  give  it  time  to  deposit  its  silt ;  by  their  creeping- 
rhizomes  and  spreading  roots  they  fix  the  bed  of  a  stream  and  prevent 
it  being  scoured  and  deepened  by  floods,  and  again  in  times  of  flood 
they  serve  as  a  sieve  or  strainer,  arresting  all  floating  and  much 
suspended  solid  matter."  This  is  indeed  a  familiar  theme,  but  the 
author  discusses  it  with  freshness  and  with  appreciation  of  its  dramatic 
interest.  ...'•'  Inch  by  inch,  as  the  result  of  this  accumulation  and 
decay,  the  land  creeps  in  upon  the  mere ;  more  and  more  solid  grows 
the  edge ;  the  aqueous  plants  retreat  from  the  now  shallow  margin,  the 
terrestrial  plants  advance,  finding  firmer  footing ;  the  sedges  and  reeds 
crowd  on  their  floating  neighbours  which  need  space,  and  cannot  endure 
the  shade ;  these,  too,  press  forward,  and  the  open  water  grows  less  and 
less  ;  it  is  invested  on  every  side,  and  it  is  plain  that  its  complete 
subjugation  is  now  only  a  matter  of  time."  It  would  be  of  interest  to 
procure  some  actual  measurements  of  the  amount  and  rate  of  land- 
winning,  and  to  study  in  minute  detail  the  elimination  which  proceeds 
as  the  mere  is  closed  up. 


The  Progress  of  a  Great  Work. 

Eight  parts  are  now  available  of  "  Das  Tierreich  " — the  "  Systema 
Naturae  "up  to  date — which  is  being  issued  to  an  ungrateful  world  by 
the  German  Zoological  Society  through  the  medium  of  E.  Friedliinder 
and  Son  in  Berlin.  The  magnum  opus  will  give  a  classification  and 
diagnosis  of  all  living  animals,  and  the  issue  of  eight  parts  in  a 
relatively  short  period  permits  us  to  hope  that  we  shall  live  to  see  it 
completed.  The  general  editor  is  Professor  Franz  Eilhard  Schulze,  and 
there  are  many  sub -editors.  Of  the  collaborateurs  whose  names  are 
published  the  majority  are  German,  but  most  of  the  European  countries 
are  represented  by  well-known  workers.  Britain  is  represented  by 
Mr.  W.  E.  Hoyle  of  Manchester,  the  Hon.  L.  Eothschild,  Drs. 
Hartert  and  Jordan  of  Tring,  Mr.  A.  D.  Michael,  Mr.  W.  E.  Ogilvie 
Grant,  and  Dr.  Bowdler  Sharpe  in  London,  the  Eev.  T.  E.  E.  Stebbing 
in  Tunbridge  Wells,  and  Prof.  D'Arcy  W.  Thompson  in  Dundee.  The 
part  before  us  is  by  Dr.  A.  Labbe,  and  deals  with  the  Sporozoa;  it 
occupies  180  pages,  has  196  figures,  and  costs  8 "80  marks  to  sub- 
scribers, and  about  a  third  more  if  purchased  singly.  The  other  parts 
published  deal  with  various  families  of  birds  and  mites,  with  a  division 
of  copepods,  and  with  scorpions  and  Pedipalpi.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
point  out  the  magnitude  of  the  boon  which  this  great  work  will  confer 
on  systematic  zoology,  but  perhaps  it  is  permissible  to  urge  individual 


1899]  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A  GREAT  WORK  247 

"workers  to  purchase  the  separate  parts  which  interest  them.  A  sub- 
scription to  the  entire  work  is  too  much  to  expect,  except  from 
Universities,  Museums,  learned  Societies  and  the  like ;  and  even  some 
of  these  seem  slow  to  recognise  that  the  purchase  is  a  duty.  We  are 
told,  for  instance,  that  from  one  of  our  famous  university  towns,  with 
libraries,  museums,  and  rich  colleges,  no  single  order  for  "  Das  Tierreich  " 
has  as  yet  been  received.      What  an  ungrateful  world  it  is. 


The  Hopkins  Seaside  Laboratory. 

In  the  American  Naturalist  for  August,  Professor  Vernon  L.  Kellogg 
gives  an  account  of  the  Hopkins  Seaside  Laboratory  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University.  It  is  situated  on  the  bay  side  of  the  promontory 
Point  Pinos,  which  is  the  southern  limit  of  the  Bay  of  Monterey.  In 
addition  to  a  fauna  more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself,  the  bay  contains  a 
number  of  sub-tropical  and  sub-boreal  types  peculiar  to  the  north  and 
south  zones  of  the  Pacific  coast  between  which  it  lies.  "  A  well-known 
and  experienced  biologist  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  who  spent  a 
summer  at  the  Hopkins  Laboratory,  has  said  that  Monterey  Bay  and 
the  Bay  of  Naples  are  much  alike  in  the  abundance  and  representation 
of  species,"  and  the  laboratory  has  this  in  common  with  the  Naples 
Station,  that  it  can  be  used  to  advantage  at  any  time  in  the  year.  The 
regular  sessions  for  students  are  in  June  and  July,  and  the  fee  is 
twenty-five  dollars.  Investigators  prepared  to  carry  on  original  work 
may  use  the  laboratory  and  its  equipment  free  of  charge,  and  seventeen 
private  rooms  are  placed  at  their  disposal. 


The  Morning  of  Science. 

It  was  a  momentary  aberration  which  led  a  great  zoologist — recently 
lost  to  science — to  suggest,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  a  retrospect,  that  it 
was  now  time  for  us  to  be  making  a  list  of  the  things  we  did  not 
know.  A  very  different  suggestion  is  conveyed  in  a  remarkable 
sentence  in  the  presidential  address  delivered  by  Dr.  Edward  Orton  at 
the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  After  following  Mr.  Alfred  Eussel  Wallace  in  a  retrospect  of 
the  progress  of  science,  the  President  pointed  out  that  the  very  title  of 
the  Association  indicated  that  the  work  of  science  was  far  from  com- 
plete. "  The  founders  of  the  Association,  fifty  years  ago,  clearly  saw 
that  they  were  in  the  early  morning  of  a  growing  day.  The  most 
unexpected  and  marvellous  progress  has  been  made  since  that  date, 
but  as  yet  there  is  no  occasion  and  no  prospect  of  modifying  the  title. 


248  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [octobee 

We  are  still  labouring  for  the  advancement  of  science,  for  the  dis- 
covery of  new  truth.  The  field,  which  is  the  world,  was  never  so 
white  unto  the  harvest  as  now,  hut  it  is  still  early  morning  on  the  dial 
of  science."  The  address  was  not  a  remarkable  one,  but  we  commend 
this  last  sentence  to  the  attention  of  those  who  speak  as  if  it  were 
already  late  afternoon. 


Eruption  of  Mauna  Loa. 

In  the  American  Journal  of  Science  for  September  some  account  is 
given  of  the  beginning  of  an  eruption  of  the  volcano  of  Mauna  Loa,  on 
Hawaii. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  4th  July,  one  observer  says,  "  an  immense 
column  of  smoke  and  steam  was  seen  rising  from  the  crater  of 
Mokuaweoweo.  It  was  pierced  through  with  the  light  from  the  fires 
beneath,  until  it  glowed  and  shone  like  a  column  of  fiery  light, 
resplendent  beyond  description,  and  reflecting  its  burning  glow  over 
the  whole  heavens.  The  column  seemed  to  be  at  least  five  miles  in 
diameter,  and  rose  to  a  tremendous  height.  On  Tuesday  the  column 
of  fire  had  disappeared.  In  place  of  it  was  the  equally  impressive 
glow  of  the  lava  as  it  broke  from  the  lower  side  of  the  crater  several 
thousand  feet  lower  clown  than  the  column  of  light  had  been,  and  was 
thrown  upward  to  a  wonderful  height  by  the  forces  which  were  in 
action.  On  either  side  of  the  stream,  whose  surface  of  fiery  red  could 
be  seen  like  a  line  of  glowing  molten  metal,  were  two  cones  which  had 
formed  since  the  eruption  began.  It  was  from  these  that  the  lava  was 
being  ejected.  It  was  thrown  up  in  fiery  cascades  high  in  the  air. 
These  cascades,  in  falling,  built  up  the  cones,  and  the  molten  lava 
running  off  from  these  formed  the  stream  flowing  off  towards  Hilo. 
It  would  be  hard  to  say  how  high  these  cones  were,  perhaps  somewhere 
between  500  and  1000  feet  high,  and  half  a  mile  in  diameter,  and 
five  miles  apart."  A  later  account  mentions  three  lava  streams,  one  in 
the  direction  of  Hilo,  another  off  through  Kau  to  the  south-east,  and  a 
third  towards  the  crater  of  Kilauea. 

The  journal  from  which  we  have  cited  the  above  also  calls  atten- 
tion to  a  paper  by  Mr.  C.  J.  Lyons,  of  Honolulu,  on  "  Sun  Spots  and 
Hawaiian  Volcanoes,"  published  in  the  April  number  of  the  Monthly 
Weather  Review.  The  author  gives  a  table  of  the  years  of  minimum 
sun  spots  for  the  past  century,  with  the  dates  of  prominent  volcanic 
eruptions  of  Kilauea  or  Mauna  Loa,  showing  a  striking  correspondence 
between  the  times  of  the  two  phenomena.  As  pointed  out  by  the 
editor  of  the  Review,  however,  a  more  thorough  investigation  is  needed 
to  prove  that  the  coincidence  noted  is  due  to  a  real  causal  connection. 


1899]  ERUPTION  OF  MAUN  A  LO  A  249 

The  Poison  of  Darnel. 

That  the  darnel  (Lolium  temulentum)  is  a  poisonous  grass,  is  an  old- 
established  and  familiar  fact,  and  experts,  at  least,  are  aware  of 
Hofmeister's  research,  which  disclosed  the  presence  of  two  active  prin- 
ciples :  temulin,  obtained  as  chloroplatinate,  which  acts  upon  the 
nervous  system,  and  the  other,  determined  by  the  oily  substances  and 
fatty  acids  of  the  seed,  which  attacks  the  alimentary  canal.  A  new 
interpretation,  however,  has  recently  been  suggested  by  Mr.  P.  Guerin, 
of  the  School  of  Pharmacy  in  Paris  {Botanical  Gazette,  xxviii.  1899, 
pp.  136,  137). 

He  has  observed  in  the  seeds  of  the  darnel  the  almost  constant 
presence  of  a  fungus,  to  which  it  seems  to  him  reasonable  to  assign 
the  poisonous  effects.  This  fungus,  which  is  not  the  Endoconidium 
temulenturn  of  Prillieux  and  Delacroix,  has  also  been  detected  by  Vogl, 
Hanausek,  and  Nestler,  but  Guerin  has  shown  its  general  occurrence, 
and  that  not  only  in  the  darnel,  but  in  L.  arvense  With,  (a  variety  of 
L.  temulenturn)  and  L.  linicola  Sond.  as  well.  Its  presence  in  perennial 
rye-grass  is  quite  exceptional.  Guerin  has  also  made  the  suggestion 
that  the  temulin  of  Hofmeister  may  be  the  result  of  the  action  of  the 
fungus  upon  the  nitrogenous  materials  in  the  peripheral  region  of  the 
seed. 

The  fungus,  which  is  always  present  in  the  form  of  mycelial  fila- 
ments, appears  at  an  early  stage  in  the  interior  of  the  ovary,  and 
invades  the  entire  nucellus.  It  is  afterwards  crowded  out  by  the 
development  of  endosperm  after  fertilisation,  and  comes  to  be  restricted 
to  the  region  between  the  hyaline  layer  (which  represents  the  remains 
of  the  nucellus)  and  the  outermost  endosperm.  The  observer  found 
this  disposition  of  the  fungus  in  material  from  Bolivia,  Brazil,  Chili, 
Abyssinia,  Persia,  Syria,  Spain,  Portugal,  Sweden,  Germany,  and  many 
localities  in  France.  In  forty  seeds  of  most  diverse  origin  the  mycelial 
zone  was  lacking  only  in  three. 


Coppinia. 

We  are  glad  to  note  that  Mr.  C.  C.  Nutting,  writing  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  United  Stcdes  National  Museum  (vol.  xxi.),  is  able  to  bring 
forward  some  very  definite  proofs  that  the  remarkable  hydroid  structure 
called  Coppinia  is  a  cluster  of  gonangia  of  Lafo'ea.  It  is  remarkable 
that  Nutting's  investigations  made  upon  the  species  Lafo'ea  dumosa 
from  Puget  Sound  were  carried  on  independently  of  Levinsen's  investi- 
gations on  Lafo'ea  fndicosa  from  Greenland,  in  which  corresponding 
results  were  obtained. 


250  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [october. 

Scientific  Explanations. 

The  progress  of  science  is  continually  hindered  by  the  limitations  of 
language.  What  a  bugbear,  for  instance,  has  been  the  word  "  law  " — 
an  innocent  metaphor  to  the  careful,  but  an  inhibiting  fallacy  to  the 
many.  For,  as  every  one  knows,  the  "  laws  of  nature  "  were  for  many 
decades  the  subjects  of  naive  personification,  and  made  to  will  and  act 
as  self-sufficing  governors  of  phenomena,  while  now,  as  Professor  J.  H. 
Poynting  remarked  in  his  opening  address  to  Section  A  of  the  British 
Association,  "  we  can  only  assign  to  them  the  humble  rank  of  mere 
descriptions,  often  tentative,  often  erroneous,  of  similarities  which 
we  believe  we  have  observed."      It  is  indeed  a  fall  of  the  mighty. 

But  though  the  word  "  law "  has  almost  ceased  from  troubling, 
there  remain  many  others  which  still  exert  their  pernicious  influence. 
Prominent  among  these  is  the  word  "  explanation,"  at  which  we  are 
glad  to  see  that  Professor  Poynting  has  also  made  some  deadly  thrusts. 
Thickly  scattered  through  scientific  literature  the  student  finds  what 
are  called  "  complete  explanations,"  but  occasionally  he  is  confronted 
with  the  strange  remark  that  science  does  not  give  any  explanations 
at  all.      What  does  it  mean  ? 

The  meaning  is  simply  that  while  the  teleological  idea  (of  "  final 
cause,"  etc.)  is  essential  to  any  attempt  at  a  complete  or  philosophical 
consideration  of  facts,  e.g.  to  a  theory  of  the  living  organism,  it  is 
irrelevant  and  inhibitive  in  scientific  inquiry,  which  is  strictly  aetio- 
logical.      But  let  Professor  Poynting  speak  for  himself. 

"  We  have  not  to  go  very  far  back  to  find  such  a  statement  as 
this — that  we  have  explained  anything  when  we  know  the  cause  of  it, 
or  when  we  have  found  out  the  reason  why — a  statement  which  is 
only  appropriate  on  the  psychical  view.  Without  entering  into  any 
discussion  of  the  meaning  of  cause,  we  can  at  least  assert  that  that 
meaning  will  only  have  true  content  when  it  is  concerned  with  purpose 
and  will.  On  the  purely  physical  or  descriptive  view  the  idea  of  cause 
is  quite  out  of  place.  In  description  we  are  solely  concerned  with  the 
'  how '  of  things,  and  their  '  why '  we  purposely  leave  out  of  account. 
We  explain  an  event,  not  when  we  know  '  why '  it  happened,  but 
when  we  show  '  how '  it  is  like  something  else  happening  elsewhere, 
or  otherwise — when,  in  fact,  we  can  include  it  as  a  case  described  by 
some  law  already  set  forth.  In  explanation,  we  do  not  account  for  the 
event,  but  we  improve  our  account  of  it  by  likening  it  to  what  we 
already  know.  .  .  .  The  aim  of  explanation,  then,  is  to  reduce  the 
number  of  laws  as  far  as  possible,  by  showing  that  laws,  at  first 
separated,  may  be  merged  in  one ;  to  reduce  the  number  of  chapters 
in  the  book  of  science  by  showing  that  some  are  truly  mere  sub- 
sections of  chapters  already  written.  ...  To  take  an  old  but  never- 
worn-out  metaphor,  the  physicist  is  examining  the  garment  of  nature, 


1899]  SCIENTIFIC  EXPLANATIONS  251 

learning  of  how  many,  or  rather  of  how  few,  different  kinds  of  thread 
it  is  woven,  finding  how  each  separate  thread  enters  into  the  pattern, 
and  seeking  from  the  pattern  woven  in  the  past  to  know  the  pattern 
yet  to  come."  .  .  .  We  have  heard  from  unfriendly  critics  much  in 
regard  to  the  dogmatism  of  science ;  it  is  time  rather  to  speak  of  its 
modesty. 


Ail  Unsolved  Problem. 

In  his  opening  address  to  the  Chemical  Section  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion, Dr.  Horace  T.  Brown  not  unnaturally  took  for  his  subject  the 
fixation  of  carbon  by  plants,  a  problem  towards  the  solution  of  which 
he  has  himself  made  some  notable  contributions.  The  address  is  a 
fine  illustration  of  the  true  scientific  temper,  and  of  the  value  to 
biologists  of  co-operation  with  workers  in  chemistry  and  physics. 
Definite  results  are  still  far  to  seek,  but  the  address  indicates  a  hopeful 
outlook,  and  it  also  impresses  us  anew  with  the  danger  of  hard  and 
fast  statements,  and  with  the  incipient  character  of  vegetable  physiology. 

The  president  of  Section  B  began  by  pointing  out  that  although 
we  cease  not  to  impress  upon  our  students  that  the  higher  plants 
derive  the  whole  of  their  carbon  from  atmospheric  sources,  the  experi- 
mental evidence  for  this  hard  and  fast  statement  is  very  indirect. 
"  There  can,  of  course,  be  no  doubt  that  the  primary  source  of  the 
organic  carbon  of  the  soil,  and  of  the  plants  growing  on  it,  is  the 
atmosphere  ;  but  of  late  years  there  has  been  such  an  accumulation  of 
evidence  tending  to  show  that  the  higher  plants  are  capable  of  being 
nourished  by  the  direct  application  of  a  great  variety  of  ready-formed 
organic  compounds,  that  we  are  justified  in  demanding  further  proof 
that  the  stores  of  organic  substances  in  the  soil  must  necessarily  be 
oxidised  down  to  the  lowest  possible  point,  before  their  carbon  is  once 
more  in  a  fit  state  to  be  assimilated."  Along  with  Mr.  F.  Escombe, 
Dr.  Brown  has  been  recently  experimenting  in  order  if  possible  to  reach 
some  satisfactory  answer  to  this  important  question.  "  Up  to  the 
present  time,"  he  says,  "  our  experiments  have  not  been  carried  far 
enough  to  enable  us  to  give  a  positive  answer  to  the  main  question, 
but  they  have  already  suggested  a  new  method  of  attack  which  will 
enable  us  in  the  future  to  determine,  with  a  fair  amount  of  certainty, 
whether  any  particular  plant,  growing  under  perfectly  natural  conditions, 
derives  any  appreciable  portion  of  its  carbon  from  any  other  source  than 
the  gaseous  carbon  dioxide  of  the  atmosphere." 

The  address  contains  a  valuable  critical  account  of  what  has  been 
done  in  the  past,  and  we  venture  to  quote  the  summing-up.  It  does 
not  sound  altogether  encouraging,  but  there  is  no  object  in  blinking 
the  facts.  "  The  brilliant  discoveries  of  recent  years  on  the  constitu- 
tion and  synthesis  of  the  carbohydrates  have  not  brought  us  sensibly 


252  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [octobee1899 

nearer  to  an  explanation  of  the  first  processes  of  the  reduction  of  carbon 
dioxide  in  the  living  plant.  The  hypothesis  of  Baeyer  (that  the  first 
act  of  assimilation  is  the  reduction  of  carbon  dioxide  and  water  to  the 
state  of  formaldehyde)  still  occupies  the  position  it  did  when  it  was 
first  put  forward  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  although  it  has,  it  is  true, 
received  a  certain  amount  of  support  from  the  observations  of  Bokorny, 
who  found  that  formaldehyde  can,  under  certain  conditions,  contribute 
to  the  building  up  of  carbohydrates  in  the  chloroplasts.  .  .  . 

"  The  view  which  Timiriazeff  has  put  forward,  that  there  is  a  mere 
physical  transference  of  vibrations  of  the  right  period  from  the  absorb- 
ing chlorophyll  to  the  reacting  carbon  dioxide  and  water,  is,  I  think, 
far  too  simple  an  explanation  of  the  facts.  Chromatic  sensitisers  have 
been  shown  to  act  by  reason  of  their  antecedent  decomposition,  and  not 
by  direct  transference  of  energy,  and  the  same  probably  holds  good 
with  regard  to  chlorophyll,  which  is  also  decomposed  by  the  rays  which 
it  absorbs.  We  must  probably  seek  for  the  first  and  simplest  stages 
of  the  assimilatory  process  in  the  interaction  of  the  reduced  constituents 
of  the  chlorophyll  and  the  elements  of  carbon  dioxide  and  water,  the 
combinations  so  formed  being  again  split  up  in  another  direction  by 
access  of  energy  from  without. 

"  The  failure  of  all  attempts  to  produce  such  a  reaction  under 
artificial  conditions  is,  I  think,  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  neglect  of 
one  very  important  factor.  We  are  dealing  with  a  reaction  of  a  highly 
endothermic  nature,  which  is  probably  also  highly  reversible,  and  on 
this  account  we  cannot  expect  any  sensible  accumulation  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  change,  unless  we  employ  some  means  for  removing  them  from 
the  sphere  of  action  as  fast  as  they  are  formed. 

"  In  the  plant  this  removal  is  provided  for  by  the  living  elements 
of  the  cell,  by  the  chloroplasts,  assisted  doubtless  by  the  whole  of  the 
cytoplasm.  We  have  here,  in  fact,  the  analogue  of  the  chemical 
sensitisers  of  a  photographic  plate,  which  act  as  halogen  absorbers,  and 
so  permit  a  sensible  accumulation  of  effect  on  the  silver  salts. 

"  When  we  have  succeeded  in  finding  some  simple  chemical  means 
of  fixing  the  initial  products  of  the  reduction  of  carbon  dioxide,  then, 
and  then  only,  may  we  hopefully  look  forward  to  reproducing  in  the 
laboratory  the  first  stages  of  the  great  synthetic  process  of  nature,  on 
which  the  continuance  of  all  life  depends." 


^   ......  . 


ORIGINAL    COMMUNICATIONS. 

The  Influence  of  the  Nervous  System  in  Organic 

Evolution. 

By  E.  F.  Licorish,  M.D. 

The  majority  of  biologists  may  be  at  present  divided  into  two  schools, 
Neo-Darwinian  and  Neo-Lamarckian,  and  besides  these  there  are  others 
who  still  profess  to  be  unable  to  reconcile  themselves  to  the  truths  of 
organic  evolution  as  interpreted  by  either  party,  and  who  find  a  pro- 
minent representative  in  the  celebrated  pathologist  Virchow.  In 
addition  to  the  above  there  are  a  few  who,  like  the  writer,  are  pure 
Lamarckians,  and  who,  accepting  the  data  of  Lamarck,  interpret  them 
by  the  light  of  present  day  knowledge,  and  look  on  "  natural  selection  " 
and  "  survival  of  the  fittest "  as  mere  "  figures  of  speech,"  expressive  of 
results  which  have  been  brought  about  by  functional  and  environmental 
adaptation.  Of  the  two  leading  schools  the  more  numerous  is 
undoubtedly  that  of  the  Neo-Darwinians,  who  see  in  natural  selection 
an  all-sufficient  cause  for  organic  evolution.  The  members  of  the 
other  school,  that  of  the  Neo-Lamarckians,  consider  natural  selection 
as  merely  one  of  the  factors  of  organic  evolution,  another  being  the 
inheritance  of  the  results  of  the  organism's  post-natal  experiences. 

Let  us  look  more  closely  at  these  theories  to  see  if  we  cannot  find 
therein  such  a  relationship  or  analogy  as  would  lead  us  to  believe  that 
a  slight  modification  in  the  basis  of  one  or  the  other  or  both  will  tend 
to  more  harmony  than  at  first  sight  would  appear  to  be  possible.  For 
it  must  be  remembered  that  both  schools  are  represented  by  able  and 
gifted  men  who  devote  themselves  to  experiment  and  observation,  and 
are  all  equally  eager  to  arrive  at  truth. 

Taking  the  Neo-Darwinians  first,  we  find  the  basis  of  their  theory 
to  be  this.  Organic  evolution  depends  on,  and  is  carried  out  through, 
the  variations  which-  appear  at  the  conclusion  of  the  ontogenetic 
development,  i.e.  at  birth.  This  is  the  basis  of  their  theory  of  organic 
evolution.  To  the  cp:iestion,  What  gives  rise  to  those  variations  ?  we 
have   as   answers: — (1)  Cause   unknown  (Darwin);    (2)    Chance — a 

17 NAT.   SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.   92.  253 


254  F.  F-  LICORISH  [october 

system  of  "  trial  and  error"  (Huxley);  (3)  The  reaction  of  the  germ- 
plasm  to  external  stimuli,  i.e.  the  reaction  of  the  developing  organism 
to  the  external  environment  (Weismann). 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Neo-Lamarckians.  The  basis  of  their 
theory  is  that  the  influences  of  the  environment  modify  the  organism 
not  only  during  the  time  it  is  being  built  up,  but  also  for  an  indefinite 
period  after,  assuredly  during  the  time  it  is  reaching  its  maturity 
or  full  growth,  that  such  modifying  reactions  are  heritable,  and  that  on 
these  influences  the  progress  of  evolution  is  chiefly  dependent.  As  a 
result  of  limiting  inheritance  to  the  reactions  of  the  environing 
influences  during  the  pre-natal  period,  Neo-Darwinians  have  to  call  to 
their  aid  natural  selection,  whereas  the  Neo-Lamarckians,  by  extending 
the  period  of  inheritance  of  environmental  and  functional  reaction  to 
maturity  of  the  organism,  can  dispense  to  some  extent  with  natural 
selection,  believing  as  they  do  that  the  experiences  of  the  organisms 
from  inception  of  life  to  maturity  are  conserved  by  heredity,  and  that 
adaptation  results  in  most  cases  through  inheritance  of  those  ex- 
periences. As  to  the  strict  Lamarckian,  he  sees  no  need  of  natural 
selection,  believing  that  somatic  experience  is  the  sole  cause  of 
adaptation. 

Weismann,  in  addition  to  his  theory  of  pre-natal  influence  as  a 
cause  of  variation,  has  elaborated  the  theory  that  the  organism  is  built 
up  and  comes  to  maturity  because  the  germ-plasm,  during  the  building 
up  of  the  organism,  becomes  distributed  through  it,  so  as  to  form 
Anlagen  which  are  capable  of  developing  the  necessary  characters  and 
of  providing  for  lost  parts,  etc.  It  is  this  feature  of  his  work  as  a 
biologist  that  has  made  him  a  distinctive  force  in  the  science.  And 
although  at  first  he  maintained  that  the  germ-plasm  as  present  in  the 
germinal  cells  is  unchangeable,  more  recently  he  has  modified  his 
position,  now  maintaining,  as  already  stated,  that  it  can  react  to 
external  stimuli,  and  hence  be  changed  by  the  influences  of  the 
environment, — an  admission  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  re- 
adjustment of  apparently  conflicting  theories.  We  wish  to  suggest  an 
interpretation  of  the  Lamarckian  theory  that  may  bring  about  a  still 
closer  approximation. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  by  all  who  make  a  careful  study  of  the 
nervous  system  in  its  relation  to  evolution,  and  in  its  influence  on 
the  organism,  that  it  is  through  it  that  all  functions  are  carried  on, 
and  through  its  regulation  that  lost  parts  are  renewed  and  injuries. 
repaired.  Moreover,  it  is  through  the  nervous  system,  presumably  as 
germ-plasm  as  well  as  an  organised  portion  in  the  ontogeny,  that  all 
experiences  acting  thereon  are  registered  and  transmitted  to  the  off- 
spring. It  has  always  been  a  surprise  to  me  that  biologists,  in  con- 
sidering the  factors  of  organic  evolution,  should  have  paid  so  little 
attention  to  the  influence  of  the  nervous  system  in  vital  processes ;. 
preferring,  it  would  seem  to  me,  to  invest  the  cells  themselves  with 


1899]       NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  ORGANIC  EVOIUTION         255 

the  power  of  reaction  to  the  incident  forces  of  the  environment,  and 
ignoring  the  desires  demanding  satisfaction  which  arise  de  novo  within 
the  brain  itself.  To  a  physician,  on  the  other  hand,  the  nervous  system 
is  by  far  the  most  important  part  of  the  human  body.  He  knows 
that  all  medicines  that  act  physiologically,  and  not  purely  chemically 
or  mechanically  on  the  system,  do  so  through  the  nervous  system.  He 
knows  experimentally  that  if  the  nerves  to  the  organ  on  which  a 
medicine  acts  be  severed,  the  organ  fails  to  respond.  We  know  that 
if  undue  heat  be  applied  to  a  portion  of  the  surface  of  the  body  the 
vessels  dilate  and  the  part  becomes  redder,  because  on  the  heat 
being  applied  the  terminal  nerves  telegraph  to  the  nearest  nerve- 
centre  that  help  is  needed  to  resist  the  irritation.  Through  the 
vaso-motor  nerves  controlling  the  calibre  of  the  blood-vessels  these 
dilate,  probably  that  the  increase  of  blood  may  carry  off  the  excess  of 
heat ;  the  part  thus  making  an  effort  to  ward  off  injury.  We  may 
well  assume  that  if  the  nervous  connection  were  severed  no  dilatation 
of  blood-vessels  would  take  place,  and  in  consequence  the  parts  would 
suffer.  Again,  we  know  from  the  study  of  diseases  that  if  the 
centre  in  the  spinal  cord  for  the  nutrition  of  any  special  muscle  be 
destroyed  by  inflammation,  the  muscle  gradually  dwindles  from  lack 
of  nutrition.  The  whole  study  of  pathology  teaches  us  how,  if  through 
disease  or  accident  defects  are  produced,  they  are  remedied  through 
the  nervous  influences  operating  correlatively  on  adjacent  cells  and 
tissues.  Again,  if  a  large  blood-vessel  be  destroyed  either  accidentally 
or  iDtentionally  for  purposes  of  cure,  the  small  blood-vessels  supplying 
the  parts  affected  and  anastomosing  with  those  of  adjacent  parts 
gradually  enlarge  and  carry  on  the  function  of  the  destroyed  large 
vessel, — a  fact  which  shows  us  how  the  distribution  of  blood  may 
gradually  become  modified  through  functional  change  in  the  process  of 
evolution  of  one  species  into  another.  In  experiments  on  animals  we 
learn  that,  although  normally  certain  cells  have  a  definite  function, 
yet  if  the  nerves  governing  those  cells  be  severed,  so  that  the  connection 
between  the  cells  and  the  nerve-centre  is  destroyed,  the  function  of  the 
cells  ceases,  and  that  if  the  centre  for  the  nutrition  of  the  cells  be  also 
destroyed  the  cells  will  die.  Whether  this  is  a  direct  result  or  due 
indirectly  to  the  loss  of  nutrition  has  not  yet  been  positively  determined, 
probably  it  is  due  to  the  latter.  Hence  we  can  positively  assert  that 
the  cells  of  the  organism  have  no  inherent  power  in  themselves  to 
exercise  their  function,  or  even  to  maintain  their  vitality,  but  that  the 
nerve-centres  through  their  connections  with  the  cells  supply  that 
power  which  manifests  itself  as  the  function,  and  even  as  the  vitality  of 
the  cells  themselves.  Thus  my  contention  is  supported,  that  if  in  the 
germ-cell  the  germ-plasm  is  the  most  important  part  as  the  bearer  of 
the  life  functions,  so  in  the  finished  organism  the  nervous  system  is 
the  bearer  of  the  like  processes,  commanding  and  controlling  all  life 
and  function. 


256  R.  F.  LICORISH  [october 

It  seems  to  me  that  biologists  look  on  the  nervous  system  in  the 
same  light  as  they  do  other  parts  and  organs  of  the  system.  Now, 
while  this  may  be  true  in  relation,  e.g.,  to  the  special  senses,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  nervous  system  has  also  a  general  function, 
and  must  be  looked  at  as  belonging  to  and  ministering  to  all  other 
parts  of  the  organism,  so  that  the  unity  of  all  may  be  secured.  Thus  Dr. 
Gadow  (in  "  The  Last  Link  ")  says  :  "  It  is  the  physiological  momentum 
which  models  the  organism,  and,  by  causing  its  adaptation,  has  pro- 
duced its  organs  by  change  of  function  " ;  and  again,  "  Each  cell  has  a 
function,  the  more  specialised  the  more  intense  it  is."  He  attributes 
adaptation  to  the  disturbance  of  the  equilibrium  of  the  cell,  and  its 
efforts  to  return  to  the  status  quo  through  increased  activity.  But 
whilst  this  may  be  true,  so  far  as  it  goes,  yet  it  is  plain  that  Dr. 
Gadow  ignores  the  influence  of  the  nervous  system,  and  attributes  the 
sole  power  of  adaptation  to  the  cells  themselves,  while  the  foregoing 
remarks  on  the  nervous  system,  and  other  facts  which  I  shall  advance 
farther  on,  go  to  show  that  the  power  of  adaptation  does  not  belong 
to  the  cells  themselves,  but  to  the  correlative  influence  of  the  nervous 
system.  If  we  restrict  ourselves  to  the  view  suggested  by  Dr.  Gadow's 
remarks,  as  in  fact  all  Neo-Lamarckians  seem  to  do,  there  is  little 
wonder  that  the  origin  of  correlative  adaptations,  as  on  the  neck  and 
other  parts  of  the  giraffe,  presents  a  formidable  difficulty,  and  appears 
almost  inscrutable.  The  idea  that  life  is  due  to  some  unknown  and 
indefinable  principle  inherent  in  the  cells  themselves,  pervades  the 
whole  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  work  on  "  Biology,"  and  finds  its  highest 
presentation  in  the  writings  of  Virchow,  so  prominently  brought  to  our 
notice  in  his  recent  Huxley  lecture.  In  his  chapter  on  the  dynamic 
elements  of  life  (in  the  "  Principles  of  Biology  "),  Mr.  Spencer  men- 
tions the  fact  that  an  excised  liver,  and  in  a  more  forcible  way  the 
excised  heart,  of  a  cold-blooded  animal  continues  to  function  after 
detachment  from  the  organism,  but  does  not  attribute  such  action  to 
the  nervous  ganglia  connected  therewith.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  such  a  continuation  of  function  occurs,  as  regards  the  heart  in 
particular,  only  in  the  lower  organisms,1  i.e.  animals  in  which  the 
nervous  system  and  hence  power  is  not  so  thoroughly  centralised 
in  the  brain  as  in  higher  forms.  In  fact,  there  are  more  semi- 
independent  ganglia  dispersed  through  the  organism.  In  the  vegetable 
world  we  see  a  somewhat  analogous  distribution  of  independent  centres, 
e.g.  in  the  Begonia.  Prof.  Waller  ("  Text-Book  of  Physiology  ")  thus 
writes  :  "  Protoplasm  is  excitable.  When  any  part  of  a  lump  of  proto- 
plasm is  excited,  the  lump  moves.  When  many  lumps  of  protoplasm 
are  gathered  together  into  a  homogeneous  mass,  excitations  and  move- 
ments may  be  transmitted  from  lump  to  lump  in  all  directions.  With 
higher  organisation  of  the  mass,  differences  of  function  and  structure 

1  With  proper  precautions  the  excised  heart  of  a  mammal  may  continue  beating  for 
some  time. — En. 


1 899]       NER  VOUS  S\ 'STEM  IN  ORGANIC  E  VOI UTION         2 5 7 

begin  to  make  their  appearance.  Excitability,  while  still  pervading 
the  whole  organism,  becomes  localised  with  greater  intensity  in  some 
parts  than  in  others  ;  along  some  lines  than  along  others  (sense  organs, 
nerves,  and  nerve-centres) ;  in  other  parts  contractibility  becomes  the 
salient  character  (muscles).  To  illustrate  this  progressive  elaboration 
of  a  nervous  system,  we  may  select — (1)  an  amoeba;  (2)  a  jelly-fish; 
(3)  a  frog;  (4)  a  man."  Thus  we  learn  how  gradually  the  nervous 
system  is  evolved,  becoming,  as  organisation  increases,  more  and  more 
specialised  in  diversity  of  function,  from,  let  us  assume,  invisible 
threads  of  granular  protoplasm  to  the  gray  matter  of  the  human  brain, 
and  the  associated  prolongations  throughout  the  body.  We  must  also 
recognise  that  the  nervous  energy  is  gradually  diversified  and  intensi- 
fied as  evolution  proceeds  upward,  from  a  mere  automatic  action  in 
the  protozoon,  to  the  varied  and  diversified  functions  of  man,  mental 
as  well  as  physical. 

In  his  "  Principles  of  Biology,"  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  says :  "  In 
whatever  way  it  is  formulated,  or  by  whatever  language  it  is  obscured, 
this  ascription  of  organic  evolution  to  some  natural  aptitude  possessed 
by  organisms,  or  miraculously  imposed  on  them,  is  unphilosophical. 
It  is  an  assumption  no  more  tenable  than  the  assumption  of  special 
creation,  of  which,  indeed,  it  is  a  modification,  differing  only  by  the 
fusion  of  separate  unknown  processes  into  a  continuous  process."  It 
seems  to  me  that,  in  making  the  above  statement,  Mr.  Spencer  wholly 
overlooks  the  power  of  the  nervous  system  in  rendering  organisms 
capable  of  reacting  to  the  influences  of  the  environment.  We  may 
confidently  ask,  if  the  organism  does  not  possess  such  a  function,  to 
what  must  we  attribute  the  power  of  reaction  ?  for  unless  we  do 
recognise  such  a  power  inherent  in  the  organism,  rendering  it  capable 
of  being  gradually  modified  in  relation  to  its  needs,  wants,  or  desires, 
and  the  incident  forces  of  the  environment,  the  only  alternative 
is  to  believe  in  a  power  otherwise  derived,  i.e.  in  special  creation  or 
creations. 

In  addition  to  the  evidence  already  adduced,  I  may  take  as  an 
illustration  of  the  power  of  the  organism  to  respond  to  its  needs  in  a 
definite  way,  Loeb's  experiments  to  produce  heteromorphosis,  as  cited 
in  "  The  Biological  Problem  of  To-day,"  by  Hertwig.  "  In  Tubularia 
mesemhryantlicmum,  a  hydroid  polyp,  there  are  stalk,  root,  and  polyp- 
head.  If  one  cut  oft1  the  head,  a  new  head  will  be  formed  in  a  few 
days,  this  being  a  case  of  regeneration.  On  the  other  hand,  a  hetero- 
morphosis may  be  produced  by  modifying  the  experiment  as  follows  : — 
Both  root  and  head  must  be  cut  off  from  the  stem  ;  if  the  lopped 
piece  of  the  stem  be  stuck  in  the  sand  of  the  aquarium  by  the  end 
that  bore  the  head,  then  the  original  aboral  pole,  in  a  few  days,  pro- 
duces a  head ;  if  the  lopped  piece  of  stem  be  supported  horizontally 
in  the  water,  then  each  end  produces  a  head."  Hertwig  goes  on  to 
give  illustrations  to  show  how,  in  other  organisms,  heads,  tentacles,  and 


258  R.  R  LICORISH  [october 

eye-spots  may  be  induced  to  grow  if  steps  be  taken  to  initiate  the 
changes.  Here  we  have  evidence  as  to  how  the  inherent  power  of  the 
organism — not  the  cells — may  respond  in  a  definite  direction  to  fulfil 
its  requirements. 

In  the  evolution  of  the  nervous  system  we  must  recognise  two 
stages  of  development,  the  one  gradually  merging  into  the  other.  As 
Wilson  says  in  his  "  Zoology  " :  "  In  the  lower  or  invertebrate  forms 
of  life,  the  nervous  apparatus  may  be  considered  to  be  almost  wholly 
occupied  in  the  reception  of  the  ordinary  sensations  which  minister  to 
the  wants  and  necessities  of  existence,  without  any  active  or  intelligent 
appreciation  of  the  causes  or  results  of  the  sensations  thus  conveyed. 
In  the  Vertebrata,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find  the  higher  perfection 
of  the  correlative  apparatus  associated  with  powers  which  place  the 
organism  far  above  the  rank  and  relations  of  a  piece  of  automatic 
mechanism."  We  accordingly  notice  this  specialisation  of  the  cor- 
relative powers  in  these  higher  forms,  evincing  itself  in  the  possession 
of  a  power  of  appreciation  of  the  origin  of  sensations  known  as  "  in- 
telligence "  ;  whilst,  in  virtue  of  this  latter  feature,  we  find  another 
and  distinctive  power  superadded,  which  is  devoted  to  the  regulation 
of  the  movements  of  the  body,  and  which  is  known  as  the  power  of 
"  volition  "  or  "  will."  Now,  it  is  the  possession  of  these  varied  and 
distinctive  features,  due  in  the  lower  orders  to  reflex  nerve  action,  and 
in  the  higher  to  a  species  of  intelligence,  that  led  Lamarck  to  denote 
as  needs,  wants,  or  desires  the  processes  through  which  animals  satisfy 
the  physical  wants  of  their  bodies.  For  whilst,  in  the  lower,  that 
process  by  which  the  exigencies  of  the  organism  are  satisfied,  may  be 
considered  as  in  response  to  a  need,  as  in  the  vegetable  world ;  in  the 
higher,  a  species  of  will  is  manifested,  as  the  will  for  food,  etc.,  and 
this  may  certainly  be  construed  as  a  desire. 

Professor  Conklin,  in  an  able  article  on  the  factors  of  organic 
evolution  (in  "Footnotes  of  Evolution,"  by  Professor  Jordan),  has 
arrived  at  some  inconclusive  deductions,  under  the  head  "  Use  and 
Disuse."  He  remarks :  "  I  take  an  example  which  will  serve  as  an 
illustration  of  a  whole  class.  Jackson  says  that  the  elongated  siphon 
of  My  a,  the  long-necked  clam,  is  due  to  the  habit  of  burrowing  in  the 
mud ;  or,  to  quote  his  own  words,  '  It  seems  very  evident  that  the 
long  siphon  of  this  genus  was  brought  about  by  the  effort  to  reach 
the  surface  induced  by  the  habit  of  deep  burial.'  It  certainly  would 
be  pertinent  to  inquire  (asks  Professor  Conklin)  where  it  got  this 
habit,  and  how  it  happened  to  be  transmitted.  It  is  surely  as  difficult 
to  explain  the  acquisition  and  inheritance  of  habits,  the  basis  of  which 
we  do  not  know,  as  it  is  to  explain  the  acquisition  and  inheritance  of 
structure  which  are  tangible  and  visible."  That  Professor  Conklin 
does  not  understand  the  acquisition  of  habits  shows  clearly  that  he 
does  not  understand  Lamarck.  I  have  already  in  these  pages  explained 
my  interpretation   of  the   nature    of    functions,   but    my  point   may 


1899]       NER  VO  US  S  YSTEM  IN  OR GANIC  E  VOL  UTION         2  5 9 

be  further  illustrated  in  this  way: — The  functions  of  organisms, 
especially  the  higher  ones,  are  divided  into  two  sets — the  first  "  vital" 
the  second  "  organic."  The  "  vital  functions  "  are  those  of  nutrition, 
reproduction  and  protection,  those  on  which  the  life  of  the  individual 
and  the  perpetuation  of  the  species  depend,  and  which  in  the  higher 
organisms  are  satisfied  through  desire.  On  the  other  hand,  the  "organic 
functions  "  depend  on  the  structure  of  the  special  organs.  Thus,  for 
instance,  in  respiration,  the  exchange  of  gases  is  effected  according 
to  the  special  structure  of  the  breathing  organs.  Now  all  habits  of 
animals  are  acquired  through  the  vital  functions  originating,  either  as 
a  reflex  action  as  in  the  lower,  or  in  response  to  desire  as  in  the  higher 
orders.  Singularly  enough  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  instead  of  recognis- 
ing the  importance  of  the  acquisition  of  habits,  has  discussed  the 
matter  under  the  head  "  distribution."  Now,  whilst'  the  distribution 
of  animals  does  lead  to  the  acquisition  of  new  habits,  it  is  only  an 
indirect  cause,  the  direct  cause  being  the  efforts  made  by  the  animals 
themselves  to  suit  their  life  to  the  new  circumstances.  And  they  do 
this  to  satisfy  their  vital  functions — in  particular,  that  of  nutrition. 
There  are  woodpeckers  in  the  United  States  that  feed  on  fruit,  and 
Darwin  saw  woodpeckers  in  Patagonia  feeding  on  insects  in  the  air. 
How  was  the  new  habit  of  feeding  on  other  than  their  customary  food 
acquired  ?  Clearly  in  their  desire  to  satisfy  the  craving  for  food. 
Darwin  also  saw  and  examined  certain  birds,  originally  webbed, 
showing  the  beginning  of  web-disappearance.  But,  and  here  we  see 
the  significance  of  such  a  fact,  the  birds  in  which  he  saw  such  a 
beginning  of  web-disappearance  had  become  habituated  to  another 
mode  of  life  than  that  on  water.  They  had  then  acquired  a  new 
habit  of  life,  and  through  disuse  the  web  had  begun  to  disappear. 
We  thus  learn  that  the  habits  of  animals,  whether  through  reflex 
actions  as  in  the  lower  organisms  and  as  in  plants,  or  in  the  higher 
orders  in  response  to  the  desire  to  satisfy  the  vital  functions  on  which 
the  life  and  perpetuation  of  the  species  depend,  are  the  results  of  the 
demands  which  the  exigencies  of  the  organism  require  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  vital  functions.  These  demands  of  the  organism  Lamarck 
clearly  understood ;  and  why,  in  the  present  day,  biologists  fail  to 
consider  them  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  me.  Not  to  recognise  them 
in  the  light  in  which  Lamarck,  and  doubtless  Goethe  too,  recognised 
them,  renders  the  doctrine  of  organic  evolution  less  intelligible,  and 
thus  more  difficult  to  harmonise  with  other  truths. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  question :  Why,  and  how,  are  the  modi- 
fications functionally  produced  by  change  of  habits  inherited  ?  As 
already  stated,  I  distinguish  between  the  Neo-Lamarckians  and  the 
true  Lamarckians  in  this  way.  The  former  believe  in  the  inheritance 
of  functional  modifications,  but  only  as  brought  about  through  cell- 
activity,  thus  failing  to  see  how  correlative  parts  are  modified ;  whereas 
the  secret  of  the  true  Lamarckian's  position  is,  that  he  understands 


260  R.  F.  LICORISH  [octobek 

both  how  separate  parts  as  well  as  correlative  parts  are  modified. 
Present-day  knowledge  goes  to  show  that  such  changes  are  brought 
about  through  the  co-operative  influence  of  the  correlative  brain 
centres.  Yet,  strange  it  is  that  the  leader  of  the  Neo-Lamarckians, 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  while  he  cannot  see  how  natural  selection  can 
produce  such  changes  as  are  shown  in  the  neck,  etc.,  of  the  elk,  has  to 
fall  back  on  natural  selection  to  explain  the  modifications  shown  in 
the  fore-quarters  of  the  giraffe,  a  more  difficult  matter  than  the  elk's 
neck  to  bring  under  the  influence  of  natural  selection.  If  the  changes 
in  the  elk's  neck  cannot  be  explained  b)T  natural  selection,  how  can 
the  parts  of  the  giraffe,  a  more  marked  form  of  correlative  function 
change,  be  so  explained  ?  If  natural  selection  is  to  be  ruled  out  as 
regards  the  elk's  neck,  it  must  more  surely  be  ruled  out  as  regards  the 
giraffe. 

I  have  already  stated  that  Weismann,  like  a  true  Lamarckian, 
attributes  variations  to  the  influences  of  the  environment  on  the  germ- 
plasm  during  the  ontogenetic  development  of  the  body.  That  being 
granted,  we  can  readily  perceive  how  change  of  habit  can  produce  in 
time  change  of  characters  through  inheritance  of  the  functional  modi- 
fications brought  about  through  the  change  of  habit.  It  is  well  known 
that  many  animals  have,  not  one  source  of  food  supply,  but  several. 
A  bird  that  visits  a  flower  for  honey  may  also  be  insectivorous.  One 
source  of  food  supply  failing,  the  habit  of  constantly  satisfying  hunger 
from  another  is  taken  on ;  and  this,  by  change  in  the  method  of  feeding, 
leads  to  the  increase  of  use  of  certain  characters  which  co-operatively 
are  brought  into  action,  and  the  disuse  of  certain  other  characters.  In 
this  way  distribution  of  animals  or  change  of  conditions  in  situ  leads 
to  new  habits.  But  does  the  new  habit  modify  the  species  in  the 
direction  of  better  adaptation  to  the  new  mode  of  life  ?  I  would 
answer  that  if  the  experiences  of  the  mother  influence  the  foetus,  and 
act  as  external  stimuli  on  the  germinal  cells,  as  is  allowed  by  "Weis- 
mann, we  must  see  that  changes  in  that  experience,  as  brought  about 
by  a  new  habit,  must  be  reflected  on  the  foetus,  producing  a  variation 
in  the  direction  of  better  adaptation.  And  this  process  of  better 
adaptation  in  each  successive  offspring  must,  in  time,  render  the 
species  fully  adapted  to  its  new  mode  of  life.  We  find  here  not  only 
the  cause  of  variation,  but  the  gradual  process  by  which  species 
through  a  change  of  habit  becomes  adapted  to  their  new  life.  As  the 
functional  changes  affect  characters,  new  species  are  produced.  Now, 
assuming  that  the  Neo-Darwinians  admit  this  modus  operandi  of  the 
formation  of  new  habits,  our  explanation  of  the  inheritance  of  func- 
tional modifications  of  characters  would  harmonise  the  two  schools, 
i.e.  if  we  allow  that  Weismann  represents  the  Neo-Darwinians. 

Let  us  now  consider  how  functional  changes,  as  brought  about 
by  a  change  of  habit,  modify  anatomically  the  characters  affected. 
It   must   be   plain  that   all   modifications   of  form   must    have   been 


1899]       NER  VO  US  S  J  'STEM  IN  ORGANIC  E  VOL  UTION         2  6 1 

wrought  by  change  in  the  environment,  as  otherwise  heredity  could 
never  have  any  characters  to  work  on.  If  that  is  not  allowed,  we 
must  fall  back  on  blind  chance,  or  on  the  insinuation  of  some  unknown 
power.  Changes  in  environment  can  only  be  partial,  since  a  complete 
change  would  destroy  all  organic  life.  But  where  changes  are  partial, 
and  extending  over  vast  periods  of  time,  great  changes  may  occur  in 
the  organism,  as  in  the  evolution  of  whales  and  seals  from  land 
animals.  Now,  where  there  are  changes  in  environment  leading  to 
new  habits  in  order  to  satisfy  the  vital  functions,  the  organs  or 
characters  affected  by  the  change  of  habit,  being  used  in  excess  of  their 
former  use,  are  further  developed,  i.e.  their  cellular  elements  are  in- 
creased, either  absolutely  or  relatively  or  both,  since  increase  of  use 
means  increase  of  nutrition.  But  the  cell  activity  is  brought  about, 
not  directly,  but  indirectly,  through  the  connection  with  the  nerve- 
centres.  Hence  the  increase  of  exercise  in  the  nerve-centre  leads  to 
increase  of  nutrition,  and  this  in  turn  to  increased  development  of  the 
nerve-centre.  Thus,  with  the  increase  of  function,  there  is  also  in- 
crease in  size  of  the  characters  affected,  and  of  the  brain  centres  pre- 
siding over  them.  Increased  use  of  a  muscle  leads  to  increase  in  size, 
and  the  brain  centre  of  the  muscles  must  also  be  changed  in  some 
way,  for  it  too  has  done  increased  work.  We  know  that  the  memory 
may  be  strengthened  by  exercise,  and  so  with  other  special  mental 
faculties.  So  too,  as  regards  the  special  senses,  the  sailor's  eyesight  is 
always  better  than  the  landsman's. 

It  is  important,  however,  to  remember  that  such  changes  take 
place  chiefly  in  the  young,  and  hence  the  importance  of  our  conten- 
tion that  the  condition  of  the  maternal  body — cells,  tissues,  and  organs 
— affects  the  vitality  of  the  developing  ovum.  The  maternal  con- 
ditions, acting  as  external  stimuli  to  the  ovum,  must,  as  Weismann 
admits,  affect  the  foetus,  and  I  argue  that  they  will  produce  such 
modifications  as  will  bring  the  latter  into  harmony  qualitatively  and 
quantitatively  with  the  maternal  body.  And  as  the  general  environ- 
ment reacts  on  the  mother,  and  the  mother  on  the  embryo,  it  must  be 
evident  that  the  general  environment  has  some  influence  on  the 
developing  germ  or  embryo.  Now  as  the  general  environment  of 
a  mother  in  her  successive  production  of  offspring  must  vary,  so  too 
must  the  offspring  vary. 

Assuming  that  the  nervous  system  is  to  the  fully-formed  organism 
what  the  germ-plasm  is  to  the  ovum,  we  must  see  that  there  must  be 
the  same  difference  between  the  cells  of  the  nervous  system  and  the 
cells  of  the  other  portion  of  the  organism  as  between  germ-cells  and 
somatic  cells,  for  whereas  the  nervous  system  represents  the  whole 
body,  a  multum  in  parvo,  and  can  induce  the  production  of  all  kinds 
of  cells,  the  somatic  cells  can  only  reproduce  through  the  nervous 
system  cells  of  their  own  kind.  The  egg-cell  contains,  as  Naegeli  says, 
all  active  specific  characters  as  truly  as  the  adult  organism.      What  I 


262  R.    F.    LICORISH  [OCTOBER  1899 

maintain  is  that  each  specific  centre  for  a  character  in  the  germ-cell 
is  represented  in  the  nervous  system  by  a  specific  centre  for  controlling 
such  a  character,  i.e.  that  the  specific  centre  in  the  germ-cell  has 
developed  into  a  specific  nerve-centre  in  the  central  nervous  system. 
It  is  only  in  this  way  that  we  can  recognise  the  unity  of  the  organism, 
and  can  understand  the  specific  morphological  characters  of  the 
organism. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  call  attention  to  a  passage  in  Prof.  Jordan's 
work,  "  Footnotes  of  Evolution,"  which  expresses  the  position  of 
Lamarckians  as  well  as  Neo-Darwinians.  "  The  fitness  by  which 
organisms  have  been  perpetuated  is  simply  obedience  or  adaptation. 
Those  which  survive  are  fitted  to  the  conditions  of  life.  In  other 
words,  they  are  obedient  to  those  conditions.  Hence  we  may  define 
the  process  as  one  of  the  survival  of  the  obedient."  Now  whilst,  as  I 
have  said,  the  above  expresses  well  the  conclusion  of  the  Lamarckians 
as  well  as  the  Darwinians,  the  different  standpoints  of  the  two 
schools  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  Darwinian  believes  that  obedi- 
ence is  at  first  restricted  to  the  few  in  which  favourable  variations 
occur,  and  gradually  through  the  production  of  more  and  more  of  such 
variations  to  the  many ;  whilst  the  Lamarckian,  recognising  that 
the  power  to  be  obedient  is  a  general  law  of  nature,  sees  the  obedient 
as  the  many,  the  disobedient  being  the  few  abnormal  ones.  Hence 
the  main  difference  between  the  two  schools  resolves  itself  into  this : 
The  Lamarckian  sees  a  general  law  of  obedience,  the  Darwinians  a  law 
of  opposition  leading  to  a  forced  obedience. 

If  obedience  is  through  natural  selection  operating  on  all  char- 
acters, it  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  that  favourable  variations 
as  regards  all  characters  can  be  present  at  the  same  time  and  in  the 
same  individual ;  if  such  should  not  be  the  case  it  must  lead  to  the 
perpetuation  of  unfavourable  variations  as  regards  the  unfavourable 
characters.  Again,  that  the  most  favourable  variations  are  weeded 
out  through  sexual  intermingling  is  proved  by  this  fact  which  is 
taking  place  constantly  in  all  tropical  countries.  If  the  product  of  a 
black  and  a  white  person — a  mulatto — with  the  favourable  feature  or 
character — the  brown  colour  —  intermarries  with  a  white,  and  the 
descendants  do  the  like,  the  favourable  character — the  brown  colour — 
gradually  disappears,  until  the  descendants  are  indistinguishable  from 
Europeans.  Here  the  favourable  character,  which  ought  to  have  been 
preserved  through  natural  selection,  is  gradually  weeded  out. 


Barbados,  W.  Indies, 
July  1899. 


The  Fauna  of  the  Sound. 

Abstracted  by  F.  A.  Bather  from  the  Swedish  of  Dr.  Einar  Lonnberg. 

In  two  papers,  entitled  "  Unclersbkningar  norande  Oresunds  djurlif," 
and  "  Fortsatta  undersbkningar,"  etc.,  and  issued  as  Mcddelandcn  frdn 
Kongl-Landtbriiksstyrelscn,  Nos.  43  and  49  (Upsala,  1898  and  1899), 
Dr.  Einar  Lbnnberg  has  published  the  results  of  some  researches  made 
by  him  during  June  1896,  July  1897,  and  August  and  September 
1898,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Swedish  Office  of  Agriculture 
(Landtbruksstyrelsen).  The  language  in  which  these  papers  are 
written,  as  well  as  the  place  of  their  publication,  must  prevent  the 
majority  of  English  readers  from  appreciating  their  considerable  in- 
terest. The  following  attempt  to  present  Dr.  Lonnberg's  general  con- 
clusions may  therefore  have  some  value. 

Oresund  is  the  narrow  tract  of  water  that  divides  Scania,  the 
southern  province  of  Sweden,  from  Sjalland,  the  island  on  which 
Copenhagen  stands.  Travellers  from  Denmark  to  Sweden  cross  its 
southern  end  as  they  go  by  steamer  from  Copenhagen  to  Malmo,  while 
its  northern  opening  is  seen  by  the  visitor  to  Elsinore.  The  Sound, 
as  we  usually  call  it,  forms  one  of  the  connections  between  two 
sharply  separated  provinces  of  marine  life — the  brackish  Baltic  and 
the  salt  Kattegat.  From  the  biological  point  of  view  it  must  be 
restricted  within  rather  narrower  limits  than  those  usually  assigned  to  it. 
Dr.  Lbnnberg  draws  the  northern  boundary  from  Hellebaek,  a  little 
north  of  Elsinore,  to  the  projecting  reef  of  Hittarp  on  the  opposite 
Swedish  coast.  The  southern  boundary  is  marked  by  a  broad  bank 
stretching  across  by  the  islands  of  Saltholm  and  Amager,  just  south 
of  Malmo  and  Copenhagen. 

It  is  of  course  the  case  that  the  Sound,  no  less  than  the  neigh- 
bouring seas,  has  been  the  subject  of  investigation  by  many  naturalists. 
The  Germans,  for  example,  have  their  "  Kommission  zur  wissenschaft- 
lichen  Untersuchung  der  Deutschen  Meere  in  Kiel,"  together  with  the 
"  Biologische  Anstalt  auf  Helgoland  "  ;  Denmark  has  published  "  Det 
videnskablige  Udbytte  af  Kanonbaaden  '  Hauchs '  Togter  i  de  Danske 
Have  inden  for  Skagen,"  and  the  reports  of  Dr.  C.  G.  J.  Petersen  from 
"  Den  Danske  biologiske  Station  "  ;  while    the   Norwegian  "  Nordhavs- 

263 


264  F.  A.  BATHER  [octobee 

expedition,"  and  the  writings  of  many  other  Scandinavian  naturalists, 
trench  more  or  less  upon  the  region  herein  considered.  Dr.  Lonnberg 
also  admits  that  his  time  and  means  have  both  been  limited.  He 
had  only  a  little  sailing-boat,  with  dredge  and  trawl  no  bigger  than 
could  be  worked  by  hand.  These  facts  add  to  the  suggestiveness  of 
his  results.  For,  if  he  has  been  able,  with  such  feeble  opportunity, 
to  add  to  the  list,  not  merely  of  the  Swedish  marine  fauna,  but  of 
forms  new  to  science  ;  if  his  work  already  enables  him  to  foreshadow 
conclusions  of  scientific  no  less  than  practical  interest,  then  it  is  clear 
that  there  is  room  for  continued  and  still  more  detailed  investigation. 
Considering  the  fluctuations  in  the  number  and  kinds  of  fish  that  are  said 
to  have  taken  place  in  the  Sound  during  this  century,  the  mere  list  of 
captures  has  a  certain  value  for  comparison  with  past  and  future 
lists.  Indeed  the  only  previous  list  is  that  which  Oersted  pub- 
lished so  long  ago  as  1844,  in  his  little  book  "De  regionibus 
marinis." 

In  a  short  introduction  Dr.  Lonnberg  discusses  the  conditions 
governing  the  distribution  of  life  in  such  a  region  as  Oresund.  The 
changes  of  wind  and  of  current,  which  so  frequently  take  place,  may 
in  a  day  or  two  completely  alter  the  composition  of  the  minute  surface 
fauna,  and  thus  induce  a  corresponding  migration  of  such  pelagic  fish 
as  herring  and  mackerel,  which  feed  on  these  idly  drifting  organisms. 
To  be  of  practical  value,  the  study  of  such  changes  must  continue 
from  day  to  day.  It  is  otherwise  with  the  sedentary  or  slowly  moving- 
life  of  the  bottom,  and  with  the  fish  that  feed  thereon,  such  as  cod 
and  flat-fish.  The  constituents  of  this  fauna,  abiding  in  the  same 
place  from  year  to  year,  must  be  suited  to  the  conditions  there  obtain- 
ing, and  must  be  able  to  survive  all  those  changes  in  salinity,  tem- 
perature, and  the  like  that  may  occur  in  the  various  seasons.  Slow 
geological  changes  may  have  caused  the  fauna  to  alter  slightly  from 
its  original  composition,  and  may  have  eliminated  some  of  its  earlier 
elements  ;  but  their  effect  is  more  likely  to  be  seen  in  a  less  favourable 
development  of  individuals.  Experiment  and  observation  have  shown 
that  many  marine  species  can  accommodate  themselves  to  a  slow 
reduction  of  salinity,  or  other  change  in  the  chemical  composition  of 
the  water,  although  they  may  show  signs  of  the  change  in  their  smaller 
size  or  less  calcified  skeletons.  A  difference  of  depth  is  not  so  im- 
portant, and  in  any  case  since  the  so-called  Littorina-a,gQ,  which  in 
the  Baltic  area  was  the  immediate  forerunner  of  present  conditions, 
the  amount  of  shallowing  has  not  exceeded  5  metres.  This,  on  the 
data  generally  accepted,  and  assuming  a  regularity  in  the  change, 
implies  a  lessening  in  depth  not  more  than  5  centimetres  a  century. 

It  follows  from  the  arguments  here  briefly  outlined  that  past 
fluctuations  in,  and  the  present  distribution  of,  what  one  may  call 
the  edible  fauna,  with  all  their  practical  effect  on  the  human  neigh- 
bours, may  be  best  interpreted  by  a  detailed  study  of  the  present  fauna, 


1899]  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE  SOUND  265 

and  of  the  nature  of  the  bottom,  in  which  latter  the  varying  character 
of  the  flora  must  be  included. 

Here  we  cannot  reprint  the  annotated  faunal  list  given  by  Dr. 
Lonnberg  ;  nor  is  this  needed,  since  the  universal  language  of  systematic 
zoology  will  enable  any  one  specially  interested  to  learn  from  the 
papers  themselves  what  species  have  been  found. 

The  list  of  fish  is  complete,  being  supplemented  from  other  sources 
than  Dr.  Lonnberg's  own  captures.  It  includes  98  species,  of  which 
92  are  purely  marine.  Of  these  latter,  41  are  southern  forms, 
stretching  down  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  never  passing  above  the 
Arctic  circle ;  3  0  are  northern  forms,  stretching  from  the  Arctic  seas 
no  farther  south  than  the  English  Channel ;  1 1  have  an  intermediate 
or  West-European  distribution  ;  while  10  have  a  wider  and  less  deter- 
mined range.  But  when  we  consider  the  distribution  of  those  fish 
that  are  permanent  inhabitants  of  the  Sound,  or  that  appear  there 
regularly  year  after  year,  the  proportions  are  reversed.  Such  species 
number  47,  and  of  them  14  are  southern,  22  northern,  6  intermediate, 
and  5  wide-ranging.  Comparison  with  neighbouring  areas  brings  out 
several  points  of  interest,  of  which  a  few  may  here  be  noted.  The 
fish  -  fauna  of  Helgoland  is  less  numerous  (78  species),  but  as  a 
whole  the  proportions  of  northern,  southern,  and  intermediate  forms 
are  about  the  same  as  for  Oresund.  Among  permanent  inhabitants, 
however,  Helgoland  reckons  a  larger  percentage  of  southern  forms. 
The  west  Baltic  has  a  fish-fauna  of  about  95  species.  Many  of  these 
are  fresh-water  forms,  of  which  only  a  few  occur  in  the  Sound.  Of 
the  salt-water  forms  almost  all  occur  in  the  Sound,  which  also  contains 
21  species  not  found  in  the  west  Baltic.  These  latter,  however,  are 
more  or  less  occasional  visitors,  and  of  them  1  0  are  southern,  3  northern, 
6  intermediate,  and  2  wide-ranging. 

In  this  fish-fauna  the  oldest  stock  consists  of  the  northern  species, 
which  could  live  in  these  regions  during  or  soon  after  the  glacial 
period.  Then,  too,  their  range  extended  farther  to  the  south,  so  that 
most  of  them  reached  the  coast  of  France,  and  some  got  even  as  far  as 
Spain.  For  others,  however,  such  as  Drepanopsetta  platcssoides,  the 
southern  limit  was  already  reached  in  the  Sound.  A  final  class  con- 
sists of  pure  relict  forms,  such  as  Lumpciuis  lampctriformis  and 
Cjjdogaster  liparis.  As  the  climate  improved,  species  of  southern 
origin  could  by  degrees  settle  in  the  Sound. 

The  occasional  visitors  in  the  fish-fauna  follow  the  various  kinds 
of  water  in  the  marine  currents ;  thus  the  southern  species  come  with 
the  warmer  and  Salter  water  in  summer  and  autumn.  When  the  con- 
ditions are  altered  by  an  influx  of  some  other  water,  also  when  the 
temperature  is  lowered,  many  of  these  fish  sicken  and  are  thrown  up 
on  the  beach,  so  that  just  before  winter  many  southern  fishes  are  found 
in  this  way.  The  southern  immigrants  are  observed  from  June  to 
December.      The  northern  species  that  come  with  currents  from  the 


266  F.  A.  BATHER  [october 

north,  are  usually  found  from  February  till  April.  For  all  these  fish 
the  Sound  forms,  as  it  were,  a  large  net  with  deep  and  wide  intake 
towards  the  north,  narrowing  funnel-wise  between  Helsingborg  and 
Elsinore,  but  widening  again  and  deepening  by  Hven  Island  and 
Landskrona ;  but  for  a  large  part  of  the  migrants  the  passage  is  com- 
pletely closed  by  the  sill-like  shoal  between  Malmo  and  Saltholm. 

Passing  to  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life,  Dr.  Lonnberg  mentions 
only  such  as  he  has  himself  observed,  and  gives  careful  notes  on  their 
habitats.  The  northerly  nature  of  the  fauna,  already  exemplified  by 
the  fish,  is  far  more  marked  among  these  less  wandering  groups. 

The  Osciclians  ''have  a  distinctly  Arctic  stamj)." 

Among  Mollusca,  the  bivalve  fauna  is  almost  entirely  northern. 
Of  32  species,  14  are  purely  northern,  while  all  the  rest  have  been 
recorded  from  Arctic  Norway.  Of  the  22  prosobranch  gastropods,  9 
are  northern,  8  wide-ranging  but  chiefly  northern,  2  wide- 
ranging  but  chiefly  southern,  although  they  are  found  at  Lofoden 
as  well  as  among  glacial  fossils ;  3  alone  are  purely  southern 
forms.  Of  the  4  shell  -  bearing  opisthobranch  gastropods,  1  is 
purely  southern,  but  the  3  others,  though  having  a  southerly  dis- 
tribution, are  found  in  Arctic  regions.  The  3  nudibranchs  are  all 
northern.  Three  of  the  chitons  are  purely  northern ;  the  2  others 
wide-ranging,  but  do  not  reach  farther  north  than  Lofoden.  In  short, 
of  all  the  68  molluscan  species,  42-66  per  cent  are  purely  northern; 
the  same  proportion  stretches  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Arctic 
seas;  8*82  per  cent  find  their  northern  limit  at  Lofoden;  only  5#88 
per  cent  are  purely  southern.  A  comparison  of  the  measurements  of 
55  shell-bearing  species  from  Oresund,  the  Kattegat,  Arctic  Norway, 
Kiel  Bay,  and  the  Mediterranean,  gives  the  following  results.  The 
molluscs  of  the  Sound  are,  as  a  rule,  smaller  than  those  of  the 
Kattegat ;  those  that  are  larger  or  of  equal  size  are  all  Arctic  forms. 
Compared  with  the  molluscs  of  Arctic  Norway,  those  of  the  Sound  are 
smaller  no  more  often  than  they  are  the  larger,  or  of  equal  size.  The 
molluscs  of  the  Mediterranean  are  usually  larger  than  those  of  the 
Sound,  but  the  contrary  is  sometimes  the  case.  The  molluscs  of  the 
Kattegat  are  generally  larger  than  those  of  Arctic  Norway.  Species 
that  are  common  to  the  Kattegat  and  the  Mediterranean  are  twice  as 
often  the  larger  in  the  Kattegat.  This  shows  that  salinity  alone  is 
not  the  effective  factor  in  this  case,  but  that  other  causes  co-operate. 

Among  1 6  species  of  the  higher  Crustacea,  7  are  northern ;  4 
wride-ranging  and  reaching  the  Arctic;  3  are  west  European;  and  2  purely 
southern. 

Of  the  41  or  44  species  of  Chaetopoda  found  by  Dr.  Lonnberg 
within  the  Sound  as  restricted  by  him,  no  less  than  25  are  purely 
northern ;   1 2  are  wide-ranging,  but  at  least  two-thirds  of  these  have 


1899]  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE  SOUND  267 

been  found  off  Greenland ;  only  2  or  3  are  southern,  and  2  inter- 
mediate. The  northern  character  is  even  more  manifest  when  one 
includes  all  species  recorded  in  literature  as  found  in  the  Sound,  many 
of  them,  however,  at  its  northern  boundary.  Fully  half  of  the  48  are 
northern,  and  only  one  purely  southern.  The  Chaetopod  faunas  of  the 
Skagerack  and  Kattegat,  on  the  other  hand,  contain  more  southern 
elements,  and  especially  a  large  number  of  species  with  west  European 
distribution — neither  Arctic  nor  southern — a  group  that  is  but  sparingly 
represented  in  the  Sound. 

The  Bryozoa  have  not  yet  been  thoroughly  worked  out ;  but  of  the 
9  species  found,  as  well  as  those  previously  recorded,  Merribranipora 
membranacea  is  the  only  purely  southern  form ;  the  rest  are  either 
northern  or  wide-ranging,  but  for  the  most  part  found  in  Arctic  seas. 

The  Echinoderma,  of  which  there  are  19  species,  have  a  distinctly 
northern  character.  The  3  holothurians  are  northern.  Five  starfish 
are  northern  ;  the  sixth,  Astcrias  hispida,  now  first  found  in  Swedish 
waters,  is  a  Shetland  form.  Of  the  sea-urchins,  1  is  northern  and  2 
wide-ranging.  The  brittle-stars  comprise  3  northern  forms,  2  wide- 
ranging,  but  tending  more  to  the  south,  and  2  (alone  among  the 
Echinoderms)  purely  southern.  There  are  in  the  Kattegat  18  more 
species  of  Echinoderma  than  in  the  Sound,  and  it  is  most  suggestive 
that  of  these  8  are  southern,  7  intermediate,  1  wide-ranging,  and  only 
2  northern.  Obviously  the  Echinoderm-fauna  of  the  Kattegat  is  far 
more  southern  in  its  composition  than  is  that  of  the  Sound.  So,  too, 
among  the  29  species  of  Echinoderma,  known  from  Helgoland,  only  9 
are  northern,  the  rest  being  wide-ranging  or  southern  forms. 

Only  16  species  of  Hydroidea  have  as  yet  been  determined,  but 
these  add  Acaulis  primariw  and  Cuspidclla  grandis  to  the  list  of  the 
Swedish  fauna,  while  Lovcnella  producta  and  Opercular  ella  lacerata  have 
not  before  been  found  in  Oresimd.  This  part  of  the  fauna  has  a 
northern  character,  more  pronounced  than  that  of  Bohuslan,  for 
example,  from  which,  though  it  lies  farther  north,  many  of  the 
northern  species  are  absent. 

The  list  contains  notes  on  other  zoological  groups,  but  nothing  of 
sufficient  importance  to  be  mentioned  in  this  short  abstract.  The 
foregoing  account  is  based  on  Dr.  Lonnberg's  first  and  larger  paper ; 
the  second  paper  adds  only  three  or  four  species,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  the  new  Hydroid,  Clava  glomerata  (see  Zoologischcr  Anzeiger, 
No.  578). 

As  already  observed,  the  chief  factor  in  the  distribution  of  species 
within  the  Sound  itself  is  the  nature  of  the  bottom.  Dr.  Lonnbera' 
distinguishes  the  following  regions  and  sub-regions :  Shore-regions ; 
Zostera-region ;  Alga-region,  with  Laminarian,  Furcellarian,  and  Coral- 
line sub-regions ;  deep-water,  with  bottom  either  of  dead  zostera,  or 
mixed,  or  sand,  or  clay.  Of  course  each  of  these  divisions  merges  into 
those  adjoining,  but  on  the  whole  they  may  be  characterised  thus : — 


268  F.  A.  BATHER  [october 

1.  Shore-region,  reaches  to  a  depth  of  2  or  3  metres,  with  sandy- 
bottom  and  a  vegetation  of  Ulvaceae,  Fucus,  Chorda,  a  number  of  fine, 
thread-like  green  algae,  Potamogeton  pectinatus,  and  some  zostera.  For 
the  list  of  characteristic  species,  reference  must  be  made  to  the  original 
paper.      Most  of  them  pass  far  up  into  the  Baltic. 

2.  Zostera-region,  usually  with  sandy  bottom  and  zostera,  from  3 
to  15  metres  deep. 

3.  Alga-region,  broadly  speaking  from  15  to  20  metres  deep, 
divided  into  (a)  Laminaria  sub-region,  usually  with  a  soft  bottom  of 
mud,  often  mixed  with  stones  and  shells ;  (&)  Furcellaria  sub-region, 
forming  thick  carpets  with  admixture  of  various  red  algae ;  (c)  Coral- 
line sub-region,  with  calcareous  and  red  algae  on  a  stone  bottom.  This 
last  is  more  distinct  in  the  nature  of  the  bottom,  and  has  a  fauna  more 
peculiar  to  itself,  including  many  chitons. 

4.  Deeper  water,  without  vegetation,  usually  outside  the  20  metre 
line,  subdivided  thus  :  (a)  dead  zostera  bottom,  clayey  or  muddy  with 
many  dead  leaves  of  zostera,  which  give  it  firmness  and  serve  as  food 
for  several  animals.  This  usually  conies  next  to  the  Alga-region,  and 
may  reach  a  depth  of  33  metres.  When  the  zostera  leaves  are  fewer 
and  the  clay  mixed  with  sand,  it  passes  over  into  (b)  mixed  bottom, 
which  often  contains  many  shells  in  a  floor  of  sand  and  clay  mingled 
in  varying  proportions ;  thus  it  passes  into  the  two  following :  (c)  sand 
bottom,  often  with  shells,  shell  gravel,  or  shell  sand ;  this  is  found  in 
places  where  the  current  is  strong  enough  to  sweep  away  the  finer  mud, 
which  goes  to  form  the  chief  part  of  (d)  clay  or  clay-mud ;  this,  which 
is  found  in  the  greatest  depths,  is  loose  or  oozy,  but  has  no  evil 
odour  of  decomposing  organic  substances. 

In  the  Sound  these  various  kinds  of  bottom  do  not,  as  in  more 
open  seas,  succeed  one  another  from  shallower  to  deeper  water,  but 
depend  rather  on  the  currents,  so  that  sand  or  mixed  bottom  may  be 
found  at  greater  depths  than  clay  or  mud. 

From  the  facts  given  at  length  in  the  original  papers  it  appears 
that  almost  every  species  of  animal  shows  a  preference  for  one  par- 
ticular kind  of  bottom.  In  many  cases  this  is  because  they  are  suited 
to  a  certain  mode  of  life,  so  that  if,  after  the  breeding  period,  the  larvae 
sink  on  to  a  spot  with  unsuitable  bottom  or  where  other  conditions  of 
life  obtain,  the  animals  die  off  at  once  or  in  a  short  time.  For  instance, 
if  mud  from  the  depths  be  passed  through  a  fine  sieve,  dead  shells  of 
young  Astarte  are  often  found,  sometimes  in  great  numbers.  This 
shows  that  Astarte  cannot  exist  on  the  soft  mud.  Its  shell  is  too 
heavy  :  it  sinks  and  perishes.  On  the  other  hand,  its  thick  shell  with 
stout  epidermis  is  fitted  to  withstand  rubbing  and  knocking  against 
sand  and  pebbles,  and  a  bottom  of  such  nature  is  firm  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  shell  from  sinking  into  it.  Leda,  on  the  contrary,  with  its 
shell  swollen  up  in  front  and  beak-shaped  behind,  with  its  strong  foot 
spread  out  like  a  sheet,  is  well  equipped  for  living  and  boring  in  the 


1899]  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE  SOUND  269 

clay  :  so  too  is  Abra  with  its  thin  light  shell  and  long  siphon.  Cyprina 
also  is  prevented  by  its  almost  ball-shaped  shell  from  sinking  in  the 
clay ;  at  the  same  time  it  prefers  a  bottom  mixed  with  sand.  The 
long  arms  of  the  sandstar,  Arn/phiura,  and  the  felted  spines  on  the 
under  side  of  the  heart-urchin,  FJchinocardium,  must  also  bear  up  the 
animal's  body  on  a  loose  bottom.  Natica,  which  burrows  with  its  out- 
spread foot,  has  not  much  to  fear  from  clay,  though  it  usually  prefers 
some  other  kind  of  floor.  Buccinum  thrives  in  clay :  it  is  strong 
enough  to  work  itself  along  there.  Cardium  fasciatum  is  found  on  all 
sorts  of  bottom.  But  the  animals  that  do  best  in  the  clay  mud  are  a 
number  of  Chaetopods.  When,  however,  the  clay  is  made  firmer  by 
admixture  of  sand,  or  by  a  carpet  of  dead  zostera  leaves,  a  far  richer 
fauna  is  able  to  develop. 

Difference  of  depth  has  here  scarcely  any  effect  on  the  distribution 
of  species,  since  the  whole  Sound  is  so  shallow  that  it  would  come 
within  the  littoral  zone  as  usually  understood.  Such  difference  as 
there  is  has  an  indirect  influence  through  its  effect  on  the  water.  The 
southern  sill  and  the  narrowing  between  Saltholm  and  Scania  cause 
the  brackish  currents  from  the  Baltic  to  reach  right  to  the  bottom  ; 
but  as  the  Sound  widens  again  these  currents  broaden  and  thin  out, 
so  that  their  effects  do  not  stretch  so  deep.  Thus  the  bank  between 
Malmo  and  Saltholm  forms  a  complete  barrier  against  the  marine  forms ; 
the  southern  end  of  the  Sound  is  occupied  by  a  brackish  water  fauna, 
and  the  limit  between  this  and  the  deeper  salt  water  fauna  gradually 
rises  nearer  the  surface  as  it  approaches  the  northern  end  of  the  Sound. 
The  southerly  increase  of  conditions  unfavourable  to  a  purely  marine 
fauna  differentiates  the  whole  fauna  into  four  classes  according  to  the 
distance  to  which  each  penetrates  the  Sound. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  discuss  the  origin  of  the  fauna  of  the 
Sound.  We  have  seen  how,  in  class  after  class,  the  species  of  purely 
Arctic  or  partly  Arctic  distribution  outnumber  those  with  a  west 
European  or  more  southern  range.  We  have  noted  also  that  the  pro- 
portion of  northern  forms  is  greater  in  the  Sound  than  in  neighbouring- 
seas.  Further  than  this,  there  are  in  the  Sound  a  number  of  northern 
species  which  are  not  found  in  the  Kattegat  at  all,  or  only  in  its  most 
southerly  portions,  or  which,  if  they  do  occur  over  the  whole  Kattegat, 
are  not  found  in  any  quantity  till  one  comes  south.  The  Echinoderms 
furnish  specially  good  examples.  The  holothurian,  Phyllophorus 
pcllucidus,  is  fairly  common  in  the  Sound,  but  only  one  specimen  has 
ever  been  taken  in  the  Kattegat,  and  that  was  in  its  southerly  ex- 
tension. It  is  not  known  off  the  more  northerly  Bohustan.  But  this 
species  is  typically  Arctic ;  it  occurs  in  the  Norwegian  Finmark  and  at 
Spitsbergen,  and  specimens  found  there  cannot  be  distinguished  from 
those  dredged  in  the  Sound.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Phyllophorus  that 
occurs  off  western  Norway,  as  well  as  the  allied  English  form,  both 
differ  from  that  of  the  Sound.      Phyllophorus  drummondi,  also  taken  in 

18 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   92. 


270  FA.  BATHER  [october 

the  Sound,  is  another  Arctic  form  that,  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  increases 
in  number  towards  the  north ;  it  has  been  found  in  the  Kattegat  only 
at  Samso.  Another  holothurian,  Psoitis  phcmtapus,  does,  it  is  true, 
occur  in  various  parts  of  the  Kattegat,  but  is  more  usual  in  its  south- 
west corner,  and  is  common  in  the  mid-region  of  the  Sound.  The  same 
is  the  case  with  Cribrella  and  Solaster  endeca,  although  these  star-fishes 
are  not  quite  so  common  in  the  Sound.  Astcrias  muelleri  has  only 
been  observed  a  few  times  in  the  Kattegat,  and  then  in  its  southern 
portions ;  but  it  is  not  rare  in  the  Sound.  Crossaster  also  increases  iii 
number  towards  the  south.  Again,  a  common  brittle-star  of  the  Sound, 
Ophiopholis  aculeata,  is  rare  in  the  Kattegat  until  its  south-west  portions 
are  reached.  In  fact,  as  shown  by  C.  G.  J.  Petersen,  all  the  Arctic 
Echinoderms  of  the  Kattegat  are  concentrated  towards  the  south-west. 
Many  similar  examples  are  seen  among  the  Mollusca,  e.g.  Modiolaria 
nigra,  Modiola  and  Bela  trevelyana.  Astarte  borecdis  is  exceedingly 
rare  in  the  Kattegat  proper,  and  is  also  rare  in  southern  Norway,  but  is 
common  towards  the  Belt  and  in  the  Sound.  Chiton  albus  is  found 
only  in  the  southern  Kattegat,  the  Belt,  and  the  Sound,  C.  marmorens 
begins  to  be  common  below  Samso,  and  so  on.  It  would  take  too  long- 
to  go  through  all  the  other  classes  of  animals ;  one  can  just  allude  to 
such  purely  Arctic  forms  as  Lithodes  and  Mysis  oculata,  which  are  found 
in  the  Sound,  but  not  at  all,  or  very  rarely,  in  the  intervening  seas.  It 
is  clear  enough  that  a  large  number  of  Arctic  forms  occur  in  the  Sound 
(as  also  in  the  Belt)  far  removed  from  their  natural  area. 

How  is  the  existence  and  origin  of  this  Arctic  element  to  be 
explained  ?  There  are  two  possibilities.  Either  it  has  wandered  in 
recently  and  is  constantly  recruited,  or  it  has  persisted  here  from  a  by- 
gone age  when  conditions  differed  from  those  of  to-day  and  were  of  an 
Arctic  nature,  like  those  which  the  forms  in  question  now  find  in  their 
proper  home. 

The  first  hypothesis  seems  at  first  to  be  supported  by  the  existence 
of  marine  currents  which  every  year,  about  February  and  March,  bring 
water  from  Greenland  to  the  Skagerack  and  the  Kattegat.  The  fauna 
of  the  Sound  and  the  southern  Kattegat  might  therefore  be  recruited  by 
larval  forms  floated  across  from  Arctic  regions  in  these  currents.  But 
to  this  view  there  are  various  objections.  It  is  not  likely  that  a  larval 
form  should  float  in  the  water  long  enough  to  complete  the  journey 
from  Greenland  to  the  southern  Kattegat,  since  this  occupies  about 
half  a  year.  The  time  required  by  the  various  forms  to  pass  through 
their  pelagic  larval  stages  is  not  known  for  every  case,  but  it  can  hardly 
be  so  long  as  half  a  year.  Theel,  for  example,  has  shown  that  Echino- 
cyamus  needs  no  more  than  two  months  to  develop  from  the  egg  into  a 
sea-urchin  crawling  on  the  bottom.  Mortensen  has  observed  that 
masses  of  larvae  of  Asterias  rubens  and  Ophioglypha  texturata,  floating 
in  the  Limfjord,  remained  there  only  a  few  days.  The  same  author 
remarks  that  the  floating  larvae  of  Echinoderms  are  found  chiefly  near 


1S99]  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE  SOUND  271 

the  coasts,  and  do  not  belong  to  the   true  plankton  of  the  high  seas. 
The  Hensen   Plankton  -  expedition   only  once  got  as    many  as  three 
Echinoderm- larvae  at  any  distance  from  land.      Only  five  species  of 
Echinoderrn-larvae  were  found  out  in  the  Atlantic,  and  three  of  these 
were   in   the    Sargasso    Sea.1     Again,   this    first   hypothesis   does   not 
explain  why  it  is  that  these  Arctic  forms  should  be  found  in  Oresund  and 
not  in  other  places,  such  as .  the  northern  Kattegat,  where  the  oppor- 
tunities  for  their  development  seem  equally  favourable.       Moreover, 
many  of  the  forms  in  question   stretch  north-eastwards  along  Finmark 
to  Spitzbergen  and  the  Kara  Sea,  but  are  not  known  from  the  coasts  of 
Greenland :     such    are    Phyllophorus   pcllucidus,   P.   drummondi,    and 
Astcrias  mucllcri.      Some  species  of  the  Mollusca  too  are  absent  from 
Greenland,  e.g.  Beta  trcvclyana.      But   from   Spitzbergen  and   the   sur- 
rounding seas  no  current  leads  to  the  Kattegat.      Then,  too,  if  the 
first  hypothesis  were  true,  we  should  expect  to  find  many  other  Green- 
land species,  which,  as  it  happens,  are  absent  not  only  from  the  Sound 
but  also  from  the  Kattegat  and  Skagerack.      Of  twenty-nine  species  of 
Echinoderms  found  in  Greenland,  only  eight  occur  in  the  Kattegat  and 
the  Sound.      If  some  can  cross,  why  not  others  ?      Take  the  case  of 
Cucumaria  fremdosa,  a  holothurian  common  in   Greenland  waters,  and 
with  so  wide  a  distribution  that  it  stretches  down  America  as  far  as 
Massachusetts,  and  down  Europe  from  the  North  Cape  to  the  English 
Channel.      Yet  it  is  absent  from  Bohustiln,  the  Kattegat,  the  Sound,  and 
Helgoland.      This  is  a  strong  argument  against  the  Greenland  current 
theory.     A  still  more  forcible  objection  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  starfish  in  question  (Cribrclla,  Astcrias  muelleri,  Crossaster 
pcqywsus),  and  perhaps  other  of  the  Echinoderms,  have  no  pelagic  larval 
stage  at  all. 

It  is  clear  that  the  first  hypothesis  fails  us  at  many  points.  We 
have  then  to  consider  the  second,  and  to  inquire  how  long  and  where- 
fore these  forms  have  remained  in  a  district  so  isolated  from  the  rest  of 
their  area  of  distribution.  Two  main  groups  of  conditions  determine 
the  persistence  of  an  animal  in  a  given  locality.  One  group  includes 
the  external  chemical  and  physical  conditions  ;  the  other,  the  relations 
of  the  organic  world.  The  Sound,  therefore,  must  afford  conditions 
suited  to  the  existence  of  Arctic  animals,  and  at  the  same  time  less  suited 
to  the  more  southern  forms  with  which  they  have  to  struggle.  Arctic 
forms'  are  accustomed  to  a  low  temperature,  and  also  to  great  changes 
in   the   salinity   of   the  water  consequent   on  the   melting   of  the  ice. 

1  Two  considerations  seem  to  be  overlooked  by  Dr.  Lonnberg.  First,  the  fact  that  a 
species  can  develop  rapidly  does  not  prove  that  it  must.  Experiment  has  shown  that 
development  may  be  greatly  retarded  by  varying  the  conditions,  and,  for  all  we  know, 
the  necessary  stimulus  to  complete  development  may  be  wanting  in  the  current  from  Green- 
land so  long  as  it  is  far  from  land.  Secondly,  as  Alexander  Agassiz,  for  one,  has  insisted, 
Echinoderms  can  be  transported  in  other  than  the  larval  state  ;  the  young  sea-urchin  itself 
can  be  floated  along.  Especially  is  this  the  case  when  drift-wood  or  floating  sea-weed  comes 
to  their  aid. 


272  F.  A.  BATHER  [october 

Southern  forms,  on  the  contrary,  enjoy  a  comparatively  equable  and 
high  temperature  and  constantly  Salter  water.  Now,  the  water  of  the 
Sound  is  at  all  times  of  comparatively  low  salinity,  and  is,  under  the 
influence  of  winds  and  currents,  liable  to  still  greater  reduction.  More- 
over, its  shallowness,  the  influx  of  cold  Baltic  water,  and  the  cold 
winds  blowing  from  Sweden,  combine  to  lower  the  temperature  in 
winter  almost  to  freezing-point  to  great  depths,  if  not  to  the  very 
bottom  of  the  whole  Sound.  These  conditions  thus,  while  suited  to 
the  hardy  northern  species,  are  distinctly  unfavourable  to  the  more 
southern  forms  with  which  they  contest  the  ground. 

It  is  then  intelligible  that  Arctic  forms  should  continue  to  live  in 
the  Sound  ;  but,  since  they  have  not  entered  recently  and  are  not 
now  coming  in,  they  must  have  persisted  there  or  thereabouts  since  a 
time  when  Arctic  conditions  were  so  widely  extended  that  they  em- 
braced the  now  isolated  Sound  as  well  as  the  intervening  areas. 
That  took  place  during  late  glacial  times.  During  the  changes  that 
succeeded,  these  Arctic  forms  must  have  changed  their  home  and  given 
way  before  the  fresh-water  streams  from  the  Ancylus-sea, ; 1  but  though 
many  doubtless  perished,  a  number  of  forms  could  brave  it  out,  thanks 
to  their  power  of  resisting  brackish  water.  When  a  fresh  sinking  of  the 
bottom  of  the  Sound  let  the  salt  water  burst  afresh  into  the  Baltic,  the 
Arctic  forms  came  along  with  it  by  degrees,  into  the  Sound  and  the 
Belt,  and  perhaps  yet  further ;  in  this  way  they  withdrew  from  the 
contest  with  the  more  southern  forms  that  were  now  thronging  up  out 
in  the  Kattegat.  This  struggle  with  the  more  southern  and  more 
typically  marine  forms  was  then  for  a  time  even  harder  than  now,  since 
for  a  long  period  the  water  was  much  Salter  than  at  present,  so  that 
the  oyster,  Tapes,  and  other  forms  now  extinct  in  those  parts,  could 
thrive  there.  It  is  therefore  probable  that  it  was  just  at  that  time — 
the  Littorina  period — that  the  break  took  place  in  the  connection 
between  the  northern  and  principal  area  of  distribution  of  the  Arctic 
forms,  and  the  more  southern  isolated  districts,  such  as  the  Sound, 
where  those  forms  still  exist.  After  a  time  the  Kattegat  again  became 
less  salt,  and  a  part  of  the  southern  marine  forms  (Ostrca,  Tapes,  etc.) 
died  out.  Thus  began  the  existing  state  of  things,  in  which  the  Arctic 
forms  again  found  favourable  conditions  of  existence,  and  possibly  again 
extended  their  range. 

Thus  it  is  that,  in  the  existence  of  an  Arctic  element,  the  fauna  of 
the  Sound  presents  a  phenomenon  like  to  that  of  Gullmarsfjord  in 
Bohustan,  and  many  Norwegian  fjords,  in  which  Arctic  animals  are 
found  far  south  of  their  proper  limit.  Such  persistent  types  are  called 
relicts  ;  and  thus  the  fauna  of  the  Sound  may  to  a  certain  extent  be 
called  a  relict  fauna.  The  same  term  is  perhaps  also  applicable  to  the 
fauna  of  the  Belt.  The  conditions  in  these  sounds  are  in  a  way  like 
those  in  a  fjord.     In  both  cases  is  a  narrow,  enclosed  water  which  com- 

1  Occupying  more  or  less  the  district  of  the  present  Baltic. 


1899]  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE  SOUND  273 

municates  with  the  sea  at  one  end,  and  which  is  subject  to  a  varying 
influx,  in  the  one  case,  of  fresh  water,  in  the  other  of  brackish  water ; 
in  either  case  with  the  same  result.  Oresund  especially  is  like  a  fjord, 
since  the  bank  between  Malmo  and  Saltholm  forms  a  sill  which 
prevents  the  deeper  and  Salter  layers  of  water  from  flowing  right 
through  into  the  Baltic.  Those  are  the  conditions  that  in  great 
measure  explain  the  composition  of  the  fauna  of  the  Sound. 

The  first  paper  ends  with  "  some  words  on  the  vegetation  of 
Oresund."  Although  the  details  are  not  full  enough  for  any  argument 
to  be  based  on  them,  it  is  noteworthy  that  of  the  forms  mentioned 
only  two  are  lacking  within  the  polar  circle.  At  all  events  the  facts 
corroborate  the  views  above  expressed  regarding  the  origin  of  the  fauna 
of  the  Sound. 

The  second  paper  presents  a  more  detailed  study  of  the  extreme 
southern  portion  of  Oresund.  It  contains  many  facts  of  scientific  and 
practical  interest,  especially  concerning  the  herring.  But  here  we  can 
only  note  that  the  general  statements  and  explanations  of  the  former 
paper  are  fully  confirmed. 

British  Museum 
(Natural  History), 

London,  S.W. 


Suggestions  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Australian 

Flora. 

Continued  from  page  212. 

By  Spencer  Moore,  B.Sc,  F.L.S. 

Our  scanty  knowledge  of  the  geology  of  the  West  Australian 
desert  has  recently  been  materially  added  to  by  Mr.  Victor  Streich,1 
who  traversed  the  southern  part  of  the  desert  lying  between  Mount 
Squires  on  the  eastern  border  and  Yilgarn  on  the  west.  Mr.  Streich 
finds  that  Mesozoic  rocks,  covered  in  many  places  by  abundant  tertiary 
deposits,  extend  from  Mount  Squires  as  far  west  as  Queen  Victoria 
Springs,  except  in  one  place  where  Palaeozoic  cliffs  were  seen.  The 
rocks  regarded  as  Mesozoic  are  clay,  jasper-rock,  conglomerates,  and 
quartzite  sandstone,  and  they  are  assigned  to  this  age  on  lithological 
grounds  alone,  there  being  no  fossils  in  them,  but  their  lithological  and 
stratigraphical  features  being  the  same  as  in  the  typical  area  outside 
the  western  colony.  West  of  Queen  Victoria  Springs  there  are 
quartzite  ridges,  and  at  the  Fraser  Eange  hornblenclic  schists  are  met 
with.  From  the  Fraser  Eange  towards  Lake  Lefroy  and  the  Hampton 
Plain,  that  is  in  the  Coolgardie  district,  a  series  of  metamorphic  rocks 
are  met  with,  the  country  having  a  general  elevation  of  1200  to  1500 
feet  above  sea-level,  while  to  the  west  lies  an  immense  high  plateau, 
1300  to  1400  feet  above  the  sea,  terminating  at  the  steep  western 
escarpment  of  the  Darling  Eange  ;  there  are  several  formations  in  this 
plateau,  the  granitic  and  the  flanking  schistose  being  the  most  con- 
spicuous. The  sandy  flats  covered  with  efflorescent  salts  on  this 
plateau  represent,  Mr.  Streich  thinks,  depressions  of  the  granitic  uplands 
in  which  has  been  accumulated  the  saline  matter  remaining  over  from 
isolated  parts  of  the  ocean.  In  the  north-western  part  of  this  plateau 
the  Crystalline  hills  are  capped  with  desert  sandstone,  which  directly 
overlies  the  granite  and  is  invariably  horizontally  bedded.  Fossils  were 
not  found  in  this  sandstone,  which  Mr.  Streich  considers  to  be  probably 
identical  with  the    similarly   named   formation    of   Central   Australia. 

1   "The  Geology  of  the  Elder  Expedition,"  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  South 
Australia,  vol.  xvi. 

274 


October  1899]         ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  275 

The  granites  wherever  they  outcrop  bear  a  most  distinct  eruptive 
character,  elsewhere  they  are  overlain  by  rocks  of  Palaeozoic  or  Archean 
age,  composed  chiefly  of  hornblendic  schists  and  slates  in  different 
varieties,  and  themselves  overlain  by  feldspathic  schists  and  quartzites 
of  the  same  age,  with  talcose  and  micaceous  schists  and  siliceous 
ironstone. 

I  am  unable  to  add  anything  of  the  least  value  concerning  the 
northern  part  of  the  district  visited  by  me,  and  which  lies  beyond  the 
countiy  traversed  by  Mr.  Streich  ;  indeed,  a  fair  knowledge  of  British 
secondary  and  tertiary  deposits  is  a  most  inadequate  preparation  for 
effective  study  of  coeval  formations  in  Australia  whose  lithological 
characters  are  so  different  from  those  of  European  deposits.  I  will 
merely  remark  that  what,  judging  from  Mr.  Streich's  description, 
appear  to  be  secondary  rocks  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  country 
between  Mount  Flora  and  Lake  Darlot,  although  in  the  absence  of 
fossils  I  must  candidly  confess  I  considered  these  formations  to  be 
much  older.  What  I  have  specially  in  memory  are  sandstones  and 
conglomerates ;  and  the  so-called  "  breakaways "  of  the  country  in 
question  correspond  apparently  with  the  terraced  outcrops  of  Mesozoic 
rocks  Mr.  Streich  found  in  his  eastern  section.1  But  Mr.  Streich's 
observations  suffice  to  give  us  an  idea  of  the  changes  undergone  by  the 
southern  part  of  the  West  Australian  desert  since  earlier  Cretaceous 
times.  We  may  infer  from  them  a  westward  extension,  probably  in 
the  form  of  a  wide  arm  of  the  cretaceous  sea  which  divided  Australia 
into  an  eastern  and  a  western  island,  while  during  earlier  tertiary 
times  the  eastern  part  of  the  desert  would  seem  to  have  shared  the 
fate  of  Central  Australia,  that  is  to  say,  that  after  having  emerged 
from  the  waves,  submergence  again  took  place  while  the  tertiary  forma- 
tions were  being  deposited.  Whether  this  part  of  Australia  was 
subsequently  a  lacustrine  area  or  whether  it  was  dry  land,  does  not 
appear  from  the  evidence,  though  the  presence  of  desert  sandstone  near 
Yilgarn  suggests  the  former  condition.  The  western  part  of  the  desert 
was  above  water  during  Mesozoic  times,  and  if  the  Darling  con- 
glomerates be  Palaeozoic,  a  considerable  area  west  of  what  is  now  the 
desert  was  also  dry  land  during  these  times.  In  earlier  tertiary  times 
the  district  must,  in  its  eastern  part,  have  borne  the  character  of  an 
archipelago,  and  by  subsequent  upheaval  the  sea  was  divided  into  a 
number  of  inland  salt  lakes  which  gradually  underwent  desiccation. 

1  Altitudes  were  taken  during  the  course  of  this  expedition.  The  country  east  from 
Queen  Victoria  Springs  is  from  1000  to  1200  feet  above  sea-level,  thence  it  descends  to  the 
Springs  (830  feet),  and  rises  west  of  it  to  from  1200  to  1450  feet.  The  highest  point  of 
the  Fraser  Range  is  2010  feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  plateau  to  the  west  of  the  range,  as  lias 
been  already  mentioned,  1300  to  1400  feet,  while  Mount  Monger  near  Coolgardie  is  1700 
feet  above  sea-level.  A  plan  showing  the  elevation  of  the  country  between  the  Darling 
Range  and  Mount  Burgess,  the  work  of  "West  Australian  government  surveyors,  was 
issued  about  three  years  back  in  connection  with  the  proposed  Coolgardie  water-scheme.  It 
bears  out,  in  the  main,  so  much  of  the  above  statement  as  concerns  the  country  in  question. 


276  SPENCER  MOORE  [october 

It  will  be  well  here  to  refresh  the  reader's  memory  by  giving  a 
short  rSsumd  of  the  ideas  enumerated  with  such  acumen  by  Mr. 
Wallace.  The  fact  that  this  celebrated  naturalist's  conclusions  respect- 
ing the  geological  history  of  Australia  are  faulty,  should  in  no  wise 
render  us  blind  to  the  immense  ability  revealed  in  his  brilliant  pages, 
one's  only  regret  concerning  which  is  that  the  requisite  data  were  not 
to  hand  when  the  work  was  undertaken.  Mr.  Wallace  holds  that  at 
one  period,  perhaps  during  the  middle  or  latter  part  of  the  secondary 
epoch,  Australia  was  connected  with  land  lying  to  the  north,  whence 
it  received  the  ancestors  of  its  Monotremes  and  Marsupials.  As  he 
points  out,  for  such  a  connection  the  general  level  of  the  country 
would  have  to  be  raised  at  least  by  6000  feet,  and  this  would  change 
the  whole  country,  including  the  deserts  of  the  interior  as  well,  into  a 
mountainous  and  well-watered  region,  and  in  such  a  region  the  rich 
and  peculiar  flora  characteristic  of  the  south-west  (the  Autochthonian 
flora  of  Professor  Tate)  was  evolved.  While  the  western  flora  was  in 
process  of  evolution,  Eastern  Australia,  if  it  had  arisen  from  the  ocean, 
must  have  been  widely  separated  from  Western  Australia,  so  that  the 
present  continent  then  consisted  of  a  large  and  fertile  Western  Island, 
and  a  long  and  narrow  island  stretching  from  far  south  of  Tasmania  to 
New  Guinea,  with  one  or  more  large  islands  to  the  north.  A  depres- 
sion afterwards  occurred  which  buried  the  greater  part  of  North 
Australia  beneath  the  ocean ;  whence  it  emerged  in  the  middle  or 
latter  part  of  the  tertiary  period,  and  was  stocked  with  vegetation  from 
South- West  Australia  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  Inclo-Malaya  on  the 
other.  The  flora  of  Eastern  Australia  has  been  derived  from  three 
sources :  its  south  temperate  element  coming  from  Antarctic  lands, 
the  tropical  element  of  Polynesian  types  from  the  north  or  north- 
east, and  the  typical  Australian  from  across  the  dividing  strait. 
Thus  Mr.  Wallace  accounts  for  the  "  mixed "  flora  of  Eastern,  the 
isolated  flora  of  Western,  and  the  intermediate  [  flora  of  Northern 
Australia. 

There  are  several  objections  to  these  views  of  Mr.  Wallace.  One, 
the  existence  in  tertiary  times  of  a  sea  separating  the  eastern  and 
western  part  of  the  continent,  has,  as  we  have  seen,  no  warrant  from 
ascertained  facts  of  geology,  neither  is  there  evidence  for  the  sub- 
mergence of  Northern  Australia  on  a  wide  scale  at  the  period  when 
Mr.  Wallace  supposes  it  to  have  taken  place.  Moreover,  unless  the 
Mesozoic  upheaval  was  accompanied  by  much  differential  movement, 
the  upraised  area  would  be  converted,  not  into  a  mountainous  region, 
but  into  a  raised  plateau ;  while  if  mountain  ranges  of  the  sup- 
posed height  were  formed  at  all,  their  disappearance,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  insignificant  hills,  from  hundreds  of  miles  of  country  is 
wholly  inconceivable.  Besides,  unless  the  geological  record  be  extra- 
ordinarily defective,  the  date  of  the  introduction  of  Marsupials  is  too 
early,  seeing  that  remains  of  those  animals  are,  with  one  exception  in 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  277 

Tasmania  (Eocene),  not  met  with  earlier  than  the  Pliocene  age.1  Mr. 
Wallace,  it  will  be  observed,  adopts  the  conventional  notions  based  on 
present  distribution  to  which  objection  has  already  been  made.  On  this 
view,  if  an  Australian  genus  or  species  has  the  Indo-Malayan  facies 
and  is  found  outside  Australia,  or  is  closely  related  to  extra-Australian 
forms,  it  must  have  migrated  into  its  present  habitat ;  but  the  palpable 
errors  into  which  Mr.  Wallace  has  been  led  while  formulating  what  he 
believes  to  be  the  true  explanation  of  the  case,  may  perhaps  lead  us  to 
suspect  that  there  is  something  wrong  in  the  inference  from  present 
distribution  whereupon  his  views  are  founded. 

Professor  Tate's  conclusions  are  also  based  upon  notions  as  to 
present  distribution.  He  considers  the  Australian  flora  to  be  composed 
of  two  elements,  an  endemic  and  an  immigrant.  The  endemic  flora  is 
of  three  kinds :  Euronotian  in  the  south  and  east,  Autochthonian 
in  the  south-west,  and  Eremian  in  the  desert.  The  immigrant  flora 
has  two  constituents — an  Oriental,  dominant  in  the  littoral  tracts,  but 
mixed  there  with  typical  Australian  genera,  and  an  Andean,  restricted 
for  the  most  part  to  the  highlands  of  New  South  Wales,  Victoria  and 
Tasmania,  and  with  this  he  includes  north  temperate  forms,  that  is 
species  characteristic  of  north  temperate  regions.  The  Autochthonian 
element  was  dismembered  in  Cretaceous  times,  and  except  for  possible 
inter-communication  with  the  Euronotian  via  the  present  Eremian  region 
during  the  period  of  tertiary  submergence,  and  perhaps,  too,  by  means 
of  land  in  the  south  now  submerged,  it  has  remained  in  a  state  of 
isolation.  The  Euronotian  element  was  modified  during  early  tertiary 
times  by  the  irruption  of  a  primitive  cosmopolitan  flora.  The  Andean 
element  was  introduced  during  a  glacial  period,  and  since  then  the 
Eremian  flora  has  been  developed  from  Autochthonian  and  Euronotian 
constituents,  largely  modified  by  an  incursion  of  Indian  types,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  Euronotian  gained  accessions  from  the  Indo-Malayan 
province,  although  migrants  have  probably  been  received  at  all  times 
since  the  specialisation  of  the  flora  of  the  Indo-Malayan  province. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Professor  Tate  is  not  content  with  making 
Australia  a  sort  of  botanical  dumping  ground  during  recent  times,  but 
that  he  ascribes  a  migrant  character  to  the  primitive  tertiary  flora  as 
well.  Is  there  sufficient  justification  for  this  ?  The  primitive  tertiary 
flora  makes  its  appearance  to  all  intents  simultaneously  in  various 
parts  of  the  earth,  in  North  America,  in  Europe,  at  Perim,  in  Borneo, 
etc.,  as  well  as  in  Australia,  and  we  have  no  evidence  in  any  of  these 
cases  as  to  its  origin  in  one  of  these  localities,  and  of  its  migration 
into  others.  There  seems  also  no  conclusive  evidence  that  the  western 
part  of  Australia  was  absolutely  isolated  from  the  eastern  half  during 
earlier  tertiary  times,  and  it  seems  incredible,  unless  the  climate  of 
Western  has  greatly  differed  from  that  of  Eastern  Australia,  that  a  flora 
which  flourished   over  such  a  wide   area   as  we  have  indicated,  shall 

1  Tate,  "Inaugural  Address,"  p.  37. 


278  SPENCER  MOORE  [octobek 

have  failed  when  it  encountered  a  region  which,  except  for  some  fresh- 
water lakes,  interposed  no  bar  to  its  advance.  Moreover,  Professor 
Tate's  generalisation  is  the  more  unsatisfactory,  inasmuch  as  we  know 
nothing  about  the  tertiary  flora  of  Western  Australia. 

The  idea  that  the  primitive  tertiary  flora  was  an  immigrant  one,  so 
far  as  concerns  Australia,  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  exceedingly 
problematical.  The  wide  distribution  of  that  flora  seems  to  show  that, 
no  doubt  with  local  variations,  all  the  countries  inhabited  by  it  enjoyed 
an  approximately  similar  climate,  and  it  is  surely  no  extravagant 
hypothesis  that  Australia  played  a  commensurate  part  with  other 
countries  in  the  evolution  of  the  flora.  Certain  forms  were  of  extra- 
Australian  origin,  doubtless ;  but  we  are  not  justified  in  assuming  that 
one  part  of  the  great  area  peopled  by  that  curious  flora  was  shut  out 
from  the  drama  of  evolution  and  condemned  to  be  a  passive  recipient 
of  forms  generated  elsewhere. 

The  key  to  the  problem  before  us  seems  to  be  in  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  of  there  being  two  main  elements  in  the  Australian  flora, 
one  xerophilous,  the  other  hygrophilous,  and  by  applying  the  same 
classification  to  fossil  floras,  and  rea-ardino;  the  bulk  of  the  forms  having 
a  typical  Australian  facies  as  xerophilous  forms ;  the  disappearance 
from  countries  outside  Australia  of  natural  orders  and  genera  now 
confined  to  or  characteristic  of  it  can  be  accounted  for  without  assum- 
ing the  possession  of  some  natural  superiority  by  one  flora  over 
another.  Let  us  take  the  case  of  Europe,  which,  during  Miocene  and 
still  more  during  earlier  tertiary  times,  had  a  climate  considerably 
warmer  than  it  has  to-day.  Now  if,  under  these  circumstances,  the 
country  were  open  and  included  stretches  of  desert  (and  this  is  pre- 
cisely the  character  Mr.  Wallace  1  considers  it  had  during  the  Miocene 
age),  here  would  be  conditions  exactly  parallel  in  some  parts  of 
Australia,  particularly  Queensland,  to-day.  And  what  do  we  find 
there  ?  In  the  drier  parts  typical  Australian  species  flourish,  while 
species  of  Indo-Malayan  facies  predominate  elsewhere.  It  is  therefore 
probable  that  the  species  of  European  tertiary  floras  referred  to 
Australian  genera  were,  for  the  most  part,  dwellers  in  the  desert 
patches,  while  the  moister  places  were  occupied,  to  a  large  extent,  by 
forms  adapted  to  the  conditions  there  obtaining.  That  the  climate  of 
Europe  gradually  changed  during  tertiary  times  we  know,  not  only 
because  the  floras  indicate  decreasing  warmth  until  the  cold  Pliocene 
age  arrived,  but  because  the  great  upheavals  during  the  mountain- 
making  epochs  must  undoubtedly  have  affected,  in  a  marked  degree,  the 
near  annual  temperature  of  the  upraised  districts  and  of  the  countries 
in  their  neighbourhood.  The  diminution  of  its  temperature  would 
have  the  effect  of  rendering  Europe  better  fitted  to  herbaceous  vegeta- 
tion ;  it  would,  in  fact,  change  it  from  what  I  have  previously  called  a 
dendritic  to  a  herbaceous  zone,  and  thus  would  be  set  up  a  tendency 

1   "  Geog.  Diet,  of  Animals,"  vol.  i.  p.  117. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  A  USTRALIAN  FL  OR  A  2  7  9 

towards  the  elimination  of  xerophilous  forms.  But  it  is  not  certain 
that  the  xerophilous  vegetation  completely  disappeared  from  South 
Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  for  it  may  well  be — to  cite  a  few  instances 
only — that  some  Chenopodiaceae,  and  species  of  Hdicliymm  (and  a  fair 
number  of  these  still  survive  in  countries  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean), 
may  actually  be  descendants  from  herbaceous  members  of  the  xero- 
philous flora,  and  when  the  present  distribution  of  these  genera  is  borne 
in  mind,  there  is,  it  is  submitted,  at  least  some  probability  for  this 
view. 

An  objector  will,  of  course,  ask  why  it  is,  if  the  theory  above 
sketched  be  true,  that  we  do  not  now  find  species  of  Eucalyptus  and 
Banhsia  and  Dri/andsa  flourishing  in  deserts  north  of  the  equator. 
These,  he  will  remark,  are  precisely  the  places  to  which  a  xerophilous 
flora  would  retire  for  shelter  when  driven  by  stress  of  climate  from  its 
former  homes.  Undoubtedly  it  would  do  so,  if  the  desert  then  existed, 
and  if  no  stretch  of  sea  interposed  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  xerophilous 
species.  The  available  desert  country  reaches  from  the  Atlas  Moun- 
tains across  Arabia  into  Baluchistan,  but  from  this  the  Sahara  must 
be  deducted,  since  it  was,  till  quite  recent  times,  submerged  beneath 
the  sea,  and  until  the  nummulitic  limestone  emerged  from  the  waves, 
the  ocean  in  which  that  extensive  formation  was  laid  down  would  be 
an  effectual  barrier  to  migration.  Since  Eocene  times,  however,  this 
barrier  has  not  existed  ;  but  it  is  not  clear  that  Arabia  and  the  drought- 
stricken  regions  bordering  on  it  were  deserts  at  the  time  when  the  two 
floras,  xerophilous  and  hygrophilous,  were  engaged  in  their  life-and- 
death  struggle.  If  Perim  can  be  taken  as  a  guide — and  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  be- — there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
Arabia  enjoyed,  in  Eocene  times,  a  climate  much  like  that  of  Europe ; 
and  all  we  have  to  suppose  is  that  the  same  change  went  on  there  as 
in  Europe,  namely  that  the  climate  became  more  favourable  to  hygro- 
philous forms,  which  were  thus  enabled  to  eliminate  their  xerophilous 
competitors,  and  that  desert  conditions  subsequently  prevailed,  and  the 
absence  of  Australian  genera  from  the  great  northern  deserts  is 
explained.  That  this  explanation  presents  difficulties  is  not  to  be 
denied,  for  the  elimination,  at  least  of  arborescent  forms,  has  been  so 
complete,  we  should  have  expected  that  at  least  some  few  forms  would 
have  been  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  altered  conditions.1  Still 
the  disappearance  of  these  forms  is  scarcely  more  remarkable  than  is 
the  disappearance  of  "  Northern  "  genera  such  as  Quercus  and  Alnus 
and  Salix  from  a  country  which  must  have  afforded  them,  one  would 
imagine,  many  eligible  stations  where  they  should  have  been  able  to 
survive. 

Let  us  now  turn   to  Australia.      And  first,  one   must   express  a 

1  The  Indo- Malayan  and  East  Asian  species  of  the  Proteaceous  genus  Helicia  may 
perhaps  be  cases  of  adaptation  in  the  sense  used  above  ;  so,  too,  East  Asian  species  of  such 
genera  as  Drimys,  Baeckia,  Lcptospermum,  Leucojiogon,  etc. 


280  SPENCER  MOORE  [october 

doubt  whether  Professor  Tate  does  not  estimate  too  highly  the  rainfall 
of  Central  Australia  during  the  Diprotodon  period.  The  evidence 
relied  on  by  Professor  Tate  is,  it  will  be  remembered,  of  two  kinds, 
biological  and  physiographical.  Now  if  the  districts  where  Diprotodon 
remains  are  found  were  to  a  considerable  extent  lacustrine,  conditions 
might  well  have  prevailed  there  essentially  similar  to  those  occurring 
now  in  Central  and  South-Eastern  Brazil,  where,  during  the  dry  season, 
when  the  cerrado  country  is  completely  parched,  a  rich  flora,  maintained 
by  condensation  of  vapour  during  the  early  morning  hours,  flourishes 
in  the  river-valleys.  The  remains,  therefore,  of  large  Herbivora  by  no 
means  prove  that  the  whole  country  afforded  subsistence  to  those 
animals ;  and  although  the  existence  of  lakes  warrants  the  conclusion 
that  the  rainfall  was  greater  than  it  is  at  present,  there  may  still  have 
been  many  places  adapted  to  xerophilous  vegetation,  and  to  that  alone. 
As  regards  the  physiographical  evidence,  we  have  to  take  into  calcula- 
tion the  probable  effects  of  a  great  lowering  of  temperature,  even  if  the 
agency  of  ice  cannot  be  invoked.  Professor  Tate  and  Mr.  Watt,1  after 
a  careful  examination  on  the  spot,  deny  the  evidence  of  ice-action, 
although  to  explain  certain  phenomena  easily  susceptible  of  such  an 
explanation,  they  are  driven  to  resort  to  a  theory  they  themselves 
admit  is  "  wild  in  the  extreme."  On  the  other  hand,  Professor  Baldwin 
Spencer  and  Mr.  T.  M.  Byrne,2  as  the  result  of  a  recent  investigation, 
have  no  doubt  of  ice-action  in  Central  Australia,  though  they  decline 
to  say  at  what  period  it  was  in  operation.  But  apart  from  this,  we 
have  incontestable  evidence  for  a  cold  climate  in  South  Central 
Australia  during  past  Miocene  times,  when  the  southern  part  of  South 
Australia,  as  is  well  shown  at  Hallett's  Cove,  was  glaciated.  Now, 
under  these  circumstances,  much  of  the  precipitation  falling  on  Central 
Australia  would  take  the  form  of  snow,  which,  during  the  summer 
months,  would  melt  and  thus  release  large  bodies  of  water  sufficient 
to  cause  a  considerable  amount  of  denudation.  On  the  whole,  there- 
fore, we  need  not  suppose  that  the  rainfall  of  Central  Australia  during 
the  period  under  review,  although  doubtless  greater  than  at  present, 
was  so  excessive  as  to  prevent  xerophilous  vegetation  flourishing  side 
by  side  with  hygrophilous,  and  contrasting  Central  Australia  with 
Europe  there  is  reason  for  supposing  that  while  in  the  latter  case 
conditions  favouring  a  mixed  xerophilous  and  hygrophilous  flora  were 
gradually  changed  in  the  interest  of  the  hygrophilous  element,  in 
Australia  the  converse  held,  the  tendency  in  favour  of  xerophilous 
forms  continuing  into  the  present  day. 

What  was  the  climate  of  South- Western  Australia  during  early 
tertiary  times  ?  Did  the  primitive  tertiary  flora  flourish  there  as  in 
other  parts  of  the  world  ?     There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  did, 

1  "Report  of  the  Work  of  the  Horn  Scientific  Expedition,"  p.  70. 

2  Reported  in  Nature,  vol.  lvii.  p.  495  (1898).     A  supposed  Queensland  case  is  also 
alluded  to  here. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  A  USTRALIAN  FL  OR  A  2  8 1 

provided  the  climate  was  suitable  to  a  mixed  flora.  Unfortunately 
this  is  precisely  the  question  to  which  no  answer  is  possible  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge,  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  wished  that 
steps  should  be  taken  to  examine  the  lignite  beds  of  the  Fitzgerald 
Paver,1  which  would  in  all  probability  suffice  to  solve  the  problem. 
But  whether  the  primitive  flora  in  its  entirety  flourished  there  or  not, 
it  is  submitted  that  the  peculiar  flora  of  the  south-west  can  be  ex- 
plained on  the  assumption  of  a  great  difference  in  climate  between 
the  south-west  and  other  parts  of  Australia,  a  difference  dating  either 
from  Eocene  (possibly  late  Cretaceous)  times  or  from  some  period  shortly 
after  the  Eocene.  We  have  to  suppose  that  long  before  the  great 
plains  of  the  central  and  eastern  interior  became  desiccated,  a  consider- 
able area  in  the  south-west  was  already  under  the  influence  of  drought. 
Westward  of  this  dry  district,  which  could  have  supported  only  a 
meagre  flora,  a  somewhat  more  genial  climate  must  have  prevailed, 
but  one  favourable,  except  in  isolated  areas,  to  xerophilous  vegetation. 
And  if  any  difficulty  is  felt  in  adopting  this  view  on  account  of 
the  proximity  of  the  ocean,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  Shark 
Bay  district  desert  conditions  actually  prevail  up  to  the  sea-coast,  and 
moreover  that,  although  southward  of  this  district  there  is  a  fair  annual 
rainfall  near  the  ocean,  the  precipitation  rapidly  diminishes  in  amount 
at  short  distances  from  it.  I  saw  many  scenes  of  desolation  in  the 
interior,  but  they  were  almost  equalled  in  the  neighbourhood  of  York, 
barely  sixty  miles  inland,  in  the  early  summer  of  1894  ;  even  on  the 
coast  itself,  periods  of  drought,  during  which  non-xerophilous  vegetation 
has  but  a  slender  chance  of  survival  except  in  specially  favoured 
localities,  are  frequent  in  the  summer  season.  In  such  a  country  as 
this,  then,  I  venture  to  believe  the  rich  flora  of  the  south-west  to  have 
been  mainly  evolved,  and  not,  as  Mr.  Wallace  supposes,  in  one 
diversified  by  lofty  mountain  systems,  which,  if  they  ever  existed,  have, 
except  for  the  lowly  Darling  and  Stirling  Eanges,  the  upland  districts 
of  the  far  North- West,  and  the  insignificant  hills  scattered  over  the 
vast  intervening  territory,  vanished  without  leaving  a  trace  of  their 
former  presence. 

I  cannot  agree  with  Professor  Tate  in  thinking  that,  except  very 
rarely,  there  has  been  no  interchange  between  the  floras  of  Eastern 
and  Western  Australia.  The  flora  of  the  Western  desert  has  a  fair 
number  of  species  common  to  the  two  areas ;  there  are  also  a 
considerable  number  common  to  the  desert  and  the  south-west,  and 
some  eastern  species  which  advance  to  a  greater  or  less  distance  into 
the  desert,  but  without  reaching  the  western  coast  region,  and  all  this 
seems  to  indicate  a  filtration,  most  probably  very  slow,  across  the 
desert  plains.  It  may  also  be  remarked  that  recent  discoveries  have 
diminished  the  number  of  large  genera  having  no  species  common  to 

1  This  and  a  thorough  exploration  of  the  North-Western  territories  are  the  two  most 
interesting  and  important  achievements  now  remaining  to  naturalists  in  Australia. 


282  SPENCER  MOORE  [october 

the  two  areas.  But  the  evidence  from  species  is  not  a  satisfactory- 
disproof  of  communication,  for  desert  varieties  are,  as  is  well  known, 
rather  frequent,  and  if  in  the  course  of  ages  species  have  been 
differentiated  from  such  varieties,  a  fair  amount  of  concealed  inter- 
change may  have  taken  place.  The  evidence  is  much  stronger  in 
respect  of  genera  restricted  either  to  the  east  or  the  west  side  of  the 
country.  Of  these  there  are  a  large  number  which  have  not  succeeded 
in  making  the  passage,  although  many — xerophilous  ones  especially 
— have  advanced  some  way  towards  doing  so.  These  cases  give 
emphasis  to  the  conclusion  that  interchange  across  the  desert  has 
taken  place  very  slowly,  and  to  no  considerable  extent  on  the  whole, 
although  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  Professor  Tate  decidedly  under- 
estimates its  amount. 

For  long  periods,  perhaps  since  Cretaceous  times,  the  evolution  of 
the  .  flora  of  Eastern  and  Western  Australia  has  proceeded  along 
different  lines.  So  far  I  am  in  accord  with  other  writers,  and  indeed 
this  seems  the  only  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  facts.  But  the 
main  reason  for  this  is  to  be  sought,  as  I  venture  to  think,  not  in  the 
simple  isolation  of  the  western  part  of  the  country  while  the  eastern 
has  been  accessible  to  migrants  from  outside  which  have  made 
headway  against  the  endemic  vegetation  in  consequence  of  their 
inherent  superiority,  but  in  climatic  difference  which  had  already 
become  pronounced  while  the  eastern  interior  was  still  a  comparatively 
well -watered  country.  In  short,  I  see  Western  Australia  to-day 
supporting  a  vegetation  similar,  in  its  chief  elements,  to  that  which 
would  now  have  been  flourishing  in  Europe  if  our  continent  had  been 
undergoing  desiccation  since  Miocene  times,  and  without  lowering  of 
its  mean  annual  temperature.  The  interposition  between  the  two 
halves  of  Australia  of  a  sea  and  of  a  desert  has,  no  doubt,  laid  an 
embargo  on  migration  from  one  to  the  other.  But  for  these  barriers 
many  restricteclly  eastern  forms  would  now  be  found  upon  the 
western  seaboard,  and  vice  versa.  But  we  are  not  warranted  in 
supposing  that  interchange  would  have  taken  place  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  result  in  a  homogeneous  flora ;  for  the  areas  in  Western  Australia 
suited  to  hygrophilous  forms  are  strictly  limited,  and  the  pre- 
ponderating xerophilous  element  in  the  western  flora  is  so  well 
adapted  to  the  extraordinary  conditions  prevailing  in  the  west  as  to 
render  its  displacement  in  the  highest  degree  unlikely. 

Turning  now  to  Eastern  Australia,  we  find  there  a  flora  with  little 
ordinal  difference  from  that  of  the  west,  but  containing  many  genera 
and  a  large  number  of  species  which,  if  they  advance  westward  into 
the  desert  at  all,  do  not  reach  the  coast.  Moreover,  speaking 
generally,  as  we  proceed  northwards,  and  this  applies  generally  to  the 
moister  regions  near  the  coast,  the  number  of  forms  possessed  in 
common  with  Indo-Malaya  and  of  forms  allied  to  such  tends  to  increase. 
There   is   also   a   sprinkling   of  species  now  characteristic  of  northern 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  283 

lands  and  of  species  congeneric  with  these.  A  few  of  these  species 
occur  also  in  Western  Australia ;  in  the  eastern  districts  they  are 
more  abundant  in  the  cooler  mundane  country,  and  it  is  especially 
in  the  latter  that  are  found  forms  conspecific  with,  or  closely  allied 
to,  forms  now  forming  part  of  the  Antarctic  flora,  accepting  this  term 
in  the  conventional  sense,  that  is,  as  embracing  genera  now  largely 
or  entirely  restricted  to  southern  cold  temperate  lands.  It  is  admitted 
that  these  facts  do,  at  first  sight,  favour  the  view  of  migration  on  a 
large  scale  followed  by  partial  overpowering  of  the  indigenous  flora. 
But  when  we  consider  what  is  known  of  the  history  of  Australia  since 
late  Cretaceous  times  the  matter  wears  a  different  aspect.  We  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  since  these  times  considerable  portions  of 
Eastern  Australia  have  enjoyed  a  climate  almost  identical  with  that 
of  Indo-Malaya,  a  climate,  too,  still  prevailing  in  the  north  and  north- 
east. We  know,  moreover,  that  in  early  tertiary  times  the  floras  of 
both  countries  were  in  a  large  measure  identical.  Is  there  anything 
remarkable,  therefore,  in  the  evidences  of  fioristic  affinity  between  the 
two  regions  ?  It  will  perhaps  be  conceded,  as  Professor  Tate  himself 
has  conceded,  that  a  certain  proportion  of  the  Australian  species  of 
genera  common  to  these  two  neighbouring  areas  are  descendants  from 
the  primitive  flora,  but  that  by  far  the  larger  number  are  immigrants. 
This,  however,  assumes  our  possession  of  complete  records  respecting 
the  two  floras  from  Eocene  times  to  the  present ;  and  that  we  have 
anything  like  such  records  is  an  assertion  no  competent  person  would 
take  upon  himself  to  maintain. 

But  migration  there  has  been,  and  the  number  of  identical  species 
and  such  a  fact  as  the  discovery  of  outlying  forms  allied  to  Indo-Malayan 
on  the  Bellenden-Ker  range  in  North  Queensland  prove  it,  as  also  does 
the  existence  of  "  Australian  "  forms  on  the  mountains  of  New  Guinea, 
and  in  less  number  in  various  parts  of  Indo-Malaya  and  Eastern  Asia, 
if,  indeed,  these  last  be  not  descendants  from  the  primitive  flora. 
Moreover,  the  trend  of  migration  from  the  north  has  undoubtedly 
predominated  over  that  from  the  south.  But  are  we  justified  in 
assuming  from  this  that  any  superiority  is  inherent  in  the  Indo- 
Malayan  flora  over  the  Australian  ?  What  are  the  data  ?  A  number 
of  hygrophilous  genera  and  a  certain  proportion  of  hygrophilous  species 
are  common  to  the  two  regions.  Now  the  Indo-Malayan  flora, 
exception  made  for  that  of  Timor,  in  some  measure  xerophilous,  is  and 
has  long  been  a  hygrophilous  flora;  while  in  Australia  since  Eocene 
times,  if  the  view  above  enunciated  be  correct,  hygrophilous  types 
have  had  to  struggle  with  xerophilous  ones,  which  latter  to-day  still 
form  a  large  element  in  its  flora.  Whatever  in  this  case  the  means 
whereby  migration  has  been  brought  about,  its  trend  must,  other  things 
being  equal,  have  borne  direct  relation  to  the  size — or  what  comes 
approximately  to  the  same  thing,  the  comparative  fioristic  richness — 
of  the  areas  between  which  the  interchange  has  been  made.      We  have 


284  SPENCER  MOORE  [october 

also  only  to  consider  the  hygrophilous  element  in  the  two  floras,  since 
the  Indo-Malayan  climate  is  not  suited  to  xerophilous  ones.  While, 
therefore,  the  considerable  areas  in  Northern  and  North -Eastern 
Australia *  favourable  to  hygrophilous  species  have  been  open  to  the 
incursions  of  the  whole  of  the  rich  Indo-Malayan  flora,  only  those 
Australian  forms  adapted  to  hygrophilous  have  had  a  chance  of 
penetrating  into  Indo- Malaya.  It  is  submitted,  therefore,  that  a 
preponderant  migration  from  the  north  is  only  what  ought  to  be 
expected  on  the  doctrine  of  chances,  and  that  there  is  no  need  to 
import  into  the  discussion  notions  as  to  relative  superiority  and 
inferiority.  We  thus  stand  here  upon  precisely  the  same  ground  as 
that  taken  up  in  considering  the  supposed  aggressive  power  of  the 
Scandinavian  flora. 

The  case  is  different  with  the  Antarctic  element  of  the  Australian 
flora.  This  comprises  forms  suited  to  the  lower  grades  of  temperature, 
and  all  available  evidence  teaches  us  that  colder  conditions  have  been, 
of  course  in  a  geological  sense,  temporary  only  in  Australia.  But 
bearing  in  mind  that  glacial  effects  must  have  lasted  a  very  long  time, 
as  contrasted  with  the  span  of  human  life,  we  may  suppose  that 
species  of  which  the  ancestors  were  received  from  the  south  may  have 
been  differentiated  within  the  wide  area  in  Australia  suited  to  Antarctic 
forms  during  glacial  times  and  times  immediately  preceding  and 
following  them,  and  that  some  at  least  of  such  species,  accompanied  by 
native  ones  which  had  become  adapted  to  colder  conditions,  would 
migrate  south  when  glacial  conditions  passed  away,  and  so  add  a  new, 
if  small,  element  of  Australian  origin  to  the  Antarctic  flora.  In  any 
event,  the  Antarctic  element  seems  to  be  an  immigrant  one.2  I  do  not 
remember  any  attempt  to  prove  from  the  presence  of  Antarctic  forms 
the  possession  of  "  aggressive  power "  by  the  Antarctic  flora,  though, 
as  the  evidence  for  migration  is  so  much  stronger  in  this  case,  the 
omission,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  somewhat  strange. 

But  Professor  Tate  tells  us  that  a  flora  of  exotic  origin  is  in  the 
act  of  displacing  its  indigenous  vegetation  from  Central  Australia. 
Let  us  see  upon  what  evidence  this  conclusion  reposes.  Most  of  the 
truly  Australian  forms,  he  says,3  usually  grow  gregariously  or  in 
isolated  colonies  from  a  few  square  yards  to  several  square  miles  in 
area.  But  in  a  country  like  Australia,  where  good  patches  of  soil 
alternate  with  bad  ones,  this  gregarious  habit  scarcely  implies  want  of 
adaptation.  I  saw  precisely  the  same  thing  in  Western  Australia,  and 
the  inference  I  drew  from  it  was  directly  contrary  to  Professor  Tate's, 
namely,  that  the  large  numbers  of  a  species  monopolising  or  almost 
monopolising  considerable  portions  of  ground  argued  success  in  their 

1  And  to  a  somewhat  more  limited  extent  the  North-West  too. 

2  Some  of  the  herbaceous  genera  now  characteristic  of  northern  lands  represented  in 
Australia  may  have  been  introduced  from  the  south  during  the  glacial  period. 

3  "Report  of  the  Horn  Expedition  "  (Botauy),  p.  120. 


1899]  ORIGIN  OF  AUSTRALIAN  FLORA  285 

competition  with  other  forms.  Further,  Professor  Tate  thinks  the 
aggressive  nature  of  alien  plants  to  be  exhibited  not  only  by  their 
extensive  distribution,  but  by  their  ability  to  adapt  themselves  to 
extremes  of  soil  and  climate.  He  cites  the  following  species  in 
illustration :  Tribulus  tcrrestris,  Cleomc  viscosa,  Malvastrum  spicatum, 
Boerhaavia  diffusa,  Salsola  kali,  Mollurjo  hirta,  and  Pollichia  zeylanica. 
Now,  even  granting  these  to  be  aliens,  and  I  think  there  are  grave 
reasons  for  doubting  the  exotism  of  more  than  one  of  them,  if  these 
alien  migrants  from  a  hygrophilous  zone  are  better  adapted  to  desert 
conditions  than  native  species  which  have  had  the  advantage  of  long 
adaptation,  it  is  strange  that  their  distribution  in  the  desert  should  be 
so  restricted.  Only  four  of  the  seven  have  been  recorded  from  the 
western  desert  at  all.  I  myself  met  with  but  two  of  them,  viz, 
Tribulus  tcrrestris  once  only,  .and  Salsola  kali  about  half-a-dozen  times, 
but  on  only  one  occasion  in  any  quantity.1  Moreover,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  these  are  all  herbs  of  wide  extra-Australian  dis- 
tribution, and  provided,  most  of  them,  with  special  means  of  diffusion. 
Their  presence  in  the  desert  is,  therefore,  easily  explicable,  and  there 
is  no  warrant  for  drawing,  as  an  upholder  of  current  notions  might 
wish  to  draw,  from  the  fact  any  inference  as  to  the  superiority  of  an 
exotic  flora  over  the  native  flora  as  a  whole.  On  the  gorges  of  the 
tablelands  and  on  the  basal  part  of  the  craggy  escarpments  and  their 
taluses  Professor  Tate  found  a  mixed  flora  in  which  the  endemic 
element  predominated,  ten  per  cent  only  of  it  being  of  (supposed) 
exotic  origin.  The  exotic  species  are  seven  in  number ;  of  these, 
except  Hybanthus  enncaspirmus,  reported  only  from  Mount  Squires,  on 
the  eastern  border  of  the  western  colony,  Parietaria  debilis  alone  has 
been  found  in  the  western  desert.  And  when  we  compare  the  two 
lists  above-mentioned,  a  curious  fact  comes  out,  namely,  that  the  name 
of  not  one  species  occurs  in  both,  and  this  forces  one  to  suspect  that 
Professor  Tate  has  overestimated  the  adaptability  of  these  supposed 
alien  species.  It  would  be  wise,  therefore,  to  reserve  judgment  on  so 
difficult  a  point  as  that  mooted  by  Professor  Tate. 

The  view  here  taken  up,  it  will  be  observed,  is  one  intermediate 
between  that  of  writers  who,  basing  their  conclusions  on  present 
distribution  alone,  profess  to  trace  "  currents  "  of  vegetation  from  one 
part  of  the  world  to  another,  and  ascribe  the  moving  force,  if  the  term 
may  be  allowed,  of  these  currents  to  some  natural  inferiority  of  forms 
native  to  the  country  towards  which  the  current  is  supposed  to  set — 
between  this  view  and  that  of  Baron   von  Ettingshausen,-  who,  while 

1  I  should  have  been  only  too  happy  to  come  across  Salsola  kali  more  frequently,  as  it  is 
an  excellent  fodder  for  camels.  Doubtless  it  is  much  more  common  in  South  Australia,  for  on 
the  occasion  referred  to  above,  our  Afghan,  who  had  worked  at  camel  establishments  in  the 
eastern  colony,  at  once  recognised  the  plant,  calling  it  :'  South  Australian  salt-bush,"  and 
informing  me  that  it  is  an  important  fodder-plant  there. 

2  "Contributions  to  the  Tertiary  Flora  of  Australia,"  Mem.  Geol.  Surv.,  N.  S.  Wales, 
1888. 

19 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   92. 


286  SPENCER  MOORE  [october  1899 

maintaining  that  the  evolution  of  the  existing  floras  from  the  tertiary 
flora  was  effected  through  differentiation  of  climate — and  this,  I 
venture  to  think,  has  been  a  main  cause  of  floral  diversity — dismisses 
as  "  absurd  "  the  doctrine  that  certain  floristic  identities  and  affinities 
between  regions  now  separated  by  the  ocean  are  to  be  explained  on 
the  hypothesis  of  a  former  land-connection  between  them.  I  believe 
such  land -connections  to  have  existed,  and,  indeed,  the  present 
distribution  of  animals  vouches  for  the  truth  of  the  theory.  But  until 
we  know  a  great  deal  more  than  is  at  present  known  about  the 
floras  of  any  two  countries  previous  to  their  being  placed  in  continuity, 
I  fail  to  see  the  possibility  of  estimating,  except  as  mere  guess-work,  the 
respective  effects  upon  the  two  floras  so  connected.  Further,  I  believe 
the  inferences  from  present  distribution  and  from  floristic  superiority 
and  inferiority  upon  which  the  current  notions  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
Australian  flora  are  founded,  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  misleading. 
So  facile  a  solution  of  the  problem  may  commend  itself  to  some ;  but 
it  may  be  that  many  an  observer  will  have  to  add  his  contributions  of 
fact  and  suggestion  before  the  final  solution  is  reached ;  and  if  the 
notions  here  propounded,  though  they  should  fail  to  find  acceptance,, 
should  at  least  drive  home  the  conviction  that  much  yet  remains  to  be 
done  in  this  fascinating  field  of  research,  the  writer's  object  will  have 
been  fully  attained. 


FRESH    FACTS. 


Influence  of  Cold  on  Development.  Oskar  Schultze.  "  Ueber  die 
Einwirkung  niederer  Temperatur  auf  die  Entwickelung  des  Frosches,"  Zweite 
Mitteilung,  Anat.  Anzeig.  xvi.  1899,  pp.  144-152.  Prof.  Schultze  published  a 
communication  on  this  subject  in  1895,  in  which  he  stated  that  subjection  to 
zero  temperature  brought  the  development  of  the  eggs  of  Rana  fusca  to  a 
standstill.  Further  experiments  have,  however,  convinced  him  that  this  is  not 
the  case.  Even  at  zero  the  cell-divisions  continue,  though  more  slowly.  He 
has  not  been  able  to  bring  about  a  complete  non-fatal  standstill  in  the  frog's 
development ;  if  it  is  producible,  it  must  be  by  temperature  below  zero. 

A  Snow-Worm.  J.  Percy  Moore.  "A  snow  -  inhabiting  Enchytraeid 
(Mesenchytraeus  solifugus  Emery)  collected  by  Mr.  Henry  G.  Bryant  on  the 
Malaspina  Glacier,  Alaska,"  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.  Philadetyhia,  1899,  pp. 
125-144,  1  pi.  A  somewhat  detailed  account  is  given  of  the  structure  and 
habits  of  this  worm,  which  has  so  remarkable  a  home.  A  very  striking 
peculiai'ity  is  the  yellow-brown,  deep  chocolate-brown,  or  almost  black  colour, 
and  its  opacity.  Associated  with  it  was  a  small  Podurid,  Achorutes  nivicola, 
also  black,  and  there  are  other  instances.  "  It  seems  probable  that  some  factor 
in  a  snowy  environment  lays  the  brand  of  melanism  upon  all  the  constituents 
of  its  invertebrate  fauna."  But  "zoological  literature  fairly  bristles  with 
attempted  explanations  of  melanism."  The  author  discusses  the  physiological 
interest  of  an  animal  which  lives  and  grows  while  maintaining  a  body  temperature 
seldom  varying  much  from  the  freezing-point  of  water. 

Facts  of  Inheritance.  Ernest  Warren.  "  An  observation  on  inherit- 
ance in  parthenogenesis,"  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  lxv.  1899,  pp.  154-158,  1  fig. 
Dr.  Warren  has  made  measurements  of  successive  generations  of  Daphnia 
magna,  which,  though  insufficient  in  number,  "  appear  to  favour  the  view  that 
inheritance  in  parthenogenetic  generations  resembles  that  from  mid-grand- 
parent to  grandchildren."  "If  this  kind  of  inheritance  be  found  to  hold  at  all 
generally  in  parthenogenesis,  it  would  be  a  fact  of  very  considerable  significance, 
and  might  conceivably  give  some  insight  into  the  physiological  causes  of 
heredity  and  variation." 

Has  the  Hag  a  Parietal  Eye?  F.  K.  Studnicka.  "Zur  Kritik 
einiger  Angaben  fiber  die  Existenz  eines  Parietalauges  bei  Myxine  glutinosa," 
SB.  bohmisch.  Ges.  Wiss.  1898  (published  1899),  4  pp.  In  one  specimen  of 
Myxine,  Dr.  Beard  observed  in  1889  a  distinct  parietal  eye,  but  Betzius,  Saunders, 
and  Leydig  sought  for  it  in  vain.  More  recently,  Studnicka  has  joined  in  the 
search,  and  is  emphatic  in  declaring  that  there  is  no  trace  of  the  organ  to  be 
found. 

Thyroid  and  Thymus  of  Amphibians.  Hermann  Bolau.  "Glandula 
thyreoidea  und  Glandula  thymus  der  Amphibien,"  Zool.  Jahrb.  xii.  1899,  pp. 
657-710,  11  figs.  Two  kinds  of  thyroid  occur,  one  with  colloid  vesicles,  the 
other  with  a  connective  tissue  meshwork  including  leucocytes  and  blood-vessels. 
The  number  on  each  side  differs  in  nearly  related  forms,  but  there  is  never 
more  than  one  colloid  gland  on  each  side.  In  Ecaudata  the  gland  is  always 
colloid  except  in  Molge  rusconii.  The  thymus  is  single  on  each  side  in 
Ecaudata  and  Caudata,  except  in  the  larval  form  of  Amblystoma  tigrinwm, 
which  has  a  variable  number.     In  Siphonops,  as  Leydig  has  shown,  there  are 

287 


288  FRESH  FACTS  [october  1899 

four  in  a  row.  The  content  of  the  thymus  is  a  connective  tissue  meshwork 
with  included  leucocytes,  besides  Hassall's  corpuscles,  and  sometimes  line 
capillaries. 

The  Saurian  Diaphragm.  F.  Hochstetter.  "  Ueber  partielle  und 
totale  Scheidewandbildung  zwischen  Pleurahohle  und  Peritonealhohle  bei 
einigen  Sauriern,"  Morph.  Jahrb.  xxvii.  1899,  pp.  263-298,  1  pi.  and  6  figs. 
The  question  has  often  been  raised  whether  the  mammalian  diaphragm — the 
diaphragma  dorsale  —  is  a  distinct  and  independent  structure.  Goette  and 
others  have  contributed  to  the  answer.  In  the  paper  before  us  Herr 
Hochstetter  shows  from  studies  of  Stellio  vulgaris,  Lacerta  agilis,  and  other 
lizards,  that  there  are  Anlagen  present  which  furnish  adequate  basis  for  the 
evolution  of  the  mammalian  structure,  and  also  for  the  very  different  diaphragm 
of  embryo-birds. 

Green  Pigments.  Marion  I.  Newbigin.  "  On  the  affinities  of  the 
enterochromes,"  Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii.  1899,  pp.  325-328.  While  acid  acts  on  an 
alcoholic  extract  of  green  leaves  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  the  pigment 
phyllocyanin,  which  is  insoluble  in  alcohol  and  ether,  its  action  on  an  alcoholic 
extract  of  green  Algae  results  in  the  production  of  a  pigment  which  is 
exceedingly  soluble  in  alcohol,  and  does  not  therefore  precipitate  from  acidified 
alcoholic  solutions  unless  a  considerable  amount  of  water  be  added.  In  its 
colour  and  fluorescence,  in  its  spectrum,  in  its  changes  in  colour  and  spectrum 
on  the  addition  of  acid,  in  its  solubilities,  the  pigment  shows  a  remarkable 
resemblance  to  the  enterochromes.  This  resemblance  is  such  that,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  the  recent  observations  and  conclusions  of  Dr.  M'Munn  in  the 
case  of  "  enterochlorophyll,"  and  with  the  fact  that  that  pigment  occurs  in  the 
faeces  of  Patella,  it  seems  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  "enterochlorophyll"  at 
least  is  an  acid  derivative  of  chlorophyll,  produced  by  the  action  of  the 
digestive  juices  on  the  chlorophyll  of  the  food.  Whether  the  other  enterochromes, 
and  notably  chaetopterin,  are  produced  in  the  same  way,  cannot  as  yet  be 
determined.  There  can,  however,  be  no  doubt  that  the  enterochromes  are  at 
least  closely  related  to  the  pigment  produced  by  the  action  of  acid  on  the 
chlorophyll  of  green  Algae. 

Wanderings  of  Warbles.  P.  Koorevaar.  "  The  larval  stage  of  Hypo- 
derma  bovis,"  Ann.  Nat.  Hist.  iv.  1899,  pp.  69-73.  Translated  by  E.  E. 
Austen  from  Tijdschrift  der  Nederlandsche  Dierkundige  Ver.  v.  1898,  pp. 
29-34.  Various  experiments  intended  to  throw  light  on  the  obscure  corners  of 
this  life-history  have  led  Mr.  Koorevaar  to  the  opinion  that  the  young  larvae  of 
Hypoderma  bovis  at  first  pass  beneath  the  skin ;  and  thence  betake  themselves 
to  the  spinal  canal  and  other  places,  to  return  later  into  the  subcutis,  and  there 
undergo  further  development  under  the  well-known  conditions. 

Luminous  Organs.  Leopold  Johann.  "  Ueber  eigentkumliche  epi- 
theliale  Gebilde  (Leuchtorgane)  bei  Spinax  niger,"  Zeitschr.  wiss.  Zool.  lxvi. 
1899,  pp.  136460,  2  pis.  and  1  fig.  Brown  or  black  spots  on  the  skin  of  this 
fish  turn  out  to  be  luminous  organs.  Their  origin  is  like  that  of  skin-glands ; 
their  elements  are  differentiated  as  luminous  cells  and  lens-cells ;  their  lumin- 
osity was  observed  by  Dr.  Th.  Beer. 

A  Strange  Creature  brought  to  Light.  Charles  Minor  Black- 
ford. "A  Curious  Salamander,"  Nature,  lx.  1899,  pp.  389-390,  2  figs. 
[Letter].  From  an  artesian  well,  sunk  188  feet  in  limestone,  near  San  Marcos 
in  Texas,  various  white  and  blind  crustaceans  have  been  obtained.  Even  more 
striking,  however,  is  a  salamander,  believed  to  represent  a  new  genus  and 
species.  It  has  been  named  Typhlomolge  ratlibuni.  It  is  from  3  to  4|  inches 
in  length,  and  dingy  white  in  colour,  except  on  the  external  gills  where  the  red 
blood  shines  through.  The  eyes  are  completely  covered  by  the  skin,  but  are 
seen  from  the  outside  as  two  black  specks. 


SOME  NEW  BOOKS. 


PATHOLOGY  OF  PLANTS. 

A  Text-Book  of  Plant  Diseases  caused  by  Cryptogamic  Parasites.  By 
George  Massee,  F.L.S.,  Principal  Assistant  (Cryptogams),  Royal 
Herbarium,  Kew.  Crown  8vo,  pp.  xii.  +  460.  London  :  Duckworth 
and  Co.,  1899.     Price  5s. 

The  announcement  of  a  "  Text-book  of  Plant  Diseases  caused  by  Crypto- 
gamic Parasites,"  written  by  Mr.  George  Massee  of  the  Kew  Herbarium,  natur- 
ally raised  anticipations  that  the  book  would  be  distinctly  better  than  any 
existing  English  work  on  the  subject.  The  book  now  before  us,  on  the  whole, 
justifies  the  expectation,  and  is  a  welcome  addition.  The  author's  stated  object 
is  to  give  the  inquiring  grower  of  plants  information  on  diseases  caused  by 
fungi  and  allied  organisms.  The  introductory  fifty  pages  give  a  general 
summary  on  the  principles  of  preventive  treatment,  and  the  preparation  and 
application  of  remedies.  The  greater  part  of  the  book  (pp.  53—349)  is  occupied 
by  short  descriptions  of  the  more  important  diseases.  These  descriptions  are 
brief,  yet  clear,  and  free  from  unnecessary  detail ;  they  are  well  illustrated  with 
figures  mostly  original,  and  the  means  of  prevention  are  given  in  each  case. 
The  accuracy  of  this  part  of  the  work  is  guaranteed  by  Mr.  Massee's  long 
experience.  The  arrangement  of  the  descriptions  in  the  order  of  the  fungi 
causing  them  is  perhaps  that  least  convenient  to  practical  growers.  The  diseases 
described  are  selected — in  a  book  of  450  pages  this  is  essential — but  the 
method  of  selection  is  vague.  Only  cultivated  plants  are  considered,  yet  one 
sees  no  mention  of  several  familiar  British  garden  diseases,  e.g.  the  smut  and 
the  rust  on  violets.  Such  omissions,  and  the  complete  neglect  of  the  diseases  of 
wild  plants,  many  of  which  may  easily  attack  cultivated  forms,  render  the 
ambitious  title  of  "  Text-book  "  misleading.  The  inclusion  of  lengthy  descrip- 
tions of  diseases  of  exotic  plants  {e.g.  tea  and  coffee)  seems  out  of  place  in  so 
small  a  book ;  it  is  doubtful  wdiether  the  description  of  a  few  diseases  will 
greatly  assist  growers  in  our  colonies,  while  it  introduces  a  confusion  as  to 
whether  the  disease  under  consideration  is  important  in  Britain,  especially  since 
this  is  not  always  clearly  stated.  On  p.  349  the  reader  will  find  himself 
suddenly  introduced  into  a  maze  of  100  pages  of  terminology  peculiar  to  a 
fungus-fiora.  Reference  to  the  "  Contents  "  explains  that  these  are  "  scientific 
descriptions  of  the  fungi  enumerated  as  causing  diseases."  Are  these  intelligible 
to  many  growers  of  plants  1  Are  they,  considering  their  limited  number,  of 
much  use  to  the  scientific  worker?  We  venture  to  believe  that  an  extension  of 
the  earlier  parts  of  the  book,  and  the  omission  of  this  portion,  would  have  made 
it  look  more  appetising  to  the  practical  man.  Such  defects  can,  however,  be 
remedied,  as  also  may  some  minor  faults  in  typing  and  reproduction  of  drawings. 
The  book  is  the  work  of  the  best  investigator  on  the  subject  in  Britain,  it 
contains  much  valuable  information  in  a  readable  form,  its  price  is  moderate ; 
hence  it  is  an  indispensable  addition  to  the  library  of  the  plant-grower  who 
would  learn  as  much  about  his  subject  as  he  can.  W.  G.  S.  (Leeds). 

289 


290  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [octobek 

FERMENTATION. 

The  Soluble  Ferments  and  Fermentation.  By  J.  Reynolds  Green,  Sc.D., 
F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Botany  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great 
Britain.  Pp.  xiii.  +  480.  Cambridge  University  Press  :  C.  J.  Clay 
and  Sons,  1899.     Price  12s. 

We  can  thoroughly  recommend  Prof.  Reynolds  Green's  book  to  all  who  wish 
to  obtain  a  trustworthy  guide  to  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  ferment- 
ation. When  we  consider  that  it  is  little  more  than  half  a  century  since 
Pasteur  discovered  that  the  cause  of  alcoholic  fermentation  is  the  activity  of  the 
yeast  plant,  the  strides  made  in  our  knowledge  appear  prodigious.  There  is 
hardly  any  aspect  of  animal  or  vegetable  life  in  which  ferments  do  not  play  some 
part.  The  ferments  that  cause  our  food  to  be  digested,  that  produce  clotting 
of  the  blood,  that  bring  about  oxidation,  that  minister  to  plant  life  in  various 
ways,  that  are  associated  with  the  putrefactive  and  other  changes  wrought  by 
bacteria,  are  all  described  with  full  details,  and  in  a  lucid,  interesting  manner ; 
the  history  of  the  subject  is  also  well  given.  The  distinction  between  the 
organised  ferments,  like  yeast  and  bacteria,  and  the  soluble  or  unorganised 
ferments  or  enzymes,  such  as  pepsin  of  the  gastric  juice,  and  diastase  in 
germinating  seeds,  is  a  useful  one.  But  the  difference  is  more  apparent  than 
real,  for  probably  in  all  cases  the  micro-organisms  which  are  called  organised 
ferments  perform  their  work  by  secreting  soluble  ferments  or  enzymes.  The 
recent  work  of  Buchner  has  certainly  shown  this  to  be  the  case  for  yeast. 
What  enzymes  really  are,  and  how  they  produce  changes  in  large  masses  of 
material  without  any  apparent  change  in  themselves,  or  in  their  power,  are 
much  more  difficult  points  to  answer ;  the  reader  will,  however,  find  in  this 
book  such  general  questions  discussed  in  the  light  of  recent  knowledge.  The 
ferments  themselves,  so  far  as  any  positive  statement  can  be  made,  appear  to  be 
real  chemical  substances,  and  in  their  composition  are  allied  to  the  albuminous 
bodies,  particularly  to  the  class  known  as  nucleo-proteids.  The  interesting 
recent  work  of  Emil  Fischer,  which  is  very  clearly  described,  shows  a  possible 
way  in  which  such  substances  could  produce  the  change  known  as  fermentation. 
All  these  theories  are,  however,  tentative ;  whether  they  will  stand  the  test  of 
time,  the  future  only  can  show.  H. 

A  MODEL  FLORA. 

The  Flora  of  Cheshire.  By  the  late  Lord  de  Table y  (Hon.  J.  Byrne 
Leicester  Warren,  M.A.)  Edited  by  Spencer  Moore.  With  a 
Biographical  Notice  of  the  Author  by  Sir  Mountstuart  Grant  Duff. 
Pp.  cxiv.  +  399,  with  a  Portrait  of  the  Author,  and  a  Map  of  the  County. 
London:  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1899.     Price  10s.  6d. 

Cheshire  botanists  will  welcome  the  appearance  of  this  flora  of  their  county, 
though  an  interval  of  close  on  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  materials  now  for  the  first  time  printed.  During  such  a  period 
many  changes  must  of  necessity  have  taken  place  in  details  of  local  distribution, 
but  the  flora  has  been  brought  as  far  as  possible  up  to  date  by  the  editor,  and 
is  a  model  of  what  a  county  flora  ought  to  be. 

The  author  has  devoted  great  attention  to  describing,  often  at  considerable 
length,  the  physical  features,  soils,  etc.,  of  the  specific  habitats,  a  point  of  great 
biological  importance,  and  one  too  often  overlooked.  Duly  authenticated,  and, 
where  possible,  personal  records  are  provided  of  the  occurrence  of  each  species 
in  each  of  the  seven  hundreds,  and  a  striking  feature  of  the  book  is  the  care 
expended  on  the  enumeration  and  history  of  alien  and  introduced  species,  many 
of  which  are  traced  back  to  their  origin  in  ballast  heap  or  garden,  while  numbers 


1899]  A  MODEL  FLORA  291 

of  mere  casuals  are  mentioned  either  as  having  been  personally  observed  or 
recorded  in  the  past.  The  flora  proper  is  accompanied  by  an  all  too  short 
physico-botanical  account  of  Wirral  (unfortunately  the  only  hundred  so  treated), 
a  short  account  of  the  Bucklow  hundred,  and  a  bibliography  of  Cheshire 
botany.  J-  A.  Terras. 

TELEOLOGY. 

Elemente  der  empirischen  Teleologie.  By  Paul  Nikolaus  Cossmann.  8vo, 
132  pp.  Stuttgart:  A.  Zimmer's  Verlag  (Ernst  Mohrmann),  1899. 
Price  4  marks. 

There  are  some  biologists  who  think,  or  who  speak  as  if  they  thought,  that 
teleology  is  a  vestigial  organ  in  culture — a  way  of  looking  at  things  which  has 
had  its  day,  and  must  gradually  cease  to  be.  Purposive  structure  and  function 
— adaptation  in  short — they  admit,  but  Darwinism  has  supplied  the  "  mechani- 
cal explanation,"  and  teleology  is  an  irrelevancy.  To  others  it  seems  that  in 
biology  we  have  not  yet  got  very  far  in  discovering  the  causal  chains,  the  last 
link  of  which  is  an  adaptation,  and  that  even  if  we  had  got  much  further,  we 
should  have  reached  only  a  formulation  in  simpler  terms.  To  these,  teleology 
appears  no  irrelevancy,  but  a  necessity  of  thought.  Far  from  destroying  teleo- 
logy, Darwinism  has  rather  deepened  it. 

The  author  of  this  book  is  an  ardent  teleologist,  who  seeks  to  show  how 
difficult  it  is  for  us  even  in  our  scientific  phraseology  to  get  away  from  teleo- 
logical  conceptions,  and  how  partial  the  outlook  is  which  rests  satisfied  with 
chains  of  cause  and  effect.  In  working  out  these,  the  teleological  idea  is  irrele- 
vant and  even  inhibitive ;  for  their  development  as  parts  of  an  intellectual 
system  it  is,  however,  necessary,  since  so-called  scientific  explanations  are  not 
explanations  at  all.  The  book  is  full  of  quotations  and  illustrations  intended 
to  show  the  difficulty  of  eliminating  teleological  conceptions  from  biology,  and 
the  utility  of  appreciating  them.  It  might  be  described  as  a  plea  for  a  franker 
recognition  of  the  purposive,  and  should  be  interesting  to  students  of  "  Methoden 
lehre  "  and  the  philosophy  of  biology.  X. 


A  FALSE  ANALOGY  ? 

La  sp^cificite  cellulaire,  ses  consequences  en  biologie  generale.  By  L.  Bard. 
Professeur  a  la  Faculte  de  medecine  de  Lyon.  (Scientia.  No.  I.)  100 
pp.     Paris:  Georges  Carre  et  C.  Naud,  1899.     Price  2  francs. 

In  the  young  organism,  or  young  organ,  there  is  often  apparent  uniformity 
among  the  component  cells.  As  observed  by  our  methods,  they  show  no  hint 
of  the  variety  of  cellular  type  which  will  gradually  arise  among  their  descend- 
ants. Many  biologists  have  described  this  early  state  as  one  of  "  cellular 
indifference,"  and  have  ascribed  the  subsequent  differentiation  to  the  variety  of 
cellular  environment  which  ensues  as  the  elements  become  more  numerous. 
But  this  way  of  looking  at  the  facts  does  not  commend  itself  to  Professor  L. 
Bard,  who  has  since  1885  been  insisting  on  what  he  calls  "la  specificite  cellu- 
laire." According  to  this  view  the  various  types  of  cell  in  the  body  are  like 
different  species  with  a  common  ancestor  ;  one  cannot  be  transformed  into 
another ;  their  differentiation  is  not  a  function  of  their  environment,  but  an 
expression  of  their  inherited  properties.  Yirchow's  famous  formula  has,  he 
says,  to  be  modified  into  "  Omnis  cellula  e  cellula  ejusdem  naturae." 

He  admits  that  his  theory  has  not  been  welcomed  by  histologists,  but  he 
takes  heart  in  detecting  a  gradual  loss  of  confidence  in  the  theory  of  cellular 
indifference.  A  final  triumph,  he  tells  us  repeatedly,  awaits  his  doctrine,  and 
he  has  no  patience  with  eclectics  who  would  recognise  that  the  early  indiffer- 


292  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [ootober 

ence  is  only  apparent,  or  that  there  is  a  certain  degree  of  "specificite."  There 
is  no  middle  way  for  Professor  Bard  :  it  must  be  yea  or  nay  with  specificite. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  little  book  he  contrasts  the  conceptions  of  in- 
difference and  specificite  in  a  manner  which  appears  to  us  exaggerated ;  in  the 
second  chapter  (on  the  hereditary  fixity  of  cellular  types  in  adult  organisms)  he 
seeks  to  answer  various  objections  which  are  suggested  by  the  facts  of  cellular 
modifications,  of  regeneration,  of  heteromorphosis,  etc.  ;  in  the  third  chapter 
he  pursues  the  analogy  of  cellular  species,  and  traces  their  establishment  in  the 
course  of  development ;  in  the  fourth  he  shows  how  his  doctrine  bears  upon  the 
general  problems  of  biology ;  and  finally  there  is  a  list  of  nineteen  publications 
in  which  the  author  has  previously  dealt  with  the  question. 

The  new  series,  of  which  this  book  is  the  first,  has  for  its  aim  "  l'expose 
philosophique  des  faits  generaux  et  des  idees  directrices  nouvelles,"  but  though 
"  la  specificite  cellulaire  "  has  evidently  been  a  directive  idea  to  the  author,  we 
do  not  think  that  he  will  succeed  in  convincing  many  that  it  is  a  general  fact. 
To  argue  the  question  is  not  possible  within  our  limits,  and  we  can  only  express 
our  opinion  that  the  chief  interest  of  the  book  is  as  an  illustration  of  ingenious 
and  enthusiastic  special  pleading  in  support  of  a  false  analogy.  We  may  note 
in  passing  that  there  are  a  number  of  irritating  misprints,  e.g.  Heckel  for 
Haeckel,  and  Weissmann  for  Weismann.  J.  Arthur  Thomson. 


A  PICTURE-GALLERY  OF  THE  ISOPODA. 

An  Account  of  the  Crustacea  of  Norway,  with  Short  Descriptions  and  Figures 
of  all  the  Species.  By  G.  0.  Sars.  Vol.  II.  Isopoda.  Bergen : 
published  by  the  Bergen  Museum.  Sold  by  Alb.  Cammermeyer's 
Forlag,  Christiania. 

We  make  no  charge  to  other  nations  for  the  use  of  the  English  language. 
This  generous  extension  of  free-trade  does  not  pass  unrewarded.  From  time  to 
time  it  brings  us  from  abroad  noble  contributions  to  English  scientific  literature. 
It  is  in  our  own  tongue  that  we  have  the  satisfaction  of  reading  "  An  Account 
of  the  Crustacea  of  Norway,"  by  the  Norwegian  professor,  G.  O.  Sars.  His 
lifelong  studies,  embracing  in  turn  the  several  groups  of  the  crustacean  class, 
have  given  him  an  almost  incomparable  facility  and  trustworthiness  as  an 
exponent  of  them  all.  The  first  volume  of  the  "  Account,"  which  gave  figures 
and  descriptions  of  all  the  known  Scandinavian  Amphipoda,  has  already  been 
reviewed  in  these  columns.  The  intelligent  reader,  which  is  only  another  way 
of  saying  every  reader  of  Natural  Science,  will  recall  something  of  what  was 
then  pointed  out.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  both  the  large  agreement  of  the 
Norwegian  fauna  with  our  own,  and  the  highly  instructive  handling  of  it  by 
Professor  Sars,  made  his  work  absolutely  indispensable  to  every  serious  student 
of  the  Amphipoda  in  these  islands.  A  similar  remark  may  be  applied  to  the 
second  volume,  just  completed,  which  deals  with  a  second  order  of  sessile-eyed 
crustaceans,  called  Isopoda. 

The  name  of  this  group  was  given  it  by  Latreille  in  the  Middle  Ages,  that 
is  to  say,  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago,  when  people  in  general  knew  and  cared 
about  crustaceans  hardly  more  than  they  now  know  and  care  about  the  centre 
of  the  earth.  The  name  "isopod  "  signifies  an  animal  with  equal  legs,  and  might 
therefore  include  most  men  and  turkeys  and  many  quadrupeds,  though  not  so 
obviously  applicable  to  the  giraffe,  the  bison,  or  the  kangaroo.  But  equality 
between  legs,  applying  to  two,  or  four,  is  less  striking  than  when  it  refers  to 
fourteen,  a  number  with  which  the  Amphipoda  and  Isopoda  are  endowed.  In 
distinguishing  the  latter  by  the  character  of  having  equal  legs,  Latreille  chose 
a  name  suitable  enough  to  a  woodlouse,  such  as  Armadillidium  vulgare,  and  to 
not  a  few  of  the  marine  species,  such  as  Sphaeroma  serratum,  which,  like  the 
land  woodlouse  just  mentioned,  can  roll  itself  into  a  neat  little  pill-like  ball. 


1899]  A  PICTURE-GALLERY  OF  THE  ISO  POD  A  293 

But  since  the  time  of  Latreille  there  have  been  discovered  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea  and  elsewhere,  numerous  species  of  Isopoda,  in  which  the  inequality  and 
dissimilarity  of  the  legs  attached  to  one  and  the  same  body  is  carried  to  an 
almost  extravagant  extent.  This  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  by  any  one  who  only 
turns  over  the  excellent  plates  with  which  Sars's  work  is  illustrated  throughout. 
The  plates  of  the  present  volume  are  104  in  number.  They  would  often  be 
a  kind  of  revelation  to  the  casual  observer,  who  seeing  sees  not,  as  he  gazes 
at  the  animals  themselves  in  the  specimen  glasses  of  a  museum.  The  student 
also,  preparing  to  dissect  a  rare  isopod,  should  certainly  first  make  himself 
acquainted  with  these  drawings  before  attempting  the  severance  of  minute  and 
delicate  organs,  which  may  be  rendered  undecipherable  by  one  rash  thrust  of 
an  ignorant  needle. 

As  regards  classification,  it  may  be  remarked  that  Professor  Sars  retains  the 
Tanaidae  among  the  Isopoda.  This  has  the  great  merit  of  present  convenience, 
whether  or  not  at  some  future  date  the  separatist  party  may  succeed  in  detach- 
ing this  group  from  its  near  allies.  Most  of  the  species  of  it,  according  to 
Sars,  construct  for  themselves  abodes  of  mud,  into  which  they  may  wholly 
withdraw  their  bodies.  On  the  English  coast,  however,  there  is  one  species 
pretty  frequently  to  be  found,  along  with  the  Gribble,  in  the  honeycombing  of 
submerged  timber.  On  the  group  at  large  the  Professor  makes  another  observa- 
tion, which  is  of  much  interest  to  the  collector.  "  They  all,  moreover,"  he 
says,  "  exhibit  this  peculiarity,  namely,  that  in  reaching  the  surface  of  the 
water  they  remain  floating,  without  being  able  to  re-immerge  their  bodies, 
whereby  the  discovery  of  the  generally  very  small  and  inconspicuous  specimens 
is  essentially  facilitated.  On  placing  some  muddy  clay  taken  from  greater 
depths,  in  a  shallow  vessel,  and  stirring  up  the  mud,  they  will  very  soon  appear 
floating  on  the  surface,  like  small  white  pins,  and  may  easily  be  taken  up  for 
a  closer  examination."  Naturally  this  mode  of  discovery  will  apply  to  the 
tenants  of  mud  from  small  depths  as  well  as  great,  and  in  some  localities  to 
the  sand-dwellers  of  the  sea-shore. 

To  the  elucidation  of  the  tribe  Epicarida,  it  will  be  found  that  the  work 
under  review  has  made  a  very  valuable  contribution.  In  this  tribe  not  Alps  on 
Alps,  but  shrimps  on  shrimps  arise.  The  Isopoda  of  which  it  is  formed,  in  all 
sorts  of  insinuating  ways,  implant  and  engraft  themselves  upon  other  crustaceans, 
in  the  process  assuming  oddities  of  form,  distortions  and  degradations,  in 
pleasing  but  often  extremely  puzzling  variety.  There  is  plenty  of  work 
apparently  still  to  be  done  in  this  branch  of  investigation,  but  the  intricacies 
of  it  have  been  wonderfully  disentangled  by  the  labours,  whether  in  conflict  or 
agreement,  of  Giard  and  Bonnier,  of  Kossmann  and  of  Sars. 

In  the  great  variety  of  species,  normal  and  abnormal,  which  are  shown  to 
belong  to  the  isopod  fauna  of  Norway,  it  is  singular  that  the  Sphaeromidae 
find  no  mention.  This  is  a  family  of  extremely  extensive  distribution  in  the 
sea,  and  is  represented  even  in  fresh  water.  To  one  of  the  species  incidental 
allusion  was  made  at  the  beginning  of  this  notice,  simply  because  it  is  among 
the  most  familiar  of  British  marine  Isopoda,  so  that  the  absence  of  the  whole 
family  from  Norwegian  coasts  and  waters  may  well  cause  surprise. 

The  volume  just  completed  is  published  by  the  authorities  of  the  Bergen 
Museum.  To  them,  therefore,  as  well  as  to  the  author,  science  is  much  indebted. 
There  is  one  small  but  not  unimportant  improvement  by  which  they  might 
easily  increase  the  obligation.  The  seven  double  parts  of  the  original  issue 
bear  dates  extending  over  four  years,  from  1896  to  1899.  When  the  wrappers, 
which  are  of  an  essentially  unstable  character,  are  removed,  the  bound  volume 
will  contain  the  latter  date  alone.  Since  it  teems  from  one  end  to  the  other 
with  original  observations,  and  with  definitions  and  descriptions  of  new  genera 
and  species,  the  reader  ought  surely  to  be  supplied  with  some  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  true  dates  of  its  several  parts.  This  could  have  been  best  effected 
by  printing  month  and  year  of  issue  at  the  foot  of  the  last  page  of  the  text, 


294  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [october 

and  on  the  last  plate,  in  each  successive  part.  The  object  may  be  otherwise 
attained  by  supplying  a  continuous  list  of  such  pages  and  plates,  to  go  with 
the  preface  or  the  index.  Such  a  continuous  list  is  in  any  case  desirable,  and 
might  still  be  given  for  each  of  the  volumes  already  published.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  distributing  this  small  boon  will  be  easily  provided  in  company  with 
a  far  greater  one,  the  promised  volume  on  the  Cumacea  of  Norway,  the  appear- 
ance of  which  will  be  for  its  own  sake  eagerly  welcomed. 

Thomas  R.  R.  Stebbing. 

BUTTERFLIES'  WINGS. 

Specialisations  of  the  Lepidopterous  Wing :  The  Parnassi  -  Papilionidae. 
Parts  I.  and  II.  By  A.  Radcliffe  Grote.  Proc.  American  Philosophical 
Soc.  XXXVIII.,  1899.     Pp.  25-48,  3  plates. 

The  author's  theory  of  the  movement  of  the  veins  of  the  wings  in 
specialisation  suggests  a  guide  for  determining  the  systematic  position  of  the 
genera  with  greater  exactness,  and  a  clue  to  their  phyletic  descent.  The  correct- 
ness of  this  theory  of  Grote's  has  recently  received  support  through  Dr.  Rebel's 
discovery  of  an  ancestral  form  of  Parnassius  from  the  Miocene  of  Gabbro,  Italy. 
This  extinct  species,  Doritites  bosniaski,  shows  a  neuration  as  yet  in  the 
zerynthian  stage,  and  distinctly  comparable  with  that  of  Archon  apollimis,  while 
the  markings  and  facies  are  Parnassian.  In  this  communication  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  the  author  reviews  the  genera  of  the 
Papilionides,  showing  the  Parnassians  to  be  the  more  advanced  forms  of  the 
group,  the  test  being  the  gradual  disappearance,  through  absorption,  of  the 
cubital  cross  vein,  as  seen  by  an  examination  of  the  generic  types  from 
Ornithoptera  up  to  Parnassius.  He  is  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  former 
genus  shows  generalised  characters  which  bring  it  nearer  to  the  presumed 
primitive  Papilionid,  and  necessitate  an  alteration  in  the  present  systematic 
position  of  the  genus.  As  opposed  to  the  views  of  Spuler,  the  author  repudiates 
any  affinity  between  the  Pieridae  and  Papilionides,  and  shows  that  the  neurational 
analogies  of  the  latter  group  lie  with  the  brush- footed  butterflies.  The  common 
white  colour  of  the  Pierids  and  Parnassians  is  ascribed  to  convergence,  and 
reference  is  made  to  the  author's  earlier  statements  in  Natural  Science,  that  an 
increase  of  white  pigment  runs  roughly  parallel  with  the  specialisation  of  the 
neuration.  The  author  further  considers  and  urges  the  probable  diphyletism  of 
the  diurnals,  as  he  has  previously  suggested,  and  recommends  the  retention  of 
the  Papilionides  at  the  commencement  of  the  series.  The  plates,  in  addition  to 
the  figures  of  Papilionides,  give  corrected  figures  of  Heliconius,  and  for  the  first 
time  of  Dione. 

COLOMBIAN  ORE. 

The  Ores  of  Colombia,  from  Mines  in  Operation  in  1892.  By  H.  W. 
Nichols,  S.B.  Field  Columbian  Museum,  Publication  33.  Geo- 
logical Series,  vol.  i.,  No.  3,  pp.  125-177,  with  Map. 

This  publication  is  a  praiseworthy  endeavour  to  utilise  part  of  a  collection 
made  by  Sehor  F.  Pereira  Gamba,  a  mining  engineer  of  Bogota.  The  collection 
consists  of  specimens  of  the  ores  and  associated  rocks  met  with  in  those  mines 
of  the  Republic  of  Colombia  which  were  being  worked  in  1892.  It  was  first 
exhibited  in  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  and  about  a  quarter  of  it 
was  subsequently  handed  over  to  the  Field  Columbian  Museum,  the  remainder 
having  apparently  been  lost.  After  an  introduction,  in  which  proper  stress  is 
laid  on  the  circumstance  that  all  of  the  specimens  of  ores  are  average  samples, 
and  after  a  couple  of  pages  devoted  to  the  physical  features  and  general  geology 
of  Colombia,  the  serious  business  of  recording,  and  in  many  cases  describing, 


1899]  COLOMBIAN  ORE  295 

the  specimens  begins.  Preceding  such  descriptions  there  is  in  each  case  a 
preliminary  historical  account  of  the  mining  done  in  the  district  from  which  the 
specimens  were  collected.  The  sulphide  ores  are  chiefly  those  of  silver,  zinc, 
mercury,  lead,  and  iron,  and  occasionally  of  antimony,  etc.,  while  large  amounts 
of  native  gold,  silver,  and  sometimes  copper  are  present  in  many  of  the  districts. 
Among  the  sulphides  pyrites  is  very  common,  and  this  is  sometimes  auriferous. 
Occasionally  copper  pyrites,  mispickel,  stibnite,  cinnabar,  tetrahedrite,  pyr- 
rhotite,  enargite,  etc.,  are  present.  The  gold  is  frequently  associated  with 
tellurides.  Many  interesting  examples  of  paragenesis  are  given,  but  to  enter 
into  details  would  be  wearisome  to  the  general  reader,  although  they  might  be 
perused  with  avidity  by  those  interested  in  the  mines  of  this  republic,  while 
the  mineralogist  could  not  fail  to  find  some  useful  information  in  them.  One 
of  the  most  important  points  with  which  the  author  has  dealt  is  the  true 
signification  of  the  names  of  rocks  hitherto  employed  by  former  writers  when 
describing  these  mines.  For  instance,  for  the  old  terms  syenite  and  granite,  the 
author  points  out  that  one  may  generally  read  andesite  or  trachyte ;  "  horn- 
blendic  material "  usually  is  found  to  be  a  rock  allied  to  chlorite  schist,  and 
several  other  examples  of  the  former  misapplication  of  names,  owing  to  lack  of 
the  present  means  for  determining  the  mineral  constitution  of  rocks,  will  be 
found  in  these  pages.  The  author  has  done  useful  work  in  solving  some  of 
these  enigmas. 

In  the  "General  Conclusions,"  p.  172,  he  remarks  that  "the  gold  and  silver 
ores  of  Colombia  occur  either  in  the  acid  lavas,  which  have  been  erupted  at 
intervals  from  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  to  the  present  time,  or  in  Archaean 
schists  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  lavas.  In  the  schists  they  are  usually 
poor  in  depth.  Owing  to  the  action  of  the  heavy  tropical  rains,  the  weathered 
zone  of  the  deposits  has  often  been  greatly  enriched,  and  it  was  such  enriched 
deposits  that  gave  the  immense  yields  of  the  early  days  of  Colombian  mining." 

Three  pages,  giving  the  literature  relating  to  Colombian  mines,  are  followed 
by  a  map,  on  which  considerable  labour  has  evidently  been  expended  in  order 
to  render  the  topographical  details  trustworthy.  F.  Rutley. 


COCCIDOLOGY. 

The  Coccidae  of  Ceylon.  By  E.  Ernest  Green.  Part  I.  1896;  pp. 
i.-xi.  +  103,  with  pis.  1-30.  Part  II.  1899  ;  pp.  xiii.-xli.,  105-169,  and 
pis.  31-60.     London:  Dulau  and  Co. 

The  Coccidae  constitute  an  aberrant  group  of  the  Hemiptera,  contradicting 
all  ordinary  definitions  of  the  order  and  class  to  which  they  belong.  Hemi- 
pterous  hexapods,  yet  in  the  female  sex  wingless,  and  in  many  genera  legless 
as  well.  The  very  methods  by  which  they  must  be  studied  are  peculiar,  and 
as  such  distasteful  to  the  ordinary  entomologist. 

So  it  has  happened  that  these  creatures,  though  numerous  and  peculiar, 
have  been  greatly  neglected.  But  in  recent  years,  as  though  outraged  by  such 
persistent  scorn,  they  have  risen  in  their  might  and  played  havoc  with  our 
fruit  trees  and  other  crops,  not  to  mention  ornamental  plants ;  wherefore  we 
have  been  obliged  to  recognise  their  existence. 

Studies  usually  begun  with  economic  ends  in  view  have  led  us  far  afield. 
It  becomes  plainer  every  day  that  the  Coccidae  are  not  only  extremely  numerous 
in  species,  but  offer  an  extraordinary  series  of  peculiar  forms,  Avhose  organisation, 
as  related  to  their  environment  and  habits,  is  of  the  greatest  interest  from  a  purely 
biological  standpoint.  The  opportunity  to  advance  both  economic  entomology 
and  pure  science  is  too  good  to  be  neglected  once  perceived ;  and  so  we  find  a 
new  body  of  students  arising,  calling  themselves  coccidologists,  and  dignifying 
their  study  by  the  name  of  coccidology. 

Of  these  latter-day  students  assuredly  E.  Ernest  Green  is  second  to  none. 


296  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [october 

Beginning  his  researches  during  the  previous  decade  he  at  first  proceeded  slowly. 
The  literature  of  the  subject  was  difficult  to  obtain,  and  when  obtained  threw 
little  light  on  the  almost  unknown  coccid  fauna  of  Ceylon.  But  Mr.  Green, 
not  discouraged,  resolved  to  study  every  species  de  novo,  whether  described  or 
not ;  acquiring  his  knowledge  first-hand  from  nature,  as  though  he  might  be 
Adam  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  This  method,  in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent 
worker,  is  sure  to  be  successful,  and  it  was  eminently  so  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Green.  He  not  only  prepared  descriptions,  but  also  elaborate  drawings  of 
every  species  in  all  its  stages,  so  far  as  they  could  be  obtained.  This  done,  a 
thorough  examination  of  the  various  publications  on  Coccidae  had  to  be  made 
before  the  apparently  new  forms  could  be  reported  as  such ;  but  this  revealed 
comparatively  few  identities.  In  Part  I.  there  are  thirty  species  described,  of 
which  seventeen  were  new ;  in  Part  II.  are  twenty-nine  species,  all  but  three 
discovered  by  the  author.  It  often  happens,  on  receiving  a  paper  describing  so 
many  new  species,  that  one  can  immediately  detect  some  synonymy  ;  but  I  do 
not  know  of  any  "  bad  species  "  among  the  forty-three  above  mentioned,  and 
doubt  if  there  are  any.  The  descriptions  are  good,  and  the  plates  most 
beautiful.  There  is  an  introductory  portion  on  the  general  principles  of 
coccidology,  including  -a  new  classification  of  the  sub-families  and  full  directions 
for  collecting  and  preserving  material.  There  is  also  a  chapter  on  the  insecti- 
cides and  other  means  for  destroying  Coccidae  which  injure  cultivated  plants. 
In  the  last-mentioned  chapter  the  interesting  fact  is  brought  out  that  practically 
all  the  injurious  coccids  in  Ceylon  are  those  described  from  elsewhere  and 
presumably  introduced  into  the  island.  The  truly  native  species,  almost 
without  exception,  have  proved  to  possess  no  economic  importance  ;  though  of 
course  these  very  species,  carried  so?newhere  else,  may  yet  become  notorious. 

An  unfortunate  conservation,  as  it  seems  to  the  present  writer,  is  shown  in 
regard  to  genera.  The  species  assigned  to  Asjndiotus  represent  at  least  five 
very  distinct  groups,  which  are  at  least  of  sub-generic  value.  Aonidia  is  made 
to  include  very  diverse  forms,  including  three  distinct  generic  types.  Similarly 
the  twenty-six  species  assigned  to  Chio?ias2)is  are  by  no  means  truly  congeneric  ; 
for  instance  the  first  six,  aspidistrae,  theae,  albizziae,  musmendae,  rhododendri,  and 
scrobicidarum,  belong  properly  to  Hemirhionaspis.  The  generic  classification  of 
the  Coccidae,  however,  is  at  present  in  a  transitional  state,  and  an  author  cannot 
be  blamed  if  he  hesitates  to  propose  changes  while  yet  uncertain  what  those 
changes  should  be. 

Simply  as  an  illustration  of  good  methods  this  work  ought  to  be  examined 
by  zoologists  who  do  not  expect  to  study  Coccidae  ;  while  for  the  coccidologist 
it  is  of  course  essential.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
manner  of  publication  is  such  as  to  make  it  extremely  costly.  The  only  edition 
has  coloured  plates,  which  of  course  are  expensive,  while  the  colouring  does 
not  greatly  add  to  their  value  for  scientific  purposes.  It  would  have  been 
excellent  to  have  a  coloured  edition  of  small  size,  if  there  could  have  been 
an  uncoloured  one  at  a  more  moderate  price.  But  the  chief  trouble  is  that  the 
publishers  insist  upon  receiving  the  full  subscription  (£5)  for  the  work  in 
advance,  though  it  must  take  at  least  several  years  to  complete  it.  The  work, 
of  course,  is  intrinsically  worth  all  that  is  asked  for  it,  and  more ;  but  the  fact 
remains  that  zoologists  are  not  commonly  blessed  with  superabundant  means, 
and  are  reluctant  to  part  with  a  five-pound  note  under  the  circumstances  just 
mentioned.  Surely  if  the  conditions  of  sale  were  rendered  easier  the  subscrip- 
tions would  become  so  much  more  numerous  that  the  amount  received  would  be 
considerably  greater  than  at  present.  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell. 


1899]  MULTUM  IN  PARVO  297 


MULTUM  IN  PARVO. 

Insects :  their  Structure  and  Life.  A  Primer  of  Entomology.  By  G.  H. 
Carpenter.  Small  8vo,  pp.  viii.  +  404,  with  183  illustrations.  Lon- 
don :  J.  M.  Dent  and  Co.     Price  4s.  6d. 

In  this  book  the  author  traverses  most  of  the  very  wide  field  of  the  division 
of  zoology  he  is  dealing  with.  Although  the  great  extent  of  his  subject  pre- 
vents him  from  discussing  moot  points  in  detail,  yet  he  succeeds  in  giving  a  very 
fair  general  idea  of  the  present  state  of  entomological  science  and  of  the  sub- 
jects that  have  been  predominant  in  the  discussions  of  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

If  any  fault  is  to  be  found  with  the  book  it  is  that  its  subject  has  been  ex- 
tended unduly  by  the  inclusion  of  matter  that  is  not  specially  entomological. 
The  chapter  on  the  classification  of  insects  is  chiefly  devoted  to  natural  selection, 
causes  of  variation,  and  kindred  topics.  These  matters  are,  however,  set  forth 
in  a  spirit  and  manner  that  no  one  can  object  to  ;  and,  though  their  predomi- 
nance is  scarcely  consistent  with  the  title  of  the  work,  it  is  probable  that  one  of 
the  author's  objects  was  to  show  the  bearing  of  entomology  on  these  more 
general  subjects.  We  hope  that  the  work  will  find  many  readers,  and  that  most 
of  them  will  approve  the  wide  view  the  author  has  taken  of  his  subject. 

The  book  is  copiously  illustrated  and  well  got  up.  Most  of  the  183  illustra- 
tions, called  figures,  are  really  combinations  of  numerous  figures.  They  have 
been  well  selected,  and  their  execution,  except  in  a  few  cases,  is  satisfactory. 
There  is  also  a  very  useful  and  sufficiently  extensive  bibliographic  list,  and  good 
index.  Altogether,  the  work  may  be  strongly  recommended  to  purchasers  who 
wish  to  give  only  a  small  sum  for  a  trustworthy  introductory  work  on  this  sub- 
ject.    They  will  receive  excellent  value  for  their  money.  D.  S. 


THE  MAMMALS  OF  FRANCE. 

Faune  de  France — Mammiferes.     By  A.  Aclogue.      12mo,  84  pp. 

Paris,  189'J. 

To  treat  adequately  of  the  mammals  of  France  within  the  compass  of  eighty- 
four  duodecimo  pages,  especially  when  a  large  portion  of  the  space  is  occupied 
by  introductory  matter  and  illustrations,  would  seem  an  almost  impossible  task. 
Nevertheless,  with  the  assistance  of  irritatingly  minute  type,  and  much  "boil- 
ing-down "  of  matter,  Monsieur  Aclogue  has  succeeded  not  only  in  enumerating 
all  the  species,  both  wild  and  domestic,  met  with  in  France,  but  also  in  giving 
the  leading  characteristics  of  both  genera  and  species,  as  well  as  of  the  larger 
groups. 

Nothing,  however,  is  said  as  to  habits,  and  but  little  in  regard  to  the  details 
of  local  distribution  and  variation.  And  as  the  two  latter  features  are  those 
alone  which  would  render  the  work  of  importance  to  zoologists  of  other 
countries,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  altogether  satisfactory. 

As  it  would  appear  from  the  title  that  the  complete  work  is  intended  to 
include  the  entire  fauna  of  France,  the  author  may  perhaps  be  induced  to  pay 
more  attention  to  these  points  in  subsequent  parts.  The  character  of  the 
illustrations  might,  too,  be  improved  with  advantage.  And  there  is  likewise 
room  for  some  amendments  in  nomenclature ;  Arvicola,  for  instance,  being- 
retained  for  the  voles,  while  ,the  martens  figure  as  Martes  in  place  of  Mustela. 
Still,  in  spite  of  its  imperfections,  it  is  useful  to  have  a  work  containing  all  the 
representatives  of  the  French  mammalian  fauna. 


298  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [october 

A  CLASSIC  FOR  CLIMBERS. 

Hours  of  Exercise  in  the  Alps.  By  John  Tyndall,  LL.D.  Pp.  i.-xii.  and 
1-482,  with  seven  full-page  illustrations.  New  Edition.  London  : 
Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1899.     Price  6s.  6d. 

This  new  edition  of  a  highly  characteristic  work  is  practically  the  reprinting 
of  a  classic.  So  far  as  the  compositors'  work  could  allow,  it  is  more — it  is  an 
actual  reproduction.  A  full  index  has  been  wisely  added,  a  matter  on  which 
the  author  was  strangely  indifferent ;  even  his  popular  "  Forms  of  Water " 
appeared  without  one.  A  few  notes  by  L.  C.  T.,  bringing  certain  statements 
up  to  date,  have  been  made  with  conscientious  care. 

The  book  was  first  issued,  by  the  same  publishers,  in  1871,  and  must  have 
been  written  with  as  much  enjoyment  as  it  has  again  and  again  brought  to 
others.  The  human  personality  of  it  must  always  remain  fresh ;  and  climbers 
will  not  tire  of  details  of  these  earlier  exploits.  Switzerland,  the  middle  level 
occupied  by  church-congresses,  university-extension  parties,  and  the  host  of 
unattached  or  exploited  tourists,  has  changed  conspicuously  in  the  last  thirty 
years  ;  but  the  great  peaks  and  snow-girt  amphitheatres  remain  for  the  men  of  firm 
nerve,  of  resolute  and  confident  resource.  Such  men,  year  after  year,  bring  to 
the  snow-slope  and  the  arete  the  quickness  of  judgment  and  the  orderly  percep- 
tion Avhich  have  made  them  masters  in  their  own  professions,  masters  alike  of 
human  prejudice  and  of  mountain-barriers.  Whether  all  such  will  approve  the 
school-boy  rashness  of  some  of  Tyndall's  joyous  escapades,  none  can  fail  to 
respond  to  his  enthusiasm,  or  to  smile  with  him  in  his  hours  of  success.  The 
story  of  the  rescue  of  the  porter  on  p.  144  touches  a  far  graver  note.  The  book 
concludes  with  several  short  papers,  among  which  is  a  considerable  discussion 
on  regelation.  On  p.  421  we  have  the  well-known  account  of  a  winter  ascent 
of  Snowdon,  in  the  company  of  Professor  Huxley.  Though  a  number  of  Alpine 
climbers  have  since  exercised  themselves  on  the  crags  of  Lliwedd  and  Crib- 
goch,  how  many  of  the  English  tourists  who  throng  Grindelwald  or  Zermatt 
have  seen  Wales  under  any  other  covering  but  that  of  August  rain1?  A  journey 
from  London  to  Llanberis,  in  the  crisp  clear  days  of  January,  will  soon  make 
even  an  ordinary  walker  share  the  enthusiasm  of  our  author. 

To  say  "  our  author "  is  not  in  this  case  a  convention ;  there  is  much  in 
this  volume,  even  in  its  simplicity  and  candour,  which  must  seem  to  all  of  us 
like  the  cheery  handshake  of  a  friend.  G.  A.   J.   C. 

EXPERIMENT  IN  GEOLOGY. 

La  Geologie  experimentale.  By  Stanislas  Meunier.  Pp.  i.-viii.  and  1-312, 
with  56  illustrations.     Paris:  Felix  Alcan,  1899.     Price  6  francs. 

This  compact  little  book,  forming  a  volume  of  the  "  Bibliotheque  scienti- 
fique  internationale,"  summarises  its  author's  researches,  which  have  extended 
over  thirty  years,  much  as  those  of  M.  Gaudry  were  aptly  brought  together  in 
"  Les  Ancetres  de  nos  animaux."  The  author,  possibly  from  a  desire  for 
dispassionate  exposition,  has  chosen  to  write  in  the  third  person.  This  is  the 
very  opposite  of  the  method  of  the  late  Professor  Tyndall ;  and  the  middle  tone 
of  partial  self-suppression  adopted  by  authors  of  average  literary  gifts  probably 
represents  the  canon  of  taste  in  dealing  with  one's  own  observations.  Mr. 
Stanislas  Meunier's  plan  has  the  disadvantage  of  reminding  us  of  the  handbill 
issued  by  Mr.  Samuel  Gerridge  in  Robertson's  comedy  of  manners.  Apart 
from  this,  the  descriptions  are  of  course  clear  and  definite,  in  the  admirable 
fashion  of  French  text-books  ;  and  the  discussions  that  are  involved,  as  well  as 
the  replies  to  criticism,  are  never  unduly  extended.  The  instruments  devised, 
and  the  permanent  results  obtained,  have  been  formed  into  a  collection  in  the 


1899]  EXPERIMENT  IN  GEOLOGY  299 

geological  gallery  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  in  Paris.  The  book  thus  provides 
an  agreeable  guide  to  this  collection. 

There  is  much  in  it  that  will  be  of  service  to  the  teacher  of  ordinary  classes, 
such  as  the  reproduction  of  earth-pyramids,  described  on  p.  40,  and  of  sand- 
dunes,  described  on  p.  210;  while  the  broad  and  at  times  generous  deductions 
from  the  experiments  deserve  the  attention  of  the  physical  geographer  as  well 
as  the  geologist.  The  discussion  (pp.  107-111)  of  the  continuous  diminution  of 
glaciers  by  the  continuous  erosion  of  their  gathering-grounds  and  of  their  beds, 
is  an  example  of  how  the  larger  natural  features  are  always  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  experimenter. 

The  book  is  brief ;  yet  there  is  frequent  mention  of  the  work  of  other 
authors.  It  is  impossible,  in  such  limits,  however,  that  such  reviews  of 
previous  observations  should  be  complete.  As  an  expression  of  Mr.  Stanislas 
Meunier's  own  work  and  of  his  own  conclusions,  the  volume  is  especially  profit- 
able to  the  reader.  Towards  its  close,  we  touch  on  the  great  questions  of 
igneous  magmas  and  metamorphism,  which  are  now  agitating  the  geological 
world.  We  commend  the  bold  suggestion  made  on  p.  266,  to  those  who  regard 
the  solution  of  one  rock  in  another  as  confined  to  contact-phenomena.  The 
author  here  derives  the  water  required  for  volcanic  action  from  the  absorption 
of  blocks  of  the  water-logged  outer  layers  of  the  crust  by  the  molten  and 
anhydrous  mass  below.  G.  A.  J.  C. 


We  have  received  Naturae  Novitates  for  1898,  that  useful  fortnightly 
bibliographic  bulletin  of  natural  science  issued  by  Messrs.  Friedlander  of  Berlin. 
The  collected  parts  for  1898  amount  to  780  pages,  the  index  occupies  about  90, 
the  number  of  citations  is  9359,  and  the  price  is  only  four  marks.  It  is  now  in 
its  twenty-first  year  of  issue,  and  deserves  to  be  congratulated  on  attaining  its 
majority. 

In  the  September  number  of  The  Naturalist  there  are  obituary  notices  of 
Mr.  John  Cordeaux  by  W.  Eagle  Clarke  and  the  Rev.  E.  A.  Woodruffe-Peacock. 
A  note  by  E.  Whitehouse  points  out  that  Hydra  viridis  devours  Aphides 
greedily.  "  The  Hydra  would  thus  be  very  serviceable  in  a  greenhouse  if  they 
could  live  on  plants." 

The  Zoologist  for  August  15  contains  an  obituary  and  portrait  of  the  late 
Sir  William  Henry  Flower,  and  a  continuation  of  Mr.  W.  L.  Distant's  lively 
paper  on  mimicry. 

Knowledge  for  August  contains  a  continuation  of  the  anthropological  studies 
by  Prof.  Arthur  Thomson  of  Oxford,  and  the  tenth  instalment  of  Mr. 
Stebbing's  "  Karkinokosm,"  which  reads  like  a  novel.  A  striking  photograph  of 
proboscis  and  snub-nosed  monkeys  illustrates  a  lively  paper  by  Mr.  Lydekker, 
entitled  "A  Contrast  in  Noses." 

The  American  Naturalist  for  August  contains  articles  on  the  Hopkins 
Seaside  Laboratory,  by  Prof.  Vernon  L.  Kellogg  (see  "  Notes  and  Comments  ")  ; 
on  the  North  American  arboreal  squirrels,  by  Mr  J.  A.  Allen  ;  and  on  an  abnormal 
wave  in  Lake  Erie,  by  Mr.  Howard  S.  Reed.  There  is  also  an  obituary  of  Dr. 
Alvin  Wentworth  Chapman,  by  Prof.  W.  Trelease,  and  a  synopsis  of  North 
American  Gordiacea,  by  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Montgomery,  jun. 

Knowledge  for  September  contains,  inter  alia,  a  fifth  paper  on  the  Mycetozoa, 
by  Sir  Edward  Fry ;  a  popular  essay  on  Fairy  Rings,  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Steele  ;  the 
beginning  of  an  account  of  Ben  Nevis  and  its  Observatory,  by  Mr.  W.  S.  Bruce  ; 
a  paper  on  Clouds  (with  good  photographs),  by  Messrs.  E.  M.  Antoniadi  and  G. 
Mathieu  ;  and  a  letter  by  Dr.  C.  S.  Patterson  adversely  criticising  some  of  the 
conclusions  in  Prof.  MTntosh's  "Resources  of  the  Sea." 


3oo  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [octolkk  1899 

In  a  short  paper  contributed  to  the  Mt.  Ges.  Bern  for  1897,  Dr.  A. 
Girtanner  describes  a  fine  piece  of  horn-cores  of  the  European  Ibex  obtained 
from  the  pile-village  of  Greny  on  the  Martensee.  It  appears  that  in  cavern 
deposits,  the  farther  we  depart  from  the  Alps  the  rarer  become  the  remains  of 
the  Ibex,  and  hitherto  the  horn-cores  have  only  once  been  found  in  a  Swiss 
lake-village.  From  these  facts  it  has  been  inferred  that  the  animal  was  always 
a  mountain-dweller.  In  the  present  instances  the  author  compares  the  ancient 
horn-cores  with  modern  horns,  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter. 

Science  for  September  1  contains  the  following  interesting  note  : — "  The 
American  word  '  scientist,'  proposed  by  the  late  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  is  apparently 
becoming  acclimatised  in  Great  Britain.  Though  Nature  has  stated  that  the 
word  is  excluded  from  its  columns,  it  has  occurred  in  the  editorial  notes.  It 
will  also  be  found  in  the  Academy  and  in  the  London  Times.  The  latter,  in  the 
issue  of  August  1 5,  even  uses  the  word  retroactively,  speaking  of  '  the  great  Ger- 
man scientists  of  the  past.'  But  the  best  testimony  that  the  word  must  now  be 
regarded  as  correct  and  classical  English,  is  the  fact  that  it  is  to  be  found  in  Mr. 
Thomas  Hardy's  '  Two  on  a  Tower.'  " 

The  Photogram  for  July  has  a  translation  from  Le  Photo  Gazette  of  an  in- 
teresting brief  article  by  Fabre-Domergue  on  photographing  aquaria  by  mag- 
nesium flash-light.  He  experimented  at  the  laboratory  of  marine  zoology  at 
Concarneau,  and  got  some  good  results,  a  specimen  of  which  is  given.  The 
magnesium  light  produces  a  lively  effect  on  the  fishes  in  the  aquarium,  but  the 
reflex  movement  is  relatively  slow,  and  the  light  is  gone  before  it  takes  place. 

We  have  received  the  September  number  of  The  Westminster  Review,  which 
contains  two  articles  involving  biological  considerations — one  against  the  Con- 
tagious Diseases  Acts,  by  Ellis  Ethelmer,  and  another  containing  a  suggestion 
of  a  substitute  for  the  marriage  laws,  by  Herbert  Flowerdew.  The  latter  says  : 
"  Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  legal  marriage  contract  consists  simply  in  an 
agreement  between  man  and  woman  to  live  together  until  such  time  as  either 
chooses  to  terminate  the  agreement,  and  to  be  jointly  responsible  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  children  born  during  the  arrangement  and  within  nine  months  of 
the  termination,  both  parties  agreeing  to  compensate  the  other  for  any  loss  in- 
curred by  his  or  her  failure  to  make  the  arrangement  permanent." 

The  September  number  of  Science  Gossip  contains,  among  other  articles,  one 
by  Major  H.  A.  Cummins  on  Sikkim,  "  a  veritable  paradise  for  the  naturalist, 
be  he  botanist,  zoologist,  or  geologist,  but  especially  for  the  botanist " ;  and  a 
continuation  of  papers  on  British  freshwater  mites,  by  C.  D.  Soar ;  on  the  col- 
lection and  preparation  of  Foraminifera,  by  A.  Earland ;  on  ticks  and  louping- 
ill,  by  E.  G.  Wheeler ;  on  palaearctic  butterflies,  by  H.  C.  Lang ;  on  chalk,  by 
E.  A.  Martin  ;  and  on  meteorites,  by  John  T.  Carrington. 

Prof.  L.  V.  Pirsson  of  Yale  succeeds  the  late  Prof.  Marsh  as  an  editor  of 
the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts. 

The  journal  of  the  Straits  branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  for  June  1899, 
which  has  been  sent  to  us,  contains  some  interesting  papers.  The  list  of  birds 
of  the  Larut  hills,  by  Mr.  A.  L.  Butler,  has  some  interesting  field  notes.  Bishop 
Hose  gives  a  list  of  the  ferns  of  Borneo,  and  Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley  a  list  of  the 
scitamineae  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  A  pleasant  little  journey  into  an  unex- 
plored corner  of  Pahang  is  graphically  described  by  Mr.  W.  B.  Roberts.  The 
most  important  paper,  however,  is  one  by  Mr.  Ridley  on  the  habits  of  Malay 
reptiles.  It  contains  many  valuable  observations  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  will 
find  their  way  into  our  books  on  natural  history.  The  society  may  be  heartily 
congratulated  on  the  production  of  this  volume,  which  indicates  a  considerable 
activity  in  biological  work  in  the  Straits  Settlements. 


OBITUARIES. 

JOHN  CORDEAUX 

Born,  1831 ;  Died,  August  1,  1899 

John  Cordeaux  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  Rev.  John  Cordeaux,  formerly  rector 
of  Hooton-Roberts,  Yorkshire.  He  was  born  at  Foston  Rectory,  in  Leicester- 
shire. The  ordinary  occupations  of  a  country  life  gave  him  opportunities  for 
the  especial  study  of  bird  life,  with  which  his  name  has  been  so  long  associated. 
Among  his  earliest  publications  was  one  on  the  birds  of  the  Humber  district, 
which  has  remained  the  standard  for  that  district.  Ever  keen  on  the  migratory 
habits  of  birds,  he  strove  hard  to  interest  the  coast-guard  and  lighthouse-keepers 
to  keep  continuous  records  at  their  various  stations,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining 
a  great  variety  of  useful  and  interesting  data,  both  on  the  migratory  habits  of 
our  own  birds  and  the  occasional  visits  of  strangers.  Nor  did  he  neglect  other 
interests,  for  he  was  an  enthusiastic  botanist,  archaeologist,  and  student  of  folk- 
lore. Cordeaux  was  first  president  of  the  Lincolnshire  Naturalists'  Union.  We 
are  indebted  to  the  Times  for  the  facts  in  the  above  notice. 

The  following  deaths  are  announced  : — The  entomologist  Perez  Arcas  in 
Madrid  ;  Dr.  Daniel  Garrison  Brinton,  the  American  ethnologist,  at  Atlantic 
City,  New  Jersey,  on  July  31,  at  the  age  of  62  years;  the  botanist  Eugene 
Gonod  dArtemare,  at  Ussel  (Corriege),  on  June  16 ;  the  psychologist 
Freiherr  Karl  du  Prel,  who  made  a  number  of  contributions  to  evolution- 
literature,  at  Heiligkreuz  in  the  Tyrol,  on  August  5,  at  the  age  of  60 ;  Dr. 
Pasquale  Freda,  director  of  the  agricultural  experiment  station  at  Rome,  on 
July  4 ;  Mr.  N.  R.  Harrington,  member  of  the  Senff  Zoological  Expedition, 
instructor  in  Western  Reserve  University,  at  Atbara,  July  27 ;  Charles 
Howie,  of  St.  Andrews,  who  published  a  list  of  the  mosses  of  Fife  and  Kinross ; 
St.  Th.  Jakc"ic,  professor  of  botany  and  director  of  the  botanical  garden  at 
Belgrad,  on  May  4  ;  the  French  geologist  Adolphe  Legeal,  murdered  in  the 
Soudan  ;  Dr.  Joseph  Mies,  anatomist  and  anthropologist,  on  June  9,  in  Koln ; 
A.  de  Marbaix,  professor  of  zootechnic  at  the  Catholic  university  of  Louvain, 
at  Meerhout,  near  Antwerp,  on  August  5,  in  his  74th  year ;  Robert  H. 
Schmitt,  geographer  in  German  East  Africa,  on  May  10,  in  Mangali,  at  the 
age  of  29  ;  the  mycologist  Johann  N.  Schnabl,  in  Miinchen,  on  June  16,  at 
the  age  of  45  ;  Henri  Leveque  de  Vilmorin,  a  notable  cultivator  of  plants, 
first  vice-president  of  the  Paris  Societe  d'Horticulture. 


20 NAT.  SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.  92.  3OI 


NEWS. 


The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Dr.  A.  P.  Anderson, 
assistant  professor  of  botany  in  the  University  of  Minnesota  ;  Dr.  O.  Appel  as 
an  assistant  in  the  biological  department  of  the  Agricultural  and  Forestry 
Institute  in  Berlin  ;  Mr.  Carlton  R.  Ball,  assistant  in  the  division  of  agrostology, 
U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture  ;  Dr.  W.  Benecke,  as  docent  for  botany  at  Kiel ; 
Dr.  Alfred  Bergeat  as  professor  of  mineralogy  and  geology  in  the  Mining 
Academy  at  Clausthal  ;  Mr.  H.  Blodgett,  an  assistant  botanist  and  entomo- 
logist in  the  New  York  Branch  Agricultural  Station  at  Jamaica ;  Dr.  Franz 
Boas,  as  professor  of  anthropology  in  Columbia  University  ;  Prof.  E.  A.  Burnett, 
of  the  Agi-icultural  College  of  South  Dakota,  to  the  chair  of  animal  husbandry 
in  the  University  of  Nebraska  ;  Dr.  A.  Cancani,  seismologist,  to  succeed  Dr.  G. 
Agamenone  as  assistant  in  the  central  office  of  meteorology  and  geodynamics  at 
Rome  ;  Dr.  Chatin,  as  professor  of  histology  at  Paris  ;  Prof.  Alessandro  Coggi  of 
Perugia,  as  professor  of  zoology  in  the  University  of  Sienna  ;  Dr.  N.  K.  Czermak, 
as  professor  of  anatomy,  histology,  and  embryology  in  the  University  of  Dorpat ; 
Mr.  H.  N.  Dickson,  as  lecturer  on  physical  geography  in  the  New  School  of  Geo- 
graphy in  the  University  of  Oxford  ;  Dr.  von  Elterlein,  docent  for  mineralogy  and 
geology  in  Erlangen ;  Dr.  Enrico  Festa,  assistant  in  the  zoological  museum  of 
the  University  of  Turin;  Prof.  Max  von  Frey  of  Zurich  to  be  professor  of 
physiology  at  Wiirzburg ;  Dr.  Alberto  Fucini,  as  docent  for  palaeontology  and 
geology  in  the  University  of  Pisa ;  Dr.  Ercole  Giacomini  of  Sienna,  associate 
professor  of  zoology  in  Perugia ;  Mr.  A.  W.  Gibb,  to  be  university  lecturer  on 
geology  in  the  University  of  Aberdeen  ;  Dr.  Hugo  Gliick,  docent  for  botany  in 
the  University  of  Heidelberg ;  Dr.  Guitel,  as  adjunct  professor  of  zoology  at 
Rennes  ;  Mr.  Eustace  Gurney  of  New  College  has  been  appointed  to  the  Oxford 
University  table  at  the  Naples  Station  ;  Dr.  W.  H.  Hobbs,  assistant  professor  of 
mineralogy  and  petrology  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  to  a  full  professorship  ; 
Dr.  A.  C.  Houston,  as  lecturer  on  bacteriology  at  Bedford  College,  London,  for 
women ;  Abel  A.  Hunter,  as  botanical  collector  for  the  University  of  Nebraska ; 
Dr.  A.  Jakowatz,  as  demonstrator  in  the  botanical  museum  in  Vienna ; 
Dr.  J.  Janse,  as  director  of  the  botanical  gardens  at  Leiden ;  Dr.  K.  Keissler,  as 
assistant  in  the  botanical  museum  in  Vienna ;  P.  Beveridge  Kennedy,  assistant 
in  the  division  of  agrostology,  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture ;  Dr.  Max  Koch, 
as  titular  professor  of  geology  in  Berlin  ;  Dr.  H.  B.  Kiimmel,  assistant  professor 
of  physiography  at  Lewis  Institute,  Chicago,  has  been  appointed  assistant  state 
geologist  of  New  Jersey ;  Dr.  Kiinstler,  as  professor  of  comparative  anatomy 
and  embryology  at  Bordeaux  ;  Dr.  A.  C.  Lane,  to  be  state  geologist  of  Michigan  ; 
Albert  Lindstrom,  as  honorary  professor  of  anatomy  in  the  Karloninian  Institute 
in  Stockholm ;  Dr.  Giinther  Beck  von  Mannagetta,  as  professor  of  systematic 
botany  in  Prag ;  Dr.  Johannes  Meisenheimer,  as  privat  docent  in  embryology  in 
the  University  of  Marburg;  Elmer  D.  Merrell,  assistant  in  the  division  of 
agrostology,  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture ;  G.  T.  Moore,  as  instructor  in 
botany  at  Dartmouth  College,   U.S.A.  ;    W.  A.   Orton,  assistant  in  the  U.S. 

302 


October  1899]  JYEJVS  303 

Department  of  Agriculture ;  A.  J.  Pieters,  as  first  assistant  in  botany  in  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington ;  Dr.  Antonio  Porta,  to  be  assistant 
in  the  zoological  museum  of  the  University  of  Parma ;  Prof.  C.  S.  Prosser,  of 
Union  College,  Schenectady,  New  York,  as  associate  professor  of  historical 
geology  at  Ohio  State  University,  Columbus ;  Dr.  Francis  Ramaley,  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  to  be  professor  of  biology  in  the  University  of 
Colorado,  at  Boulder,  in  succession  to  Prof.  John  Gardiner,  retired ;  Dr.  A.  L. 
Rimbach,  as  ad  interim  instructor  in  vegetable  physiology  and  pathology  in  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  to  allow  Prof.  Bessey  to  give  the  necessary  time  to  the 
duties  of  acting  chancellor ;  Dr.  Friedrich  Schenck,  as  professor  extraordinarius 
of  physiology  in  the  University  of  Wiirzburg ;  Hermann  von  Schrenk,  as  a 
special  agent  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  to  study  diseases 
of  trees ;  James  Y.  Simpson,  M.A.,  B.Sc,  lecturer  on  natural  science  in  the 
Free  Church  College,  Glasgow ;  Dr.  Otto  Stapf,  as  chief  assistant  in  the  Kew 
Herbarium ;  H.  G.  Timberlake,  as  instructor  in  botany  in  the  University  of 
Wisconsin  ;  Dr.  Weinschenck,  as  docent  for  mineralogy  and  geology  in  the 
Technical  School  of  Miinchen  ;  Dr.  Karl  Wenle,  as  directorial  assistant  in  the 
ethnological  museum  in  Leipzig. 

The  Council  of  the  University  of  Melbourne  will  shortly  appoint  a  professor 
to  the  chair  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy.  The  professor  is  expected  to  devote  the 
whole  of  his  time  to  the  work  of  his  department,  and  will  be  required  to  deliver 
two  courses  of  lectures  of  three  hours  a  week  each,  and  to  undertake  the  training 
of  students  both  in  field  and  laboratory  work.  The  salary  of  the  professor  is 
£1000  per  annum,  but  in  the  event  of  the  Council  providing  him  with  a 
residence  in  the  University  grounds,  the  sum  of  <£100  per  annum  will  be 
deducted  from  his  salary  as  aforesaid.  The  University  has  a  fair  collection  in 
palaeontology  and  mineralogy,  but  has  no  specially  fitted  up  laboratory  for 
geological  work.  A  suitable  room  in  the  University  buildings  will  be  provided 
in  which  to  organise  this  part  of  the  work.  Lectures  begin  in  1900,  on 
Thursday,  March  1.  The  salary  of  the  office  will  commence  from  the  14th 
February  1900,  or  from  the  date  of  the  professor's  arrival  in  Melbourne,  if  later 
than  the  14th  February.  If  the  professor  appointed  come  from  Britain  or 
America,  £100  will  be  allowed  for  travelling  expenses.  Applications  for  the 
vacant  chair  must  be  sent  to  the  office  of  the  Acting  Agent-General  for  Victoria, 
15  Victoria  Street,  Westminster,  London,  by  October  20,  1899. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of  the  British  Association  on  Sep- 
tember 15,  Professor  Sir  William  Turner  was  elected  president  of  next  year's 
meeting  of  the  Association,  to  be  held  at  Bradford. 

A.  Targioni-Tozetti  has  been  elected  an  ordinary  fellow  of  the  Reale 
Accademia  dei  Lincei  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture ;  A.  Borzi  as  a  corre- 
sponding fellow  in  the  same  department,  and  F.  Delpino  for  botany.  The  list 
of  foreign  fellows  includes — for  geology  and  palaeontology,  O.  Torell,  A.  de 
Lapparent,  and  R.  Lepsius ;  for  botany,  W.  Pfeffer  ;  for  zoology,  Ernst  Haeckel 
and  E.  van  Beneden ;  for  physiology,  E.  Pfliiger  and  E.  Hering — a  notable  list, 
but  without  any  British  representative. 

Prof.  E.  Pfliiger,  the  famous  physiologist  of  Bonn,  recently  celebrated  his 
70th  birthday. 

Prof.  C.  J.  Herrick  of  Denison  University  has  been  awarded  the  Cartwright 
prize  of  $500  by  Columbia  University  for  his  work  on  the  brain  of  fishes. 

The  Academie  Internationale  de  Geographie  Botanique  has  conferred  its 
international  scientific  medal  upon  Prof.  John  M.  Coulter. 

It  is  noted  in  Science  that  the  Alvarenga  prize  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
of  Philadelphia  has  been  awarded  to  Dr.  Robert  L.  Randolph  of  Baltimore  for 
his  essay  entitled  "  The  Regeneration  of  the  Crystalline  Lens  :  An  Experi- 
mental Study." 


304  NEWS  [OCTOBER 

On  the  occasion  of  the  ninetieth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the 
University  of  Berlin  (at  the  beginning  of  August)  Prof.  W.  Waldeyer  discussed 
the  question,  "  Does  the  University  of  Berlin  fulfil  the  mission  entrusted  to  it 
by  its  founder1?"  but  he  confined  himself  mainly  to  the  progress  of  the 
anatomical  department. 

From  an  analysis  published  in  Science  for  August  4,  it  may  be  seen  that 
of  the  doctorates  granted  by  the  United  States  Universities  this  year,  32  were 
for  chemistry,  7  for  physics,  5  for  geology,  4  for  palaeontology,  11  for  botany, 
11  for  zoology,  15  for  psychology,  and  so  on.  "It  may  be  noted  that  at  Johns 
Hopkins  more  than  half  the  scientific  degrees  are  given  in  chemistry.  This 
science  also  leads  at  Yale  and  Harvard.  Psychology  and  education  are 
especially  strong  at  Columbia.  Chicago  stands  first  in  zoology  and  in 
physiology." 

According  to  the  Allahabad  Pioneer  Mail,  cited  in  Nature,  Mr.  J.  N. 
Tata's  munificent  offer  to  endow  a  Scientific  Research  Institute  in  India  has 
now  been  dissociated  by  the  generous  donor  from  the  proposed  family  settle- 
ment, which  was  one  of  the  original  conditions. 

By  the  will  of  the  late  Dr.  Jules  Maringer,  the  Pasteur  Institute  at  Paris 
will  receive  100,000  francs. 

Science  reports  the  following  gifts  and  bequests  : — $1000  from  Mr.  Emerson 
M'Millin  to  the  research  fund  of  the  American  Association  ;  about  $50,000  to 
Yale  University,  by  the  will  of  the  late  Dr.  C.  J.  Stille ;  £10,000  to  Glasgow 
University,  by  the  will  of  the  late  James  Brown  Thomson. 

We  learn  from  the  American  Naturalist  that  Columbia  University  has 
recently  received  $10,000,  to  be  known  as  the  Dyckman  Fund,  the  interest  of 
which  will  be  used  in  the  encouragement  of  biological  research  on  the  part 
of  graduate  students. 

We  learn  from  the  Botanical  Gazette  that  the  extensive  botanical  library 
and  herbarium  accumulated  by  the  late  Prof.  D.  C.  Eaton  of  Yale  have  been 
given  to  the  University  by  his  family,  and  that  a  graduate  scholarship  in 
botany  has  been  founded  by  his  widow. 

Science  publishes  the  letter  in  which  Prof.  C.  E.  Beecher  offers  as  a  gift  to 
the  Peabody  Museum  of  Yale  University  his  entire  scientific  collections,  which 
represent  twenty  years  of  personal  work,  and  comprise  upwards  of  one  hundred 
thousand  specimens.  The  collections  represent  (1)  the  fauna  of  the  Upper 
Devonian  and  Lower  Carboniferous  in  Pennsylvania ;  (2)  the  fauna  of  the 
Middle  Devonian  of  Western  New  York  ;  (3)  the  fauna  of  the  Lower  Devonian 
of  Central  and  Eastern  New  York ;  (4)  a  small  series  from  other  geological 
horizons ;  (5)  about  five  hundred  type  specimens.  There  are  hundreds  of 
specimens  unique  for  their  perfect  preservation  and  for  their  careful  preparation 
to  show  delicate  structural  details.  No  other  single  collection  in  America  is  so 
rich  in  series,  showing  the  life-histories  of  species  from  the  embryonic  to  the 
adult  state. 

A  course  of  twelve  free  lectures  on  the  "  Pleistocene  Mammals "  will  be 
delivered  by  Dr.  Ramsay  H.  Traquair,  F.R.S.,  in  the  Lecture  Theatre  of  the 
Museum  of  Practical  Geology,  Jermyn  Street,  S.W.,  on  Mondays,  Wednesdays, 
and  Fridays,  at  5  p.m.,  beginning  Monday,  October  2,  and  ending  Friday, 
October  27. 

In  the  Scientific  American  for  August  12,  Miss  Alice  Dinsmore  gives  a 
lively  account  of  Nature -study  in  the  Summer  School  of  the  College  of 
Agriculture  of  Cornell.  There  were  three  departments — the  study  of  insect 
life,  directed  by  Prof.  Comstock ;  plant  life,  directed  by  Prof.  Bailey ;  and  farm 


1899]  NEWS  305 

life,  directed  by  Prof.  Roberts,  the  instruction  in  each  case  being  eminently 
practical.  The  course  is  attended  chiefly  by  teachers,  and  the  report  gives  an 
impression  of  sound  and  thorough  work. 

The  new  lecture  hall  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  is 
expected  to  be  ready  next  month.     It  will  seat  1700. 

We  learn  from  our  esteemed  contemporary,  the  American  Naturalist, 
that  the  state  of  Wisconsin  has  appropriated  $10,000  for  two  years  for 
a  geological  and  natural  history  survey  of  the  state,  under  the  direction  of 
Prof.  E.  A.  Birge.  Some  of  these  "  appropriations  "  may  be  contrasted  with, 
for  instance,  the  apparent  impossibility  of  getting  Government  support  for  the 
survey  of  Scottish  lakes.  But  the  subsidy  for  the  Antarctic  Expedition  must 
silence  our  grumbling  in  the  meantime. 

The  fine  collection  of  Scottish  agates  made  by  the  late  Prof.  Heddle  is  now 
arranged  in  the  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  in  Edinburgh.  Mr.  J.  G. 
Goodchild  has  prepared  a  guide  to  the  collection,  incorporating  Prof.  Heddle's 
explanatory  notes. 

According  to  the  Scientific  American,  the  creation  of  a  great  national 
forestry  and  game  reserve  in  northern  Minnesota,  embracing  7,000,000  acres 
around  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi  River,  with  many  lakes  of  rare 
beauty,  well  stocked  with  fish,  will  be  advocated  before  Congress  next  winter 
by  prominent  citizens  of  Chicago  and  Minnesota.  The  promoters  of  the  plan 
are  not  likely  to  experience  much  difficulty  in  interesting  Congress.  The  game 
and  the  virgin  forests  of  the  United  States  are  disappearing  so  rapidly  that  it 
is  exceedingly  important  that  measures  be  taken,  before  it  is  too  late,  to  save 
some  of  the  great  wooded  areas  of  the  continent. 

The  report  of  the  South  African  Museum  for  1898  by  the  Director,  Mr.  W. 
L.  Sclater,  gives  details  as  to  the  growth  of  the  collections.  The  rocks  of  the 
Kimberley  mining  district  have  been  arranged  and  displayed,  and  considerable 
progress  has  been  made  with  the  collection  of  South  African  mammals. 

The  recently-published  British  Museum  blue-book  takes  account  of  the 
additions  to  the  Natural  History  collection  during  1898,  e.g.  the  first  instal- 
ment of  the  Norman  collection  of  marine  invertebrates,  the  rare  mollusc  Pleuro- 
tomaria  beyrichii,  the  rare  fossil  Elasmobranch  Squatina  alifera,  the  late  Rev. 
P.  B.  Brodie's  collection  of  fossil  insect  remains,  the  Piper  collection  of  fossils 
from  the  strata  of  the  Ledbury  tunnel,  and  a  selection  from  the  late  Rev.  T.  T. 
Lewis's  collection  of  Old  Red  Sandstone  fossils. 

It  is  noted  in  Science  that  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer,  the  energetic  director  of  the 
museums  in  Dresden,  is  now  in  the  United  States  inspecting  American  museums 
before  the  new  buildings  in  Dresden  are  erected. 

We  learn  from  the  Victorian  Naturalist  that  the  desirability  of  removing 
the  National  Museum  at  Melbourne  to  a  more  central  and  accessible  site  was 
affirmed  at  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  on  June  1,  and  that  Professor  Baldwin 
Spencer  was  appointed  honorary  director  in  succession  to  the  late  Sir  Frederick 
M'Coy. 

It  is  reported  in  Science  that  the  Boston  Public  Library  will  undertake  the 
publication  of  a  card  catalogue  of  physiology  with  brief  abstracts,  under  the 
editorship  of  Prof.  W.  T.  Porter  of  Harvard  Medical  School. 

We  learn  from  Nature  that  the  city  of  New  York  has  allocated  63,000 
dollars  for  the  zoological  garden  in  Bronx  Park,  and  that  it  is  proposed  to  raise 
the  appropriation  for  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  from  90,000  to 
130,000  dollars  annually. 


306  NE  WS  [OCTOBER 

It  is  noted  in  Science  that  the  Aheavn  bill,  recently  passed  by  the  New 
York  legislature,  allows  $96,000  to  be  spent  next  year  on  free  lectures,  largely 
scientific,  in  New  York  City. 

In  Nature  for  August  31,  Prof.  A.  C.  Haddon  gives  an  interesting  pre- 
liminary report  on  the  results  of  the  Cambridge  Anthropological  Expedition  to 
Torres  Straits  and  Sarawak.  He  and  the  other  members  of  the  expedition 
deserve  congratulations  on  the  successful  issue  of  their  explorations,  and  the 
detailed  memoirs  will  be  awaited  with  interest. 

The  Liverpool  expedition  for  the  study  of  malaria  in  Sierra  Leone  included 
Major  Ross  and  Dr.  Annett  of  the  Liverpool  School  of  Tropical  Diseases,  Mr. 
E.  E.  Austen  of  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History)  as  entomologist,  and 
Dr.  S.  Van  Neck,  official  delegate  of  the  Belgian  Government. 

Major  Ronald  Ross,  leader  of  the  expedition,  has  already  succeeded  in  finding 
the  malaria-bearing  mosquito. 

It  is  stated  in  Nature  that  Mr.  J.  S.  Budgett  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
has  been  successful  in  obtaining  eggs  and  larvae  of  Polypterus. 

Mr.  George  K.  Cherrie  has  returned  from  his  expedition  to  Venezuela,  where 
he  was  collecting  birds  for  the  Tring  Museum.  Although  his  work  was  stopped 
by  illness,  he  got  many  spoils. 

The  steamship  Capella  arrived  at  Tromso  on  August  18  from  Franz  Josef 
Land,  bringing  Mr.  Wellmann's  expedition  from  Cape  Tegetheff.  It  is  reported 
that  the  expedition  reached  the  82nd  parallel.  Some  important  scientific  work 
was  done  and  103  walruses  were  killed.  Mr.  Wellmann  has  been  unfortunately 
crippled  by  falling  into  a  snow-covered  crevasse.  He  has  now  returned  to 
Britain. 

We  learn  from  the  Botanical  Gazette  that  Mr.  J.  N.  Rose  has  just  returned 
from  a  botanical  trip  in  Mexico,  where  he  rediscovered  Echinocactus  parryi,  and 
collected  other  species  lost  or  hitherto  unknown  to  American  herbaria.  He 
made  a  thorough  study  of  the  species  of  agave,  especially  those  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  pulque  and  mescal.  He  visited,  among  many  other  localities, 
Tequila,  in  order  to  find  out  what  plant  furnishes  "  tequila,"  which  is  the  great 
mescal  drink  of  Mexico. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  Dr.  Frederick  W.  True  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  a  well-known  authority  on  cetaceans  and  seals,  went  in  August  to 
Newfoundland  to  hunt  finback  whales,  in  order  to  obtain  specimens  for  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington. 


■&' 


The  workers  on  board  the  Prince  of  Monaco's  Princess  Alice,  which  has  just 
returned  from  a  Spitzbergen  cruise,  were  able  to  do  some  surveying  work,  and 
a  large  unsuspected  bay  was  discovered.  Investigation  was  much  hindered, 
however,  by  the  vessel  running  on  to  rocks,  where  she  remained  for  five  anxious 
days.  Liberation  involved  a  loss  of  most  of  the  coal,  and  this  forced  the 
Prince  to  return  sooner  than  he  would  otherwise  have  done. 

Mr.  Benjamin  Hoppin  has  sent  his  yacht  Senta  to  Greenland  as  a  gift  to 
the  Peary  Relief  Expedition,  with  the  sole  restriction  that  he  wishes  it  to  be 
used  in  scientific  exploration. 

The  Scientific  American  reports  that  the  party  of  scientific  explorers  who 
went  to  Alaska  as  the  guests  of  Mr.  Harriman,  met  with  success,  and  made 
several  important  discoveries.  Among  these  was  an  immense  bay  extending 
inland  for  over  twenty  miles.  At  the  upper  end  of  this  bay  they  discovered  a 
great  glacier  inferior  only  to  the  Muir  glacier  in  size.  Several  other  new  glaciers 
were  discovered.  Some  new  plants  were  found  by  the  botanists,  and  the  collec- 
tion of  marine  species  is  expected  to  surpass  any  yet  made  in  northern  waters. 


1899]  NEWS  307 

"We  learn  from  Science  that  Prof.  Win.  Libbey  and  Dr.  A.  E.  Ortmann  of 
Princeton  University  have  gone  to  dredge  and  explore  in  Inglefield  Gulf  on  the 
steam  whaler  Diana,  of  the  Peary  Relief  Expedition. 

Dr.  Robert  Logan  Jack,  late  Government  Geologist  for  Queensland,  and 
special  commissioner  in  charge  of  the  exhibits  at  the  Greater  Britain  Exhi- 
bition, has  accepted  an  appointment  from  Mr.  Pritchard  Morgan  to  run  some 
mining  concessions  in  Szechuan,  Korea,  and  North  China.  Dr.  Jack  sailed 
in  September. 

Dr.  J.  B.  Hatcher,  of  the  Zoological  Department  of  Princeton  University,  has 
returned  from  his  expedition  to  Patagonia,  and  some  account  of  his  results  is  to 
be  expected  shortly  in  Science. 

Prof.  John  B.  Smith  gives  in  the  Scientific  American  an  interesting  account 
of  "  an  improved  method  of  studying  underground  insects  " — by  pouring  liquid 
plaster  of  Paris  into  the  burrows  and  digging  out  the  cast  after  it  has  set.  As 
he  says,  "  concerning  the  habits  of  underground  insects  we  are  yet  greatly  in 
the  dark,  and  much  of  our  supposed  knowledge  is  really  inference  from 
observations  made  upon  the  insects  when  at  the  surface,  or  from  such  ex- 
cavating as  has  been  done  in  attempting  to  follow  out  the  burrows  of  diggers." 
It  may  be  recalled  that  the  Duke  of  Argyll  used  the  plaster  of  Paris  method  in 
studying  the  burrows  of  the,  lugworm. 

The  forty-fourth  annual  exhibition  of  the  Royal  Photographic  Society,  at  the 
Gallery  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Painters  in  Water  Colours,  5a  Pall  Mall  East, 
was  opened  to  the  public  on  Monday,  September  25,  for  a  period  of  seven 
weeks. 

The  Tsar  has  recently  ordered  the  allotment  of  three  million  roubles  to 
found  boarding-houses  for  University  students ;  and  this  has  been  followed  by 
a  Government  proposal  to  establish  and  subsidise  boarding-houses,  scholarships, 
and  even  tutors  for  the  children  of  the  provincial  nobility  who  are  attending 
the  middle-class  schools. 

It  is  noted  in  a  recent  issue  of  the  Scientific  American  that  while  Britain 
stands  first  in  the  production  of  slate,  and  France  comes  a  good  second,  it  will 
soon  be  necessary  to  place  the  United  States  well  up  in  the  list  of  competitors. 
The  estimated  world  production  is  valued  at  16  million  dollars,  of  which  84 
millions  fall  to  Britain,  and  over  31  to  the  States. 

The  Times  gives,  from  a  report  of  the  British  Consul  at  Naples,  an  interest- 
ing account  of  the  island  of  Procida,  in  the  Bay  of  Naples.  Unlike  Ischia  and 
Capri,  it  is  very  rarely  visited  by  travellers,  though  in  point  of  scenery  it  is 
almost  superior  to  them.  It  is  about  two  miles  long  by  one  mile  broad,  and 
carries  the  enormous  population  of  14,000  souls.  Its  sailors  are  the  best  in  the 
Bay  of  Naples,  and  its  little  harbour  is  usually  thronged  with  sailing  vessels, 
which  do  the  coasting  trade  of  Italy  and  the  neighbouring  islands.  The  plateau 
in  the  centre  of  the  island  produces  excellent  wine  and  fruit.  Some  of  the 
people  manufacture  very  fine  gut  from  silkworms.  They  call  the  product  fili 
di  seta,  or  "  silk  threads,"  the  special  properties  consisting  in  strength  and 
flexibility.  They  are  made  from  the  stomachs  of  silkworms  just  before  they 
begin  to  spin  their  silk  and  form  their  cocoons.  Not  many  worms  in  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  gut  put  on  the  market  are  reared  in  Procida  itself,  but  the 
makers  buy  them  from  Torre  dell'  Annunziata  and  other  neighbouring  towns  in 
great  quantities.  The  worm  when  fully  matured,  that  is,  at  the  moment  when 
its  nourishment  ceases,  and  just  before  its  metamorphosis,  is  cut  open,  great 
care  being  taken  not  to  injure  the  membrane  of  the  stomach.  This  is  then 
removed,  and  usually  reaches  the  length  of  13  to  20  millims.,  with  a  diameter 
of  H  to  2  millims.     The  stomachs  are   then  put  into  a  pickle,   the  secret  of 


308  NE  WS  [OCTOBER  1899 

which  is  carefully  kept.  When  the  pickling  process  is  over,  the  workpeople, 
who  are  mostly  women,  take  one  end  of  the  stomach  in  their  teeth  and  draw 
the  other  end  with  their  hands.  This  part  of  the  work  requires  great  dexterity, 
for  the  threads  are  drawn  out  to  the  length  of  30  to  50  centims.,  and  the  whole 
value  of  the  product  depends  upon  its  length  in  relation  to  its  thickness,  and 
the  strain  it  will  carry.  There  are  two  seasons  for  the  production — spring, 
when  the  best  gut  is  produced,  and  autumn,  when  the  quality  is  inferior. 
There  is  an  important  market  for  this  speciality,  and  the  whole  production  is 
exported  to  Northern  Italy  and  abroad  at  the  average  price  of  150  lire  per  kilo. 
The  gut  is  very  light,  so  that  a  great  deal  of  it  goes  to  a  kilo.  The  cost  of 
production  is  also  considerable,  as  the  worms  must  be  bought  just  at  the 
moment  when  they  are  becoming  profitable  for  making  silk,  that  is  when  they 
are  at  their  dearest.  Again,  the  results  are  frequently  disappointing,  many 
worms  being  found,  on  dissection,  not  to  be  suitable,  and  having  to  be  dis- 
carded. 

The  Scientific  American  refers  to  some  statistics  recently  published  by  the 
French  Meteorological  Bureau  at  Paris.  Spain  has  3000  hours  of  sunshine  a 
year;  Italy  2700;  France  2600;  Germany  has  1700,  while  England  has  but 
1400.  The  average  fall  of  rain  in  the  latter  country  is  greater  than  that  in 
any  other  European  country.  In  the  northern  part  and  on  the  high  plateaus 
of  Scotland  about  351  inches  of  rain  fall  a  year,  and  London  is  said  to  have  an 
average  of  178  rainy  days  in  the  year,  and  fully  ten  times  the  quantity  of  rain 
that  falls  on  Paris. 

In  reference  to  a  note  which  was  recently  published  in  our  columns  on  the 
difficulty  of  inoculating  locusts  with  fungus  owing  to  the  frequent  moults,  it  is 
interesting  to  see  that  the  recent  experiments  at  the  Cape  have  proved  very 
effective. 

According  to  Spring's  experiments,  reported  in  the  Scientific  American  of 
September  2,  a  pure  blue  is  the  natural  colour  of  water.  Finely  divided  white  or 
colourless  particles  reflect  a  yellow  light,  which  unites  with  the  natural  blue  to 
form  a  bright  green.  The  fact  that  the  water  of  ordinarily  green  lakes  turns 
perfectly  colourless  at  times,  is  not  due  to  a  clarification,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
to  an  influx  of  a  reddish  mud,  coloured  by  ferric  oxide,  which  completely 
neutralises  the  green. 

An  interesting  experiment  is  being  made  by  the  Government  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  the  migration  of  birds.  A  number 
of  observatories  are  being  established  all  over  these  two  countries,  on  the  coasts, 
plains,  mountains,  rivers,  and  lakes — in  fact,  in  every  spot  which  seems  likely 
to  yield  results  of  interest  to  those  engaged  in  researches  on  bird  migration. 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  Government  of  the  two  countries  named,  a  meeting 
of  ornithologists  was  convened  at  Sarajevo  from  the  25th  to  29th  of  September 
with  a  view  to  similar  observations  conducted  on  uniform  methods  being 
instituted  elsewhere.  A  report  was  presented  on  the  bird  life  of  the  Balkan 
States,  illustrated  by  a  fine  collection  from  those  districts. 


Natural  Science^ 

A  Monthly  Review  of  Scientific  Progress 

November  1899 

NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

Disturbing  the  Balance  of  Nature. 

No  one  who  has  appreciated  the  reality  of  the  struggle  for  existence  is 
likely  to  be  in  haste  to  disturb  the  balance  of  nature  either  by 
eliminating  old-established  inhabitants  from  an  area  in  which  they  have 
settled,  or  by  artificially  introducing  new-comers.  But  where  the 
scientific  man  would  try  at  least  to  act  warily,  the  practical  man  is 
impetuous,  and  many  illustrations  of  nemesis,  e.g.  the  rabbits  in 
Australia,  are  well-known.  Nor  has  the  scientific  man  always  restrained 
himself  from  eliminating  and  introducing,  and  though  the  results  have 
sometimes  been  beneficial,  it  has  not  always  been  so. 

Apart  from  its  practical  importance,  man's  agency  as  an  eliminator 
and  distributor  is  of  much  theoretical  interest,  for  the  results  serve  to 
vivify  our  realisation  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  often  to  impress 
us  with  the  plasticity  of  adaptation  which  even  highly  specialised  forms 
have  still  in  reserve.  It  may  be  profitable,  therefore,  to  bring  together 
a  few  illustrations. 

In  1850  the  first  house  sparrows  of  Europe  were  introduced  into 
America,  and  from  that  time  to  1870,  according  to  Merriam  and 
Barrows  (U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Division  of  Economic 
Ornithology  and  Mammalogy,  Bulletin  I.  1889),  upwards  of  1500  are 
said  to  have  been  imported.  They  found  themselves  in  conditions 
where  the  operation  of  natural  selection  was,  in  great  measure, 
suspended  as  far  as  they  were  concerned.  Commenting  on  this,  Prof. 
Hermon  C.  Bumpus  says  {Biol.  Lectures  Woods  Soil,  Boston,  1898, 
pp.  1-15): — "  They  have  found  abundant  food,  convenient  and  safe 
nesting-places,  practically  no  natural  enemies,  and  unrivalled  means  of 
dispersal.  Aside  from  an  early  and  brief  period  of  fostering  care, 
they  have  been  left  to  shift  for  themselves ;  natural  agencies  have 
since  been  at  work,  and  in  the  relatively  short  space  of  forty  years  a 
continent  has  been  not  merely  invaded,  but  inundated  by  an  animal 
which,  in  its  native  habitat,  has  been  fairly  subservient  to  the  regula- 
tions imposed  by  competing  life."     They  may  here  and  there  recognise 

21 NAT.    SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    93.  309 


IBRAR  Y 


3io  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [novbmbeb 

their  debt  to  man  by  destroying  a  few  weeds,  they  may  by  their 
chirping  cheer  the  heart  of  the  simple,  and  they  have  enabled  Mr. 
Bumpus  to  make  an  interesting  study  on  variation,  but  on  the  whole 
they  are  a  pest.  Mr.  Palmer,  to  whose  article  on  dangerous  intro- 
ductions we  shall  immediately  refer,  says  that  the  English  bird  "  is  now 
present  in  every  state  and  territory,  with  half  a  dozen  exceptions,  and 
is  known  as  a  pest  to  nearly  every  one  in  the  eastern  United  States. 
It  has  begun  to  spread  in  Argentina,  while  in  Australia  it  is  even 
more  troublesome  than  in  this  country.  It  has  also  gained  a  foothold 
in  Hawaii  and  numerous  islands  in  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and  Indian 
Oceans."  Most  vigorous  attempts  have  been  made  to  get  rid  of  it,  e.g. 
the  attempt  last  spring  to  expel  it  from  Boston  Common,  but  the 
sparrow  holds  its  own.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  proposal  to  intro- 
duce the  English  starling  to  counteract  the  English  sparrow  will  not 
commend  itself,  for  the  evidence  of  antagonism  seems  very  slim,  and 
the  cure  might  be  worse  than  the  disease. 

In  an  article  by  T.  S.  Palmer,  entitled  "  The  Danger  of  introducing 
Noxious  Animals  and  Birds,"  in  the  Year-look  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  (U.S.A.)  for  1898  (pp.  87-110,  illustrated),  of  which  the 
author  gives  an  abstract  in  Science  (x.  1899,  pp.  174-176),  some  good 
examples  will  be  found. 

The  mongoose,  introduced  into  Jamaica  in  1872  to  keep  down  the 
rats,  has  multiplied  like  the  rabbits  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
and  while  effectually  reducing  the  rats,  has  proceeded  to  a  wholesale 
destruction  of  poultry,  game,  ground-nesting  birds  of  various  kinds, 
reptiles,  and  even  fruits.  "  The  decrease  of  birds  was  followed  by  a 
marked  increase  in  certain  insect  pests,  but  recent  reports  indicate 
that  the  mongoose  is  diminishing  somewhat  in  numbers,  and  some  of 
the  birds  are  increasing,  so  that  both  native  and  introduced  species 
are  adapting  themselves  to  new  conditions."  In  Hawaii  the  record  is 
similar,  but  the  mongoose  has  not  yet  become  such  a  nuisance  as  in 
Jamaica. 

In  the  Scientific  American  for  August  26,  1899,  p.  140,  Dr.  C. 
M.  Blackford  recalls  some  other  instances.  In  1868  Leopold  Trouvelot, 
an  entomologist,  was  unfortunate  enough  to  allow  some  imported 
gypsy  moths  (Porthetria  dispar)  to  escape  through  an  open  window. 
In  twenty  years  they  had  become  a  scourge,  and  we  have  more  than 
once  in  our  columns  referred  to  their  devastations  and  to  the  immense 
sums  which  have  been  expended  in  trying  to  counteract  them.  It  is 
at  last  possible  to  say  that  the  pest  is  under  control,  but  the  cost  of 
its  suppression  has  been  enormous. 

A  happier  instance  of  introduction  is  found  in  the  well-known 
story  of  the  fluted  scale  {Icerya  purchasi)  brought  to  California  from 
Australia  to  the  great  damage  of  the  orange  and  lemon  groves,  but 
effectively  checked  by  the  further  introduction  of  the  red  "  lady-bug  " 
or  vedalia  (Novius  cardinalis).     "  Within  a  short  space  of  time  the 


1899]  DISTURBING  THE  BALANCE  OF  NATURE  311 

trees  were  cleared,  and  at  present  the  scales  are  being  reared  to 
preserve  the  lady-bugs  in  case  of  another  outbreak."  In  1897,  in 
Portugal,  the  experience  of  the  United  States  was  successfully  repeated. 

From  Dr.  Blackford's  article  we  may  take  one  other  example  : 
"  In  many  of  the  rivers  of  Brazil  a  plant  grows  that  is  called  the 
Water  Hyacinth.  It  is  very  ornamental,  and  a  few  years  ago  a  land- 
owner on  the  St.  John's  Eiver,  in  Florida,  procured  a  small  number 
for  a  pond  on  his  estate.  They  increased  rapidly  and  filled  up  the 
pond,  whereupon  the  owner  had  them  gathered  up  and  thrown  into 
the  river.  The  experiment  was  unfortunate.  Free  from  natural 
enemies,  the  hyacinths  have  flourished,  so  that  on  many  streams 
navigation  is  practically  impossible.  From  shore  to  shore  there 
spreads  an  impenetrable  sheet  of  vegetation  that  entangles  paddles, 
oars,  or  propellers,  and  arrests  all  manner  of  refuse  that  should  go  to 
the  sea.  From  time  to  time  bodies  of  this  growth  become  detached 
and  drift  down  until  salt  water  is  reached,  when  the  plants  die  and 
are  cast  ashore  in  putrescent  heaps.  A  natural  enemy  has  been 
sought,  but  as  yet  no  appreciable  result  has  been  accomplished.  In 
Brazil  a  small  red  spider  lives  on  the  hyacinths,  and  is  said  to  be 
injurious  to  it.  This  spider  has  been  introduced  into  Florida,  but  no 
effect  has  been  perceived." 

In  conclusion,  the  theoretical  interest  of  these  cases  is  all  very 
well,  but  "  things  are  in  the  saddle,"  and  practical  considerations  force 
themselves  upon  us.  Therefore  we  have  pleasure  in  quoting  the  last 
paragraph  of  Mr.  Palmer's  article.  "  Congress  should  take  steps 
promptly  to  protect  Hawaii  and  Puerto  Eico  against  further  intro- 
duction of  noxious  species,  and  to  prevent  the  mongoose  from  being 
brought  into  the  United  States.  The  introduction  of  exotic  mammals 
and  birds  should  be  restricted  by  law,  and  .should  be  under  the  control 
of  the  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  wild  rabbit,  the  mon- 
goose, the  flying  foxes,  and  the  mina  of  the  Old  World,  should  be 
rigidly  excluded ;  and  species  of  doubtful  value,  such  as  the  starling, 
skylark,  kohlmeise,  and  blackbird,  should  be  imported  with  the  greatest 
care,  and  only  in  places  where  they  can  be  controlled  in  case  they 
prove  injurious." 


Notes  on  American  Mammals. 

Mr.  D.  G-.  Elliot,  so  well  known  from  his  magnificent  illustrated 
monographs  of  various  groups  of  animals,  as  well  as  from  his  less  pre- 
tentious handbooks  of  North  American  game  and  water  birds,  has 
recently  turned  his  attention  to  faunistic  work.  The  results  of  his 
labours  have  been  presented  to  the  public  in  the  "  Publications  of  the 
Field  Columbian  Museum,"  and  comprise  the  mammalian  fauna  of  the 
Olympic  mountains,  notes  on  certain  reptiles  and  batrachians  from  the 


3i2  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November 

same  district,  and  descriptions  of  apparently  new  mammals  from 
Oklahoma  and  Indian  territory.  Since  the  author  is  by  no  means 
addicted  to  unnecessary  "  splitting,"  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
such  forms  as  receive  new  names  are  certainly  entitled  to  distinction. 

To  mention  any  of  the  smaller  animals  by  name  would  be  of  no 
general  interest ;  and  we  may  therefore  direct  attention  to  his  account 
of  the  Western  Wapiti,  which  has  only  recently  been  brought  to  the 
notice  of  naturalists,  although  described  long  ago  by  Hamilton  Smith 
under  the  name  of  G.  occidentalis.  Mr.  Elliot  regards  it  as  merely  a 
local  variety  of  the  Wapiti,  and  accordingly  refers  to  it  as  C.  canadensis 
occidentalis. 

Failing  to  find  any  satisfactory  characters  in  the  antlers  whereby 
it  can  be  distinguished  from  the  typical  Eastern  Wapiti,  the  author 
turns  to  the  coloration  of  the  animal,  and  writes  as  follows : — "  In 
nearly  all  seasons  of  the  year,  except  winter,  the  colour  of  the  coat  is 
apparently  indistinguishable  from  that  of  the  Eocky  Mountain  species, 
and  I  have  seen  a  number  of  heads,  killed  in  winter,  that  resembled 
precisely  the  Eastern  animal,  being  in  no  wise  any  darker.  But,  as  a 
rule,  I  believe  in  winter  the  head  and  neck  of  the  Olympic  Wapiti, 
together  with  the  legs,  reaching  to  the  groin  and  rump,  are  black, 
varying  in  intensity  and  in  a  mixture  of  brown,  among  different  in- 
dividuals. This  peculiar  coloration  I  have  never  seen  in  the  Eastern 
Wapiti,  and  when  in  this  pelage  the  Olympic  animal  would  be  always 
readily  recognisable.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  all  the  animals  inhabit- 
ing a  country  subjected  to  such  an  annual  rainfall  as  in  north-west 
Washington,  would  be  very  dark  in  appearance,  and  this  is  almost 
universally  the  case,  all  colours  being  intensified ;  and  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  Wapiti  should  prove  to  be  no  exception  to  the  rule, 
but  assumes  at  certain  seasons  a  partly  black  pelage.  This  colouring 
is  practically  the  only  character  there  is  by  which  the  Wapiti  of  the 
Olympics  and  Eocky  Mountains  can  be  separated,  and  when  it  is  absent 
the  animals  are  indistinguishable  from  each  other." 

In  the  geological  series  of  the  same  journal  (i.  p.  181)  Mr.  E.  S. 
Eiggs  describes  certain  Eodent  remains  from  the  Miocene  of  North 
America,  which  he  refers  to  the  hitherto  imperfectly  known  family 
Mylagaulidm.  This  family  was  established  by  the  late  Professor  Cope 
on  the  evidence  of  jaws  from  the  Upper  Miocene  of  Nebraska  described 
as  Mylagaulus.  The  other  forms,  respectively  from  the  Deep  Eiver  and 
John  Day  beds,  are  named  Mesogaidus  and  Protogatdus.  Although 
showing  some  dental  characters  approximating  to  the  Porcupines,  these 
Eodents  are  regarded  as  undoubted  Sciuromorphs,  allied  to  the 
Castoridaz,  although  to  a  great  extent  forming  an  isolated  type.  "  The 
one  prominent  feature,"  writes  Mr.  Eiggs,  "  is  the  unusual  development 
of  the  premolar,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  posterior-lying  teeth.  As- 
sociated with  this  is  the  great  strength  and  sharpness  of  the  mandible, 
the  prominence  and  anterior  position  of  the  masseteric  ridge,  and  the 


1899]  NOTES  ON  AMERICAN  MAMMALS  313 

depth  of  the  ramus  from  the  alveoli  to  the  angle.  These  tell  an  un- 
mistakable story ; — unusual  capacity  for  crushing  or  grinding,  and  the 
attendant  specialisation  of  the  premolar  to  perform  the  function  laid 
upon  it.  Just  as  in  the  Carnivora,  the  first  lower  molar,  lying  im- 
mediately anterior  to  the  insertion  of  the  masseter  muscles,  has  de- 
veloped into  the  great  shearing  tooth ;  so  in  these  forms  the  last 
premolar  has  fitted  itself  for  a  crushing  implement,  which  has  reached 
the  highest  degree  of  specialisation  known  to  Rodentia."  It  is  then 
suggested  that  the  teeth  in  question  may  have  been  employed  for 
cracking  nuts  or  hard-shelled  seeds,  although  evidently  also  used  for 
grinding. 

The  15th  part  of  the  "North  American  Fauna"  is  devoted  to  a  mono- 
graph of  the  genus  Zapus  (jumping-mice),  the  range  of  which  has 
recently  been  increased  by  the  discovery  of  a  species  in  North-West 
China.  Mr.  E.  A.  Preble  is  the  author  of  the  memoir  in  question,  and 
appears  to  have  done  his  work  well. 

The  naturalists  of  the  La  Plata  Museum  appear  convinced  that  the 
so-called  Neomylodon  listai — the  ground-sloth,  whose  skin  has  been 
discovered  in  a  cave  in  Patagonia — is  really  inseparable  from  the  genus 
Glossotherium,  or  Grypotherium,  and  conclude  that  it  was  kept  in  a 
domestic  state  by  the  early  inhabitants  of  Patagonia.  They  further 
believe  it  to  be  now  extinct.  The  first  instalment  of  a  conjoint  paper 
on  the  subject  is  published  in  the  Rev.  Mies.  La  Plata,  vol.  ix.  p.  407. 


American  Plant-Notes. 

Recent  numbers  of  Rhodora,  the  journal  of  the  New  England  Botanical 
Club,  maintain  the  reputation  of  this  small  but  useful  periodical. 
Among  numerous  notes  and  short  papers  dealing  chiefly  with  the 
native  flora,  we  note  some  suggestions  on  seaweed  collecting  by  F.  S. 
Collins,  and  an  account  of  past  and  present  floral  conditions  in  Central 
Massachusetts  by  G.  E.  Stone.  The  last  mentioned  traces  the  effects 
of  deforestation  on  the  flora,  especially  with  regard  to  the  proportion 
and  nature  of  the  trees.  Several  species,  such  as  the  hemlock,  beech, 
and  canoe-birch  have  become  less  abundant,  their  places  being  more  or 
less  occupied  by  the  quicker  growing  white  birch  and  poplar.  The 
complete  and  continual  removal  of  forest  has  also  exerted  a  great 
influence  upon  many  smaller  plants,  and  there  is  a  marked  decline  in 
the  luxuriance  of  humus -loving  orchids,  strawberries  and  meadow- 
grasses. 

The  July  number  of  the  Plant  World  contains  a  picture  and  short 
account  of  the  liberty  tree  of  Annapolis,  an  ancient  and  magnificent 
tulip-tree  with  numerous  and  various  historic  associations.  There  is 
also  a  laudatory  exposition  of  ecology,  or  the  study  of  the  relation  of 


3i4  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November 

plants  to  their  surroundings  as  a  branch  of  botany  worthy  the  attention 
of  teachers  and  students. 

With  the  July  number  the  Botanical  Gazette  enters  on  a  new 
volume  (xxviii).  The  issue  contains  three  important  papers.  "  Studies 
on  Reduction  in  Plants,"  by  G-.  F.  Atkinson,  describes  the  intra-nuclear 
changes  occurring  daring  pollen  development  in  an  aroid  (Arisaema 
trvphyllum),  and  a  liliaceous  plant  {Trillium  grandifiorum).  The  author 
suggests  that  "  some  of  the  bewilderment  which  now  surrounds  certain 
phases  of  the  study  of  the  morphology  of  the  nucleus  "  will  disappear, 
"  if  we  recognise  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  reducing  division  or 
qualitative  reduction  in  plants  as  represented  by  such  types  as 
Trillium,  Arisaema"  and  others ;  "  that  there  are  plants  in  which  only 
a  quantitative  or  numerical  reduction  occurs,"  as  in  Podophyllum ; 
"and  possibly  that  there  is  still  another  type  where  in  the  same  plant 
qualitative  reduction  may  take  place  in  some  cells,  while  quantitative 
or  numerical  reduction  only  takes  place  in  others."  The  paper  is  fully 
illustrated.  Charles  Eobertson  adds  another  (No.  xix.)  to  his  long  list 
of  papers  on  "  Flowers  and  Insects."  He  deals  chiefly  with  the  flower 
visits  of  oligotropic  bees,  those,  namely,  which  restrict  their  visits  for 
pollen-collecting  to  a  few  flowers.  Oligotropic  species  are  more  fre- 
quent than  has  hitherto  been  supposed,  and  the  author  gives  a  list 
of  fifty-two  belonging  to  thirteen  genera,  the  number  of  plant  species 
visited  varying  from  one  to  nine.  He  also  discusses  the  influence 
of  bees  in  the  modification  of  flowers,  tracing  the  origin  of  pollination 
by  insects,  and  the  development  of  increasingly  complex  mechanism, 
as  the  result  of  insect- visits. 

The  "  Origin  of  the  Leafy  Sporophyte  "  is  a  critical  contribution  by 
Prof.  J.  M.  Coulter,  to  the  much  debated  question  of  the  development  of 
the  higher  leaf-bearing  plant  from  the  moss-capsule  or  some  one  or  more 
ancestors.  The  argument  from  cytology  is  not  yet  clear,  and  the 
author  is  fain  to  admit  that,  on  the  whole,  all  such  discussion  is  "  very 
vague  and  general,  and  may  not  commend  itself  to  many  as  profitable." 

We  have  received  a  separate  copy,  printed  in  advance  from  the 
eleventh  annual  report  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  of  a  revision 
of  the  North  American  species  of  Euphorbia,  belonging  to  the  section 
Tithymcdus.  Most  of  our  British  spurges  belong  to  this  section,  and 
nearly  all  of  them  have  been  introduced  into  the  United  States  and 
have  become  more  or  less  widely  spread  there.  The  paper,  which  is 
by  J.  B.  S.  Norton,  is  accompanied  by  no  less  than  forty-two  plates 
showing  the  general  habit  of  the  plant,  with  floral  dissections  and 
figures  of  the  seeds.  We  have  so  often  to  deplore  the  absence  of 
figures  in  systematic  books  and  papers  that  we  are  glad  to  note  an 
example  of  a  monograph  in  which  every  species  is  figured. 


1899]  A  ROCK  OUT  OF  PLACE  315 


A  Rock  out  of  Place. 

In  the  July- August  number  of  the  Journal  of  Geology  (vii.  pp.  483- 
488)  Stuart  Weller  describes  the  peculiar  occurrence  of  a  small  patch 
of  Upper  Devonian  rock  in  the  heart  of  a  quarry  of  Niagara  limestone 
at  Elmhurst,  Illinois.  At  this  locality  the  limestone  is  much  fractured, 
and  one  of  the  joints  is  enlarged  to  form  a  cavity,  triangular  in  section, 
6  inches  wide  at  the  base  and  16  inches  high,  but  thinning  out  as  it 
passes  into  the  rock.  This  cavity  is  filled  with  angular  fragments  of 
the  adjacent  limestone  embedded  in  a  dark  brown  sandy  matrix,  which 
contains  fish-teeth,  Lingula,  and  other  brachiopods,  the  total  suggestive 
of  a  late  Devonian  age.  From  this  material  two  new  species  of 
Diplodus  are  described  by  C.  R  Eastman  in  the  same  number  of  the 
Journal.  Further,  says  Dr.  Weller,  "  At  the  base  of  the  triangular 
opening,  between  the  two  beds  of  limestone  that  come  in  contact  at 
that  point,  the  Devonian  material  extends  both  to  the  right  and  left 
for  several  feet,  forming  a  bed  an  inch  or  two  in  thickness  between  the 
two  limestone  beds." 

The  nearest  outcrop  of  Devonian  is  80  miles  from  Elmhurst,  so  that 
the  position  of  this  patch  is  doubly  interesting.  Dr.  Weller  explains 
it  thus.  During  the  greater  part  of  Devonian  time  the  region  must 
have  been  above  sea  -  level  (an  inference  which  seems  to  follow 
legitimately  from  the  alleged  age  of  the  deposit).  "  The  waters  which 
collected  upon  this  land  surface  in  part  percolated  through  the  under- 
lying rock  strata  and  by  solution  increased  the  size  of  many  joint 
cracks.  At  a  later  period,  near  the  close  of  the  Devonian,  when  the 
sea  again  occupied  the  region,  sand  was  sifted  down  into  these  open 
joints,  and  with  it  the  teeth  of  fishes  which  inhabited  the  sea  there- 
about." The  opening  was,  "  perhaps,  large  enough  for  the  entrance  of 
some  of  these  fishes."  Traces  of  the  same  sandy  material  are  seen  on 
the  joint-face  above  the  opening. 

If  this  explanation  be  true,  then,  as  Dr.  Weller  phrases  it,  "  no 
description  of  any  similar  occurrence  has  been  observed  in  the 
literature  " ;  but  this  scarcely  justifies  the  conclusion  of  the  sentence, 
"  and  it  may  be  designated  by  the  name  subterranean  unconformity."  If 
the  mode  of  occurrence  were  at  all  common,  if  it  were  anything  but 
unique,  then  perhaps  a  name  might  be  convenient.  At  present  there 
seems  no  advantage  in  one.  Moreover,  we  are  not  convinced  that  Dr. 
Weller's  account  is  the  true  one.  It  does  not  allude  to  the  occurrence 
of  clay  in  the  other  joints,  and  it  affords  no  explanation  of  the  lime- 
stone breccia.  Can  Dr.  Weller  prove  that  this  is  not  a  fault-rock,  in 
which  fragments  of  the  immediately  adjacent  rock  are  mixed  up  with 
fragments  or  washings  that  have  fallen  down  the  crack  from  the  super- 
jacent rock  ?  Such  an  occurrence  is  common  enough,  though  we  know 
no  technical  name  for  it. 


3i6  NOTES  AND   COMMENTS  [November 


Beeren  Eiland. 

The  Swedish  Arctic  Expedition  of  1898,  under  the  leadership  of  Prof. 
A.  G.  Nathorst,  spent  a  week  on  Beeren  Eiland,  mapped  it  on  a  scale 
of  1  :  50,000,  and  made  numerous  observations  on  its  natural  history. 
Chief  among  these  were  the  geological  researches  which  proved  a 
prehistoric  local  glaciation,  and  by  means  of  fossils  showed  the  presence 
of  rocks  of  three  systems :  Silurian,  Middle  Carboniferous,  and  Trias, 
previously  unknown  on  the  island.  These  discoveries  led  to  another 
expedition  to  Beeren  Eiland  during  the  past  summer.  The  expenses 
were  borne  by  the  Vega  Stipend  of  the  Swedish  Geographical  Society, 
the  Lars  Hierta  Memorial  Fund,  and  various  private  individuals.  The 
leader  was  the  geologist,  J.  Gunnar  Andersson  of  Upsala,  who  had 
accompanied  Prof.  Nathorst ;  the  other  scientific  members  were  C.  A. 
Forsberg,  cartographer  and  meteorologist,  and  G.  Swenander,  zoologist 
and  botanist.  The  expedition  stayed  on  Beeren  Eiland  from  June 
23  to  August  19,  and  accomplished  the  following  work: — 

The  whole  island  was  mapped  in  greater  detail,  and  a  special  map, 
on  a  scale  of  1:5000,  was  made  of  Eysshamn,  where  the  expedition 
had  its  headquarters. 

From  June  25  to  August  16  complete  meteorological  observa- 
tions were  taken  twice  a  clay,  as  well  as  continuous  observations  by  a 
self-registering  barometer  and  thermometer.  Eight  series  of  observa- 
tions were  made  on  the  tides,  each  series  extending  over  from  8  to  5 1 
hours,  during  which  time  the  height  of  the  water  at  intervals  of  half 
an  hour  was  marked  off  on  a  section. 

The  botanist  collected  all  the  phanerogams  previously  found  on  the 
island  as  well  as  Koenigia  islandica,  hitherto  unrecorded.  Exhaustive 
collections  were  also  made  of  the  lower  plants,  including  the  algae  of 
red  and  green  snow.  To  investigate  the  influence  on  plant-growth  of 
the  continuous  light  of  an  Arctic  summer,  three  series  of  cultivation 
experiments  were  carried  out  as  follows  : — First,  in  five  places  of 
nearly  the  same  longitude,  but  at  a  distance  of  about  3  or  4  degrees  of 
latitude  from  one  another — namely,  Svalof  in  Scania,  Ultima  near 
Upsala,  Lule&,  Tromso,  and  Beeren  Eiland  —  barley  taken  from  the 
same  sample  was  grown  in  soil  from  the  same  place.  Only  the 
climatic  conditions,  and  especially  those  of  light,  were  different  in  the 
different  stations  ;  thus  there  were  completely  dark  nights  in  Scania, 
complete  light  the  whole  24  hours  on  Beeren  Eiland,  with  intermediate 
conditions  at  the  intervening  places.  The  material  from  the  Scandi- 
navian stations  has  not  yet  been  brought  in,  so  that  the  results  of  this 
interesting  experiment  are  still  awaited.  Secondly,  on  open  land  at 
the  Beeren  Eiland  station  there  were  cultivated  two  precisely  similar 
series  of  Arctic  plants,  of  which  one  series  stood  in  continual  light, 
while  the  other  was  kept  in  complete  darkness  each  night   (8  p.m.  to 


1899]  BEEREN  EILAND  317 

8  a.m.).  During  the  period  of  the  experiment  the  development  of 
these  plants  did  not  proceed  very  far,  but  the  series  kept  in  the  light 
was  obviously  the  more  sturdy.  The  third  experiment  consisted  in 
the  cultivation,  on  a  hot-bed,  of  a  score  of  common  Scandinavian  plants. 
These  also  were  in  two  similar  series,  one  kept  in  the  light,  the  other 
darkened  by  night.  The  experiment  succeeded  with  18,  and  of  these 
16  were  clearly  more  sturdy  in  the  light  series,  some  of  them  yielding 
examples  half  as  large  again  as  those  in  the  darkened  series. 

To  the  list  of  the  island's  fauna  were  added  two  birds  :  the  Skua 
(Lcstris  imnatorliina)  and  the  Spitzbergen  form  of  Mormon  ardicus. 
Salmo  alpinus  was  found  in  a  lake.  Special  attention  was  paid  to  the 
insects,  which  on  isolated  oceanic  islands  are  of  much  interest  to  the 
student  of  distribution.  Holmgren,  the  only  entomologist  who  had 
previously  visited  Beeren  Eiland,  found  there  in  1868  only  9  species 
of  Diptera  and  1  Hymenopteron.  The  Swedish  expedition  has 
brought  back  a  large  collection  of  Diptera,  not  yet  worked  through, 
4  Hymenoptera,  1  Neuropteron,  and  2  Coleoptera.  Holmgren  found 
only  2  Acarids  ;  the  present  explorers  have  at  least  10. 

The  chief  object  of  the  expedition  was  a  detailed  geological 
investigation  of  the  island.  This  has  been  successfully  carried  out 
with  valuable  results.  A  large  collection  of  fossil  plants  from  the 
coal-bearing  series  has  been  made  ;  numerous  fossils  have  been  collected 
from  all  the  marine  strata,  especially  from  the  Trias.  A  geological 
map  of  the  whole  island  has  been  constructed.  The  stratigraphy  and 
tectonic  geology  of  the  whole  island  has  been  worked  out,  and  there 
have  been  discovered  in  the  southern  part  of  the  island  a  series  of 
dislocations  of  Carboniferous  age,  which  explain  the  topography  of  the 
hilly  regions  and  the  varying  development  of  the  Carboniferous  system 
at  various  points. 

Mr.  Gunnar  Andersson  and  his  companions  are  to  be  congratulated 
on  the  amount  of  solid  work  they  have  accomplished,  and  we  look 
forward  to  the  publication  of  the  detailed  results  with  much  interest. 
It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  proprietor  of  Beeren  Eiland,  Mr. 
Lerner  (who  happens  to  be  a  German)  has  helped  the  expedition,  and 
hopes  to  welcome  it  back  in  some  future  year. 


The  Difficulties  of  the  Australian  Museum. 

Despite  the  fact  that  the  Australian  Museum  is  in  an  unhappy 
financial  position,  we  enjoy  reading  the  report  of  its  Curator,  because 
Mr.  B.  Etheridge,  junior,  has  a  way  of  saying  just  what  he  thinks,  and 
this  way — the  essence  of  all  great  literature — is  not  permitted  to 
many  officials    in    the    mother  country.      Mr.   Etheridge's   vigour    has 


J 


1 8  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November 


infected  eveu  the  Trustees,  and  their  Eeport  for  the  year  1898  puts 
the  case  as  strongly  as  can  be  expected  from  so  decorous  a  body. 
They  "  regret  that  for  some  years  past  the  funds  voted  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  museum  have  been  inadequate.  In  1892  the  museum 
vote,  leaving  out  of  account  special  items,  was  £7201.  In  1893  the 
trustees  were  compelled  to  submit  to  considerable  reductions,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  financial  pressure  of  the  time,  and  they  endeavoured 
to  adapt  their  work  to  the  rates  allowed.  They  expected,  however, 
that  with  returning  prosperity,  not  only  would  former  votes  have  been 
restored,  but  that  some  material  consideration  would  have  been  given 
to  the  natural  advancement  of  the  institution."  This  has  not  been  the 
case,  since  the  appropriation  for  1898-99,  although  showing  slight 
increase,  was  over  £2000  less  than  that  for  1892.  "As  regards 
members  of  the  scientific  staff,  no  steps  have  been  taken  towards 
restoring  the  salaries  to  the  rates  existing  before  the  retrenchment  of 
1893,  although,  in  the  public  service  generally,  considerable  increases 
have  been  granted  to  officers.  In  1892  the  vote  for  purchases  was 
£1250;  since  1893  only  £200  a  year  have  been  allowed,  including 
purchase  of  books  as  well  as  specimens."  Such  a  sum  would  be 
ridiculously  small  for  a  metropolitan  museum,  if  assigned  to  books 
alone.  "  Consequently,  many  desirable  specimens  have  been  lost  to 
the  Museum,  and  therefore  to  the  Colony,  while  no  collecting,  so 
necessary  for  maintenance  as  well  as  increase  of  the  exhibits,  has  been 
done,  and  the  Library  has  also  fallen  into  arrears.  The  insufficiency 
of  the  funds  provided  for  the  Museum  by  the  statutory  endowment  of 
£1000  per  annum,  together  with  the  irregularity  both  in  amounts 
and  in  detail  of  the  Annual  Votes  of  Parliament,  supplementary  to 
the  endowment,  prevent  anything  like  an  effective  promotion  of 
the  interests  of  science  in  connection  with  the  natural  history  of  the 
Colony.  As  those  interests  have  an  important  relationship  to  the 
development  of  the  resources,  and,  consequently,  to  the  future  pros- 
perity of  the  community,  the  Trustees  are  exceedingly  anxious  to  be 
placed  in  a  better  position  for  carrying  out  the  purposes  for  which  the 
Museum  has  been  established." 

With  all  this,  needless  to  say,  we  heartily  sympathise.  We  do 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  last  year  a  sum  of  £1500  was  placed  on 
the  Estimates  for  certain  much-needed  repairs,  or  that  on  the  Loan 
Estimates  for  1898-99  a  further  sum  of  £13,500  has  been  voted  for 
museum  extension,  the  intention  being  to  build  the  superstructure 
over  the  newly-erected  workshops  as  a  portion  of  the  south  wing. 
But  we  observe  that  "  very  great  and  unnecessary  delay  has  arisen  in 
the  carrying  out  of  the  renovations,"  and  we  emphasise  the  contention 
of  Mr.  Etheridge  that,  as  the  collections  and  the  buildings  grow,  it  is 
necessary  to  increase  the  staff,  and  to  provide  at  least  sufficient  money 
for  cases  and  for  locks  to  them.  The  admirable  work  carried  out  by 
this  excellently-administered  museum  has  often  been  alluded  to  by  us, 


1899]      DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  AUSTRALIAN  MUSEUM       319 

and  further  information  regarding  it  will  be  found  in  our  news-pages. 
It  would  be  a  serious  loss  to  the  colony  should  the  activities  of  the 
staff  continue  to  be  restricted,  and  should  the  valuable  collections 
suffer  yet  further  neglect. 


The  Antarctic  in  the  Arctic. 

The  Swedish  expedition  to  the  coast  of  East  Greenland,  under  the 
leadership  of  Professor  A.  G.  Nathorst,  on  board  the  ss.  Antarctic 
(Captain  Forssell),  returned  to  Stockholm  in  September,  having  ac- 
complished some  excellent  work.  The  ice  at  first  was  found  to  be 
heavy,  so  some  time  was  spent  in  exploring  Jan  Mayen  Island.  As 
soon  as  the  ice  permitted,  an  advance  was  made  in  the  direction  of 
Shannon  Island ;  but  here  again  the  ice  prevented  a  passage  from 
being  forced,  and  the  Antarctic  steamed  south  to  Scoresby  Sound. 
Various  observations  and  corrections  of  the  chart  were  made  here, 
Hurry  Inlet  being  found  closed  to  the  north.  The  expedition  then 
returned  north,  and  this  time  succeeded  in  entering  Franz  Josef  Fjord. 
This  was  found  to  extend  very  much  less  into  the  interior  than  shown 
on  Payer's  chart,  and  Petermann's  Peak  also  was  found  to  have  about 
half  the  height  assigned  to  it  by  Payer.  To  make  up  for  this,  the 
expedition  discovered  a  new  fjord  system,  with  three  branches,  stretch- 
ing south  from  the  mouth  of  Franz  Josef  Fjord,  to  a  distance  equalling 
that  of  the  great  Sogne  Fjord  in  Norway.  To  this  Professor  Nathorst 
has  given  the  name  Ivung  Oscar  Fjord.  Eight  weeks  were  spent  in 
investigating  its  shores  and  those  of  Franz  Josef  Fjord,  and  a  map  of 
them  was  made  on  the  scale  of  1  :  200,000.  Among  the  interesting- 
discoveries  reported  by  Professor  ISTathorst  is  that  of  Devonian  rocks 
with  armoured  fish.  Silurian  fossils  also  have  been  found.  Several 
individuals  of  that  curious  animal,  the  musk-ox,  were  seen  and  shot. 
The  flesh  was  found  to  have  a  muttony  flavour  with  no  unpleasant 
scent,  and  Professor  Nathorst  suggests  the  acclimatisation  of  the 
animal  in  northern  Sweden.  Polar  bears  and  a  few  Arctic  foxes  also 
were  seen  by  members  of  the  expedition.  Large  collections  of  marine 
animals  were  made  and  are  now  being  worked  up  in  the  Eiksmuseum 
at  Stockholm.  Among  the  notable  specimens  is  one  of  the  pennatulid, 
Umbellularia,  with  a  stem  over  six  feet  long.  It  was  only  in  the 
accomplishment  of  its  ostensible  object,  the  finding  of  some  trace  of 
Andree,  that  the  expedition  failed.  Since  the  Eoyal  Geographical 
Society  contributed  £100  to  the  expense,  we  shall  doubtless  be  able 
to  read  further  details  in  its  Journal. 


32o  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November 


Regeneration  in  Orthoptera. 

Me.  Edmund  Bordage,  of  Reunion,  although  recently  laid  aside  by 
fever,  continues  to  send  home  notes  in  regard  to  regeneration  in  Phas- 
midae,  Mantidae,  Blattidae,  and  other  Orthoptera.  Their  theoretical 
interest  is  so  great  that  we  venture  to  refer  at  some  length  to  two  or 
three  recent  papers  by  this  observer. 

In  twenty-five  species  of  Orthoptera  with  five-jointed  tarsus,  re- 
presenting twenty-one  genera  and  three  families,  the  regenerated  tarsus 
has  only  four  joints.  The  number  given  in  his  published  paper  is 
eighteen  species,  but  a  manuscript  note  on  the  copy  sent  us  states  it 
at  twenty-five. 

In  Phylloptera  laurifolia  and  Conoc&phalus  differens  (Locustidae), 
Acridium  rubellum  (Acrididae),  and  Gryllus  campestris  (Gryllidae), 
there  is  no  trace  of  regenerative  capacity  in  connection  with  the 
posterior  legs,  which  are  used  in  jumping.  This  appears  at  first  sight 
an  argument  against  the  generality  of  Lessona's  law,  since  these  hind 
legs  are  surely  much  exposed  to  the  bites  of  enemies,  besides  being- 
liable  to  injury  in  the  moults.  Bordage's  answer  is  that  the  loss  of 
these  limbs  makes  moulting  extremely  difficult,  exposes  the  insects  to 
great  danger  at  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  prevents  copulation,  and 
places  the  unfortunates  at  a  great  disadvantage  in  preferential  mating. 
He  concludes  that  jumping  Orthoptera  which  have  lost  their  hindmost 
legs  are  unable  to  propagate,  and  that  this  explains  the  absence  of 
regenerative  capacity  in  this  particular  case. 

In  another  paper  (Conqrtes  Rendus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxix.  1899, 
pp.  169-171),  Bordage  points  out  that  it  is  impossible  to  provoke 
autotomy  of  the  first  two  pairs  of  legs  in  saltatorial  Orthoptera.  By 
main  force  a  separation  may  be  effected  at  the  articulation  of  trochanter 
and  coxa,  or  rarely  at  the  articulation  of  femur  and  trochanter.  The 
mutilation  is  often  fatal,  but  if  the  insect  survives  and  is  still  larval, 
regeneration  may  be  effected,  perfectly  if  the  separation  was  between 
femur  and  trochanter,  more  or  less  rudimentarily  if  between  trochanter 
and  coxa. 

This  raises  a  double  difficulty  for  those  who  uphold  Lessona's  law  : 
— (1)  the  regeneration  seems  to  occur  at  points  where  mutilation 
cannot  be  naturally  effected ;  and  (2)  the  regeneration  is  most  frequent 
and  most  complete  when  the  separation  has  been  effected  along  the 
line  where  rupture  is  rarest. 

Bordage  gets  over  the  difficulty  by  pointing  out  that  in  the 
"  exuvial  autotomy,"  i.e.  self-mutilation  during  a  moult,  the  separation 
is  most  frequent  along  the  femur-trochanter  articulation,  and  very  rare 
along  the  trochanter-coxa  articulation.  The  bleeding  is  insignificant 
in  the  first  case,  but  it  may  be  fatal  in  the  second.  Moreover,  re- 
generation in  the  first  case  is  frequent,  and,  though  slow,  sometimes 


1899]  REGENERATION  IN  ORTHOPTERA  321 

perfect ;  but  iu  the  second  case  an  unjointed  stump  is  formed.  There 
seems  to  be  no  appendage  which  may  not  suffer  mutilation  during  the 
hazardous  process  of  moulting. 

In  jumping  Orthoptera,  tarsal  regeneration  occurs  readily  on  any 
of  the  legs,  and  this  conforms  with  the  fact  that  mutilation  of  the 
tarsus  is  peculiarly  liable  to  occur  during  moulting.  Experiment 
shows  that  the  terminal  portion  of  the  tibia  may  also  be  regenerated, 
and  this  too  may  be  associated  with  the  fact  that  in  exuvial  mutilation 
or,  more  rarely,  as  the  result  of  attack,  the  muscles  at  the  end  of  the 
tibia  are  often  torn  when  the  tarsus  is  pulled  off. 

Bordage  also  notes  that  in  Phylloptera  laurifolia  and  Conoc&phalus 
differens  the  regenerated  tarsus  is  tetrameral,  as  is  normal  in  Locustidae, 
while  in  Crryllus  campcstris  the  regenerated  tarsus  has  three  joints. 
In  Locustidae  and  Gryllidae  the  tibia  of  regenerated  anterior  legs  does 
not  possess  the  tympanic  apparatus  borne  on  the  normal  limb. 


Diastataxy. 

The  Journal  of  the  Linncan  Society — Zoology — for  July,  vol.  xxvii., 
contains  two  very  important  contributions  towards  a  solution  of  that 
ornithological  puzzle  known  hitherto  as  "  Aquinto-cubitalism."  Mr.  P. 
Chalmers  Mitchell  has  approached  the  question  from  the  point  of  view 
of  comparative  anatomy  ;  Mr.  W.  P.  Pycraft  from  that  of  embryology. 

The  riddle  to  be  solved,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  meanino-  of 
the  constant  absence  of  a  remex  from  between  the  fifth  pair  of  secondary 
major  coverts  of  the  wing  in  certain  birds,  or  groups  of  birds.  Wings 
in  which  this  feather  was  wanting  were  known  as  aquinto-cubital ; 
when  there  was  no  such  deficiency  the  wing  was  known  as  "  quinto- 
cubital." 

Mr.  Mitchell  has  proposed  the  term  diastataxic  for  the  former,  and 
eutaxic  for  the  latter.  These  terms  are  undoubtedly  superior  to  the 
older  ones,  and  have  been  adopted  by  Mr.  Pycraft  in  his  paper. 

Till  now,  it  was  believed  that  in  the  diastataxic  wing  the  fifth 
remex  was  missing ;  both  the  present  authors  agree,  however,  that  this 
is  not  the  case. 

Mr.  Pycraft  endeavours  to  show  that  the  remex  in  question  has  lost 
its  original  relations,  but  not  its  existence.  According  to  him  the 
diastataxial  wing  is  at  first  eutaxic,  changing  more  or  less  suddenly  during 
development  from  the  one  into  the  other.  This  is  brought  about  by  a 
remarkable,  but  unmistakable  shifting  of  position  of  all  the  coverts  of 
the  dorsal  surface  of  the  wing  and  of  the  remiges  (1-4).  The  remiges 
in  question  move  outwards  (wrist- wards),  and  backwards,  the  movement 
being  accompanied  by  certain  of  the  obliquely  transverse  row  of 
coverts  (1-5).      As  a   consequence,  the  fifth   of    these  rows  becomes 


322  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November 

separated  from  its  remex  (the  fifth),  and  comes  to  lie,  in  the  adult, 
quill-less  between  quills — the  fourth  and  fifth.  The  place  of  the  fifth 
oblique  row  of  coverts  is  now  taken  by  the  sixth  which  runs  outwards, 
that  of  the  sixth  by  the  seventh,  and  so  on  inwards  to  the  elbow,  thus, 
each  obliquely  transverse  row  from  the  wrist  inwards  moves  forward 
one  place,  as  also  do  the  remiges  (1-4);  the  remainder  appear  to  be 
stationary.      Thus  does  the  eutaxic  wing  become  diastataxic. 

Numerous  figures  of  embryonic  wings  leave  little  doubt  that  this 
interpretation  of  the  mystery  is  correct ;  what  we  want  to  know  is 
"  Why  this  shifting  ?  " 

Mr.  Mitchell,  in  the  pterylogical  section  of  his  paper  claims  to 
have  proved  that  the  diastataxic  wing  is  architaxial,  and  not  the 
eutaxic,  as  is  held  by  Mr.  Pycraft.  He  endeavours  to  support  his 
claim  by  demonstrating  the  transition  from  diastataxy  to  eutaxy  in  the 
wings  of  certain  pigeons — upon  which  group  the  whole  of  his  observa- 
tions are  based. 

This  transition  seems  to  be  brought  about  by  a  shortening  of  the 
wing,  and  the  obliteration  of  the  usually  more  or  less  marked  gap 
between  the  fourth  and  fifth  remiges.  But  more  than  this ;  the  crux 
of  his  paper  rests  upon  the  identity  of  certain  covert  feathers  lying  in  the 
interspace  between  the  fourth  and  fifth  remiges  just  referred  to.  In 
certain  of  the  pigeons  he  has  examined,  as  in  many  other  birds,  the 
median  coverts  lie  in  the  interspaces  between  the  remiges.  As  a 
consequence,  in  the  diastema  between  remiges  4-5  we  have  a  major 
covert  lying  between  two  median  coverts.  In  some  pigeons  two  of 
these  three  feathers  disappear,  and  the  wing,  according  to  Mr.  Mitchell, 
becomes  eutaxic.  Assuming  that  the  remaining  covert  is  of  the  median 
series  he  has  proved  his  contention.  If,  however,  as  he  himself 
suggests,  it  is  a  major  covert,  his  contention  is  only  partly  true.  We 
have  a  pseudo-eutaxy.  This  last  point  is  one  of  very  considerable 
importance,  for  it  may  happen  that,  after  all,  the  apparently  eutaxic 
forms  which  occur  amongst  diastataxic  groups  may  prove  ultimately  to 
be  pseudo-eutaxic.  At  least  this  must  be  so,  if  we  define  diastataxy 
as  that  form  of  wing  lacking  a  secondary  remex  from  between  the  fifth 
pair  of  major  coverts.  This  interpretation  would  be  quite  in  harmony 
with  Mr.  Pycraft's  paper.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  further  research  will 
be  made  in  this  part  of  the  subject. 


Immunity  acquired  before  Birth. 

It  is  of  interest  to  students  of  heredity  to  note  the  observations  of 
Messrs.  Beclere,  Chambon,  Menard,  and  Coulomb  (Comptcs  Rendus 
Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxix.  1899,  pp.  235-37),  on  sixty-five  mothers 
and  an   equal  number  of  newly-born  children.      The  results  make  it 


1899]  IMMUNITY  ACQUIRED  BEFORE  BIRTH  323 

difficult  to  deny  the  justness  of  the  interpretation  that  in  certain  cases 
there  is  a  passage  of  antivirulent  substance  from  the  blood  of  a  vaccin- 
ally-imniune  pregnant  mother  to  the  blood  of  the  foetus,  and  that  the 
child  may  be  in  consequence  born  immune. 

The  facts  and  arguments  are  briefly  the  following : — Immunity  to 
vaccinal  inoculation  was  observed  only  in  children  whose  mothers 
were  immune.  Only  in  a  small  number  of  cases  where  the  mother  was 
immune  was  the  child  immune.  The  intra -uterine  transmission 
occurred  in  cases  where  the  maternal  serum  was  antivirulent, 
irrespective  of  the  period  when  the  mother  was  vaccinated.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  intra-uterine  transmission  was  not  observed  in  any 
case  where  the  maternal  serum  was  non- antivirulent,  although 
vaccination  had  been  effected  shortly  before  or  during  pregnancy. 
Therefore  the  condition  of  so-called  congenital  immunity  is  the  trans- 
mission of  antivirulent  substance  from  the  maternal  to  the  foetal 
blood  through  the  placenta.  But  the  condition  may  be  fulfilled 
without  result,  for  some  of  the  newly  born,  whose  serum  was  anti- 
virulent, were  still  inoculated  with  success.  In  fact,  the  degree  of 
antivirulent  potency  is  variable,  but  it  may  be  said  that  the  more 
antivirulent  the  serum  shows  itself  to  be,  the  greater  is  the  presumption 
that  the  vaccinal  inoculation  will  fail  to  have  effect. 


Eel  Poison  and  Cellular  Immunity. 

The  serum  of  eels  is  known  to  contain  a  "  globulicidal "  substance — 
ichthyotoxin,  of  course — which  destroys  the  red  blood-corpuscles  of 
various  animals  into  which  it  has  been  injected.  The  rabbit,  for 
instance,  is  peculiarly  susceptible ;  the  red  blood-corpuscles  rapidly 
lose  their  haemoglobin  by  diffusion  when  the  eel-serum  is  injected, 
even  when  it  is  diluted  to  xotloo"  —  ^wuo'U- 

Messrs.  L.  Camus  and  E.  Gley,  who  have  investigated  the  subject 
{Comptes  Eenclus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxix.  1899,  pp.  231-233),  find  that 
the  hedgehog  is  very  immune,  even  against  strong  injections,  and 
experiments  show  that  this  immunity  is  due,  not  to  the  presence  of 
any  "  antiglobulicide "  in  the  hedgehog's  serum,  but  to  the  resistent 
power  of  the  red  blood-corpuscles  themselves.  They  have  a  natural 
cellular  immunity,  wrongly  called  by  the  authors  "  immunite  cyto- 
logique."  (If  words  mean  anything  it  should  be  cellulairc,  but  the 
mistake  is  a  common  one.) 

The  frog  and  the  toad,  the  hen  and  the  pigeon,  and  Vespertilio 
murijius,  show  the  same  cellular  immunity.  A  peculiar  fact  is  that 
newly  born,  still  blind  rabbits,  are  similarly  resistent,  but  the  power 
dwindles  from  the  fifteenth  day  or  so,  and  the  adults  have  none.  The 
experimenters,  in  their  interesting  paper,  cite  the  case  of  a  doe-rabbit 


324  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [November  1899 

which  was  rendered  immune,  and  had  thereafter  young  ones.  These 
proved  to  have  cellular  immunity,  but  the  presence  of  an  antiglobulicidal 
substance  was  detected  in  their  serum,  so  that  both  natural  cellular 
immunity  and  acquired  "  humoral "  immunity  were  found  co-existing 
in  one  organism.      What  next  ? 


Venom  of  Vipers. 

Many  wonderful  things  have  been  discovered  of  recent  years  in  regard 
to  the  poison  of  snakes,  such  as  the  possibility  of  counteracting  its 
toxic  properties  with  the  snake's  own  bile,  but  that  there  is  still  much 
to  be  discovered  is  evident  from  a  recent  communication  from  a  well- 
known  worker,  C.  Phisalix  (Comptcs  Rendus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxix. 
1899,  pp.  115-17). 

He  has  shown  that  the  secretion  of  the  poison  glands  of  Vipera 
aspis  and  other  Viperidae  contains  a  diastatic  ferment  or  echidnase. 
This  varies  in  amount  according  to  habitat  and  seasou.  Thus  it  is 
much  more  abundant  in  vipers  of  the  Vendee  than  in  those  of  Arbois 
(Jura)  ;  it  is  not  demonstrable  in  the  secretion  in  early  spring  after 
the  hibernal  period,  but  has  become  abundant  by  the  end  of  May  or 
the  beginning  of  June.  It  is  indeed  present  in  the  glands  in  spring, 
but  the  secretory  cells  are  inactive  and  retain  it. 

A  solution  of  the  viper's  poison  in  glycerine-water  gradually  loses 
its  virulence,  more  quickly  when  the  external  temperature  is  high. 
It  often  happens  that  in  ten  to  fifteen  days  the  venom  has  become 
quite  innocuous,  and  it  is  found  that  of  its  active  principles  the 
echidnase  is  most  persistent.  Moreover,  when  the  echidnase  is 
removed  from  the  venom,  the  attenuation  of  the  latter  is  much  slower 
than  usual.  It  is  therefore  logical  to  suppose  that  the  echidnase  plays 
an  active  part  in  the  attenuation,  directly  attacking  the  venomous 
principle.  Experiments  show  that  this  is  really  the  case,  and  thus  we 
reach  the  conclusion  that  the  diastatic  ferment  of  Viperidae  has  a 
digestive  effect  not  only  on  the  tissues  of  the  animals  inoculated,  but 
also  on  the  active  toxic  substance,  the  echidno-toxin. 


ORIGINAL    COMMUNICATIONS. 

Variation-Statistics  in  Zoology.1 

By  Dr.  Georg  Duncker. 

Zoological  and  botanical  objects  have  usually  been  regarded  as  isolated 
products  of  nature,  to  be  described  carefully  and  to  be  grouped,  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  of  their  morphological  and  ontogenetic  likeness, 
under  abstract  conceptions,  the  systematic  categories.  Yet  this 
customary  manner  of  considering  biological  objects  is  insufficient, 
since  individuals  of  any  systematic  category  never  occur  isolated,  but 
always  in  larger  or  smaller  complexes  or  groups  of  individuals.  For 
about  ten  years  another  point  of  view  has  been  finding  increased  favour  ; 
it  has  been  recognised  that  not  only  the  morphological  characters  of 
single  individuals,  but  especially  those  of  the  natural  complexes  of  homo- 
geneous individuals,  are  worthy  objects  of  investigation.  This  kind  of 
investigation  takes  the  same  place  in  zoology  and  botany  as  ethno- 
graphy does  in  anthropology.  In  reference  to  its  special  aims,  it  has 
worked  out  its  own  methods,  which  in  its  various  stages  of  development 
and  different  branches,  may  be  summed  up  under  the  title  Statistics  of 
Variation.      Let  us  briefly  consider  this  method  and  its  results. 

In  anthropology  statistics  of  variation  have  been  already  utilised 
for  forty  or  fifty  years.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  early  scientific 
interest  in  the  individual  differences  of  the  characters  of  man,  and 
partly  to  the  fact  that  the  problems  of  this  branch  of  biology  cannot 
be  solved  by  isolated  observations  made  on  single  individuals,  but 
require  intensive  investigations  of  the  actual  groups  of  individuals. 
This  is  evidently  the  case  with  racial  problems  in  anthropology. 

Primarily,  zoology  and  botany  are  occupied  in  investigating  the 
characters  and  development  of  individuals  (anatomical  morphology 
and  embryology).  We  also  find  that  the  individuals,  morphologically 
dissimilar,  are  classifiable,  according  to  their  degree  of  likeness,  into 
higher  or  lower  categories,  which  are  regarded  as  elementary  objects 
of  scientific  investigation  (systematic  zoology,  comparative  anatomy). 

1  Lecture    delivered    at   the    meeting   of  the    Deutsche    Zoologische    Gesellschaft    at 
Hamburg,  May  1899. 

22 — nat.  sc. — vol.  xv.  no.  93.  325 


326  GEORG  DUNCKER  [November 

That  elementary  complex  of  individuals,  which  is  usually  the 
starting-point  for  zoological  and  botanical  investigations,  is  the  species. 
More  or  less  exclusively,  all  biological,  systematic,  and  anatomical 
results  are  referred  to  this.  But  the  species  is  by  no  means  an 
elementary  group ;  even  if  we  omit  its  systematic  sub-groups,  the 
variety  and  the  race,  we  find  it  empirically  to  be  composed  of  in- 
dividuals which  are  separated  by  space  and  time,  and  are  allied  to 
each  other  in  different  degrees  of  kinship.  In  those  individuals  of 
the  same  species  there  regularly  occur  morphological  differentiations 
of  their  common  characters,  caused  by  constitutional  factors  (conditions 
of  sex,  stage  of  development)  as  well  as  by  the  sum  total  of  recognis- 
able external  conditions  of  life  (locality,  geological  formation,  climate, 
food,  etc.).  Keally  elementary  complexes  of  individuals,  co  ipso 
coherent,  are  only  those  of  which  the  morphological  qualities  have 
not  been  differentiated  by  any  of  the  factors  just  enumerated.  But 
even  in  such  a  "  form-unit,"  as  I  have  called  it  [7],  we  find  on 
investigating  the  distinctive  characters  that  there  are  individual 
differences. 

Therefore  the  species  is  not  elemental,  a  conclusion  strengthened 
by  the  difficulty  (bordering  upon  impossibility)  of  definition.  It  splits 
up  in  numerous  variable  form-units,  produced  by  different  factors, 
which  frequently  may  be  united  into  races  or  varieties.  Each  form- 
unit  is  a  sum  of  more  or  less  different  individuals,  the  characters  of 
which  change  in  the  course  of  development,  that  is,  in  time,  but 
appear  constant  at  a  given  moment,  so  that  it  is  not  justifiable  to 
speak  of  varying  or  non-varying  individuals.  On  the  other  hand, 
groups  of  individuals  are  variable  in  every  moment  of  their  existence 
and  in  each  of  their  characters.  Therefore  the  fact  of  variation  is  to 
be  seen  only  in  the  characters  of  groups  of  individuals,  and  to  be 
investigated  only  in  these. 

The  exact  study  of  variation  affords  a  better  understanding  of  the 
systematic  relations  between  groups  of  individuals ;  it  is  a  means  of 
distinguishing  pathological  from  normal  states  ;  but  it  owes  its  highest 
importance  to  its  bearing  on  the  theoretical  explanation  of  the  re- 
lations between  organic  individuals,  i.e.  in  regard  to  heredity  and 
evolution. 

The  objects  of  an  investigation  on  variability  are  the  characters  of 
a  complex  of  individuals  and,  according  to  the  laws  of  induction,  at 
first  of  the  most  primitive  complex,  the  form-unit.  The  aim  of  this 
investigation  is  twofold ;  on  the  one  hand  qualitative,  to  discover  the 
real  individual  differences  in  these  characters,  which  we  may  call  the 
variants  ;  on  the  other,  quantitative,  to  discover  the  relative  frequencies 
of  the  single  variants  of  each  character  determined. 

The  principal  difference  between  a  character  of  a  single  individual 
and  one  of  a  complex  of  individuals,  therefore,  consists  in  the  possibility 
of  expressing  the  former  by  a  single  variant,  while  the  latter  requires 


1899]  VARIATION- STATISTICS  IN  ZOOLOGY  327 

not  only  several  variants,  but  also  their  relative  frequencies.  Until 
now  this  necessity  has  generally  been  neglected.  The  characters  of  a 
group  of  individuals,  e.g.  of  the  species,  have  been  described  by  un- 
critical generalisation  of  single  results  which  were  regarded  as 
"  typical "  or  "  normal,"  or  by  average  values  got  mostly  from  small 
numbers  of  observations,  which  naturally  represent  only  idealised 
single  results,  or,  in  the  best  cases,  by  so-called  "  ranges  of  variation." 
The  latter  are  merely  chance  results  of  observation  without  definitive 
value ;  they  show  the  group  to  be  variable,  without  indicating  the 
manner  of  its  variation.  The  only  quantitative  data  we  occasionally 
meet  with  are  indefinite  terms,  such  as  "  frequent "  or  "  rare." 

For  determining  not  only  the  variants  of  comparable  objects,  but 
their  frequencies  as  well,  we  must  use  statistics.  Statistics  are  collec- 
tions of  single  data,  brought  together  according  to  certain  points  of 
view,  of  qualitative  differences  of  numerous  objects  belonging  to  the 
complex  to  be  investigated,  and  of  the  frequencies  with  which  these 
differences  occur. 

In  order  to  investigate  the  variation  of  any  character  of  a  form- 
unit,  the  character  in  question  has  to  be  determined  in  as  many 
individuals  of  the  form-unit  as  possible,  the  variants  in  which  the 
character  is  found  are  to  be  noted,  and  finally  the  frequency  with 
which  each  of  these  variants  occurs,  is  to  be  determined.  This 
method  can  be  applied  to  every  character,  to  conditions  of  shape  and 
colour  as  well  as  to  dimensional  or  numerical  conditions  of  organs. 

Then  the  first  result  as  regards  variation  will  be,  that  if  the 
number  of  individuals  investigated  is  not  too  small,  the  relative 
frequencies  of  the  single  variants  of  the  character  will  be  nearly 
constant  in  each  lot  of  the  same  form-unit.  For  instance,  when  a 
character  has  been  investigated  thrice,  each  time  in  500  individuals, 
and  in  all  cases  nearly  equal  percentages  of  its  variants  have  been 
found,  we  may  conclude,  according  to  the  law  of  great  numbers,  that 
in  the  whole  form-unit  also  the  variants  are  distributed  in  the  same 
proportion.  Secondly,  closely  allied  form-units,  e.g.  the  two  sexes  of 
the  same  breed  and  in  a  similar  stage  of  development,  may  possibly 
agree  in  the  mean  and  range  of  a  character,  and  yet  sensibly  differ  in 
the  frequency  distribution  of  its  variants.  Such  differences  of  com- 
plexes of  individuals  are  only  to  be  made  out  by  statistically  examining 
the  variability  of  their  characters. 

The  statistical  investigation  of  such  characters  as  cannot  be 
numerically  expressed,  like  conditions  of  shape  and  of  colour,1  cannot  go 
beyond  this  point.  But  in  numerical  characters,  such  as  dimensions 
or  numbers  of  homologous  organs,  the  variants  represent  numbers 
which  differ  by  constant  values,  the  units  of  dimension  or  enumera- 

1  At  present  there  is  an  increasing  tendency  to  express  numerically  these  conditions 
also  ;  thus  Davenport  seeks  to  numerically  determine  colour- variations  by  the  ' '  colour- 
wheel"  (Science,  N.S.  vol.  ix.  No.  220,  p.  415-416). 


328  GEORG  DUNCKER  [November 

tioii.  This  done,  the  results  may  be  further  dealt  with.  Firstly,  all 
the  observed  variants  have  to  be  arranged  in  series  according  to  their 
numerical  value,  and  the  frequency  of  each  among  the  (71)  investigated 
individuals  has  to  be  determined.  Thus  we  get  the  empirical  series  of 
variation  of  the  character  in  n  individuals.  Weldon  [20],  for  example, 
counted  the  number  of  the  dorsal  rostral  teeth  in  915  individuals  of 
Palaemonetes  varians,  whence  he  got 


Variants 

1 

2         3         4         5 

6 

7  (rostral  teeth) 

Frequencies     . 

2 

18     123     372     349 

50 

1  (individuals). 

A  series  of  variation  may  be  graphically  represented  by  noting  the 
variants  in  the  order  of  their  numerical  values  as  points  of  equal 
distances  on  an  abscissa,  and  by  erecting  ordinates  from  each  of  these 
points  which  represent  by  their  length  the  relative  (percentage) 
frequencies  of  the  corresponding  variants.  Straight  lines  drawn 
between  the  free  ends  of  each  two  adjacent  ordinates,  together  with 
the  abscissa,  will  give  the  outline  of  the  polygon  of  variation  of  the 
character.  The  average  value  of  the  character,  that  is,  the  arithmetical 
mean  of  the  variants,  corresponds  to  a  point  on  the  abscissa  (M) ;  the 
ordinate  erected  to  the  latter  is  the  centroid  vertical  of  the  polygon 
(yc).  The  summit  of  the  polygon  of  variation  usually  lies  near  the 
centroid  vertical ;  its  variant  has  been  called  the  mode ;  but  the 
mode  is  neither  more  "  typical "  nor  more  "  normal "  than  any  other 
variant  existing. 

The  single  ordinates  of  frequency  are  generally  lower  the  more 
distant  they  are  from  the  centroid  vertical.  The  polygon  of  variation 
is  broad  and  low  when  there  is  great  variability  in  the  character, 
but  high  and  narrow  in  the  opposite  case.  The  best  and  simplest 
expression  of  the  degree  of  variability  of  a  given  character  is  the 
square  root  of  the  average  square  deviations  of  its  variants  from 
the  mean.  This  value,  which  may  be  called  the  index  of  variability 
of  the  character  (e),  corresponds  to  a  piece  of  the  abscissa ;  it  is 
expressed  by  the  same  unit  as  the  variants  of  the  character.  The 
above -cited  series  of  variation  of  Palaemonetes  has  the  index  of 
variability,  "8627  rostral  teeth. 

While  the  average  values  of  a  character  may  differ  widely  in 
different  form -units  of  the  same  species,  the  indices  of  variability 
remain  fairly  constant l  not  only  in  the  form-units  of  the  same  species, 

1  Examples : 

I.  Number  of  fin  rays  in  dorsal  fin  anal  fin 

Me  M  e 

of  Pleuroncctes  flesus,  Baltic  39 '46  1'483S 

„     North  Sea  41 '56  1-7739 

,,      Plymouth  61-7214      2'3895  43-6098  1-6026 

amcricanus  (Bvmpvs  [4])  65"06  2-4467  48"62  1-8188 

,,  Rhombus  maximus  (Petersen  [14])      62-98         2-2533  45-86  1-6792 

II.  Number  of  rostral  teeth  dorsal  ventral 

in  Palaemonetes  varians  (Weldon  [20])   4-3137        0-8627  1-6948      0-4799 

vulgaris  8-2819        0-8145  2-9781      0*4477 


1899]  VARIATION- STATISTICS  IN  ZOOLOGY  329 

but  also  in  those  of  species  belonging  to  different  genera,  even  to 
different  families.  This  fact  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  been 
sufficiently  regarded  hitherto ;  the  explanation  of  it  is,  I  suppose,  the 
constancy  of  the  physiological  capacity  of  a  given  organ  for  reacting  to 
the  individual  causes  of  variation  (to  be  considered  afterwards)  with 
respect  to  a  given  character.  Some  authors,  however,  seem  to  assume 
a  more  or  less  constant  relation  between  the  height  of  the  average 
and  that  of  the  index  of  variability  of  a  character. 

Average  value  and  index  of  variability  of  a  numerical  character 
are  the  first  data  necessary  to  the  description  of  its  variation.  Both 
ought  always  to  be  determined ;  but  they  only  give  an  approximate 
idea  of  the  variation  of  the  character.  Its  complete  description 
requires  the  determination  of  the  curve  which  rules  the  slope  of  its 
polygon  of  variation,  or  in  other  words,  on  which  the  corner  points  of 
the  polygon  are  situated.  To  find  this  curve,  we  must  find  the  mathe- 
matical relations  between  the  variants  or  their  deviations  from  the 
average  value  on  one  hand  and  their  frequencies  on  the  other. 

There  is  a  striking  likeness,  even  at  the  first  glance,  between  the 
polygons  of  variation  and  binomial  polygons.  We  get  the  latter  by 
graphically  representing  the  series  of  summation  which  arise  by 
developing  binomial  terms,  as  {p  +  qf.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  both  are 
closely  related.  In  numerical  characters  we  find  variants  deviating 
from  the  average  value  in  positive  and  in  negative  directions.  Since 
all  processes  in  nature  depend  upon  causes,  we  are  obliged  to  assume 
causes  of  variation  with  either  positive  or  negative  effects,  of  which 
causes  neither  the  number  nor  the  intensity  of  effect  is  known.  These 
causes  must  be  different  from  those  which  determine  the  average 
character  of  the  form-unit,  and  at  the  same  time  must  be  weaker  in 
effect  than  the  latter.  Now  each  individual  has  its  own  fate,  which 
word  includes  the  total  sum  of  enormously  numerous  and  minute 
factors  acting  on  it  in  the  most  diverse  combinations,  which  naturally 
cannot  be  identical  either  for  all  individuals  of  the  form-unit  or  in 
every  moment  of  the  existence  of  the  single  individual.  Thus  we  get 
the  conception  of  an  enormous  number  of  elementary  causes  of  variation, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  equally  effective  so  far  as  their  small  power 
goes.  Of  these  one  set  can  effect  positive  deviations,  the  other  negative 
deviations  from  the  average  values  of  the  different  characters,  all  being 
able  to  act  on  each  individual  of  the  form-unit,  though  as  a  matter  of 
fact  they  do  not  all  act  on  it.  The  active  set  of  causes  is  in  each  case 
any  random  combination  of  positively  and  negatively  acting  causes, 
and  each  of  these  combinations  has  a  higher  or  lower  degree  of 
probability,  according  to  which  its  effect  is  more  or  less  frequent  in  the 
total  population  of  individuals.  The  sum  total  of  positively  acting 
causes  may  be  equal  in  number  to  that  of  negatively  acting  ones,  or  be 
different  from  it. 

Starting  from  such  assumptions,  mathematicians  have  investigated 


330  GEORG  DUNCKER  [november 

the  series  of  variation  of  numerical  characters,  and  have  found  that 
the  actual  magnitude  of  the  frequencies  of  variants  corresponds  to  the 
law  of  probability  of  combinations,  which  law  Pearson  [12]  has  recently 
expressed  by  his  general  probability  curve  (curve  of  variation).  This  is, 
as  far  as  I  know,  the  first  substantiated  mathematical  law  of  biological 
processes.  So  in  investigating  a  series  of  variations  we  have  next  to 
find  the  probability  curve  determining  the  shape  of  its  polygon  of 
variation.  But  this  demands  a  consideration  of  the  already  somewhat 
compendious  mathematical  literature  of  the  subject,  which  I  cannot 
now  discuss.  Pearson's  methods  I  have  recently  described  in  a  manner 
especially  suited  to  the  needs  of  biologists  [7]. 

Curves  of  variation  are  symmetrical  if  the  two  groups  of  causes 
of  variation  are  equal  in  number ;  asymmetrical,  if  the  latter  are  un- 
equal ;  in  the  single  form-unit  they  always  show  one  summit.  In 
symmetrical  curves  the  maximal  ordinate  and  the  centroid  vertical  are 
identical ;  in  asymmetrical  curves  their  distance  apart  is  greater  the 
more  asymmetrical  the  curve.  The  ratio  between  this  distance  and 
the  index  of  variability  gives  an  abstract  number,  the  index  of 
asymmetry  of  the  curve  (A),  which  is,  corresponding  to  the  position 
of  the  centroid  vertical  to  the  maximal  ordinate,  either  positive  or 
negative.  Positive  asymmetry  of  a  curve  means  that  there  are  more 
negative  than  positive  causes  of  variation,  while  negative  asymmetry 
implies  the  contrary. 

The  question  as  to  the  variation  of  a  numerical  character  within  a 
form-unit  is  therefore  to  be  answered  by  giving  the  average  value,  the 
indices  of  variability  and  of  asymmetry,  and  the  formula  of  the  curve 
of  variation  of  this  character.  These  four  data  given,  the  series  of 
variation  can  always  be  reconstructed  with  only  a  small  error,  which 
decreases  as  the  number  of  investigated  individuals  is  increased.1  The 
first  three  data  of  our  example  (Palaemonetes)  are : — 

M  =  4-3137,  e  =  -8627,    =  A-\L735; 
the  curve  itself  is  a  curve  of  type  iv.  (Pearson  [12])  of  the  form 

y  =  7/o(cos0fVe 

where  y  ,  m,  and  r  are  constants,  0  =f  (x)  the  variable.  The  error 
between  the  empirical  and  the  theoretical  series  of  variation  amounts 
to  only  '3°/  of  the  total  number  of  individuals,  viz. : — 

•I/O 

Variants  .012  3  4  567      rostral  teeth). 

Emp.  frequency      .     0     2      18      123      372      349      50      1    1  ,individuals) 
Theor.  frequency  (y)    '\   1-7  18-3  122-2  374-6  345-9  51-7     -5)  <,inamauais> 

Prom  the  curve  of  variation  the  probable  range  of  variation  of  the 

1  The  magnitude  of  the  error  is,  ceteris  2Mribus,  inversely  proportional  to  the  square  root 
of  the  number  of  investigated  individuals. 


1899]  VARIATION- STATISTICS  IN  ZOOLOGY  331 

character  may  be  deduced  for  any  assumed  number  of  individuals ; 
since  a  curve  of  variation  is  a  curve  of  probability,  the  range  depends 
really  upon  this  number ;  for  instance,  a  variant  of  the  probability 
TotJo~o  is  hardly  to  be  expected  among  only  100  individuals.  On  the 
contrary,  if  we  find  with  an  otherwise  harmonious  curve  of  variation 
some  single  extreme  variant  empirically  more  abundant  than  it  ought 
to  be  according  to  its  probability,  we  may  conclude  that  this  variant 
did  not  arise  by  normal  variation,  or  at  least  not  exclusively  by  it,  but 
that  it  has  been  produced  by  pathological  conditions.  This  conclusion 
is  to  be  controlled  by  determination  of  the  correlation-coefficients 
which  we  shall  discuss  later  on.  Thus  my  attention  was  directed  to 
the  hitherto  apparently  unknown  ability  of  Syngnathidae  which  have 
lost  the  posterior  segments  of  the  body,  to  regenerate  not  only  a 
complete  caudal  fin,  but  probably  also  a  urostyle.  I  shall  refer 
elsewhere  to  these  observations  and  to  some  experiments  confirming 
them. 

Comparing  several  form-units  of  the  same,  or  of  different  species, 
as  to  a  single  numerical  character,  all  possible  differences  of  the  latter 
must  clearly  be  recognised  in  the  differences  of  its  four  statistical  data. 
Having  investigated  all  the  form-units  of  a  species  in  respect  to 
a  single  character,  we  should  find  by  graphically  representing  the 
results  a  system  of  curves  of  variation  partly  overlapping,  of  which 
the  centroid  verticals  would  be  more  or  less  distant  from  each  other, 
while  the  indices  of  variability  would  be  nearly  constant.  One  set  of 
the  form-units  represents  the  constitutional  differences  of  the  species 
due  to  sex  and  degree  of  development,  the  others  correspond  to 
differences  in  the  external  conditions.  If  the  latter  conditions  have 
influenced  not  only  one  character  but  several  characters  at  once,  the 
species  has  been  split  up  into  races  or  varieties. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  dealt  only  with  variation  of  a  single 
character  within  the  form-unit.  But  since  all  the  characters  vary,  we 
must  investigate  whether  they  vary  independently  of  each  other,  or 
whether  there  is  possibly  any  relation  between  the  variations  of 
different  characters.  Here  also  we  have  recourse  to  calculating; 
probabilities.  Every  one  knows  that  the  probability  of  the  coincidence 
of  several  events  independent  of  each  other  equals  the  product  of  the 
probabilities  of  each  single  event.  From  each  deviation  from  this 
condition  within  a  larger  series  of  observations  we  may  conclude  the 
existence  of  some  causal  relation  between  the  events,  that  is  in  our 
case  between  the  individually  combined  variants.  This  causal  relation 
can  be  a  direct  one,  if  the  variants  of  one  character  are  causes  of  the 
other  (correlation  sensu  stricto)  or  an  indirect  one,  if  both  characters 
depend  upon  the  same  causes  of  variation  (symplasy).  Thus,  by 
simply  comparing  the  real  with  the  probable  frequencies  of  the 
individual  combinations  of  the  variants  of  two  characters  within  a 
larger  number  of  individuals  of  the   same  form-unit,  we  are  always 


332  GEORG  DUNCKER  [November 

able  to  find  out  whether  there  is  correlation  between  these  characters 
or  not. 

For  numerical  characters  there  are  now  simple  methods  (Galton, 
Pearson)  of  calculating  the  degree  of  deviation  of  the  real  frequencies  of 
the  combinations  of  their  variants  from  the  probable  ones.  The  results 
of  these  calculations  are  abstract  numbers  between  zero  (no  deviation 
from  probability)  and  one ;  the  latter  signifies  the  highest  possible 
degree  of  deviation  of  the  combination-frequencies  from  probability, 
inasmuch  as  each  variant  of  the  one  character  occurs  only  combined 
with  a  definite  single  variant  of  the  other.  These  abstract  numbers 
we  call  the  coefficients  of  correlation  of  the  investigated  pairs  of 
characters.  The  most  convenient  coefficient  of  correlation  is  that 
calculated  according  to  Pearson's  method  [13],  and  determined  as  the 
mean  product  of  the  individually  combined  relative  deviations  of  the 
two  characters  from  their  average  values,  while  the  relative  deviations 
are  the  absolute  ones  expressed  in  terms  of  their  indices  of  variability. 
Like  the  indices  of  variability  of  homologous  characters,  the  coefficients 
of  correlation  of  homologous  pairs  of  characters  show  a  certain 
constancy  even  in  different  species  (Warren  [17]).  This,  again,  I 
believe  to  be  an  expression  of  physiological  relations  between  the 
correlated  organs  with  regard  to  the  respective  characters. 

If  on  the  average  the  combined  variants  lie  either,  on  the  one 
hand,  both  above  or  both  below  the  mean  values  of  the  two  characters, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  one  is  a  positive,  the  other  a  negative 
deviation  from  these  values,  we  get  either  a  positive  or  a  negative 
coefficient  of  correlation,  and  accordingly  deal  with  positive  or  negative 
correlation.  Series  of  variation  between  which  there  is  positive 
correlation  tend  to  form  constant  differences  of  the  individually  com- 
bined variants,  while  those  between  which  there  is  negative  correlation 
tend  to  form  constant  sums  of  the  variants.  The  constancy  of  these 
sums  or  differences  is  the  more  remarkable,  the  higher  the  coefficient 
of  correlation.  The  constancy  of  the  sums  of  variants,  that  is,  negative 
correlation,  is  mostly  to  be  found  in  metamerically  disposed  characters 
(homoiotic  variation),  that  of  the  differences  of  variants,  that  is,  positive 
correlation,  in  antimerically  disposed  characters,  especially  in  those  with 
symmetrical  variation. 

As  it  is  possible  to  investigate  the  probability  or  the  degree  of 
correlation  of  the  frequencies  of  the  individual  combinations  of  the 
variants  of  two  or  more  characters,  so  it  is  reciprocally  possible  to  treat 
the  combinations  of  variants  of  one  and  the  same  character  in  two  or 
more  individuals  which  are  connected  by  known  relations  in  a  similar 
manner.  This  might  be,  for  instance,  when  we  wish  to  decide  if  a 
character  is  important  in  sexual  selection ;  or  again,  if  a  character  is 
hereditary  or  not.  In  the  former  case  the  combination  of  variants, 
effected  by  mating,  of  one  and  the  same  character  in  males  and  females, 
must  show  correlation ;  in  the  latter  the  same  is  true  for  parent  and 


1899]  VARIATION-STATISTICS  IN  ZOOLOGY  333 

offspring.      Galton  and    Pearson  have  shown  this  in  anthropological 
instances,  but  in  zoology  almost  nothing  has  been  as  yet  done.1 

Statistical  investigations  may  be  applied  to  all  sorts  of  characters ; 
the  immediate  results  acquaint  us  with  the  relative  frequency  of  the 
variants,  and  show,  in  addition,  whether  their  variation  depends  upon 
that  of  other  characters  or  not.  If  wre  have  to  deal  with  numerical 
characters,  we  discover  furthermore  the  particular  law  according  to 
which  their  variants  are  distributed  in  the  existing  individuals  of  the 
form-unit,  and  the  coefficient  of  correlation  according  to  which  the 
variants  of  several  characters  are  individually  combined.  From  the 
mathematical  analysis  of  series  of  variation  we  discover  constitutional 
factors,  and  the  known  external  conditions  of  life  differentiating  the 
species  into  form-units  and  their  higher  groups,  which  are  characterised 
in  the  first  place  by  the  mean  values  of  their  characters.  Within  the 
form-unit  numerous  other  causes  of  variation,  which  are  not  known, 
produce  by  their  combinations  the  individual  differences  of  the 
characters  in  typical  proportions  of  frequency.  According  to  their 
physiological  conditions  the  organs  of  different  species  react  more  or 
less  markedly  to  the  causes  of  variation  of  their  characters,  so  that  the 
physiological  plasticity  of  the  organs  is  indicated  by  the  indices  of 
variability  of  their  characters. 

The  idea  of  investigating  complexes  of  individuals  statistically,  in 
order  to  discover  series  of  variation,  is  not  new.  In  ichthyology 
especially,  where  nearly  all  systematic  characters  are  dimensional  or 
numerical,  as  early  as  1857  A.  Czernay  [5]  published  observations  on 
the  variation  of  specific  characters  in  freshwater  fishes  from  the  vicinity 
of  Charkow.  From  the  period  1870-1880  Heincke's  [10]  papers  on 
the  varieties  of  the  herring  may  be  named.  All  older  publications, 
however,  deal  with  such  a  small  amount  of  material,  that  the  data  are 
without  value  for  the  mathematical  analysis  of  series  of  variation. 

In  1890,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  there 
was  published  the  first  zoological  paper  where  the  results  of  statistical 
observations  of  numerical  characters  were  mathematically  analysed. 
W.  F.  E.  Weldon  [19]  on  the  suggestion  of  F.  Galton  investigated 
four  dimensions  of  Crangon  vulgaris  in  numerous  individuals  from 
three  different  localities,  and  found  that  their  variation  follows  the 
Gauss'  law  of  error,  which  is  a  frequently  occurring  special  case  of 
Pearson's  general  probability-curve,  and  that  each  of  the  characters  had 
a  different  mean  value  in  the  different  localities.  Two  years  later, 
using  Galton's  method,  Weldon  [21]  showed  the  correlation  between 
several  characters  of  Crangon.  Then  he  made  a  series  of  investiga- 
tions on  variation   and  correlation  in  Carcinus  macnas,  treating  differ- 

1  Since  the  above  was  written,  "Warren  [18]  has  published  an   interesting   paper  on 
heredity  in  DapJmia. 


334  GEORG  DUNCKER  [ 


[NOVEMBER 


ences  of  age,  sex,  locality,  in  certain  dimensions,  and  partly  explaining 
them  by  selective  processes  [22,  23].  Further,  he  found  a  dimorphism 
of  the  females  in  the  Naples  race,  which  Giard  [9]  tried  to  explain 
by  parasitic  influences.  In  the  meantime  Thompson  and  Warren, 
inspired  by  Weldon,  worked  on  variation  and  correlation  in  the 
dimensions  of  Palaemon  serratus  [15],  Carcinus  maenas  [16],  and 
Portunus  depurator  [17].  Warren  first  discovered  the  fact,  afterwards 
several  times  confirmed,  that  the  coefficients  of  correlation  of  homo- 
logous characters  remain  fairly  constant  not  only  within  the  form- 
units  of  the  same,  but  also  within  those  of  allied  but  different  species. 
Warren  also  was  the  first  zoologist  to  follow  Pearson's  improved  method 
in  analysing  series  statistically.  Thompson  demonstrated  distinctly 
determined  changes  of  mean  value  and  index  of  variability  in  the 
characters  of  the  same  form-unit  in  different  years,  which  result 
Weldon  has  investigated  further,  and  has  recently  [24]  considered  as  a 
proof  of  the  reality  of  natural  selection. 

While  the  leader  of  the  English  biological-statistical  school  is 
especially  interested  in  the  problem  of  natural  selection,  the  North 
American  school,  led  by  C.  B.  Davenport,  works  especially  on  morpho- 
logical problems.  First,  Davenport  in  association  with  Bullard  [6] 
investigated  in  a  very  rich  material  (4000  individuals)  the  influence 
of  sex  on  the  constants  of  variation  and  correlation.  On  Davenport's 
suggestion  Brewster  [1]  and  Field  [8],  the  first  in  mammals,  the 
second  in  insects,  investigated  the  relation  between  the  variability  of 
certain  characters  and  their  systematic  importance.  The  result  tended 
to  show  that  the  two  correspond.  But  the  material  basis  of  these 
investigations  appears  to  me  too  small  to  settle  this  question  definitely. 

Besides  mathematical-statistical  researches  there  have  been  pub- 
lished, since  statistical  methods  came  into  vogue,  some  others  of  a  non- 
analytical  sort  based  upon  large  numbers  of  individuals.  Among 
these  I  wish  to  call  especial  attention  to  Bumpus'  papers  on  variation 
and  mutation  in  two  very  different  species  introduced  from  Europe  to 
North  America,  the  sparrow  (Passer)  [2],  and  the  periwinkle  (Littorina) 
[3].  In  each  of  these  instances  the  great  increase  of  variability  in 
the  American  forms,  compared  with  the  European  ones,  is  remarkable. 

In  Germany  Heincke  and  I  are  still  alone  among  zoologists  in 
applying  statistical  methods  to  problems  of  variation.  Heincke  is 
chiefly  interested  in  the  existence  of  local  races  within  the  species,  and 
one  of  his  most  important  results  is,  I  think,  his  method  of  determining 
the  racial  character  of  any  given  individual  as  well  as  its  specific 
character  [11].  Among  botanists  the  number  of  fellow  -  workers 
increases  every  year.  Besides  foreign  naturalists,  H.  de  Vries  and 
G.  Verschaeffelt,  who  have  published  German  papers,  F.  Ludwig  has 
for  several  years  been  statistically  investigating  the  law  of  Fibonacci 
in  plants,  while  recently  H.  Voechting  has  published  a  splendid  paper 
on  abnormalities  of  flowers.      There  is  a  great  advantage  in  botanical 


1899]  VARIATION-STATISTICS  IN  ZOOLOGY  335 

objects,   because  they  can   easily   be    experimented   on  in   regard   to 
heredity  and  local  variation. 

If  I  have  succeeded  in  showing  the  statistical  method  of 
investigating  variation  to  be  based  on  logical  foundations,  and  to  be 
capable,  by  its  special  nature,  of  yielding  new  and  valuable  results 
which  cannot  be  acquired  by  any  other  method  of  investigation,  it  may 
lead,  I  hope,  to  the  increased  use  of  the  method  by  zoologists.  The 
mathematical  training  its  application  requires,  does  not  exceed  the 
standard  of  final  high-school  examinations.  The  exact  and  unambiguous 
results  of  the  analytical  method  have  a  charm  of  their  own,  and  it 
ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  a  precise  terminology  helps  in  every 
scientific  work.  The  merely  statistical  research,  whether  directed 
towards  aetiological  or  towards  morphological  problems,  is  only,  I  believe, 
the  introduction  to  a  more  important  kind  of  work,  by  which  statistical- 
analytical  and  therefore  critical  results  will  be  established  with  the 
help  of  quantitative  experiments.  To  carry  out  this  purpose  we 
would  need  a  separate  institute,  distinguished  from  the  ordinary 
biological  laboratory  by  larger  accommodation  for  breeding  experi- 
ments, and  from  the  taxonomic  museum  by  facilities  for  storing  in  an 
accessible  fashion  large  quantities  of  homogeneous  individuals  which 
may  readily  be  investigated  at  any  time  either  for  controlling  or  for 
completing  former  researches.  To  the  eminently  practical  value  of 
such  an  institution  for  agriculture,  forestry,  horticulture,  as  well  as  for 
fishery  and  cattle-breeding,  I  can  now  only  refer ;  its  chief  aim  of 
course  would  be  scientific  investigation,  of  which  the  results  are  always 
either  directly  or  indirectly  valuable  to  practical  life.  The  first  step, 
however,  is  that  the  statistical-analytical  method  be  duly  recognised 
as  a  new  and  important  organon  in  the  advancement  of  biology. 


LIST  OF  PAPERS  CITED. 

1.  Brewster,  E.  T.,  "A  Measure  of  Variability  and  the  Relation  of  Individual  Varia- 

tions to  Specific  Differences,"  Proc.  Amer.  Acad.  Arts  Sci.  vol.  xxxii.  No.  15,  pp. 
268-2S0,  1897. 

2.  Bumpus,  H.   C,  "The  Variations  and  Mutations  of  the  Introduced  Sparrow,"  Biol. 

Lectures  IVoods  Holl  (1896),  pp.  1-15,  1897. 

3.  "  The  Variations  and  Mutations  of  the  Introduced  Littorina,"  Zool.  Bull.  vol.  i. 

No.  5,  pp.  247-259,  1898. 

4. "  On  the  Identification  of  Fish  Artificially  Hatched,"  Amer.  Natural,  vol.  xxxii. 

No.  378,  pp.  407-412,  1898. 

5.  Czernay,  A.,  "  Beobachtungen liber  das  Variieren  der  Artkennzeichen  der  Susswasser- 

fische  in  der  Umgegend  von  Charkow,"  1857.      Bull.  Soc.  Imp.  Nat.  Moscoiv,  vol. 
xxx.  No.  1,  pp.  227-249,  1857. 

6.  Davenport,  C.  B.,  and  Bullard,  C,  "Studies  in  Morphogenesis;  VI.  A  Contribu- 

tion to  the  Quantitative  Study  of  Correlated  Variation  and  the  Comparative  Variability 
of  the  Sexes,"  Proc.  Amer.  Acad.  Arts  Sci.  vol.  xxxii.  No.  4,  pp.  85-97,  1896. 

7.  Duncker,  G.,  "  Die.  Methode  der  Variationsstatistik,"  Arch.  Entivickclungsmcch.,  vol. 

viii.  No.  1,  pp.  112-187.     Separately:  Leipzig,  Engelmann,  1899. 

8.  Field,  W.  L.  W.,  "A  Contribution  to  the  Study  of  Individual  Variation  in  the  Wings 

of  Lepidoptera,"  Proc.  Amer.  Acad.  Arts  Sci.  vol.  xxxiii.  No.  21,  pp.  389-395,  1898. 


336  GEORG  DUNCKER  [November  1899 

9.  Giard,  A.,  "  Sur  certains  cas  de  dedoublement  des  courbes  de  Galton  dus  au  parasi- 
tisme  et  sur  le  diniorphisme  d'origine  parasitaire, "  Comptes  Bendus  Soc.  Biol.  10 
ser.  T.  I.,  No.  13,  pp.  350-353,  1894. 

10.  Heincke,  F.,  "  Die  Varietaten  des]Herings,"  Jahresb.  Kommission  TFiss.  Untcrsuchung 

deutsch.  Meere,  (I.)  4th-6th  Jahrg.  pp.  37-132,  1876-78;   (II.)  7th-llth  Jahrg.  pp. 
1-86,  1879-83. 

11.  "  Naturgeschichte  des  Herings,"  Abh.  deutsch.  Secfischerci-Vcr.  Bd.   2,  Nos.  1 

and  2,  1898. 

12.  Pearson,  K.,  "Contributions  to  the  Mathematical  Theory  of  Evolution;  II.  Skew- 

Variation  in  Homogeneous  Material,"  Phil.  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  London,  vol.  clxxxviA, 
No.  123,  pp.  71-110,  1894. 

13.  "III.  Regression,  Heredity,  and  Panmixia,"  ibid.  vol.  clxxxviiA,  No.  175,  pp. 

253-318,  1896. 

14.  Petersen,  C.  G.  J.,  "On  the  Biology  of  our  Flat-Fishes, "  Appendix  II.  Beport  Ban. 

Biol.  Station,  iv.  (1893),  pp.  123-137,  1894. 

15.  Thompson,  H.,  "  On  Correlations  of  certain  External  Partsof  Palacmon  serratus,"  Proc. 

Boy.  Soc.  London,  vol.  Iv.  No.  333,  pp.  234-240,  1894. 

16. "On  certain  Changes  observed  in  the  Dimensions  of  Parts  of  the  Carapace  of 

Carcinus  macnas,"  ibid.  vol.  lx.  No.  361,  pp.  195-198,  1896. 

17.  Warren,  E.,  "  Variation  in  Portunus  dcpurator, "  ibid.  No.  362,  pp.  221-243,  1896. 

18.  "  An  Observation  on  Inheritance  in  Parthenogenesis,"  ibid.  vol.  lxv.  No.  415,  pp. 

154-158,  1899. 

19.  Weldon,  W.  F.  R.,    "The  Variations  occurring  in  certain  Decapod  Crustacea;  I. 

Crangon  vulgaris,"  ibid.  vol.  xlvii.  No.  291,  pp.  445-453,  1890. 

20.  "  Palaemonetes  varians  in  Plymouth,"  Journ.  Marine  Biol.  Assoc.  N.  S.  vol.  i. 

No.  2,  pp.  459-461,  1892. 

21.  "Certain  Correlated  Variations  in  Crangon  vulgaris."  Proc.  Boy.  Soc.  London, 

vol.  li.  No.  308,  pp.  2-21,  1892. 

22.  "On  certain  Correlated  Variations  in  Carcinus  macnas,"  ibid.  vol.  liv.  No.  328, 

pp.  318-329,  1893. 

23.  "Report  of  the  Committee  for  conducting  Statistical  Inquiries  into  the  Measur- 
able Characteristics  of  Plants  and  Animals.  Part  I.  :  An  attempt  to  Measure  the 
Death-rate  due  to  Selective  Destruction  of  Carcinus  maenas,  with  respect  to  a 
Particular  Dimension,"  ibid.  vol.  lvii.  No.  344,  pp.  360-379,  1895. 

24.   "On  the  Principal   Objections  urged  against  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection," 

Bep.   Brit.  Assoc.   (Bristol),   pp.    887-902,    1899  {Nature,   vol.   lviii.  No.   1508,  pp. 
499-506,  1898). 

18  Hofweg,  Hamburg. 


The  Cereal  Rust  Problem — Does  Eriksson's  Myco- 
plasma exist  in  Nature? 

By  Geo.  Massee,  F.L.S. 

The  idea  that  the  vegetative  condition  of  parasitic  fungi  exists  in  the 
tissues  of  certain  host-plants,  and  is  transmitted  from  one  generation  to 
another,  is  not  new.  Berkeley  (1),  in  discussing  the  subject,  states  as 
follows  : — "  The  mycelium  of  the  cereal  fungi  is  known  to  exist  from  the 
earliest  period  in  corn,  and  is  perfected  only  under  favourable  con- 
ditions." Worthington  G-.  Smith  (2),  in  dealing  with  wheat  rust,  says  : 
"  They  all  prove  that  Puccinia  is  hereditary ;  that  it  exists  in  a  finely 
attenuated  state  in  seeds  from  diseased  plants,  and  can  be  transmitted 
in  a  long  interminable  line  from  generation  to  generation."  (3),  "  We, 
as  well  as  many  other  observers,  have  shown  that  seeds  apparently 
sound,  will  often,  on  germination,  show  disease  in  their  seed-leaves ; 
such  plants  are  saturated  with  the  germs  of  disease  from  their  earliest 
period  of  growth."  (4),  Writing  on  the  supposed  hereditary  nature  of 
a  disease  affecting  species  of  Dianthus,  the  same  author  states  :  "  This 
case  has  a  distinct  bearing  on  the  allied  fungus  of  corn  mildew,  Puccinia 
graminis,  which  no  one  doubts  is  carried  on  from  one  generation  to 
another  in  the  seeds.  This  being  the  case,  and  nearly  every  grain  of 
corn  being  probably  saturated  with  the  poisonous  plasma  of  corn  mil- 
dew, the  statements  regarding  the  production  of  mildew  on  corn  from 
the  contact  of  spores  from  a  Barberry  bush — the  corn,  it  must  be 
remembered,  being  almost  invariably  infested  with  hereditary  disease 
— should  be  received  with  very  great  caution." 

The  above  statements  are  not  supported  by  experiments,  but  ad- 
vanced as  the  only  apparently  possible  explanation  of  the  repeated 
occurrence  of  disease  in  those  cases  where  external  means  of  inoculation 
were  not  evident. 

Quite  recently  Professor  Jakob  Eriksson  (5),  Director  of  the  Ex- 
periment Station  of  the  Royal  Swedish  Academy  of  Agriculture,  has 
propounded  a  theory  similar  in  substance  to  the  ideas  expressed  by 
Berkeley  and  Smith,  and  bearing  on  the  subject  of  rusts  attacking 
cereals.  The  following  quotations  indicate  the  leading  idea  of  the 
theory : — 

337 


338  GEORGE  MASSEE  [novembeb 

"  Plants  of  a  variety  of  barley  extremely  liable  to  yellow-rust,  which 
have  been  grown  in  sterilised  soil  in  isolated  glass  houses,  and  have 
been  protected  against  infection  from  outside,  have  sometimes  become 
affected  by  yellow-rust." 

"  The  yellow-rust  appears  in  certain  varieties  of  wheat  and  barley 
that   are   especially   susceptible,   uniformly   four   to    five   weeks    after 


sowing. 


"  The  results  of  these  experiments  prove  beyond  doubt  that  the 
disease  must  have  come  from  an  internal  source,  and  have  been  in- 
herited from  the  present  plant." 

"  The  fungus  lives  for  a  long  time  a  latent  symbiotic  life  as  a  myco- 
plasma within  the  cells  of  the  embryo  of  the  cereal  plant,  and  only 
enters  upon  a  visible  stage  in  the  form  of  a  mycelium  a  short  time  be- 
fore the  pustules  break  out,  and  then  only  if  the  conditions  are  favour- 
able." 

Eriksson  was  gradually  led  to  adopt  the  idea  expressed  above 
after  prolonged  study  upon  the  succession  of  rust  on  cereals,  a  detailed 
account  of  which  is  to  be  found  in  another  book  by  the  same  author 
(6)  ;  also  in  considering  that  the  various  forms  of  spores  or  reproductive 
bodies  would  not  account  for  the  amount  of  rust  produced.  The  con- 
clusions arrived  at  on  this  last  point  are  summarised  by  the  author  as 
follows : — 

"  The  germinating  power  of  the  uredo  and  aecidiospores  is  often 
small,  or  at  best  capricious." 

"  The  germinating  power  of  the  winter-spores  (teleutospores)  de- 
pends upon  certain  external  conditions,  and  is  restricted  to  a  short 
period  of  time  "  (5). 

Now,  if  this  theory  proves  to  be  true — that  is,  if  it  can  be  demon- 
strated that  the  protoplasm  of  a  parasitic  fungus  can  blend  with  the 
protoplasm  of  its  host-plant,  and  remain  passive  in  this  condition  from 
generation  to  generation  until  conditions  are  favourable  for  its  manifest- 
ation in  its  own  proper  form  as  a  parasite  on  the  plant,  in  the  proto- 
plasm of  which  it  has  for  a  certain  period  of  time  remained  inert — 
many  unsolved  problems  in  Vegetable  Pathology  would  be  easily 
explained,  or,  at  all  events,  the  discovery  would  afford  a  very  feasible 
explanation  of  phenomena  at  present  inexplicable.  If  this  theory  had 
been  evolved  some  few  years  ago,  it  would  undoubtedly  have  explained 
in  a  satisfactory  manner  the  occurrence  of  the  common  "  smut "  of  oats 
(Ustilago  avenae,  Jensen).  An  old  idea  was  that  the  oat  plant  was 
inoculated  by  "  smut "  spores  when  in  bloom,  the  fungus  afterwards 
developing  in  the  ovary.  This  idea  being  disproved,  the  mycoplasma 
theory  would  have  been  useful ;  now,  however,  that  Brefeld's  amply 
corroborated  explanation  of  the  life-history  of  "  smut "  has  appeared, 
the  necessity  of  mycoplasmic  intervention  has  been  superseded.  The 
same  will  probably  prove  true  in  other  instances.  The  weak  point  in 
the  mycoplasma  theory  appears  to  be  that  it  proves  too  much. 


1899]  THE  CEREAL  RUST  PROBLEM  339 

That  Eriksson  himself  can  only  support  his  theory  on  negative 
evidence  is  shown  by  his  own  candid  remark  as  follows  (5)  : — "  These 
results  [those  given  above]  prove  beyond  doubt  that  the  disease  must 
come  from  internal  germs  inherited  from  the  parent  plant.  But  in 
what  form  are  these  internal  germs  of  disease  living  ?  Is  it  easy  to 
follow  and  identify  them  with  the  microscope  ?  Not  at  all.  They  can 
only  be  detected  just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  young  pustules." 

A  theory  propounded  by  one  who  has  for  many  years  made  a  special 
study  of  the  "  rust "  problem  has  naturally  attracted  much  attention, 
and  Eriksson's  experiments  have  been  repeated  by  observers  in  different 
countries,  the  result  being  in  every  instance  opposed  to  the  theory. 

Bolley  (7)  holds  that  there  is  no  ground  for  the  mycoplasmic 
theory,  his  reasons  for  so  doing  being  founded  on  similar  experiments 
to  those  on  which  Eriksson  founded  his  theory.  Cereals  were  grown 
until  quite  mature,  in  structures  specially  arranged  to  prevent  inocula- 
tion from  rust  spores,  with  the  result  that  the  plants  remained  perfectly 
free  from  disease,  whereas  every  specimen  of  unprotected  plants  of  the 
same  kind  growing  close  to  the  protected  plants  were  badly  rusted. 

Mr.  G.  Nicholson,  F.L.S.,  curator,  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  kindly 
procured  for  me  one  pound  of  "  Horsford  Pearl "  winter  wheat.  This 
variety  was  selected,  because  Eriksson  says  (5) : — "  We  are  warranted 
in  suggesting  that  the  predisposition  of  the  Horsford  wheat  to  yellow 
rust  may  be  explained  by  assuming  that  between  this  variety  of  wheat 
and  the  yellow  rust  an  extremely  vital  mycoplasma-symbiosis  is  to  be 
found." 

This  was  experimented  with  as  follows : — 

Half  the  quantity  was  used  the  first  season.  Two  flower-pots,  one 
containing  ordinary  Kew  soil,  the  other  old  stable  manure  mixed  with 
a  very  small  quantity  of  soil  similar  to  that  used  in  the  first  pot,  were 
prepared ;  no  sterilisation  was  attempted  in  either  case.  An  equal 
weight  of  wheat  was  soon  in  each  pot.  Each  pot  was  placed  on  a  large 
plate,  a  thick  layer  of  cotton-wool  was  placed  round  the  edge  of  each 
plate,  and  on  this  layer  of  cotton-wool  a  tall  glass  globe  rested,  each 
globe  having  an  opening  at  the  top  plugged  with  cotton-wool.  The 
glass  globes  were  not  removed  for  a  period  of  twelve  weeks,  the  neces- 
sary water  being  supplied  by  wetting  the  cotton-wool  outside  the  bottom 
of  the  glass  globe.  At  the  expiration  of  twelve  weeks  the  wheat  in 
both  pots  had  grown  to  the  top  of  the  glass  globes,  and  in  both  pots 
was  found  to  be  perfectly  free  from  "  rust."  At  this  stage  these  experi- 
ments terminated. 

The  remainder  of  the  half-pound  of  wheat  not  sown  in  the  plant 
pots  was  sown  in  a  mixture  of  rotten  manure  and  soil  placed  in  a  shady 
corner  out  of  doors.  At  the  expiration  of  nine  weeks  pustules  of 
"  rust "  appeared  on  some  of  the  leaves,  and  when  the  plants  were 
about  two  feet  in  length  nineteen  per  cent  of  the  plants  bore  rust 
pustules  on  the  leaves ;  but  this  "  rust "  on  examination  proved  to  be 


34°  GEORGE  MASSEE  [novjsmber 

black  rust — Puccinia  graminis.     No   trace   of  yellow  rust — Puccinia 
glumarum — was  present. 

The  following  season  the  remaining  half-pound  of  wheat  was  sown 
under  conditions  precisely  similar  to  those  described  above.  The 
plants  protected  by  glass  globes  remained  perfectly  free  from  rust  of 
any  kind,  whereas  the  seed  sown  on  manure,  and  fully  exposed  to 
atmospheric  conditions,  showed  at  the  expiration  of  thirteen  weeks, 
twenty-eight  per  cent  of  rusted  plants ;  the  rust  being  Puccinia 
graminis.  Not  a  trace  of  yellow  rust — Puccinia  glumarum  —  was 
present. 

Kemembering  the  clause  in  Eriksson's  theory  that  the  mycoplasma 
only  assumes  a  visible  form  "  if  the  conditions  are  favourable,"  I  am 
ready  to  admit  that  both  my  out-door  and  other  experiments  with 
"  Horsford  Pearl  "  were  not  grown  under  the  conditions  necessary  for 
the  conversion  of  mycoplasma  into  mycelium,  nevertheless  my  experi- 
ments are  not  unique  in  this  respect. 

McAlpine  of  Melbourne  records  having  received  from  Eriksson  ten 
varieties  of  wheat  showing  in  a  marked  degree  powers  of  resistance  to 
yellow  rust — Puccinia  glumarum.  When  sown  in  Australia  all  the 
varieties  were  attacked  by  one  or  other  of  the  native  rusts — Puccinia 
dispersa,  or  P.  graminis.  No  trace  of  yellow  rust — P.  glumarum — was 
observed  (8). 

These  experiments  corroborate  at  least  what  has  previously  been 
stated  (9),  that  cereals  especially  susceptible  to  one  form  of  rust  in  a 
particular  country,  may,  if  sown  in  another  country,  lose  their  suscep- 
tibility for  the  original  kind  of  rust,  and  prove  equally  susceptible  to 
another  form. 

As  to  whether  this  also  proves  that  mycoplasma  does  not  in  reality 
exist,  or  that  a  change  of  locality  destroys  a  mycoplasma  that 
previously  existed,  I  am  not  at  present  prepared  to  say. 

Another  set  of  experiments  with  wheat,  commenced  before  the 
mycoplasma  theory  was  published,  were  conducted  for  the  purpose  of 
endeavouring  to  ascertain  whether  mycelium  passed  into  the  seed  in 
those  cases  where  the  mycelium  of  a  parasitic  fungus  was  undoubtedly 
present  in  the  fruit. 

This  line  of  research  was  suggested  by  a  remark  made  by  Collenette 
(10),  who  in  writing  on  the  Tomato  disease  in  Guernsey,  says: — "My 
theory,  then,  is  that  the  '  sleeping '  disease  is  really  primarily  pro- 
pagated by  the  seed,  and  the  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  refuse  to  save 
or  use  the  seed  derived  from  the  diseased  plants."  Collenette's  theory 
was  founded  on  the  discovery  of  delicate  hyphae  in  the  tissue  of  tomato 
seed  produced  by  a  diseased  tomato.  I  also  had  an  opportunity  of 
examining  some  seed  obtained  from  a  diseased  tomato,  kindly  furnished 
by  Mr.  Collenette,  and  succeeded  in  detecting  slender,  hyaline  hyphae 
about  2/u,  thick  in  the  testa  of  the  seed,  but  at  the  time  was  not  able 
to  demonstrate    that    these    hyphae  were    genetically   connected  with 


1899]  THE  CEREAL  RUST  PROBLEM  341 

Fusarium  lycopcrsici,  Sacc,  the  fungus  causing  the  tomato  disease. 
This  discovery  was  announced  in  a  footnote  to  Collenette's  paper 
quoted  above.  During  further  experiments  with  seed  from  diseased 
tomatoes  sent  by  Collenette,  I  was  able  to  corroborate  the  presence  of 
slender  hyphae  in  the  testa  of  the  seed,  and  furthermore  obtained  both 
the  Diplocladium  and  Fusarium  stages  of  the  fungus  by  placing  sections 
of  the  diseased  seeds  in  a  culture  medium. 

The  above  experiment  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  fact  of  seed  pro- 
duced by  a  diseased  tomato  fruit  being  able  to  perpetuate  the  disease, 
due  to  the  presence  of  latent  mycelium — not  mycoplasma — in  the 
testa  of  the  seed. 

Experiments  with  Hollyhock  seeds  gave  similar  results.  When 
the  carpels  are  attacked  by  the  Hollyhock  rust — Puccinia  malvacearum, 
Mont. — the  testa  of  the  seeds  frequently  contain  mycelium,  and  such 
seed  when  sown,  if  it  germinates  at  all,  gives  origin  to  a  large  per- 
centage of  diseased  seedlings,  the  teleutospores  of  the  fungus  appear- 
ing on  the  hypocotyl  and  on  the  cotyledons  in  abundance.  This 
experiment  is  of  considerable  importance,  as  the  fungus  belongs  to  the 
same  genus  as  those  producing  rust  on  cereals. 

Ustilago  vaillantii,  Tul.,  a  fungus  infesting  the  anthers,  and  some- 
times also  the  ovary,  of  Scilla  bifolia,  and  other  allied  plants,  has  been 
under  constant  observation  for  the  past  six  years  with  the  object  of 
ascertaining  its  complete  life-history,  which  is  intended  for  publication 
in  detail  in  the  near  future.  The  leading  points  in  its  history  bearing 
on  the  question  at  issue  are  as  follows : — Quite  young  seedlings  may 
be  infected  by  spores  present  in  the  soil.  A  perennial  mycelium  is 
formed  in  the  short  stem  at  the  base  of  the  bulb ;  from  this  hyber- 
nating  mycelium  hyphae  pass  into  the  flower-stalk  each  season ;  this 
mycelium  finally  reaches  the  anthers  and  the  ovary.  The  mycelium 
is  only  present  in  the  tissues  at  any  given  time  for  a  length  of  about 
2  mm. — in  other  words,  as  the  mycelium  creeps  up  the  tissues  of  the 
flower-stalk  it  deliquesces  and  disappears  behind,  the  growing  tips  of 
the  mycelial  strands  only  being  at  any  one  time  evident,  and  when  it 
has  passed  into  the  anthers  there  is  not  a  vestige  of  mycelium  to  be 
found  in  the  filaments  of  the  anthers.  All  this  takes  place  while  the 
flower  is  in  the  bud  condition,  and  the  whole  inflorescence  is  vet 
underground.  When  the  fruit  is  attacked  all  the  seeds  are  often 
completely  destroyed,  their  position  being  occupied  by  a  powdery  black 
mass  of  fungus  spores.  In  other  instances  only  some  of  the  seeds  are 
destroyed,  others  present  in  the  same  fruit  remaining  apparently 
healthy ;  but  on  microscopic  examination  of  such  seeds  slender 
mycelium  can  often  be  detected  in  the  testa.  Apparently  healthy 
seeds  obtained  from  a  fruit  having  some  of  its  seeds  destroyed  by  the 
fungus,  when  sown  in  sterilised  soil,  and  freed  from  adhering  fungus 
spores  by  proper  methods,  always  yield  a  large  percentage  of  diseased 
seedlings,  the  mycelium  soon  being  quite  conspicuous  in  the  delicate 

23 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   93. 


342  GEORGE  MASSEE  [novembek 

stem  before  the  bulb  begins  to  form.  This  infection  I  consider  to  be 
due  to  the  mycelium  present  in  the  testa  of  the  seed.  Unfortunately 
complete  proof  of  this  is  not  forthcoming  as  it  was  in  the  tomato 
disease  described  above,  as  up  to  the  present  moment  no  one  has 
succeeded  in  causing  any  member  of  the  Uredineae  or  Ustilagineae  to 
produce  fruit  as  a  pure  culture,  or  apart  from  the  natural  substratum. 

In  many  instances  the  mycelium  passes  up  the  flower-stalk  and 
enters  the  anthers  and  ovary  without  however  producing  spores,  this 
final  act  being  prevented  by  conditions  at  present  unexplained. 
Mycelium  can  be  frequently  observed  in  the  testa  of  seeds  produced 
by  such  plants,  and  if  the  seeds  are  sown  under  conditions  preventing 
external  inoculation  many  diseased  plants  result. 

Plants  attacked  in  this  manner  can  be  easily  recognised  after  a 
little  experience,  owing  to  the  deep  blue-green  colour  of  the  flower- 
stalk. 

Returning  to  the  experiment  with  wheat.  Distinctly  shrivelled 
grain  caused  by  the  presence  of  the  rust  called  Puccinia  glumarum, 
Eriks.  and  Henn.,  better  known  in  this  country  as  Puccinia  rubigo-vera, 
DC,  developed  on  the  chaff,  and  sometimes  also  on  the  grain  itself, 
was  used.  Forty  grains  were  sown  in  each  of  two  pots,  one  containing 
ordinary  soil,  the  other  rich  stable  manure  with  a  small  admixture  of 
soil.  Each  pot  was  protected  by  a  glass  vessel  with  cotton-wool,  as  in 
the  experiments  described  above.  In  the  pot  containing  ordinary  soil 
sixty  per  cent  of  the  grain  germinated,  whereas  in  the  richly  manured 
pot  only  fifty-two  per  cent  germinated.  When  the  plants  were  three 
inches  high  indications  of  rust  pustules  were  seen  on  a  few  leaves  in 
each  pot,  and  when  the  plants  were  five  inches  high  twenty-six  per  cent 
of  the  plants  were  rusted  in  the  pot  containing  ordinary  soil,  and  forty- 
seven  per  cent  in  the  richly  manured  pot.  At  this  stage  the  experiments 
terminated,  as  the  spores  were  in  some  instances  mature,  and  the 
plants  being  crowded  inoculation  from  spores  would  probably  have 
taken  place,  and  thus  a  greater  percentage  of  rusted  plants  would  have 
resulted  than  those  due  to  what  I  consider  as  cases  of  rusting  from 
the  use  of  diseased  seed.  As  a  control  experiment  a  similar  number 
of  plump  and  healthy  grains  obtained  from  plants  having  the  foliage 
badly  rusted,  but  the  ears  perfectly  free  from  rust,  were  sown  in 
ordinary  soil  and  protected  as  described  above.  Ninety-six  per  cent 
germinated,  and  all  the  plants  remained  perfectly  free  from  rust. 

Another  experiment  was  conducted  as  follows : — A  jar  was  filled 
with  sterilised  water  containing  a  small  amount  of  extract  of  manure ; 
a  piece  of  coarse  muslin  was  stretched  over  the  top  of  the  jar  just  in 
contact  with  the  liquid.  Twenty  grains  of  wheat  obtained  from  a 
plant  not  attacked  by  rust  and  presumably  healthy  were  placed  on  the 
muslin,  the  jar  being  protected  by  a  glass  globe.  Nine  of  the  grains 
produced  vigorous  plants,  the  remainder  being  weakly  were  removed. 
When  the   plants  were   about  two   inches   high   a  sterilised  piece   of 


1899]  THE  CEREAL  RUST  PROBLEM  343 

cotton- wool  was  loosely  twisted  round  the  base  of  each  of  three  plants, 
extending  up  the  plant  about  half  an  inch  from  the  muslin  on  which 
the  plants  were  growing.  Three  circles  of  stout  white  sterilised 
blotting-paper,  each  with  a  small  hole  in  the  centre  and  a  slit  from  the 
hole  to  the  margin,  were  prepared.  One  of  these  blotting-paper  collars 
was  placed  round  the  stem  of  each  of  the  wheat  plantlets  already 
enveloped  at  the  base  with  cotton-wool,  on  which  the  blotting-paper 
rested,  and  was  kept  moist  by  the  water  conducted  by  the  wool. 
Fresh  uredo-spores  of  Puccinia  glumariim  were  deposited  in  abundance, 
by  means  of  a  scalpel,  on  the  damp  blotting-paper  at  a  distance  of 
about  one  line  from  the  stem  of  one  of  the  plants ;  at  a  distance  of 
about  three  lines  from  the  stem  in  the  second  example,  and  in  a  circle 
about  four  lines  from  the  stem  in  the  third  experiment. 

Within  a  week  of  depositing  the  spores  on  the  blotting-paper,  the 
plant  to  which  the  spores  were  placed  nearest  drooped  and  fell  over  as 
in  the  disease  known  popularly  as  "  damping  off."  Microscopic 
examination  showed  that  death  was  due  to  a  dense  weft  of  mycelium 
emanating  from  the  germinating  uredo-spores  that  had  surrounded  the 
stem  of  the  plant.  I  could  not,  however,  demonstrate  satisfactorily 
that  any  of  the  hyphae  had  penetrated  the  tissues  of  the  wheat 
plant. 

Within  eighteen  and  twenty-two  days  respectively  from  the  date  of 
placing  the  spores  on  the  blotting-paper,  the  two  remaining  plants 
showed  uredo-pustules  on  the  upper  surface  of  the  lowest  leaf ;  in  both 
instances  the  pustules  appeared  at  a  point  about  one  inch  above  the 
blotting-paper.  This,  however,  I  do  not  hold  to  prove  that  the 
mycelium  travelled  upwards  for  that  distance  in  the  tissues  of  the  leaf, 
but  rather  consider  that  the  leaf  increased  an  inch  in  length  between 
the  period  of  inoculation  and  the  time  the  pustules  first  became  visible 
externally.  The  remaining  plants  not  inoculated  remained  free  from 
disease. 

The  above  experiment  proves  satisfactorily,  I  think,  one  point, 
namely,  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  uredo-spore  should  be  in 
actual  contact  with  the  host-plant  to  insure  inoculation,  but  that  the 
germ-tube  can  live  for  some  time  as  a  saprophyte,  when,  if  conditions 
are  favourable,  it  can  enter  the  tissues  of  a  host-plant  and  assume 
parasitic  functions.  This  feature  may  prove  to  be  of  great  importance 
from  the  practical  point  of  view  in  combating  the  disease.  During 
the  present  season  I  hope  to  conduct  further  experiments  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ascertaining  for  how  long  a  period  the  mycelium  can  grow  as  a 
saprophyte  without  losing  its  power  of  inoculating  a  host-plant,  and 
also  what  distance  it  can  traverse  before  effecting  the  same. 

During  the  present  spring  an  experiment  was  conducted  on  similar 
lines  to  the  above,  only  teleutospores  were  used  instead  of  uredo- 
spores.  In  this  instance  only  one  out  of  three  infected  plants  pro- 
duced uredo  pustules,  whereas  an  uninfected  or  check  plant  also  showed 


344  GEORGE  MASSEE  [November 

pustules,  therefore  no  comment  is  necessary ;  only  further  experiments 
in  the  same  direction  will  be  made  in  the  future. 

Tradition  acts  as  a  powerful  bias,  even  in  scientific  matters ; 
immediately  following  De  Bary's  brilliant  discovery  of  heteroecism, 
the  condition  of  rust  on  the  Barberry  alternating  with  that  on  some 
graminaceous  plant  was  considered  indispensable  for  the  continuation 
of  the  species ;  eventually  it  was  discovered  that  the  stage  on  Barberry 
could  be  dispensed  with,  and  yet  the  rust  appeared  as  rampant  as  ever ; 
in  fact  in  Australia,  where  rust  is  more  abundant  and  injurious  than  in 
Europe,  the  aecidium  condition  is  unknown ;  in  India  also,  where  ruts 
is  very  destructive,  no  aecidium  condition  is  known  to  exist  within 
hundreds  of  miles  of  the  wheat-growing  districts.  At  the  present  day 
it  is  generally  accepted  that  the  uredo-spores  only  retain  their  power 
of  germination  for  a  very  limited  period,  and  that  the  uredo-spores 
must  be  in  contact  with  the  host-plant  to  effect  inoculation.  The 
experiment  just  recorded  modifies  this  idea  to  some  extent.  Teleuto- 
spores,  again,  are  considered  at  present  as  being  only  able  to  infect  the 
host  that  bears  the  aecidium  stage ;  however,  their  production  in  such 
immense  numbers  in  those  countries  where  no  aecidium  stage  is  pro- 
duced, or  required,  suggests  that  they  may  possibly  play  some  part  in 
the  reproduction  of  the  fungus  hitherto  undiscovered. 

Numerous  preparations  of  rust-shrivelled  grains  of  wheat  have  been 
examined  microscopically,  and  an  abundance  of  mycelium  detected  in 
the  outer  layers  of  the  grain,  correctly  speaking,  in  the  pericarp ;  but 
not  in  a  single  instance  have  I  been  able  to  detect  mycelium  in  the 
embryo  ;  and  in  those  cases  where  the  grains  were  allowed  to  germinate 
and  form  a  tiny  plantlet  up  to  half  an  inch  in  length,  the  mycelium 
never  appeared  to  pass  into  this  part.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
sections  of  diseased  wheat  were  placed  in  culture  media,  hyphae 
frequently  radiated  from  the  section  on  all  sides  for  some  distance. 

May  not  similar  hyphae  radiate  in  the  soil  from  diseased  grain 
when  sown  under  natural  conditions,  vegetate  for  some  time  in  a 
saprophytic  manner,  and  finally,  if  conditions  are  favourable,  infect  the 
young  plantlet  at,  or  just  below,  the  ground  level  ?  Sufficient  of 
obviously  rust-shrivelled  grain  is  frequently  used  as  seed ;  and  if,  in 
addition,  plants  are  infested  with  mycelium,  which  for  some  at  present 
unknown  reason  does  not  produce  spores,  as  I  have  shown  to  be  the 
case  with  Scilla  bifolia,  and  also  recorded  by  Bolley  (11)  as  frequently 
occurring  in  the  case  of  wheat  attacked  by  Tilletia  levis,  Ktihn ;  and 
assuming  that  this  mycelium  also  passes  into  the  grain,  then  we  should 
be  able  to  account  for  a  considerable  quantity  of  the  rust  prevalent, 
without  introducing  a  new  factor — mycoplasma — into  the  theory. 

Mycelium  of  the  rust  fungus  has  been  observed  in  the  grain  of 
wheat  by  Eriksson,  as  shown  by  the  following  quotation  (12),  and  if 
inoculation  of  the  young  plant  is  effected  by  means  of  mycelium 
originating  from  the  grain,  and  growing  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period 


1899]  THE  CEREAL  RUST  PROBLEM  345 

in  the  soil  previous  to  such  inoculation,  as  explained  above,  then 
Eriksson's  difficulty  in  accepting  the  presence  of  such  mycelium  as  the 
cause  of  the  disease,  on  account  of  its  absence  from  the  embryo,  both 
before  and  immediately  after  germination,  is  removed. 

"  Ce  fut  en  vain  que  je  cherchai  a  constater,  par  le  microscope, 
la  presence  de  germes  infectieux  internes.  Certainement  je  decouvris 
dans  les  tissus  peripheriques  des  graines  du  froment  ridees  et 
deformees  par  la  rouille,  un  mycelium  tres  developpe,  et  meme  parfois 
des  especes  de  nids  des  spores  d'hiver  (tehutosporae).  Mais  toutes  les 
tentatives  faites  pour  trouver  un  mycelium  dans  le  germe  lui-meme, 
que  ce  fut  dans  le  germe  renferme  encore  dans  la  graine,  ou  dans  le 
germe  sortant  de  la  graine  a  la  germination,  resterent  infructueuses." 

Many  people  have  become  so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  annual 
loss  of  a  certain  amount  of  capital  through  "  rust,"  "  bunt,"  and  "  smut  " 
of  cereals,  that  it  is  looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  course ;  or,  in  other 
words,  such  loss  is  not  realised  at  all ;  and  it  is  only  during  seasons 
when  these  diseases  are  rampant  that  their  presence  is  forced  upon  the 
cultivator,  and  even  then  only  the  amount  of  loss  above  the  usual 
annual  average  is  realised.  The  following  figures,  taken  from  official 
sources,  illustrating  the  amount  of  loss  sustained  during  an  ordinary 
season,  should  be  sufficient  to  explain  why  some  governments  have 
considered  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  aid  in  the  endeavour  to  prevent 
such  enormous  losses. 

"  Oat  smut  ( Ustilago  avenae)  alone  destroys  each  year  in  the  United 
States  over  $18,000,000  worth  of  grain.  The  other  grains,  especially 
wheat,  rye,  and  barley,  also  suffer  severely  from  smut  diseases  ;  the 
amount,  however,  has  not  been  overestimated"  (13). 

In  the  same  country  we  learn  that  "  The  aggregate  loss  from 
'rusts'  (Puccinia  sp.)  is  estimated  to  be  over  $-40,000,000  annually" 
(14). 

The  Prussian  Statistics-Bureau  states  that  the  loss  caused  by 
"  rust "  alone  on  wheat,  rye,  and  oats,  in  Prussia,  during  the  season  of 
1891,  amounted  to  a  little  over  £20,000,000  (15.) 

In  Australia  the  loss  in  the  wheat  harvest  of  1890-91,  due  to 
"rust,"  has  been  estimated  at  £2,500,000. 

Finally  we  learn  that  in  the  United  States,  "  Probably  it  would  not 
be  overstating  the  loss  from  plant  diseases,  as  a  whole  in  this  country, 
to  place  it  at  $150,000,000  to  $200,000,000  annually"  (16). 

The  amount  of  annual  loss  in  Great  Britain  arising  from  plant  and 
animal  pests  is  not  officially  estimated,  but  it  may  safely  be  assumed 
that,  if  half  the  amount  of  loss  could  be  prevented,  farming  and  horti- 
culture would  prove  to  be  remunerative  occupations. 

An  equally  formidable  array  of  figures  could  be  quoted  from 
official  publications  showing  the  actual  gain  derived  by  following  the 
directions  issued  from  experiment  stations. 

The    question  that   naturally  suggests   itself  at  this  point  is   the 


346  GEORGE  MASSEE  [November  1899 

following : — How  is  it  to  be  explained  that  in  countries  where  experi- 
ment stations  are  most  numerous,  and  information  on  every  question 
to  be  obtained  without  delay,  that  the  annual  loss  arising  from  those 
identical  causes  which  it  is  the  avowed  object  of  such  institutions  to 
assist  in  preventing,  is  still  so  great  ?  The  answer  is,  officials  of 
experiment  stations  can  give  valuable  information,  but — except  in  the 
case  of  certain  diseases,  and  then  only  in  limited  areas — cannot  enforce 
the  carrying  out  of  the  necessary  measures  for  their  prevention. 

The  first  and  greatest  difficulty  that  those  who  essay  to  teach 
cultivators  of  the  soil  how  to  avoid  loss  from  the  attacks  of  plant  and 
animal  parasites,  have  to  contend  with  is,  that  of  replacing  prejudice 
by  intelligence ;  and  this  is  perhaps  more  especially  true  of  old 
countries,  where  you  are  confronted  by  statements  showing  how  some- 
body's great-grandfather  made  a  fortune  out  of  farming  without 
having  recourse  to  any  of  the  methods  now  advocated. 

Tact  is  undoubtedly  necessary,  but  actual  demonstration  is  the 
sheet-anchor  of  success ;  consequently,  as  has  bees  realised  in  many 
countries,  experiment  stations  are  indispensable,  where  actual  results 
can  be  seen.  Literature,  as  a  supplementary  factor,  is  of  undoubted 
value,  but  too  much  reliance  should  not  be  placed  on  this  feature 
during  the  initial  stage  of  conversion. 


REFERENCES 

1.  Berkeley,  M.  J.,  Journ.  Hort.  Soc,  vol.  i.   1846,  p.  25. 

2.  Smith,  Worthington  G.,  "Diseases  of  Field  and  Garden  Crops,"  1884,  p.  83. 

3.  Smith,  "Worthington  G. ,  loc  cit.  p.  182. 

4.  Smith,  Worthington  G.,  Gard.  Chronicle,  Jan.  26,  1894,  p.  120. 

5.  Eriksson,  Jakob,  "A  General  Review  of  the  Principal  Results  of  Swedish  Research 

into  Grain  Rust,"  Transl.  in  Bot.  Gaz.  vol.  xxv.  1898,  p.  26. 

6.  Eriksson,  Jakob,  "  Die  Getreideroste,  ihre  Geschichte  und  Natur,  sowie  Massregelea 

gegen  dieselben."     Stockholm,  1896. 

7.  Bolley,  H.  L.,  "Some  Observations  bearing  upon  the  Symbiotic  Mycoplasm  Theory 

of  Grain  Ri#ts,"  Proc.  Amcric  Assoc.  Adv.  Sci.  1898,  p.  408. 

8.  McAlpine,  D.,  Agric.  Gaz.  N.S.  Wales,  vol.  ix.  1898,  p.  1422. 

9.  Massee,  Geo.,  "A  Text-Book  of  Plant  Diseases,"  p.  25,  1899. 

10.  Collenette,  A.,  Journ.  Hort.  Soc,  vol.  xix.  1895,  p.  13. 

11.  Bolley,  H.  L.,  North  Dakota  Station  Bull.,  No.  27. 

12.  Eriksson,  Jakob,  Comptcs  Rcnclus  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1897,  p.  476. 

13.  Y ear-Book  Deft.  Agric,  U.S.A.,  1898,  p.  261. 

14.  Year-Book  Deft.  Agric,  U.S.A.,  1898,  p.  652. 

15.  Zeitschr.  fur  Pfianzenkrankheiten,  1893. 


The  Herbarium, 

Royal  Gardens,  Kew. 


Problem  of  Honevcomb. 

By  Charles  Dawson,  F.G.S.,  and  S.  A.  Woodhead,  B.Sc,  F.C.S. 

The  hexagonal  arrangement  of  the  cells  of  honeycomb  has  been 
generally  ascribed  to  a  structural  instinct  on  the  part  of  the  bees ; 
the  object  of  this  paper  is  now  to  show  that  the  form  of  the  bee- 
cell  is  chiefly  influenced  by  a  "  crystalline  "  hexagonal  formation  due 
to  the  cooling  of  the  wax. 

While  experimenting  with  waxes  and  resins  one  of  us  (Mr. 
Dawson)  noticed  that  on  cooling  the  mixture  had  a  tendency  to 
arrange  itself  in  hexagonal  forms,  from  which  he  surmised  that  the 
outline  of  bee-cells  might  be  primarily  due  to  the  natural  structure 
produced  in  cooling  wax.  At  the  instance  of  Mr.  Woodhead,  who 
also  recognised  the  analytical  importance  of  such  a  discovery,  it  was 
agreed  to  work  out  the  details  together  in  Mr.  Woodhead's  laboratory 
at  the  Agricultural  College,  Uckfield. 

It  was  first  of  all  determined  that  although  the  addition  to  bees- 
wax of  resinous  substances  gave  a  more  pronounced  and  bolder  outline 
to  the  hexagons,  no  such  addition  to  beeswax  was  necessary  for  their 
production. 

If  a  thin  slab  of  beeswax  be  melted  in  a  shallow  tray  (measuring, 
say,  10x8  inches),  which  is  evenly  heated  throughout,  and  is  then 
placed  to  cool  gradually  in  a  warm  atmosphere  without  draught, 
hexagonal  crystalline  forms,  of  the  ordinary  size  of  a  worker-cell  of 
the  hive-bee,  will  be  seen  gradually  forming  at  the  bottom  of  the  dish. 
And  a  similar  line  of  hexagons  will  be  seen  to  form  on  the  surface  of 

O 

the  wax  round  the  sides  of  the  dish  where  the  wax  first  cools.  The 
sides  of  the  hexagons  are  to  be  seen  forming  and  branching  out  in 
advance  of  the  cooling  wax,  and  when  a  portion  of  the  wax  in  the 
centre  of  the  dish  alone  remains  melted,  the  remaining  hexagons  form 
very  rapidly  and  almost  appear  to  flash  out  upon  the  surface. 

The  tray  should  be  exactly  level  and  the  wax  about  1/5  mm. 
thick  and  of  uniform  depth,  and  the  atmosphere  of  even  temperature 
(say  a  few  degrees  below  the  melting-point  of  the  wax),  otherwise  the 
hexagons  will  be  irregular  in  size  and  shape. 

It  is  immaterial  how  thin  the  plate  of  wax  is,  as  the  hexagons  are 

347 


348  C.  DA  WSON  AND  S.  A.   WOODHEAD  [November 

formed  in  any  case,  but  their  size  is  undoubtedly  regulated  by  the 
thickness  of  the  plate  of  wax,  the  rule  being  the  thinner  the  plate 
the  more  minute  the  individual  hexagon.  The  same  result  may  be 
obtained  on  a  much  smaller  scale  so  as  to  produce  only  one  or  two 
hexagonal  forms,  but  the  operator  will  then  find  that  the  difficulty 
lies  in  the  rapid  cooling  at  the  sides  of  so  small  a  mass  of  wax. 

The  explanation  of  the  formation  of  these  hexagonal  bodies  is  as 
follows : — 

On  cooling,  the  wax  at  first  forms  into  nuclei  of  nearly  equal  size. 
On  the  shrinking  of  the  wax  by  further  cooling,  these  nuclei  or 
spheroids  are  pressed  together,  forming  planes  at  their  points  of 
contact.  Should  the  wax  be  rapidly  chilled  before  these  spheroidal 
bodies  are  formed  to  their  full  extent,  they  are  then  prevented  from 
coming  into  contact  one  with  another  by  the  intervening  nebulous 
masses  of  "  uncentralised "  particles  of  wax.  It  would  appear  by 
microscopic  examination  that  these  particles  are'  also  smaller  nuclei 
which  become  absorbed  in  the  larger.  They  also,  like  the  larger, 
assume  hexagonal  form.  In  this  state  the  nuclei  appear  when  cold 
as  solid  circular  bodies. 

The  hexagons  appear  very  distinctly  above  and  below  the  surface 
while  the  wax  is  cooling.  "When  it  is  actually  solid,  their  forms  are 
often  very  indistinctly  seen,  or  may  be  altogether  invisible,  but  they 
are  none  the  less  present.  The  bases  of  these  hexagons,  which  lie 
mid-way  between  those  visible  at  the  top  and  those  at  the  bottom, 
are  pointed  and  are  arranged  so  that  the  point  of  the  base  of  the 
upper  hexagon  coincides  with  the  points  of  contact  of  the  lower 
hexagons  as  in  the  honeycomb.  These  bases  can  be  observed  by 
making  a  very  thin  microscopic  section,  but  several  hundred  sections 
had  to  be  examined  before  they  were  made  out  with  certainty. 

When  a  small  amount  of  resin  and  turpentine  is  added  to  bees- 
wax and  melted,  and  the  mixture  is  allowed  to  get  cold,  the  outlines 
of  the  planes  of  contact  on  the  hexagons  are  more  distinct  and  are 
to  be  seen  raised  upon  the  surface.  Under  these  circumstances  they 
may  be  easily  rubbed  with  black  lead,  which  still  further  increases 
their  visibility. 

Our  chief  experiment  was  next  to  put  our  theory  to  a  practical 
test,  and  observe  in  what  manner  the  bees  would  deal  with  a  cast 
sheet  of  pure  beeswax,  which,  when  viewed  by  a  side  light,  distinctly 
showed  traces  of  these  natural  hexagons  over  its  surface. 

Before  introducing  it  to  the  bees,  we  had  traced  upon  it  with 
vermilion  a  group  of  the  hexagons  which  appeared  near  the  centre  of 
the  plate.  (Another  group  we  black-leaded.)  This  was  then  photo- 
graphed, after  which  the  wax  plate  was  placed  in  an  observatory-hive 
on  a  bar-frame.  The  bees  soon  started  upon  it,  proceeding  to  excavate 
round  hollows  in  the  centres  of  the  hexagons,  at  the  edges  of  the 
plate,  pushing  out  on  all   sides  the  iWbris  around  the   edge   of  each 


1899]  PROBLEM  OF  HONEYCOMB  349 

excavation.  When  they  reached  the  planes  of  contact  of  the  hexagons, 
either  on  feeling  the  minutely  raised  edges  on  the  surface,  or  more 
probably  on  feeling  the  increased  density  of  the  wax,  the  bees  deter- 
mined the  limits  of  their  excavation ;  and  it  was  then  discovered  by 
us  that  the  bases  of  these  hexagons  were  three-sided  in  the  usual 
form  of  a  bee-cell.  There  are  two  reasons  for  the  density  of  the 
wax,  namely,  the  outer  edges  of  the  nebulae  are  composed  of  smaller 
particles  and  are  therefore  more  compact,  also  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  on  the  planes  of  contact  renders  the  sides  of  the  bodies  still  more 
compact.  Meanwhile,  a  similar  process  was  going  on  in  the  cells  which 
lay  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  same  irregular  wavy  line,  but  the 
work  on  one  side  of  the  sheet  was  sometimes  considerably  more 
advanced  than  on  the  other,  the  excavation  being  brought  three  or 
four  more  rows  of  cells  nearer  the  centre  on  one  side  than  on  the 
other. 

Portions  of  the  debris  taken  from  the  centre  of  the  hexagon  were 
now  kneaded  up  by  the  bees  into  a  kind  of  froth,  and  placed  above 
the  lines  of  pressure  or  margins  of  the  hexagons,  the  residue  of  the 
cUbris  being  put  aside  for  future  use. 

The  portions  placed  on  the  margin  of  the  hexagons  speedily 
adhered  and  solidified,  another  layer  was  then  added  by  the  bees,  and 
this  process  was  repeated,  thus  forming  a  series  of  strata  (which  may 
be  noticed  under  a  magnifying  glass  on  the  sides  of  the  complete 
cells) ;  the  bees  planing  and  polishing  the  inner  surfaces  of  the  cell 
upwards  from  the  base,  taking  as  guides  the  planes  and  angles  of  the 
hexagons. 

In  the  places  where  we  had  traced  the  outlines  of  the  hexagons 
in  vermilion,  the  bases  of  the  cells  were  to  be  distinctly  seen  formed 
upon  the  vermilion  outlines.1  Similar  experiments  have  been 
repeatedly  tried  with  the  same  results. 

In  places  where  the  wax  plate  had  been  of  uneven  depth,  or  had 
cooled  too  rapidly,  the  comb  presented  an  irregular  appearance  follow- 
ing in  form  the  irregular  "  crystalline  "  bases  beneath,  the  result  being 
very  distinctive  and  striking  to  the  practised  eye  of  an  apiarist. 

When  in  a  natural  state,  the  newly  secreted  wax  is  formed  into  a 
small  pendent  plate,  it  is  probable  that  the  bees  crowding  around 
produce  the  required  amount  of  heat  to  soften  or  to  keep  soft  the 
newly  deposited  wax,  and  allow  it  to  cool  very  gradually  when  a  few 
"  crystalline  "  bodies  form  within  the  plate,  and  these  must  be  soon 
afterwards  hollowed  out  and  built  upon.  The  same  process  takes 
place  repeatedly  against  the  sides  of  newly  formed  hexagons  until  the 
comb  is  large  enough  to  suit  the  requirements  of  the  bee ;  the  sizes  of 
the  cells  being  partly  influenced  and  regulated  as  above  stated  by  the 
rapidity  or  otherwise  of  the  process  of  cooling  of  the  wax,  and  so 

1  A  plate  of  wax  formed  by  compression,  and  in  which  no  hexagons  had  formed,  was 
inserted  in  the  hive — this  the  bees  gnawed  to  pieces  and  (?)  utilised  elsewhere. 


35©  C.  DAWSON  AND  S.  A.   WOOD  HE  AD  [nov.  1899 

indirectly,  as  previously  mentioned,  by  the  thickness  of  the  cooling 
mass.  The  size  of  the  hexagons  may  be  varied  experimentally  from 
those  of  nearly  an  inch  across  to  others  of  microscopic  dimensions. 

At  the  time  of  writing  this  paper,  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in 
casting  a  large  sheet  of  wax  containing  groups  or  rows  of  hexagons  so 
perfectly  regular  as  those  which  are  to  be  seen  in  a  natural  comb,  or 
in  a  comb  built  upon  the  ordinary  manufactured  comb-foundation. 
We  do  not  pretend,  even  after  many  experiments,  to  be  able  to  cast 
a  foundation  of  hexagons  with  the  same  comparative  exactitude  as 
those  made  by  a  bee.  Although  we  have  little  doubt  that  we  may 
soon  be  able  to  do  so,  we  cannot  expect,  in  a  few  limited  experiments, 
to  compete  with  the  bee,  whose  seeming  aptitude  is  probably  the 
outcome  of  ages  of  natural  selection  and  adaptation.  Yet  the  bees 
still  prefer  to  adopt  our  less  regular  groups  or  rows  of  hexagons  as 
bases  to  work  upon,  rather  than  pull  our  wax  plate  to  pieces,  so  as  to 
recast  the  wax  with  greater  regularity. 

A  further  outcome  of  our  discoveries  is  that  paraffin  wax  and 
adulterated  beeswax  do  not  assume  the  same  "  crystalline "  form  as 
pure  beeswax. 

We  have  succeeded  in  producing  a  variety  of  characteristic  forms 
of  these  "  crystalline  "  bodies  by  the  treatment  of  certain  waxes  with 
other  fats,  oils,  or  waxes.  The  analytical  value  of  these  experiments 
we  may  hope  to  prove  to  be  very  great,  both  directly  and  indirectly, 
and  to  open  up  an  immense  field  of  crystallography  in  its  relation  to 
oils,  fats,  and  waxes. 

It  has  also  naturally  occurred  to  our  minds  that  the  formation  of 
certain  intricate  structures  by  other  insects  may  be  also  more  or  less 
directly  due  to  crystalline  and  pseudo-crystalline  formations. 

Uckfield,  Sussex. 


The  Supposed  Existing  Ground-Sloth 
of  Patagonia. 

By  A.  Smith  Woodward. 

Much  interest  was  aroused  a  year  ago  by  Dr.  Ameghino's  announce- 
ment in  Natural  Science  of  the  discovery  of  a  piece  of  skin  of  a  ground- 
sloth  in  Patagonia.1  He  supposed  the  specimen  to  belong  to  a  small 
surviving  representative  of  the  gigantic  extinct  ground-sloths  which 
were  so  abundant  in  the  Pleistocene  period  in  South  America,  and 
were  known  to  have  existed  at  least  until  the  appearance  of  man  in 
that  country.  Dr.  Ameghino  thought  that  this  piece  of  skin  might 
have  belonged  to  a  mysterious  animal  which  had  been  described  to 
him  by  the  traveller  Ptamon  Lista,  so  he  named  the  new  creature 
Neomylodon  listai.  With  admirable  conciseness  he  pointed  out  the 
main  features  of  the  skin — how  it  was  completely  covered  with  long 
dense  hair,  while  being  at  the  same  time  armoured  by  a  close  pave- 
ment of  small  nodules  of  bone  embedded  in  the  lower  layer.  He  also 
quite  correctly  recognised  that  the  bony  armour  was  most  closely 
paralleled  by  that  dug  up  with  the  skeleton  of  the  great  extinct 
Mylodon  in  the  Pampa  formation  in  various  parts  of  the  Argentine 
Republic. 

More  precise  details  of  this  discovery  were  subsequently  published 
by  Dr.  Moreno,  Director  of  the  La  Plata  Museum,  and  by  Dr.  Otto 
Nordenskjold  of  Upsala ;  wrhile  a  technical  description  of  the  skin 
itself  was  prepared  by  Dr.  Einar  Lonnberg  and  myself.2  These  addi- 
tional communications  showed  that  the  specimen  in  question  was  dug 
up  in  the  dust  of  the  floor  of  a  large  cavern  near  Last  Hope  Inlet. 
They  also  seemed  to  prove  that  Neomylodon  listai  must  have  been  at 
least  as  large  as  the  well-known  Mylodon — that  is,  not  less  in  bulk 
than  a  rhinoceros.  Notwithstanding  the  fresh  aspect  of  the  piece  of 
skin,  it  thus  appeared  extremely  improbable  that  the  animal  was  still 
living,  and  had  escaped  the  notice  both  of  the  natives  and  of  explorers. 
Dr.  Moreno,  indeed,  maintained  that  it  was  quite  extinct,  and  dated 
back  to  a  time  when  a  former  race  of  men,  unknown  even  to  the 
present  Tehuelches,  inhabited  the  southern  extremity  of  the  South 
American  continent. 

1  F.  Ameghino,  "An  Existing  Ground-Sloth  in  Patagonia,"  Natural  Science,  vol.  xiii. 
p.  324  (Nov.  1898). 

a  See  Natural  Science,  vol.  xiv.  p.  265  (April  1899). 

351 


352  A.   SMITH  WOODWARD  [November 

The  Director  of  the  La  Plata  Museum,  with  the  characteristic 
energy  which  has  established  the  fame  of  that  great  seat  of  learning, 
determined  that  no  time  must  be  lost  in  solving  the  problem  of 
Neomylodon,  so  far  as  careful  explorations  could  accomplish  it.  Dr. 
Eudolph  Hauthal  was  accordingly  deputed  last  April  to  undertake 
further  diggings  in  the  "  Cueva  Eberhardt,"  as  the  now  celebrated 
cavern  is  named,  and  the  results,  just  published,  prove  to  be  of  the 
deepest  interest.1  These  further  discoveries  include  nearly  all  the 
important  parts  of  the  skeleton  of  the  animal,  evidently  broken  by 
man  and  clearly  associated  with  relics  of  man  himself. 

It  now  appears  that  the  remains  of  the  so-called  Neomylodon  are 
not  found  at  the  exposed  entrance  of  the  cavern,  which  is  of  very  large 
proportions  (30  metres  high),  but  occur  only  in  an  inner  chamber 
which  has  every  appearance  of  having  been  artificially  constructed  by 
cross-barriers.  At  a  short  distance  from  the  entrance  there  is  a  rude 
wall  of  tumbled  blocks  extending  the  whole  way  across,  except  a 
narrow  gangway  left  at  one  side.  On  passing  through  this  the  great 
chamber  just  mentioned  is  reached,  and  another  wall-like  barrier  50 
metres  further  inwards  extends  completely  across  the  cave  from  side 
to  side,  preventing  any  ingress  except  by  scrambling.  In  the  middle 
of  the  chamber  there  is  an  artificial  mound.  The  floor  proved  to  be 
covered  with  a  layer  of  dust  and  stones,  varying  from  30  centimetres 
to  a  metre  in  thickness.  In  it  at  one  spot  were  found  numerous  shells 
of  mussels  mingled  with  the  broken  bones  of  guanaco  and  deer — evi- 
dently the  remains  of  the  food  of  man.  Beneath  the  surface  layer 
near  the  inner  barrier  was  discovered  a  great  mass  of  excrement  of  a 
herbivorous  animal,  in  some  places  more  than  a  metre  in  depth.  Most 
of  the  material  was  in  the  form  of  impalpable  dust,  which  almost 
choked  the  workmen ;  but  a  few  large  lumps  were  in  a  good  state  of 
preservation,  and  rivalled  the  droppings  of  the  elephant  in  size.  Part 
of  the  heap  showed  clear  indications  of  having  been  burned.  Nearer 
the  middle  of  the  chamber  was  dug  up  a  considerable  accumulation  of 
dry  cut  hay  in  a  good  state  of  preservation.  In  the  lower  layer — in 
the  excrement,  the  hay,  and  the  surrounding  rubbish — were  found 
numerous  broken  bones  of  the  so-called  Neomylodon,  belonging  to 
several  individuals,  both  old  and  young,  with  another  well-preserved 
piece  of  skin.  There  was  also  evidence  of  an  extinct  horse,  and  a 
large  unknown  carnivorous  animal ;  while  a  human  skeleton  had 
previously  (in  1895)  been  taken  out  of  a  niche  in  the  wall  of  the 
chamber. 

Summarising  the  results  of  his  work,  Dr.  Hauthal  specially  empha- 
sises the  following  facts  : — 

"  1.   That   the    deposit   of   excrement  was    confined   to   the   space 

1  R.  Hauthal,  S.  Roth,  and  R.  Lehmann-Nitsche,  "El  Mamifero  Misterioso  de  la  Pata- 
gonia, 'Grypotheriumdomesticum,'  "  Revista  del  Musco  de  La  Plata,  vol.  ix.  p.  409,  with 
five  plates  (Aug.  1899). 


1899]  THE  GROUND-SLOTH  OF  PATAGONIA  353 

between  the  inner  barrier  and  a  mound — a  space  which  could  easily 
be  shut  off. 

"  2.  That  at  the  foot  of  the  mound  inside,  but  a  little  behind  the 
excrement,  there  was  found  a  considerable  quantity  of  cut  hay  beneath 
the  same  layer  of  earth  and  stones  which  covered  the  excrement ;  while 
this  hay  could  only  have  been  placed  in  this  situation  by  man. 

"  3.  That  the  aspect  of  the  layer  of  excrement  indicates  the  exist- 
ence of  a  stable,  exactly  as  if  it  had  been  an  old  corral." 

He  thus  concludes  "  that  the  men  who  lived  there  ages  ago  were 
accustomed  to  stable  their  domestic  animals  in  this  part  of  the  cavern, 
reserving  the  rest  for  their  own  dwelling-place." 

This  extraordinary  idea  leads  us  to  turn  with  expectant  interest  to 
the  fragmentary  remains  of  the  so-called  Neomylodon  ;  for  if  the  beast 
was  a  gigantic  ground-sloth,  it  is  inconceivable  that  so  unwieldy  a 
monster  can  have  been  of  any  use  to  man  as  a  domestic  animal  or 
of  any  value  to  him  except  as  food.  The  descriptions  and  figures 
published  by  Dr.  Santiago  Both  leave  no  doubt  whatever  that  the 
quadruped  in  question  was  a  gigantic  ground-sloth ;  and  the  so-called 
Neomylodon  is  clearly  proved  to  be  identical  with  a  Mylodon -like 
auimal,  already  well  known  by  the  skull  from  the  Pampa  Formation 
of  Argentina,  described  under  the  names  of  Glossotherimn  (Owen,  1840) 
and  Grypothcrium  (Bernhardt,  1879).  It  is,  in  fact,  a  Mylodon  with 
a  very  long  head  and  laterally-placed  nostrils.  The  species  from  Cueva 
Eberhardt  is  probably  distinct  from  the  Glossotherium  (or  Grypotherium) 
darwini,  and  will  thus  be  known  for  the  future  as  Glossotherimn  listai. 
After  a  ridiculous  line  of  argument,  which  one  would  hardly  expect  to 
find  in  a  scientific  treatise,  Dr.  Both  proposes  to  change  the  specific 
name ;  but  this  point  needs  no  discussion. 

By  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Moreno,  the  actual  skull  discovered  by 
Dr.  Hauthal  and  some  pieces  of  the  excrement  were  exhibited  to  the 
British  Association  at  Dover ;  and  the  specimens  will  be  further  dis- 
cussed at  a  forthcoming  meeting  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London. 
The  animal  must  have  been  killed  by  man,  for  the  cranium  is  battered 
on  the  top  in  three  places.  The  blows  themselves  would  probably 
merely  stun  the  creature,  for  the  air-chambers  above  the  brain-case  are 
too  extensive  to  permit  injury  of  the  brain  from  above ;  but  the  men 
clearly  had  knives  or  sharp  instruments  of  some  kind,  for  there  are 
distinct  clean  cuts  on  the  remains.  Pieces  of  periosteum,  cartilage, 
ligaments  and  dried  muscle  still  adhere  to  the  bones.  The  specimens 
have  a  peculiar  odour,  and  three  of  them  exhibit  no  indications  what- 
ever of  having  been  buried.  Presumably  these  were  dug  out  of  the 
hay.  They  are,  indeed,  so  fresh,  that  if  the  discoverers  had  reported 
that  the  animal  had  been  killed  shortly  before  the  bones  were  packed 
up,  the  evidence  of  the  specimens  themselves  would  not  have  sufficed 
to  contradict  the  story. 

The  excrement  of  the  animal  is  of  great  interest,  and  was  examined 


354 


A.  SMITH  WOOD  WARD  [nov.  1899 


by  Mr.  Spencer  Moore  in  view  of  the  British  Association  meeting. 
He  reports  that  it  "  consists  in  large  part  apparently  of  grasses,  as  the 
haulms,  leaf -sheaths,  fragments  of  leaves,  etc.,  of  these  plants  are 
frequent  in  it.  A  spikelet,  almost  entire,  of  what  seems  to  be  a 
species  of  Poa,  and  the  flowering  glume  of  another  grass,  probably 
Avenaceous,  have  also  been  found.  Besides  these  there  is  at  least  one 
dicotyledonous  plant,  almost  certainly  a  herb,  with  a  slender  greatly 
sclerotised  stem ;  though,  as  no  attached  leaves  have  so  far  been 
observed,  its  affinity  is  altogether  doubtful."  Mr.  Moore  also  observes 
that  there  are  numerous  siliceous  particles  in  the  excrement,  and 
several  pieces  of  the  underground  parts  of  the  plants,  as  if  they  had 
been  pulled  out  of  the  ground.  At  the  same  time,  he  finds  a  few 
pieces  which  have  been  sharply  cut  in  a  way  which  the  blunt  teeth 
of  Glossotherium  (Neomylodon)  could  scarcely  act.  Since  Owen's  well- 
known  and  beautiful  memoirs  on  Megatherium  and  Mylodon,  it  has 
always  been  supposed  that  the  gigantic  extinct  ground-sloths  fed  on 
twigs  and  the  leaves  of  trees.  If  his  conclusions  are  well-founded,  as 
seems  almost  beyond  dispute,  Glossotherium  must  either  have  been  an 
exception  to  the  rule  owing  to  local  circumstances,  or  it  must  have 
been  doomed  to  an  artificial  mode  of  life  by  man  who  fed  it.  The 
authors  of  the  memoir  published  by  the  La  Plata  Museum  are  all  iu 
favour  of  the  latter  view;  and  Dr.  Lehmann-Nitsche  even  suggests 
that  the  famous  cracked  and  repaired  skull  of  Mylodon  in  the  Eoyal 
College  of  Surgeons,  immortalised  by  Owen,  was  not  accidentally 
damaged  by  a  falling  tree,  but  bears  the  mark  of  an  encounter  with 
man  in  which  the  animal  escaped.  He  mentions  five  similarly  fractured 
skulls  in  the  La  Plata  Museum. 

Personally,  we  find  it  as  difficult  to  believe  that  Glossotherium  was 
a  domesticated  animal  among  the  ancient  Patagonians,  as  that  it  still 
lives  in  the  wilds  of  the  southern  land  where  its  remains  are  found. 
Dr.  Hauthal's  splendid  discoveries  only  have  the  effect  of  making  us 
eager  for  more.  Mr.  Graham  Kerr's  interesting  speech  at  the  British 
Association,  expressing  the  opinion  of  one  who  has  considerable  ex- 
perience of  the  South  American  Indian  tribes,  leaves  little  hope  that 
huntsmen  will  ever  find  the  beast.  The  Indians,  in  his  opinion,  are 
too  keen  field -naturalists  to  have  escaped  noticing  the  animal  if  it 
lives  in  their  country.  They  know  every  track  and  trail.  The 
impalpable  character  of  the  dust  in  the  cave  alone  suggests  intense 
dryness,  and  strongly  confirms  Dr.  Moreno's  idea  that  all  the  remains 
in  Cueva  Eberhardt  are  of  great  antiquity,  notwithstanding  their  fresh 
aspect.  More  cave  exploration  in  southern  Patagonia  is  therefore 
urgently  to  be  desired. 

British  Museum 

(Natural  History  Department), 
London,  S.W. 


Iuj   LI8RARY    ^ 

FRESH    FACTS. 


A  Strange  Tail.  Gustav  Tornier.  "  Ein  Eidechsenschwanz  mit  Saug- 
scheibe,"  Biol.  Centralbl.  xix.  1899,  pp.  549-552,  3  figs.  The  end  of  the 
tail  of  the  lizard  Lygodactylus  pictitratus  is  unique.  It  bears  twenty  attaching 
plaits  in  two  rows,  which  form  an  effective  sucker  on  the  vacuum  principle. 
The  fingers  and  toes  bear  similar  plaits,  but  each  has  only  half  as  many  plaits 
as  the  tail.  The  strange  tail  is  an  adaptation  for  clambering  on  the  smooth 
surfaces  of  bananas  and  candelabra  Euphorbias. 

Fauna  of  Frog  Spawn.  Carl  Thon.  "  Einige  Beobachtungen  fiber 
die  Fauna,  welche  sich  im  Froschlaich  aufhalt,"  Verh.  Zool.  Bot.  Ges.  Wien,  xlix. 
1899,  pp.  391-393.  In  ponds  from  two  different  localities  in  Bohemia,  Thon 
found  that  the  spawn  of  Rana  fusca  and  R.  esculenta  had  associated  with  it  an 
almost  identical  set  of  small  animals.  A  few  days  after  hatching,  small 
Dyticidae,  e.g.,  Hydroporus,  made  their  appearance,  but  were  not  seen  to  injure 
the  eggs ;  then  water-mites,  e.g.,  Eylais  setosa  ;  then  Entomostraca,  e.g.,  species 
of  Cyclops,  Chydorus,  and  Cypris,  some  of  which  helped  to  loosen  the  jelly. 
After  hatching,  many  insect  larvae  appeared,  e.g.,  of  Clo'eon  dipterum,  Geratopjogon, 
Ghironomus,  Perla,  Limnophilus,  some  of  which  devoured  the  young  tadpoles 
greedily.  Below  the  spawn  lay  Asellus  aquaticus  back  downwards ;  nymphs 
of  Curvipes,  etc.,  were  also  abundant.  Among  the  tadpoles,  but  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable because  of  their  dark  colour,  were  individuals  of  Polycelis  nigra. 
After  the  empty  spheres  sank  to  the  bottom,  some  encysted  Vorticellids,  many 
monads  and  diatoms,  some  statoblasts  and  ephippia  were  found  amongst  the 
jelly,  but  no  infusorians  or  rotifers.  Some  of  the  associates  loosen  the  jelly, 
others  effect  its  further  dissolution ;  others,  again,  make  war  with  the  tadpoles, 
but  the  protective  value  of  the  jelly  is  corroborated. 

Branchial  Respiration  in  Millipedes.  M.  Causard.  "  Sur  la  respira- 
tion branchiate  chez  les  Diplopodes,"  Gomptes  Rendtis  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  cxxix. 
1899,  pp.  237-239.  The  observer  found  Brachydesmus  superus  in  a  brook 
under  submerged  stones,  and  was  interested  to  notice  that  it  evaginated  two 
transparent  ampullae  from  the  rectum.  He  put  Polydesmus  gallicus  in  water, 
and  observed  the  same  phenomenon,  and  he  succeeded  again  with  a  species  of 
lulus,  so  that  the  occurrence  is  probably  not  infrequent.  The  ampullae  are 
formed  from  a  protrusible  rectal  pouch,  hitherto  unobserved,  and  as  they  show 
tracheae  and  blood-currents,  Causard  does  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  a  branchial 
respiration. 

A  Reducing  Ferment  in  the  Animal  Organism.  E.  Abelous  and  E. 
Gerard.  "  Sur  la  presence,  clans  l'organisme  animal,  d'  un  ferment  soluble 
reducteur.  Pouvoir  reducteur  des  extraits  d'organes,"  Co?uptes  Rendus  Acad. 
Sci.  Paris,  cxxix.  1899,  pp.  164-166.  In  extract  of  horse's  kidney  a  soluble 
ferment  was  found  which  reduced  potassium  and  ammonium  nitrates,  de- 
colorised methylene  blue,  and  seemed  to  form  butyric  aldehyde  from  butyric  acid. 

Breeding  Habits  of  a  Tree-Frog.  J.  S.  Budgett.  "Notes  on  the 
Batrachians  of  the  Paraguayan  Chaco,  with  observations  upon  their  breeding 
habits  and  development,  especially  with  regard  to  Phyllomedusa  hypochondrialis, 
Cope;  also  a  description  of  a  new  genus,"  Qtcart.  Journ.  2Iicr.  Sci.  xlii.  1899, 
pp.  305-333,  5  pis.  .The  author  observed  a  female  of  Phyllomedusa  hypo- 
chondrialis, with  a  male  upon  her  back,  wandering  about  in  search  of  a  leaf 
whereon  to  lay  her  eggs.     "  At  last  the  female,  climbing  up  the  stem  of  a  plant 

355 


356  FRESH  FACTS  [November  1899 

near  the  water's  edge,  reached  out  and  caught  hold  of  the  tip  of  an  overhanging 
leaf,  and  climbed  into  it.  With  their  hind  legs  both  male  and  female  held  the 
edges  of  the  leaf,  near  the  tip,  together,  while  the  female  poured  her  eggs  into 
the  funnel,  the  male  fertilising  them  as  they  passed.  The  jelly  in  which  the 
eggs  were  laid  was  of  sufficient  firmness  to  hold  the  edges  of  the  leaf  together. 
Then  moving  up  a  little  further  more  eggs  were  laid  in  the  same  manner,  the 
edges  of  the  leaf  being  sealed  together  by  the  hind  legs,  and  so  on  up  the  leaf 
until  it  was  full.  As  a  rule  two  briar  leaves  were  filled  in  this  way,  each 
containing  about  100  eggs."  Even  more  interesting,  however,  is  the  subsequent 
development. 

How  Copepods  Swim!  E.  W.  Macbride.  "The  movements  of  Cope- 
poda,"  Q%iart.  Journ.  Micr.  Sci.  xlii.  1899,  pp.  505-507.  In  the  freshwater 
Cyclojts  the  first  antennae  assist  in  the  slow  movements,  and  the  belief  is 
general  that  copepods  propel  themselves  by  their  first  pair  of  appendages. 
Prof.  Macbride  observed  at  Plymouth  that  the  slow  gliding  movements  of 
marine  copepods  are  effected  principally  by  the  second  antennae,  the  gnathites 
likewise  assisting,  notably  the  second  maxillae.  The  cniick  movements,?  on  the 
other  hand,  are  effected  entirely  by  the  simultaneous  action  of  the  thoracic 
feet. 

Clamps  in  Animals.  Otto  Thilo.  "  Sperrvorrichtungen  im  Tierreiche," 
Biol.  Centralbl.  xix.  1899,  pp.  504-517,  13  figs.  Dr.  Thilo  points  out  that  one 
must  serve  some  apprenticeship  in  engineering  before  one  understands  the 
animal  body,  and  his  ingenious  essay  bears  this  out.  He  leads  us  from  the 
valves  of  the  heart  to  the  device  which  keeps  the  globe-fish's  self -inflation 
from  collapsing,  but  he  is  at  his  best  in  expounding  clamps  for  rigid  structures. 
From  the  clamp  of  the  spine  of  Monacanthus  (a  fish  from  the  Red  Sea  coral- 
reefs),  we  pass  to  more  complex  cases  in  Triacanthus  and  the  stickleback,  and 
the  leverage-system  which  works  the  snake's  fang  is  not  forgotten.  It  is  an 
essay  for  a  dull  afternoon,  so  ingenious  is  it ;  but  it  is  with  some  misgivings 
that  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  in  addition  to  mathematics  and  meteorology, 
statistics  and  spectroscopy,  psychology  and  philosophy,  and  much  more,  the 
complete  naturalist  must  also  learn  engineering. 

Variations  in  Jellyfish.  E.  Ballowitz.  "  Ueber  Hypomerie  und 
Hypennerie  bei  Aurelia  aurita,  Lam.,"  Arch.  Entivickelungsmechanik,  viii.  1899, 
pp.  239-253,  1  pi.  This  common  jellyfish  seems  to  be  an  animal  well  deserving 
the  attention  of  those  who  follow  the  modern  statistical  method  of  the  study 
of  variations.  It  is  normally  a  tetra-partite  creature,  but  sex-partite,  pent- 
partite,  and,  more  rarely,  tri-partite  forms  may  be  found  thrown  up  on  the 
beach.  Sometimes  the  variation  is  very  consistent  throughout ;  thus  a  tri- 
partite individual  had  a  three  -  cornered  mouth,  three  genital  pockets,  six 
marginal  bodies,  etc. ;  but,  often,  there  is  less  uniformity  and  transitional  forms 
occur.  Some  of  the  variations  may  be  traceable  to  the  Ephyra-stage,  but  most, 
according  to  Ballowitz,  must  have  an  earlier  origin.  Here  is  evidently  a  case 
for  experiment  to  assist  observation. 

Digestion  in  Fishes.  Emile  Yung.  "  Recherches  sur  la  digestion  des 
poissons  (Histologic  et  physiologie  de  l'intestin  "),  Arch.  zool.  exper.  vii.  1899, 
pp.  121-201,  1  pi.  Prof.  Yung  has  made  many  histological  observations  and 
physiological  experiments  in  regard  to  digestion  in  fishes,  and  has  removed 
some  of  the  prevalent  vagueness.  The  formation  of  pepsin  seems  rigidly  con- 
fined to  the  stomach-sac  and  to  a  particular  region  of  it. 

The  Problem  of  Equilibration.  Th.  Beer.  "  Vergleichend  -  physio- 
logische  Studien  zur  Statocystenfunction.  ii.  Versuche  an  Crustaceen  (Penaeus 
membranaceus)"  Pfliiger's  Arch.  f.  Physiol,  lxxiv.  1899,  pp.  364-382.  When 
the  statocysts  of  Penaeus  are  extirpated,  the  animal  can  no  longer  keep  its 
balance  in  swimming ;  it  falls  to  one  side  or  to  the  bottom. 


SOME  NEW  BOOKS. 


SCHARFFS   EUROPEAN   FAUNA. 

The  History  of  the  European  Fauna.  By  R.  F.  Schakff.  Contemporary 
Science  Series,  1899.  Pp.  vii.  +  364,  Illustrated.  London:  Walter 
Scott,  Ltd.     Price  6  s. 

For  many  years  Dr.  Scharff,  of  the  Dublin  Museum,  has  been  turning  his 
attention  to  the  important  question  of  the  origin  and  relations  of  the  existing 
fauna  of  Europe.  And  the  present  volume,  which  includes  the  substance  of  a 
paper  previously  published,  embodies  the  results  of  his  investigations  so  far  as 
they  have  been  hitherto  carried.  Whatever  may  be  the  precise  value  of  such 
results  and  conclusions,  it  may  be  unhesitatingly  conceded  that  it  is  a  great 
convenience  to  workers  to  have  them  in  the  form  in  which  they  are  now 
presented.  One  great  and  praiseworthy  characteristic  of  Dr.  Scharff's  work  is 
to  be  found  in  the  thorough  manner  in  which  he  has  looked  up  and  quoted 
previous  observers  on  the  subject ;  and,  if  for  no  other  reason,  the  little  volume 
before  us  will  always  have  a  very  considerable  value  on  account  of  the  views 
and  opinions  of  a  host  of  specialists  which  are  brought  together  and  contrasted 
and  correlated.  Moreover,  the  author  has  drawn  his  conclusions  from  almost 
all  groups  of  animals,  although  admitting  that  the  evidence  derived  from  certain 
of  these  groups  is  entitled  to  much  more  weight  than  that  afforded  by  others. 
In  regard,  then,  to  the  perseverence  and  energy  which  he  has  brought  to  bear 
on  a  very  difficult  task,  Dr.  Scharff  is  clearly  entitled  to  our  best  congratulations. 

But  whether  he  has  succeeded  in  establishing  the  views  he  holds  in  such  a 
manner  as  will  lead  to  their  general  acceptance,  is  quite  another  matter. 

As  the  author  correctly  points  out,  the  fauna  of  Europe,  as  a  whole,  is  a 
complex,  including  a  mingling  of  essentially  Arctic  types  with  those  of  a 
Lusitanian  or  Mediterranean  origin,  as  well  as  those  characteristics  of  the  heart 
of  the  area  itself.  Moreover,  Dr.  Scharff  likewise  accepts  the  view  that  a 
Siberian,  or  north-east  Asiatic,  element  has  been  introduced  into  the  fauna. 
With  all  these  we  are  prepared  to  agree ;  but  we  venture  to  think  that  the 
author  is  much  too  fond  of  drawing  wide-reaching  conclusions  from  a  very 
small  amount  of  fact.  Especially  is  this  the  case  with  regard  to  the  "migra- 
tions "  of  which  he  is  so  constantly  speaking.  As  an  instance  of  what  we  mean, 
we  may  refer  to  the  common  hare  and  the  wild  boar,  both  of  which  are  regarded 
as  "  Oriental  immigrants  "  into  Europe.  Now,  without  venturing  to  deny  that 
the  author  may  be  right  in  this  contention,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he 
has  not  adduced  any  evidence  which  is  entitled  to  a  moment's  consideration  in 
favour  of  such  a  view. 

But  in  other  instances  it  is  not  want  of  evidence  that  we  have  to  deplore, 
but  an  actual  misapprehension  of  the  facts.  The  most  glaring  case  of  this  is 
afforded  by  the  inductions  drawn  from  the  reindeer  of  Europe.  Here  it  is 
stated  that  two  types  of  reindeer  occur  fossil  in  Europe,  one  of  which,  together 

24 — NAT.  sc. — vol.  xv.  no.  93.  357 


35§  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [November 

with  the  existing  Scandinavian  animal,  is  regarded  as  practically  identical  with 
the  barren-ground  reindeer  of  Arctic  America,  while  the  other  is  considered 
inseparable  from  the  woodland  reindeer  of  North  America,  The  former  of 
these,  it  is  said,  is  found  only  in  the  extreme  west  of  Europe,  while  the  latter 
occurs  in  Central  and  Eastern  Europe  and  Asia.  And  on  this  evidence  it  is 
argued  that  the  barren-ground  reindeer  entered  Europe  by  a  land  connection 
vid  Greenland  and  Iceland ;  while  the  woodland  form  made  its  way  via  Bering 
Strait. 

At  the  conclusion  of  a  very  long  argument  he  notices  (p.  157)  that  a  recent 
writer  has  denied  the  identity  of  the  Scandinavian  and  the  barren-ground 
reindeer,  and  then  he  proceeds  to  remark  that  "the  whole  subject  is  by  no 
means  as  well  known  as  could  be  wished,  and  a  very  careful  comparative  study 
of  recent  and  fossil  remains  of  the  reindeer  from  various  parts  of  the  Old  and 
New  World,  is  much  needed  to  put  our  views  on  a  firmer  basis." 

This  paragraph,  coming  after  the  conclusions  definitely  drawn  as  to  the 
Greenland  and  Bering  Sea  routes,  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  so  long  as  Dr. 
ScharfFs  views  of  the  relations  of  the  Old  and  New  World  reindeer  are  followed, 
everything  is  settled,  but  if  anyone  else  ventures  to  take  a  different  view,  then 
the  whole  matter  requires  investigation  (with  the  object,  we  presume,  of 
re-establishing  the  Scharffian  interpretation). 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Scandinavian  reindeer,  as  all  American  naturalists 
are  agreed,  is  a  perfectly  distinct  animal  from  the  barren-ground  form ;  the 
only  difference  of  opinion  being  as  to  whether  they  should  be  regarded  as 
species  or  races.  If  Dr.  Scharff  is  right  in  considering  that  there  were  two 
types  of  reindeer  in  Europe,  their  distribution  may  be  perfectly  well  explained 
by  assuming  that  the  western  or  Scandinavian  form  wandered  from  Scandi- 
navia by  a  land  connection  between  that  country  and  Scotland,  and  so  on  to 
Ireland,  at  a  time  when  England  was  detached  from  Scotland  and  joined  to  the 
Continent.  On  the  other  hand,  the  second  form  might  have  spread  over  the 
whole  of  central  and  eastern  Europe,  and  thus  through  Asia  to  America.  There 
are  no  grounds,  however,  for  deciding  whether  the  Old  or  the  New  World  is  the 
original  home  of  reindeer. 

The  author  further  assumes  that  the  Irish  stoat  accompanied  the  so-called 
barren-ground  reindeer  into  Europe  by  the  Greenland  route ;  while  the  English 
stoat  arrived  from  Asia.  The  former  can,  however,  scarcely  be  regarded  as  any- 
thing more  than  a  race  of  the  common  stoat  which  has  been  isolated  for  a  longer 
period  than  has  its  English  representative.  Consequently,  although,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  plant  evidence,  there  may  have  been  means  of  communication  at 
an  earlier  date,  we  fail  to  see  any  evidence  for  a  land  connection  between  North 
America  and  Europe  by  way  of  Greenland  at  the  time  when  reindeer  flourished 
in  our  own  country, — that  is  to  say,  during,  or  just  previous  to  the  human 
period.  Without  any  intention  of  rudeness,  we  may  indeed  suggest  that  writers 
should  use  common  sense  in  matters  of  this  sort ;  for  the  conclusions  referred 
to  are,  in  our  opinion,  sadly  wanting  in  that  very  useful  commodity. 

Many  other  cases  might  be  criticised,  but  the  above  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  all  the  author's  conclusions  are  not  to  be  taken  as  gospel. 

In  reading  the  book  we  have  been  much  irritated  by  the  author's  fondness 
for  repetition.  For  instance,  Dr.  Bonney  is  quoted  no  less  than  three  times  in 
support  of  the  view  that  the  boulder-clay  may  be  a  marine  deposit ;  on  pages 
83  and  229  the  very  same  passage  is  quoted  at  length  twice  over,  while  on  page 
180  it  is  paraphrased.  As  another  example,  we  are  thrice  told  (pp.  79,  185, 
239)  that  Arctic  and  Alpine  plants  have  to  be  protected  in  winter  on  the  low- 
lands of  Britain  and  the  Continent.  Moreover,  in  several  places,  there  is,  in  our 
judgment,  a  want  of  clearness  of  expression  in  more  than  one  passage.  And 
there  are  not  wanting  instances  of  carelessness,  as  for  instance,  barbarus  in  lieu 
of  barbatus  on  page  46.  Then,  again,  we  have  always  been  under  the  impression 
that  the  genus  Agama  is  the  type  of  a  family,  and  that  it  has  no  claim  to 


1899]  SCHARFF'S  EUROPEAN  FAUNA  359 

be  regarded  as  a  member  of  the  Iguanidae  (p.  193).  Neither  are  we  aware 
what  animal  is  meant  by  the  "Siberian  Red  Deer"  (p.  2-19);  but  then  (p. 
248)  the  author  does  not  appear  to  be  aware  of  the  essential  distinction 
between  a  Red  Deer  and  a  Wapiti  ! 

Should  a  second  edition  of  what  is  in  many  respects  a  very  interesting  work 
be  called  for,  we  venture  to  hope  that  the  author  will  modify  some  of  his  con- 
clusions in  regard  to  migration  and  former  land  connections,  which  appear  to 
us  to  set  probability  at  defiance. 

AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA 

Year-Book  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,    1898.      8vo, 
pp.  76S.     Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1899. 

"  The  American  Agricultural  Year-Book  "  for  the  past  year  fully  maintains 
the  high  reputation  which  the  Department  has  justly  earned  by  previous 
volumes  of  this  publication.  It  is  divided  into  three  parts — (1)  The  Report  of 
the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  to  the  President ;  (2)  Miscellaneous  Papers  by 
chiefs  of  bureaus,  divisions,  and  officers  of  the  Department,  or  their  assistants ; 
and  (3)  An  Appendix  consisting  of  a  summary  of  useful  information.  Five 
hundred  thousand  copies  are  annually  printed  and  distributed,  and  so  great  is 
the  demand  that  the  Secretary  recommends  the  increase  of  the  current  year's 
issue  by  20,000  copies.  Secretary  James  Wilson,  or,  as  he  would  be  designated 
in  this  country,  Minister  for  Agriculture,  is  a  native  of  Ayrshire,  and  springs 
from  the  same  stock  as  the  late  Dr.  M'Cosh  of  Princeton  University.  He 
left  Scotland  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  has,  through  his  sterling  worth  and 
devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  agriculture,  raised  himself  to  the  high  position 
which  he  fills  with  much  credit  alike  to  himself  and  to  the  State.  The  Depart- 
ment is  divided  into  over  twenty  distinct  sections,  each  being  worked  by  a 
staff  of  well-trained  specialists.  The  Secretary's  report  refers  to  the  leading 
results  of  the  year's  investigations,  but  we  can  mention  only  a  few  of  the 
more  important  of  these.  We  are  told  that  the  Department  is  searching  the 
world  for  seeds  and  plants  to  diversify  the  crops  of  the  country,  and  to  add 
new  varieties  to  meet  sectional  requirements.  Four  scientific  explorers  are 
abroad  getting  seeds  and  plants  from  Russia,  around  the  Mediterranean,  China, 
and  South  America.  Of  grasses,  no  less  than  500  varieties  are  grown  for 
educational  purposes  in  the  gardens  of  the  Department.  The  Bureau  of 
Animal  Industry  has  discovered  a  substance  which  by  means  of  one  dipping- 
will  destroy  all  ticks  infesting  an  animal,  so  that  at  last  a  remedy  has  been 
found  to  prevent  the  spread  of  Texas  fever  among  cattle.  Inoculation  with 
antitoxin  serum  for  the  prevention  of  hog  cholera  has  for  two  successive  years 
saved  80  per  cent  of  the  animals  treated,  while  as  many  as  80  per  cent  of  the 
check  herds  not  treated  died.  Important  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
Department  library,  which  now  contains  nearly  65,000  volumes,  and  forms  one 
of  the  largest  collections  of  books  on  agricultural  topics  in  the  world.  "Nature- 
teaching"  in  the  common  schools  is  receiving  the  special  attention  of  the 
Department,  as  well  as  the  great  prerequisite,  the  education  of  the  teacher. 
This  is  the  natural  development  following  the  experience  of  what  it  is  possible 
to  do  in  agricultural  colleges  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  country.  In  this 
connection  America  is  immeasurably  ahead  of  this  country,  where  educational 
authorities  have  practically  discarded  the  country  schoolmaster  as  a  teacher  of 
agriculture,  and  are  wastefully  spending  public  money  in  duplicating  agri- 
cultural colleges  which  are  already  far  in  excess  of  the  requirements  of  the 
country,  and  are  in  the  aggregate  more  than  half  empty. 

The  Weather  Bureau  is  a  most  important  and  well-equipped  section  of  the 
Department,  So  numerous  are  the  Observation  stations  in  all  directions  that 
forecasts  not  only  of  wind  and  rain,  but  of  freezing  weather,  are  made  with  such 


360  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [November 

accuracy  and  expedition  that  farmers  are  supplied  with  warnings  which  enable 
them  to  take  precautions  which  result  in  the  prevention  of  much  injury  to  their 
field  crops  and  fruits.  In  the  Division  of  Soils  progress  has  been  made  with 
the  electric  method  of  moisture  determination.  "The  work  includes  the  record 
of  evaporation  to  which  the  plant  is  subjected,  the  water  supply  maintained  by 
the  soil  for  supplying  the  loss  due  to  this  evaporation,  and  the  intensity  of  the 
actinic  and  heat  radiations  which  influence  the  physiological  activities  of  the 
plant."  The  electrical  method  of  salt  determination  in  soils  has  proved  of 
special  value  in  areas  which  have  been  over-irrigated.  The  year's  expenditure 
of  the  Agricultural  Department  amounted  to  the  enormous  total  of  over 
£480,000  sterling,  and  about  one-fourth  of  this  sum  was  spent  upon  the 
printing  and  circulation  of  agricultural  literature.  So  great  is  the  desire  for 
information  through  this  source  that  the  supply  is  not  ecpial  to  the  demand. 

Among  the  thirty-six  special  articles  which  are  comprised  in  Part  II.  of  this 
bulky  volume,  may  be  mentioned  the  following,  which  have  more  or  less  direct 
interest  to  readers  in  this  country  : — Some  Types  of  American  Agricultural 
Colleges,  The  Danger  of  introducing  Noxious  Animals  and  Birds,  The  Prepara- 
tion and  Use  of  Tuberculin,  Pruning  of  Trees  and  other  Plants,  Utilising  Sur- 
plus Fruit,  Construction  of  good  Country  lloads,  Grass  Seed  and  its  Impurities, 
and  Notes  on  some  English  Farms  and  Farming.  The  book  is  beautifully 
illustrated  with  42  full-page  plates,  and  136  figures  in  the  letterpress. 

E.  Wallace. 

INHIBITED. 

On  Inhibition.     By  B.  B.  Breese.     Psychological-Review,  iii.,  1899  : 
Monograph  Supplement,  No.  41,  pp.  65. 

The  author  gives  a  long  account  of  a  very  elaborate  series  of  experiments  he 
has  lately  made  to  determine  what  conditions,  both  subjective  and  objective, 
affect  binocular  rivalry.  He  first  gives  an  account  of  the  views  held  in  regard 
to  inhibition  by  many  psychologists,  from  Spinoza  to  Ladd.  He  concludes 
that  these  may  be  classified  into  five  conceptions,  the  first  four  entirely  psychical, 
and  the  fifth  psychophysical. 

"  Almost  universally,"  he  says,  "  the  instances  of  inhibition  cited  by  the  fore- 
going psychologists  involve  definite  bodily  activities,  either  within  the  field  of 
sense  perception  or  bodily  movements.  These  instances  fall  under  the  following 
classes  : — 

1.  Inhibition  of  one  sensation  by  another  :  A  faint  sound  is  inhibited  by  a 
loud  sound  ;  a  slight  pain  by  a  greater  pain. 

2.  Inhibition  of  bodily  movements  by  sensation  :  A  sudden  sight  or  sound 
may  inhibit  movements  of  walking,  breathing  or  the  action  of  the  heart.  Pain 
may  inhibit  the  movements  which  cause  it. 

3.  Motor  activity  may  inhibit  mental  states  :  Activity  in  battle  may  in- 
hibit fear.  Motor  activity  inhibits  the  feelings  of  embarrassment.  If,  when 
trying  to  remember  a  name,  some  other  name  very  similar  is  pronounced  the 
first  name  is  inhibited. 

4.  Emotions  may  inhibit  bodily  functions  :  Shame  inhibits  the  action  of  the 
vasomoter  muscles.  Great  dread  inhibits  the  flow  of  saliva.  Great  grief  in- 
hibits the  flow  of  the  blood  to  the  brain. 

5.  Will  may  inhibit  the  voluntary  and  half-voluntary  movements  of  the 
body,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  involuntary  muscles.  Some  people  are  able 
to  decrease  the  activity  of  the  heart  at  will. 

Experimentally  he  has  investigated  two  phases  of  inhibition  within  this 
field  :— 

(1)  Inhibition  of  one  sensation  by  another,  and 

(2)  Inhibition    of     mental    states    through    suppression    of    their    motor 

elements." 


1899]  INHIBITED  361 

He  then  fully  describes  his  experiments,  and  thus  summarises  the  results : — 

"  The  length  of  time  which  the  fields  normally  remain  in  consciousness  was 
increased  by  direct  will  power.  Efforts  to  decrease  the  number  of  changes  of 
the  fields  in  a  given  time  were  unsuccessful.  With  the  so-called  pure  will 
efforts  there  were  in  every  case  accompanying  eye  movements.  Elimination  of 
the  eye  movements  decreased  the  ability  to  hold  either  of  the  fields.  The  in- 
troduction of  conscious  eye  movements  was  accompanied  by  a  lengthening  of 
the  time  of  the  field  whose  lines  served  as  the  guide  for  the  movement.  Count- 
ing the  lines  upon  either  field  increased  the  length  of  time  that  field  remained 
in  consciousness.  Figures  which  induced  the  greatest  eye  movement  remained 
longest  in  consciousness.  The  lines  of  a  moving  field  remained  in  consciousness 
nearly  all  the  time,  but  did  not  inhibit  the  normal  rivalry  of  the  two  fields. 
Contraction  of  the  right  side  or  of  the  left  side  of  the  body  had  the  same  effect 
upon  the  rivalry,  viz.,  increased  the  time  which  the  field  before  the  right  eye 
was  seen.  Coloured  borders  did  not  affect  the  rivalry.  Of  two  fields  of  different 
sizes,  the  smaller  remained  longer  in  consciousness.  Under  different  conditions 
adjacent  parts  of  the  retinae  showed  different  rates  of  rivalry  at  the  same  time. 
Increase  in  the  intensity  of  the  light  stimulus  caused  an  increase  in  the  rate  of 
the  changes,  while  the  ratio  of  the  phases  of  the  rivalry  was  normal  and  con- 
stant. Of  two  unequally  lighted  fields,  the  lighter  remained  longer  in  conscious- 
ness. After-images  showed  the  same  phenomenon  of  rivalry  ;  but  the  changes 
occurred  at  a  slower  rate  than  in  the  case  of  direct  stimulation.  When  both 
fields  were  of  the  same  colour  the  rivalry  of  the  two  sets  of  lines  was  not  affected. 
Different  stimuli  falling  upon  the  same  area  of  the  retina  of  one  eye  produced 
the  phenomenon  of  rivalry. 

He  then  treats  of  the  "  inhibition  of  motor  reactions  "  and  concludes  by  an 
endeavour  to  apply  his  results  to  education.  He  advocates  strongly  motor 
training.  His  most  pertinent  criticism  of  our  prevalent  methods  of  school 
education  is  the  following  : — "  We  imprison  the  child  for  hours  each  clay  in 
his  seat ;  meantime  we  try  to  teach  him  to  think  without  giving  him  a  chance 
to  react." 

"  From  the  point  of  view  to  which  this  work  leads,  the  value  of  manual  train- 
ing for  the  development  of  the  mind — i.e.,  as  a  culture  study — finds  its  basis  in 
the  very  nature  of  consciousness.  Here  we  find  an  explanation  of  the  fact 
that  the  boy  who  gains  the  ability  to  perform  bodily  adjustments  in  a  de- 
cided, accurate  and  rapid  manner  is  better  able  to  think  accurately  and  clearly, 
and  why  a  hesitating  and  inaffective  bodily  reaction  is  the  accompaniment  of 
a  weakened  or  confused  state  of  mind."  T.  S.  Clouston. 

A  LOYAL  DARWINIAN. 

Darwinism  and  Lamarckism,  Old  and  New.  Four  Lectures.  By  Frederick 
Wollaston  Hutton,  F.R.S.,  etc.  8vo,  pp.  x.  +  169.  London  :  Duck- 
worth &  Co.,  1899.     Price  3s.  6d.  net. 

Captain  Hutton's  "  excuse  for  adding  to  the  already  voluminous  literature 
on  Darwinism  is  that  the  subject  is  always  advancing,  and  that  the  interest 
attached  to  it  is  not  confined  to  naturalists,  but  enters  into  everyday  life.  It 
is,  indeed,  intimately  connected  with  our  systems  of  theology,  for  it  forms  one 
of  the  foundations — perhaps  the  corner  stone — of  Natural  Religion.  It  is 
therefore  important  that  a  knowledge  of  the  theory  should  be  widely  spread ; 
and  any  attempt  to  convey  that  knowledge  in  simple  language  can  hardly  fail 
to  do  good,  provided  it  be  sufficiently  clear  to  be  understood  at  the  first  reading, 
and  sufficiently  short  to  discourage  skipping." 

But  a  new  contribution  to  a  subject  so  much  over- written  as  this  may 
perhaps  be  expected  to  justify  itself  by  some  particular  Cjuality,  such  as  novelty 
of  treatment,  freshness  of  ideas,  precision  of  statement,  or  up-to-dateness  ;   but 


362  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [November 

we  do  not  find  this  little  book  remarkable  in  any  of  these  respects.  It  seems 
to  us  interesting  rather  as  a  clear  exposition  of  the  conclusions  of  one  who 
began  to  write  upon  Darwinism  in  1861,  who  has  carefully  examined  many 
phases  of  evolutionary  opinion,  who  remains  after  all  a  loyal  Darwinian. 

As  one  would  expect  from  the  author's  varied  contributions  to  natural 
history  the  book  is  saved  by  many  concrete  illustrations  from  seeming  a  merely 
logical  discussion,  and  the  exposition  is  on  the  whole  delightfully  clear,  though 
it  seems  sanguine  to  hope  that  it  will  be  altogether  understood  at  the  first 
reading.  It  requires  some  careful  leading  up  before  the  reader  can  face  Avith 
safety  such  a  sentence  as—"  These  indefinite  variations  may  become  definite 
through  repetition  ;  and  are  controlled  in  their  development  by  the  principle  of 
selection,  sometimes  aided  by  use-inheritance." 

As  an  old  experienced  hand,  Captain  Hutton  is  very  careful  in  his  use  of 
terms,  but  occasionally  his  usage  seems  open  to  question.  He  speaks,  for 
instance,  of  "the  theory  of  development"  contained  in  the  "Origin  of 
Species,"  but  this  phrase  is  more  appropriately  kept  for  the  attempts  to  under- 
stand ontogeny.  Similarly,  when  he  says  that  "  selection  has  no  power  if  the 
individuals  are  not  competing,"  he  is  either  guilty  of  gross  exaggeration  or  of 
an  unjustifiable  use  of  the  word  "  compete,"  which  seems  almost  irrelevant  in 
those  cases  where  the  struggle  is  between  the  living  creature  and  the  inanimate 
environment.  It  seems  to  us  also  regrettable  that  the  author  does  not  take 
advantage  of  the  distinction  between  modifications  and  variations  which  has 
been  clearly  defined  and  widely  accepted,  and  saves  a  lot  of  time. 

As  to  up-to-dateness,  the  book  shows  much  of  this  quality,  and  yet  not  quite 
enough,  for  it  is  regrettable  that  suggestions  like  those  in  Weismann's  "  Germinal 
Selection,"  or  in  the  so-called  "Organic  Selection  Theory,"  should  have  been 
passed  over  in  silence. 

The  first  lecture  on  the  scope  and  limitations  of  Darwinism  is  a  fine  illus- 
tration of  successful  exposition,  to  which  personal  reminiscences  add  interest. 
How  many  pages  might  have  been  saved — might  still  be  saved — for  more 
profitable  use  if  critics  would  study  Darwin's  works  as  the  author  has  done,  or 
would  even  carefully  acquaint  themselves  with  a  summary  like  this  lecture. 
We  need  only  recall  Darwin's  sentence — "  Natural  selection  has  no  relation 
whatever  to  the  primary  cause  of  any  modification  of  structure  " — as  a  good 
instance  of  one  of  those  so  often  forgotten. 

The  essence  of  the  new  Darwinism,  according  to  the  author,  is  found  in  the 
theory  of  isolation,  which  furnishes  some  sort  of  interpretation  of  the  persistence 
of  useless  characters  and  incipient  useful  characters,  and  of  the  origin  of 
divergence.  A  further  difficulty — the  existence  of  mutual  sterility  between 
different  species — remains;  but  the  author  gets  rid  of  it  by  saying  : — "It  has 
been  shown  to  be  outside  Darwinism  altogether ;  which  is  a  theory  of  the 
preservation  and  development  of  variations,  and  not  of  their  origin."  As  an 
example  of  the  style,  we  may  cite  from  this  lecture  the  following  passage  : — ■ 
"  We  may  liken  the  progress  of  organic  evolution  to  the  march  of  an  army, 
which  is  continually  throwing  off  numerous  scouting  parties,  who  penetrate  into 
every  nook  and  cranny,  and  leave  nothing  unexplored.  The  few  that  find 
roads,  lead  off  part  of  the  army  after  them ;  while  the  majority,  who  fail  to  do 
so,  perish  on  their  tracks,  and  are  heard  of  no  more.  Natural  selection 
preserves  and  intensifies  adaptations,  or  utilitarian  characters  only ;  isolation 
preserves  both  utilitarian  and  non-utilitarian  characters.  Progress  is  due  to  the 
former,  variety  to  the  latter."  Thus  the  new  Darwinism  lifts  us  "out  of  the 
deadly  region  of  utilitarianism  into  an  altogether  higher  and  purer  air." 
Indeed,  the  air  is  so  high  and  pure  that  we  find  it  unsuitable  for  everyday 
respiration,  for  the  author  leads  us  to  "  the  conclusion  that  all  these  so-called 
useless  structures,  all  that  give  us  beauty  and  variety,  have  been  specially 
designed  for  man's  education." 

A   condensed   statement   of  the   author's   views  would   read   somewhat   as 


1899]  A  LOYAL  DARWINIAN  363 

follows : — He  is  willing  to  admit  some  use-inheritance  or  kinetogenesis,  e.g.  to 
explain  the  eye  in  flat-fishes  and  the  tendrils  of  Amjoelopsis ;  as  panmixia 
cannot  cause  degeneracy  and  the  principle  of  compensation  of  growth  is  an 
unproved  hypothesis  of  a  very  doubtful  character,  disuse-inheritance  seems  to 
him  necessary  to  explain  many  vestigial  organs ;  environmental  influence  or 
physiogenesis  is  a  true  cause  of  variation,  but  these  variations  are  not  trans- 
mitted to  other  generations  unless  the  same  variation  has  been  impressed  over 
and  over  again  on  many  successive  generations ;  the  most  reasonable  hypothesis 
appears  to  be  that  the  physico-chemical  forces  aft'ect,  in  time,  the  germ-cells ; 
and  that  the  changes  thus  produced  become  congenital  variations,  capable  of 
being  transmitted  to  future  generations,  and  forming  the  material  on  which  the 
various  forms  of  selection  and  isolation  may  work. 

We  must  not  lay  clown  this  interesting  book  without  noticing  one  of  its 
most  remarkable  features,  namely,  the  expression  of  the  author's  conviction  that 
the  outcome  of  the  theory  of  evolution  will  be  uniformity  of  religious  belief. 

J.  A.  T. 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  SPIRIT. 

Studien  und  Skizzen  aus  Naturwissenschaft  und  Philosophie.  I.  Ueber 
wissenschaftliches  Denken  und  fiber  populare  Wissenschaft.  By  Dr. 
Ad.  Wagner.  8vo,  pp.  79.  Berlin:  Gebrfider  Borntraeger,  1899. 
Price  1  mark,  20  pfg. 

This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  booklets  intended  to  introduce  the  reader  to 
the  problems  of  science  and  philosophy,  not  by  didatic  discourse  or  condensed 
summary,  but  by  a  more  humane,  indeed  almost  conversational,  method.  As  an 
expert  might  tell  us  the  meaning  of  the  differential  calculus  in  much  less  than 
half  an  hour,  or  of  the  theory  of  organic  selection  in  five  minutes,  so  will  the 
author  of  these  "  Studien  und  Skizzen  "  instruct  us  concerning  evolution  and 
development,  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  egoism,  instinct  and  morals  in  a  series 
of  dainty  little  books  which  can  be  carried  in  the  breast-pocket.  It  is  a  most 
laudable  intention,  and  the  prospect  held  out  to  us  becomes  the  more  enticing 
when  we  are  told  that  the  reader  will  be  brought  into  touch  with  thought  rather 
than  with  knowledge — in  short  with  the  scientific  spirit  rather  than  with  the 
body  of  science. 

The  present  volume  deals  with  scientific  thought — "wissenschaftliches 
Denken" — its  aims  and  methods.  It  is  easy  to  say — "the  advancement  of 
knowledge  and  the  search  after  truth,"  but  the  conception  of  knowledge  and 
truth  seem  to  be  as  plastic  as  soft  wax.  "  Tausend  Gelehrte — tausend  An- 
sichten."  So  much  so  that  the  public  has  become  more  or  less  consciously 
sceptical  and  shy  of  philosophy  ("  philosophiescheu  "),  and  has  fallen  back  into 
an  intellectual  slough  which  is  called  matter-of-factness.  And  even  among  the 
initiated  the  spectacle  is  seen  of  Philosophy  receiving  a  pitiable  alms  at  the 
door  of  the  scientific  mansion. 

As  a  relief  from  this  sluggish  scepticism  on  the  one  hand  and  arrogant 
superficiality  on  the  other,  Dr.  Wagner  suggests  that  every  man  may  be  his  own 
thinker.  "  Nur  was  selbst  durchdacht  ist,  hat  geistigen  Wert  .  .  .  Immer  und 
ewig  ist  die  Parole  :  Selbst  denken."  This  being  granted,  we  are  led  by  the 
author's  lively  conversation  step  by  step  to  the  conclusion — for  which  no 
novelty  is  claimed — that  an  unphilosophical  science  is  a  contradiction  in  terms, 
that  there  can  be  no  wissenschaftliches  Denken  without  a  criticism  of  categories. 

X. 


364  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [November 


AFRICAN  FLORA. 

Catalogue  of  the  African  Plants  collected  by  Dr.  Welwitsch.  Vol.  II.  Part 
I.  Monocotyledons  and  Gymnosperms.  By  A.  B.  Rendle,  M.A.,  D.Sc. 
8vo,  pp.  260.  Printed  by  order  of  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum. 
London,  1899. 

The  issue  of  this,  the  fourth,  part  of  the  Catalogue  of  Dr.  Welwitsch's  African 
plants  within  three  years  after  the  appearance  of  Part  I.,  augurs  well  for  the 
completion  of  the  work  in  the  near  future.  There  is  wanting  to  complete  the 
account  of  the  seed-plants  only  a  few  families  of  gamopetalous  and  the  apetalous 
families  of  dicotyledons.  This  will  presumably  form  a  fourth  and  last  part  of 
vol.  i.  The  work  when  finished  will  be  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  tropical  African  flora.  No  collector,  however  assiduous,  collects  every- 
thing, but  examination  of  this  and  previously  issued  parts  will  show  that  Dr. 
Welwitsch  obtained,  during  his  eight  years'  stay  in  the  country,  not  only  a  large 
number  of  species,  but  in  most  cases  a  good  series  of  specimens  illustrating 
geographical  distribution  of  individual  species.  The  account  of  his  collections  is 
therefore  practically  a  Flora  of  that  portion  of  West  Tropical  Africa  which  lies 
south  of  the  equator.  The  district  comprises  Angola  proper  and  the  more 
southerly  provinces  of  Huilla  and  Mossamedes,  and  the  richness  of  the  flora  is 
evident  from  an  analysis  of  the  monocotyledons.  All  the  African  orders,  com- 
prising twenty -seven  out  of  a  total  of  thirty-four,  are  represented,  and  these 
include  no  less  than  209  genera  with  800  species.  The  most  important  are  the 
orchids,  with  18  genera  and  76  species;  Liliaceae,  with  23  genera  and  92 
species;  Cyperaceae,  with  17  genera  and  166  species;  and  grasses,  with  75 
genera  and  268  species.  Scitamineae,  Amaryllideae,  and  Aroideae  are  also 
well  represented.  In  striking  contrast  is  the  paucity  of  Gymnosperms.  There 
are  no  Cycads  and  no  Conifers,  while  the  third  order  Gnetaceae  is  represented 
by  a  single  endemic  species  of  Gnetum,  and  that  strangest  of  all  seed -plants, 
the  discovery  of  which  we  owe  to  Dr.  Welwitsch,  and  which  has  hitherto 
been  generally  known  as  Welwitschia  mirabilis.  Unfortunately  the  rules  of 
nomenclature  will  not  allow  this  name  to  stand.  It  was  proposed  by  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker  in  honour  of  the  discoverer  in  1862,  but  exactly  a  year  before  a 
short  notice  had  been  published  by  Welwitsch  himself,  in  which  he  suggested 
the  name  Tumboa,  from  the  native  name  of  the  plant.      So  Turriboa  it  must  be. 

By  the  way,  and  the  remark  applies  to  the  other  parts  which  have  appeared, 
we  note  with  some  regret  the  absence  of  plates.  In  the  present  part  no  less 
than  113  new  species  are  described,  and  however  full  a  description  maybe, 
there  can  be  no  two  opinions  as  to  the  additional  value  of  such  plates  as  we  are 
accustomed  to  associate  with  British  Museum  catalogues.  A  general  account  of 
the  flora  of  the  district  in  question  would  also  form  a  useful  appendix. 

MODERN  CHEMISTRY. 

Grundriss  der  Allgemeinen  Chemie.  By  W.  Ostwald.  Third  Edition. 
Pp.  xvi.  +  549,  57  figs.  Leipzig:  Engelmann,  1899.  Price  16  marks, 
bound  17-20  marks. 

This  book,  in  its  earlier  editions,  is  well  known,  more  particularly  to  the 
younger  generation  of  students  of  chemistry.  The  first  edition  appeared  in 
1889,  but  in  the  ten  years  that  have  passed  between  that  date  and  the  appear- 
ance of  this  third  edition,  much  new  work  has  been  done  in  the  department  of 
physical  chemistry,  or  general  chemistry  as  our  author  calls  it.  It  is  not  the 
chemist  alone  who  is  indebted  to  Professor  Ostwald  for  constituting  himself  the 
chief  exponent  of  the  newer  views  and  their  numerous  applications,  as  he  has 


1899]  MODERN  CHEMISTRY  365 

done  in  the  present  work  and  his  other  publications.  New  light  is  thrown  by 
these  views  upon  the  operations  of  analytical,  of  organic,  of  technical,  and  in 
fact  of  all  branches  of  chemistry ;  but  the  physicist  and  the  physiologist  will 
also  find  many  obscure  places  rendered  clearer  when  they  become  familiar  with 
chemistry  in  its  more  recent  physical  development. 

While  the  Gmndriss  is  not  a  beginner's  book,  it  is,  relatively  speaking,  an 
elementary  work,  and  it  will  serve  to  prepare  the  reader  for  the  study  of  the 
same  author's  Lehrbuck,  in  which  the  subject  is  much  more  fully  elaborated. 
In  the  present  edition  the  book  has  been  virtually  re-written  and  is  in  many 
respects  improved.  Its  appearance  will  be  warmly  welcomed  by  all  who  desire 
to  see,  and  to  assist  in,  the  spread  of  the  new  chemical  theories  ;  and  we  are 
glad  to  think  that  the  number  of  these  persons  is  now  rapidly  increasing. 

L.  D. 

GRADUS  AD  SCIENTIAM. 

Progressive  Lessons  in  Science.  By  A.  Abbott,  M.A.,  and  Arthur  Key, 
M.A.  Pp.  xi.  +  320,  with  figures.  London  :  Blackie  and  Son,  Limited, 
1899.     Price  3s.  6d. 

The  first  part  of  this  book  is  an  easy  guide  to  a  knowledge  of  the  chemistry 
of  air  and  water,  and  of  such  other  portions  of  elementary  chemistry  as  are 
considered  requisite  for  an  intelligent  study  of  the  second  part.  It  is  illustrated 
by  means  of  simple  experiments  which,  while  not  presenting  any  specially  novel 
features,  are,  on  the  whole,  well  chosen  ;  although  they  do  not,  in  all  cases,  carry 
conviction  regarding  the  conclusions  intended  to  be  drawn  from  them.  The 
chapter  on  acids,  bases,  and  salts  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  satisfactory.  The 
second  part  deals  with  the  recognition,  by  chemical  means,  of  the  elements 
concerned  in  the  building  up  of  animal  and  plant  tissues  and  with  tracing  these 
elements,  generally,  from  the  animal  to  the  plant  and  from  the  plant  to  the  soil. 
It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  this  part  does  not  demand  too  special  a  know- 
ledge of  certain  very  limited  facts  and  methods  of  analytical  chemistry  to  be  of 
great  use  to  pupils  from  a  broad  educational  standpoint.  The  get-up  of  the 
book  is  good,  and  very  few  misprints  have  been  met  with.  L.  I). 

VEGETARIANISM. 

The  Logic  of  Vegetarianism :  Essays  and  Dialogues.  By  Henry  S.  Salt. 
8vo,  pp.  119.  London:  The  Ideal  Publishing  Union,  Limited,  1899. 
Price  Is. 

In  justification  of  the  form  of  these  essays,  the  reader  has  to  bear  steadily 
in  mind  that  they  were  in  the  first  instance  published  in  The  Vegetarian,  and 
thus  addressed  to  those  already  in  sympathy  with  the  writer's  convictions.  It 
would  otherwise  have  been  a  serious  tactical  error  to  have  personified  his 
dialectic  opponents  under  the  titles  he  has  selected.  "  Verbalist  "  and  "  Superior 
Person  "  may  describe  accurately  enough  one's  idea  of  the  mental  condition  of 
his  adversaries,  but  they  are  not  initiatory  compliments  such  as  smooth  the 
course  of  an  argument,  and  even  "  Patriot,"  when  spoken  with  particular 
emphasis,  may  convey  an  irritating  insult  and  cause  much  unhallowed  rancour. 
What  is  perhaps  more  unfortunate  from  the  critic's  standpoint  is  that  the  mere 
use  of  these  terms  is  in  itself  an  argument  which  embodies  a  material  fallacy 
described  in  text-books  of  logic  under  the  heading  of  petitio  prirwipii.  If, 
however,  we  pass  these  matters  with  a  smile,  much  of  the  author's  argument, 
especially  on  the  ethical  importance  of  food  reform,  will  be  found  worthy  of 
more  than  a  passing  thought.  The  weakness  of  the  logical  position  of 
vegetarianism  is,  as  Mr.  Salt  is  fully  aware,  that  its  argument  has  to  convince 
not  reason  but  habit.  B. 


366  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [November 


VARIATIONS   IN   BUTTERFLIES. 

Ueber  einige  Aberrationen  von  Papilio  machaon.     By  Prof.  J.  W.  Spengel. 
48  pp.  3  pis.     Jena:  G.  Fischer,  1899.     Price  2  m.  50  pf. 

Dr.  Spengel's  valuable  paper  on  varieties  of  the  common  European 
"  Swallowtail "  Butterfly,  which  appeared  in  the  Zoologische  Jahrbilcher,  will 
be  welcomed  by  entomologists  in  this  separate  form.  After  a  careful 
description  of  the  wing-markings  and  their  position  with  regard  to  the  nervures 
in  typical  examples  of  P.  machaon,  the  author  proceeds  to  an  account  of  the 
various  named  aberrations  which  have  been  met  with,  his  remarks  being 
illustrated  with  excellent  coloured  figures.  Specially  noteworthy  are  the  forms 
evittata,  in  which  the  black  and  blue  sub-marginal  bands  are  wanting ; 
7iigrofasciata,  a  melanistic  form  in  which  the  red  eye-spot  of  the  hind  wing 
tends  to  disappear ;  and  nigra,  in  which  all  the  wing-surfaces  are  suffused  with 
black.  Evidence  is  brought  forward  to  show  that  the  production  of  the 
melanic  varieties  does  not  depend  necessarily  on  low  temperature.  The  very 
remarkable  form,  elunata,  is  a  monstrosity  in  which  the  wing-nervures  are 
most  imperfectly  developed,  they  almost  vanish  towards  the  hind  margin  of 
the  wing,  and  the  sub-marginal  dark  band  shows  accordingly  no  segmentation. 
Dr.  Spengel  has  materially  advanced  our  knowledge  of  a  fascinating  subject. 

G.  H.  C. 

THE   AFFINITIES   OF   THE   TERMITES. 

We  have  received  the  second  and  third  parts  of  Mr.  W.  W.  Froggatt's 
monograph  of  the  Australian  Termitidae  (Proc.  Linn.  Soc.  N.S.  W.,  1896,  1897), 
comprising  the  general  classification  of  the  family  and  a  detailed  description  of 
the  known  Australian  species.  In  his  discussion  of  the  relationship  of  the 
Termites  to  other  insects,  Mr.  Froggatt  leans  to  the  view  that  they  have  closer 
affinities  to  earwigs  and  cockroaches  than  to  any  other  group,  and  that  they 
should  therefore  be  included  among  the  Orthoptera  rather  than  among  the 
"  Pseudo-neuroptera." 

AUSTRALIAN   ECONOMIC   ENTOMOLOGY. 

Mr.  Froggatt  is  also  devoting  attention  to  injurious  insects  in  New  South 
Wales.  A  paper  by  him  on  "  Gall-producing  Insects,"  with  special  reference  to 
Coccids,  is  published  in  the  Agricultural  Gazette,  N.S.W.,  1898,  while 
in  conjunction  with  Messrs.  Allen,  Blunno,  and  Guthrie,  he  has  issued  an 
excellent  illustrated  pamphlet  on  "  Insect  and  Fungus  Diseases  of  Fruit-trees." 
The  various  pests  are  grouped  according  to  the  trees  which  they  injure.  Each 
species  is  clearly  figured,  and  the  best  means  for  clearing  the  orchards  is  plainly 
described. 

DIARY   OF   TWO    ORNITHOLOGISTS. 

Bird  Life  in  an  Arctic  Spring.     The  Diaries   of  Dan  Meinertzaghen   and 
R.  P.  Hornby.     Crown  8vo,  pp.  150.      London  :  R.  H.  Porter,  1899. 

This  dainty  little  volume  has  been  published  as  a  memorial  of  Dan 
Meinertzhagen,  who  recently  succumbed  to  a  brief  illness  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-three.  He  was  always  devoted  to  birds,  and  had  made  a  special  study 
of  the  Raptores,  upon  which  he  hoped  to  complete  a  Monograph.  But  the 
material  which  has  found  its  way  into  print  is  a  literal  transcript  of  a  private 
journal  kept  during  a  visit  paid  to  Finland  in  the  summer  of  1897,  supple- 
mented by  the  notes  of  the  young  sportsman  who  shared  his  hardships.     The 


1899]  DIARY  OF  TWO  ORNITHOLOGISTS  367 

diaries  of  the  friends  were  written  up  as  occasion  permitted,  often  at  the  end 
of  a  long  fatiguing  day,  and  cannot  be  said  to  do  more  than  sketch  the  bird 
life  to  be  found  in  the  forests  of  Northern  Europe ;  but  they  are  vivacious,  and 
have  the  merit  of  severe  accuracy.  While  many  of  the  birds  that  inhabited 
the  neighbourhood  of  Muonioniska  proved  to  be  species  that  can  be  studied  in 
the  British  Islands,  such  as  the  Capercaillie,  Osprey  and  Merlin,  others  were 
characteristic  of  the  far  north,  such  as  the  Lapp  Owl,  Pine  Grosbeak  and 
Siberian  Jay.  Dan  Meinertzhagen  was  an  accomplished  draughtsman  as  well 
as  a  good  naturalist,  and  he  found  time  to  make  some  capital  sketches  of  birds 
that  he  encountered,  e.g.  that  of  the  Hawk  Owl  which  is  reproduced  at  p.  74. 
Had  his  life  been  spared  for  a  few  years,  he  might  well  have  ranked  as  one  of 
the  first  zoological  painters  of  the  day.  The  twenty-seven  plates  bound  up  at 
the  end  of  the  volume  show  the  pains  which  he  had  taken  to  master  the 
technique  of  his  art.  Perhaps  he  excelled  most  in  delineating  the  attitudes  of 
birds  of  prey  ;  but  he  was  also  adept  in  preparing  drawings  of  anatomical 
dissections.  The  feeling  of  regret  which  all  readers  of  "  Bird  Life  in  an  Arctic 
Spring"  will  experience,  after  perusing  the  story  of  a  life  of  brilliant 
promise  suddenly  cut  short,  is  deepened  by  the  knowledge  of  the  amiable 
disposition  of  this  ardent  naturalist,  who  readily  won  the  regard  of  all  with 
whom  he  came  into  contact.  The  fresh  and  vivid  impressions  of  Arctic  bird 
life  which  his  rough  jottings  convey  may  well  inspire  others  to  follow  in  the 
wake  of  his  investigations.  H.  A.  M. 


*&w 


RENAL   SECRETION. 

Les  Fonctions  Renales.    By  Prof.  Frenkel  of  Toulouse.    Pp.  84.    [Scientia.] 
Paris:  Georges  Carre  and  C.  Naud.      1899.     Price  2  francs. 

In  this  little  book]  of  eighty -four  pages,  Prof.  Frenkel  has  given  a  very 
interesting  account  of  the  physiology  and  pathology  of  renal  secretion.  In 
the  first  chapter  there  is  a  short  but  well-written  description  of  the  structure 
of  the  kidney,  and  this  is  followed  by  one  dealing  with  the  composition  of  the 
urine,  in  which  the  biological  properties  of  the  latter  are  specially  emphasised. 
As  one  would  naturally  expect,  seeing  that  the  work  has  been  largely  clone  by 
French  scientists  (Bouchard,  Charrin),  a  much  larger  amount  of  space  is 
devoted  to  the  toxicity  of  the  urine  than  is  ordinarily  met  with  even  in  far 
more  ambitious  text-books  in  other  languages.  Although  many  of  the  hypo- 
theses, which  the  author  formulates  in  regard  to  the  properties  of  the  urine, 
may  be  considered  to  have  insufficient  basis,  all  must  admit  that  the  author 
has  stated  his  case  clearly.  The  third  chapter,  on  the  physiology  of  renal 
secretion,  goes  over  well-known  ground,  the  theories  of  Ludwig  and  Bowman- 
Heidenhain  being  shortly  referred  to  ;  but  recent  English  work  is  not  mentioned. 
The  fourth  chapter  deals  with  a  department  with  which  the  names  of  Brown- 
Sequard,  Teissier,  and  the  author  are  associated,  viz.  the  nature  of  internal 
renal  secretions.  In  this  country  and  in  Germany,  much  more  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  secretions  of  the  pancreas,  thyroid  and  supra-renals,  than  to 
renal  secretions.  The  last  two  chapters  treat  respectively  of  what  the  author 
terms,  pathological  physiology  of  the  renal  secretion  and  renal  permeability  and 
insufficiency.  The  little  book  may  be  heartily  recommended  to  all  interested 
in  this  subject.  T.  H.  Milroy. 


The  American  Naturalist  for  September  has  the  following  articles: — "A 
Contribution  to  the  Life -History  of  Autodax  lugubris  Hallow,  a  Calif  ornian 
Salamander,"  by  W.  E.  Ritter  and  Love  Miller;  "The  Worcester  Natural 
History  Society,"  by  H.  D.  Braman  ;  "  Synopsis  of  North  American  Caridea," 
by  J.  S.  Kingsley ;  "  The  Life  Habits  of  Polypterus,"  by  N.  R.  Harrington  ;  and 
"  Pads  on  the  Palm  and  Sole  of  the  Human  Foetus,"  by  R,  H.  Johnson. 


368  SOME  NE  W  BOOKS  [November 

The  Halifax  Naturalist  for  October  has  the  following  contents  : — "  Scraps 
of  the  Life-History  of  Insects,"  by  Miss  Theodora  Smith  ;  "The  Life-History  of 
the  Autumn  Crocus,"  by  C.  E.  Moss ;  "  Moorland  Moths,"  by  E.  Halliday ; 
"  Haugh  End,"  by  J.  Longbottom  ;  "The  Flora  of  Halifax,"  by  W.  B.  Crump  ; 
Field  work  in  winter ;  and  Notes. 

The  Naturalist  for  October  has  papers  on  "Air  Blasts  below  Ground,"  by 
H.  Preston ;  on  "  Botanical  Finds  in  Cumberland,"  by  W.  Hodgson ;  on 
"  Nottinghamshire  Diptera,"  by  Rev.  A.  Thornley,  and  on  the  "  Florula  of  Bare, 
West  Lancaster,"  by  F.  Arnold  Lees. 

The  Canadian  Record  of  Science,  after  eight  months'  delay,  brought  out  the 
first  number  of  its  eighth  volume  on  1st  September.  The  publication  com- 
mittee of  the  Natural  History  Society  of  Montreal  hopes  in  future  to  present 
the  Record  regularly  each  quarter.  The  number  before  us  contains  a  paper 
by  Professor  E.  W.  M'Bride  on  "Zoological  Problems  for  the  Natural  History 
Society  of  Montreal,"  much  of  which  is  applicable  to  other  societies  of  the  kind. 
The  main  contention  is  that,  when  once  the  local  society  has  compiled  complete 
lists  of  the  local  fauna  and  flora,  the  attention  of  the  naturalists  should  be 
directed  to  the  study  of  each  species  in  relation  to  its  environment.  How 
far  are  the  distinctive  characters  of  a  species  concordant  with  its  special  habits  1 
What  prevents  two  species  living  side  by  side  from  intermingling  1  How  far 
have  the  species  of  the  systematists  a  physiological  validity  1 

Other  papers  are  a  list  of  "  The  Gramineae,  Cyperaceae  and  Juncaceae  of 
Montreal  Island,"  by  Harold  B.  Cushing  and  Robert  Campbell,  and  "  Dimor- 
phism and  Polymorphism  in  Butterflies,"  by  H.  H.  Lyman. 

The  study  of  small  mammals  has,  as  many  other  studies  in  zoology,  arrived 
at  a  stage  where  the  chief  desideratum  is  enormous  quantities  of  individuals 
for  purposes  of  minute  comparison.  At  the  same  time  the  study  is  so  refined 
that  the  specimens,  to  be  of  service,  must  all  be  prepared  in  a  similar  manner. 
Those  who  are  willing  to  help  specialists  by  collecting  for  them  will  be  glad  to 
have  instructions  clearly  and  compactly  placed  before  them  ;  and  this  they  can 
now  find  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Directions  for  Preparing  Study  Specimens  of 
Small  Mammals,"  issued  by  Gerrit  S.  Miller,  Jun.,  as  Part  IV.  of  Bulletin  of  the 
U.  S.  National  Museum,  No.  39  (10  pp.  Washington,  1899).  Special  hints 
for  tropical  climates  are  furnished  by  E.  W.  Nelson,  the  well-known  collector. 

Knowledge  for  October  is  a  strong  number, — Professor  Arthur  Thomson  of 
Oxford  discusses  "  Cranial  form  "  ;  Sir  Michael  Foster's  presidential  address  at 
Dover  is  expounded ;  H.  F.  Witherby  continues  his  account  of  two  months' 
natural  history  on  the  Guadalquiver  ;  Mr.  Stebbing  continues  his  wonderful 
story  of  the  Karkinokosm ;  Mr.  W.  S.  Bruce,  lately  returned  from  a  cruise  with 
the  Prince  of  Monaco,  deals  graphically  with  a  haunt  of  his— the  top  of  Ben 
Nevis ;  Mr.  J.  E.  Gore  still  discourses  with  interest  on  some  suspected  variable 
stars,  and  Prof.  Cole  introduces  the  reader  to  the  secret  of  the  Great  Earth-mill, 
and  there  is  more  besides. 

The  Quarterly  Review,  No.  380,  published  on  the  18th  October,  has  an 
illustrated  article  on  "  The  Penycuik  Experiments,"  which  were  discussed  in 
our  last  volume. 

The  Journal  of  School  Geography  for  September  has  the  following  articles : 
— "  Equipment  of  a  Meteorological  Laboratory,"  by  R.  De  C.Ward;  the  Earth's 
Interior,"  by  J.  A.  Bownocker,  "  Niagara  Falls,  and  the  Commerce  of  the  Great 
Lakes,"  by  C.  A.  M'Murry,  and  "  the  Caroline  Islands." 

We  have  received  a  number  of  agricultural  papers  of  interest,  though  dealing 
with  matters  somewhat  beyond  our  scope.  From  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture in  the  University  of  Aberdeen  comes  a  report  on  an  investigation  with 


1899]  SERIALS  369 

regard  to  the  value  of  tuberculin  as  a  test  of  the  presence  of  tuberculosis  in 
cattle,  by  J.  M'Lauchlan  Young,  F.R.C.V.S.  and  Dr.  J.  S.  H.  Walker.  The 
numerous  and  clearly  displayed  statistics  show  that  when  used  with  care  and 
under  proper  conditions  tuberculin  is  a  reliable  diagnostic  of  tuberculosis  in  cattle, 
except  (a)  when  the  tubercular  lesion  is  minute,  or  (b)  when  the  disease  has 
become  generalised,  especially  in  the  case  of  aged  and  emaciated  animals.  Two 
other  conclusions  reached  are  that  tuberculin  (as  has  been  previously  pointed 
out)  loses  its  virulence  when  kept  for  a  time,  and  that  tuberculous  udders  are 
more  frequent  than  is  generally  believed  to  be  the  case. 

From  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  New  Zealand  comes  a  report  on 
swine-fever  by  J.  A.  Gilruth,  M.R.C.V.S.,  chief  government  veterinarian  and 
bacteriologist,  in  which  it  is  shown  that  pulmonary  and  pleural  lesions  may,  and 
frequently  do,  occur  along  with,  or  independently  of,  the  so-called  bowel-lesions 
of  swine-fever.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  hog-cholera  and  the  swine  plague  of 
America  are  two  distinct  diseases  as  they  are  reported  to  be.  It  is  possible 
that  as  the  thoracic  lesions  of  swine-fever  seem  to  be  the  more  frequent  and 
more  marked  phenomena  of  the  disease,  this  may  be  the  key  to  the  non-success 
of  the  stamping-out  order  in  Britain,  which  only  takes  account  of  the  gut- 
lesions,  not  to  mention  that  the  virulence  of  the  disease  seems  to  increase  and 
diminish  from  unknown  causes — an  unfortunately  necessary  lame  ending  to  the 
report. 

The  Irish  Naturalist  for  October  contains  the  following  short  papers  : — 
"  Some  Animals  from  the  Macgillicuddy's  Reeks,"  by  R.  F.  Scharff  and  G.  H. 
Carpenter  ;  "  Migratory  Butterflies  in  S.  W.  Cork,"  by  J.  J.  "Wolfe  ;  "  Matricaria 
discoidea  in  W.  Ireland,"  by  N.  Colgan,  with  a  note  by  C.  Lloyd  Praeger  ; 
"  Poa  compressa  as  an  Irish  Plant,"  by  J.  H.  Davies ;  and  Notes. 

The  Scientific  American  for  Sept.  23  has  an  article  on  women  in  science, 
based  upon  a  recent  work  by  Rebiere,  in  which  the  role  of  honour  is  traced 
from  Hypatia  onwards  to  Sofia  Pereyaslawszewa,  and  indeed  to  our  midst.  The 
fact  is  that  to  recognise  the  sex-distinction  in  scientific  work  is  now  almost  an 
impertinence. 

In  Nature  Notes  for  October,  besides  the  usual  Selborniana  characterised  by 
sensible  humanitarianism,  there  are  "  Observations  on  the  Origin  and  Dispersal 
of  Fruits  and  Seeds,"  articles  on  the  regeneration  of  the  New  Forest,  by  a  Sel- 
bornian,  and  on  batrachians  as  pets  by  G.  Renshaw,  and  other  interesting- 
matter. 

The  fourth  number  of  L' Anthropologic  for  1899  contains  inter  alia  a  re-dis- 
cussion of  polymasty  and  polythely  in  man  by  Dr.  P.  J.  Stoyanov. 

In  Science  Gossip  for  October  there  are,  besides  continued  articles,  various 
short  papers  : — "  A  Heronry  in  Asia  Minor,"  by  J.  Bliss.  "  Irish  Plant  Names," 
by  J.  H.  Barbour ;  "  Radiography  "  (with  figure  of  a  rabbit's  fore  parts),  by  J. 
Quick  ;  "  Manganese  in  River  Gravels,"  by  M.  A.  C.  Hinton  ;  "  The  Birch  and 
the  Alder,"  by  Dr.  Keegan ;  and  "Larvae  of  Caprella,"  by  E.  H.  Robertson. 

The  Scientific  American  for  September  9  republishes  Mr.  Lydekker's 
article  on  "A  Contrast  in  Noses,"  for  which  they  are  indebted  to  Knowledge. 

We  have  received  from  the  University  Corresponding  College  Press  "  The 
London  University  Guide  for  the  year  1899-1900,"  which  bears  a  protective 
resemblance  to  a  University  Calendar,  and  is  full  of  valuable  information  for 
intending  students. 

Messrs.  Clay,  Cambridge  University  Press,  announce  the  fourth  part  of  Dr. 
Willey's  "Zoological  Results,"  Parts  I.  and  II.  of  the  second  volume  of  "  Fauna 
Hawaiiensis,"  and  the  second  volume  of  Mr.  Seward's  "  Fossil  Plants." 


OBITUARY. 

GEOKGE  DOWKER. 

Born,  April  2,  1828  ;  Died,  September  22,  1899. 

Kent  has  to  deplore  the  death  of  one  of  her  foremost  geologists,  botanists, 
and  archaeologists.  Mr.  Dowker  had  only  returned  from  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  a  few  hours  before  his  death,  which  occurred  quite  suddenly 
at  his  home  in  Ramsgate.  Born  at  Stourmouth  House,  Stourmouth,  he  was 
educated  at  Sandwich  Grammar  School,  and  trained  for  agriculture  at  Hodsdon 
Agricultural  College.  He  began  farming  his  father's  estate  at  the  early  age  of 
30,  but  science  claimed  too  much  of  his  time  to  allow  of  his  success.  As  a 
botanist,  Dowker  was  the  authority  on  Kentish  plants,  many  of  the  rarer  species 
in  the  Flora  of  Kent,  edited  by  Hanbury  and  Marshall,  being  associated  with 
his  name.  As  geologist,  he  was  responsible  for  numerous  papers,  notably  "  On 
the  Chalk  of  Thanet,"  and  "  On  the  Water  Supply  of  East  Kent."  As  a  micro- 
scopist,  he  was  acquainted  with  the  pond  life  of  his  district,  and  at  one  time  was 
president  of  the  Margate  Microscopical  Club.  As  archaeologist,  he  contributed 
to  Archologia  Cuntiana  many  valuable  papers  on  Richborough  Castle,  The 
Reculvers,  and  Roman  antiquities  at  Wingham,  Preston,  and  other  places,  and 
he  it  was  who  described  the  Saxon  Cemetery  at  Wickhambreaux. 

Dowker's  collection  of  chalk  flints  is  now  in  the  Maidstone  Museum,  but  he 
leaves  behind  an  excellent  herbarium  of  wild  plants.  He  was  buried  at  Stour- 
mouth, and  Kent  has  lost  a  devoted  and  earnest  student  of  a  class  only  too  rare 
in  Thanet. 

The  following  deaths  have  been  recently  announced  :  —  Grant  Allen, 
facile  princeps  as  an  exponent  of  evolutionary  natural  history,  on  Oct.  25, 
in  his  51st  year;  Prof.  Max  Barth,  director  of  the  agricultural  experiment 
•station  in  Rufach  (Alsace)  on  August  28,  in  his  44th  year ;  on  October  6, 
at  the  age  of  63,  John  Bridgman,  entomologist  and  a  vice-president 
of  the  Norfolk  and  Norwich  Naturalists'  Society  —  he  had  presented  his 
collections  to  the  Norwich  Museum ;  Sigismondo  Brogi,  a  well!- known 
naturalist  in  Siena,  on  July  17,  at  the  age  of  48;  Dr.  Karl  Bernhard 
Bruhl,  formerly  professor  of  zootomy  in  the  University  of  Vienna,  on 
August  14,  in  Graz,  at  the  age  of  79  ;  J.  B.  Carnoy,  professor  of  botany 
in  the  Catholic  University  of  Louvain,  editor  of  La  Cellule,  well  known 
for  his  researches  on  cell-structure  and  on  the  phenomena  of  maturation 
and  fertilisation,  on  September  8,  during  a  holiday  in  Switzerland,  63 
years  of  age  ;  Chief-Justice  C.  P.  Daly,  at  the  age  of  84,  for  many  years 
president  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  to  which  he  rendered  great 
services,  also  an  enthusiastic  botanist  and  one  of  the  managers  of  the  Botanical 
Garden  of  New  York  ;  Prof.  Theodor  Elbert,  geologist  in  Berlin,  at  Gross- 
Lichterfelde,  in  his  42nd  year ;  Prof.  Joseph  Erhardt,  formerly  director  of  the 
Natural  History  Museum  in  the  Castle  at  Koburg,  in  his  80th  year  ;  Dr. 
W.  D.  Hartman,  conchyliologist,  in  West  Chester,  Pa.,  on  August  16;  at 
Geneva,  Hippolyte  Lucas,  entomological  assistant  in  the  Paris  Museum  of 
Natural  History ;  on  September  29,  Dr.  C.  Russ,  ornithologist,"  of  Berlin  ; 
Julius  Scharlock,  an  enthusiastic  florist,  at  Graudenz,  on  August  14,  in  his 
90th  year;  Christian  Schwemmer, botanist  in  Niirnberg;  Dr.FRiEDRiCH  Theile, 
author  of  several  publications  on  natural  science,  at  Lockwitz,  near  Dresden,  in 
his  85  th  year ;  Gaston  Tissandier,  founder  and  editor  of  the  scientific  weekly, 
La  Nature,  in  Paris,  on  September  8,  aged  56 ;  Rev.  William  Farren 
White,  entomologist,  on  July  21,  at  Bournemouth,  in  his  66th  year. 

37° 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


EAINFALL. 

Dear  Sir — Without  being  able  to  positively  assert  that  the  statement  on  p. 
308  of  Natural  Science  (October)  that  351  inches  of  rain  fall  in  N.  England  and 
Scotland,  and  that  London  has  ten  times  the  rainfall  of  Paris,  is  completely 
wrong,  I  believe  it  to  be  incorrect.  At  the  Stye,  near  Seathwaite,  Cumberland, 
the  average  is  177  inches  ("  Bartholomew's  Physical  Atlas,"  vol.  iii.  Meteorology, 
p.  20);  at  Ben  Nevis  151  inches.  In  De  Lapparent's  Lecons  cle  Geograjrfiic 
Physique  on  p.  65,  map  Repartition  des  Pluies  en  France,  Paris  occupies  an 
area  with  500  to  600  mm.  rainfall  =  20  to  24  inches,  and  in  the  atlas  above 
mentioned  (p.  22),  Paris  is  said  to  have  20"7  inches  of  rainfall,  that  of  London 
(p.  24),  being  20  inches  at  Crossness,  E. — Yours  truly,       Bernard  Hobson. 

Owens  College,  Manchester, 
Oct.  10,  1899. 


CAPE   FISHERIES. 

Dear  Sir — Owing  to  absence  from  home  my  attention  has  only  just  been 
called  to  the  letter  by  Dr.  Gilchrist  in  your  issue  of  September  and  to  your 
editorial  note  below  it. 

I  desire  to  say  that  I  have  not  in  any  way  either  misunderstood  Dr. 
Gilchrist  or  misinterpreted  him,  and  must  entirely  dissociate  myself  from  your 
note.  I  think  that  had  the  facts  been  placed  fully  before  you  the  latter  would 
not  have  been  written. 

Let  us  briefly  recall  the  facts  under  discussion.  In  Natural  Science  for 
June  (p.  431)  I  wrote: — "  Dr.  Gilchrist,  the  Government  Marine  Biologist, 
states  in  evidence  that  '  we  know  absolutely  nothing  about  the  spawn  of  the 
fish.'  This  statement  seems  to  require  some  explanation,  considering  that  the 
author  of  it  has  been  over  three  years  in  Cape  waters,  and  that  an  annual 
expenditure  of  '  between  £3000  and  £4000 '  has  been  placed  at  his  disposal." 

My  justification  for  these  remarks  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Minutes  of 
Evidence  taken  before  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Fishing  Industry,"  con- 
tained in  the  Report  under  review. 

Dr.  Gilchrist  in  reply  to  Q.  658  by  Mr.  Maasdorp,  after  referring  to  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  British  waters,  says  : — "  The  question  here  is  very 
different.  The  evidence  has  shown  that  we  know  absolutely  nothing  about  the 
spawn  of  the  fish,  or  very  little ;  we  do  not  know  whether  it  floats  on  the 
surface  of  the  sea  or  whether  it  lies  on  the  bottom.  Some  spawn  has  been  seen, 
but  it  has  not  been  identified  to  what  fish  it  belongs"  (p.  61). 

The  ordinary  intellect  would  suppose  that  the  meaning  of  those  remarks  is 
to  the  effect  that  Dr.  Gilchrist  agreed  with  "the  evidence"  and  endorsed  it. 
He  cites  the  evidence  himself  and  follows  it  up  by  remarks  of  his  own  agreeing 

37i 


372  CORRESPONDENCE  [November  1899 

with  it.  All  possible  room  for  prevarication  is  removed  by  Dr.  Gilchrist's 
answer  to  Q.  724.     Here  it  is — ■ 

"  724.  Is  anything  definite  really  known  about  the  spawn  of  our  South 
African  fish  ? — Nothing.  Several  people  have  seen  the  spawn  of  some  species 
of  fish.     It  is  said  to  discolour  the  sea  for  many  miles  "  (p.  68). 

In  view  of  such  evidence  as  this  I  fail  to  see  the  point  of  Dr.  Gilchrist's 
letter,  in  which  he  implies  that  it  was  only  the  fishermen  who  stated  that 
nothing  was  known  about  the  spawn,  and  that  he  had  facts  up  his  sleeve 
bearing  upon  the  question,  or  at  least  had  not  confessed  his  ignorance  to  the 
Commission. 

When  we  recall  to  mind  the  conditions  under  which  the  spawning  habits  of 
our  British  fishes  have  been  investigated,  by  the  help  of  small  sailing  vessels  or 
excursions  on  commercial  trawlers,  we  feel  quite  justified  in  our  remarks.  The 
Pieter  Faure  appears  to  have  been  free  to  trawl  whenever  and  wherever  was 
most  desirable,  and  we  have  only  to  conclude  that  for  three  breeding  seasons 
she  has  caught  thousands  of  fish  which  must  have  been  in  various  stages  of 
maturity,  yet  at  the  end  of  this  time  the  scientific  expert  has  to  own  that 
nothing  definite  is  really  known  about  the  spawn  of  our  South  African  fish. 
Doubtless  there  may  be  a  good  enough  explanation  forthcoming,  but  Dr. 
Gilchrist's  letter  does  not  shed  any  further  light  upon  the  matter. 

We  may  take  Dr.  Gilchrist's  word  for  it,  in  answer  to  the  Chairman,  that 
the  Pieter  Faure  has  not  been  used  for  "  picnics  and  pleasure-trips,"  and  can 
quite  believe  that  the  "people  who  came  for  picnics  did  not  find  it  very  agree- 
able "  (Q.  680,  p.  65),  for  the  deck  of  a  trawler  is  not  an  ideal  place  for  such 
proceedings,  but  we  feel  that  if  more  of  the  scientific  results  of  the  trawling 
had  been  produced  on  evidence  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  for  such  a 
question. 

The  only  other  remark  I  made  was  that  "the  scientific  voice  seems  to  lack 
decisiveness."  Here  perhaps  the  term  "accuracy"  would  have  been  preferable 
to  "  decisiveness,"  for  a  very  few  days'  sojourn  in  any  of  our  marine  laboratories 
should  have  been  sufficient  to  convince  Dr.  Gilchrist  that  it  is  not  a  "theory 
that  the  spawn  of  most  fish"  floats  at  the  surface  (Q.  725),  but  a  fact  capable 
of  easy  demonstration,  and,  secondly,  that  "  the  herring  is  "  not  "  about  the  only 
fish  known  to  spawn  on  the  ground"  (Q.  726). 

From  the  above  I  trust  it  is  clear  that,  although  I  may  seem  to  have 
misunderstood  Dr.  Gilchrist,  in  this  case  things  are  not  what  they  seem. — 
Yours,  etc.,  The  Reviewer. 


Sept.  25,  1899. 


CORRIGENDA. 


Since  the  address  affixed  to  the  MS.  of  the  "  The  Fauna  of  the  Sound" 
(Nat.  Sci.  xv.  pp.  263-273)  escaped  your  notice,  the  proofs  of  that  paper  never 
reached  either  me  or  Dr.  Lonnberg.  The  following  corrections  will  bring  the 
published  pages  into  better  agreement  with  the  original  MS.  : — 

I  P.  263,  line  1,  for  ntirande  read  rorande. 

1  P.  263,  line  2  from  bottom,  indenfor  is  one  word. 

P.  267,  line  5  from  bottom,  for  Shore-regions  read  Shore-region. 

P.  269,  271,  272,  for  Bohustan  read  Bohuslan. 

P.  266,  in  the  italicised  line,  for  Oscidians  read  Ascidians. 

F.  A.  Bather. 


/£$•/*  ^»^  >\<g\ 
NEWS. 


The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Dr.  Ardaillon  as  pro- 
fessor of  geography  in  the  University  of  Lille  ;  Marshall  A.  Barber,  as  associate 
professor  of  cryptogamic  botany  in  the  University  of  Kansas ;  Dr.  G.  A.  Bates, 
as  professor  of  histology  in  Tufts  College  Dental  School ;  B.  K.  Beattie,  as 
instructor  in  botany  in  the  Agricultural  College  at  Pullman,  Washington ;  H. 
M.  Benedict,  as  head  of  the  biological  department  of  the  Nebraska  State 
Normal  School  at  Peru ;  Dr.  B.  M.  Buchanan,  as  bacteriologist  to  the  City  of 
Glasgow  ;  Judson  F.  Clark,  as  an  assistant  in  botany  in  Cornell  University  ;  Dr. 
E.  D.  Copeland,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  botany  at  the  University  of  West 
Virginia ;  Dr.  Karl  Josef  Erich  Correns,  as  titular  professor  of  botany  in  the 
University  of  Tubingen  ;  Dr.  Deichmliller,  of  the  mineralogical  and  ethnological 
museum  in  Dresden,  to  the  title  of  professor ;  Dr.  Julius  Doeger  as  adjunct  to 
the  Austrian  Geological  Survey  ;  Dr.  W.  Figdor  to  be  privat  docent  in  botanical 
anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  University  of  Vienna  ;  F.  P.  Gorham,  to  be 
assistant  professor  of  biology  at  Brown  University,  U.S.A.  ;  H.  Hasselbring,  as 
an  assistant  in  botany  at  Cornell  University  ;  George  J.  Hastings,  as  an  assistant 
in  botany  at  Cornell  University ;  Dr.  Max  Hollrung,  director  of  the  Experiment 
Station  for  plant  protection  at  Halle,  to  be  titular  professor ;  Alfred  Jentzsch, 
to  be  geologist  at  the  Geological  Landesanstalt  in  Berlin,  in  succession  to  the 
late  Professor  Th.  Ebert ;  Dr.  J.  B.  Johnston,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  zoology 
at  the  University  of  West  Virginia;  J.  L.  Kellogg,  as  assistant  professor  of  biology 
at  Williams  College,  Williamstown,  Mass. ;  Dr.  F.  D.  Lambert,  instructor  in 
biology  in  Tufts  College,  U.S.A. ;  Albert  B.  Lewis,  assistant  instructor  in  zoology 
in  the  University  of  Nebraska;  Miss  Annie  Lyons,  as  assistant  in  zoology  at  Smith 
College,  U.S.A.  ;  Harold  Lyon,  assistant  in  botany  in  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota ;  C.  B.  Morrey,  to  be  assistant  professor  of  anatomy  and  physiology  at  the 
Ohio  State  University  ;  Dr.  Elisa  Norsa,  assistant  in  zoology  in  the  University  of 
Bologna ;  Karl  Beinhertz,  as  professor  of  geodesy  in  the  Technical  Institute  in 
Hannover  ;  P.  H.  Bolfs,  as  professor  of  botany  at  Clemson  College,  and  botanist 
to  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  of  South  Carolina  ;  William  Norman 
Sands,  as  director  of  the  botanical  station  in  Antigua  ;  J.  L.  Sheldon,  instructor 
in  biology  in  the  Nebraska  State  Normal  School ;  Dr.  Max  Standfuss,  as 
titular  professor  of  zoology. in  the  University  of  Zurich;  Dr.  F.  E.  Suess, 
assistant  on  the  Austrian  Geological  Survey ;  Dr.  F.  Supino,  to  be  assistant  in 
the  Zoological  Institute  of  the  University  of  Borne ;  B.  W.  Tower,  to  be  assist- 
ant professor  of  chemical  physiology  at  Brown  University ;  Mr.  W.  H.  Twelve- 
trees,  as  geologist  to  the  Government  of  Tasmania ;  F.  E.  Watson,  graduate 
assistant  in  zoology  in  the  University  of  Nebraska ;  Professor  W.  M.  Wheeler 
of  Chicago,  as  professor  of  zoology  in  the  University  of  Texas  ;  W.  H.  Wheeler, 
assistant  in  botany  in  the  University  of  Minnesota ;  Dr.  A.  Willey,  as  lecturer 
on  biology  at  Guy's  Hospital,  London  ;  B.  H.  Wolcott,  as  adjunct  professor  of 
zoology  in  the  University  of  Nebraska ;  Ernst  Anton  Wiilfing,  as  professor  of 
geology  and  mineralogy  at  the  Agricultural  Institute  in  Hohenheim. 
'25 — xat.  sc. — vol.  xv.  so.  93  373 


374  JVEIVS  [NOVEMBER 

We  learn  from  Science  that  Dr.  R.  Burckhardt,  professor  of  palaeontology  at 
Basle,  and  Dr.  V.  Uhlig,  professor  of  geology  in  the  German  Technical  Institute 
of  Brag,  have  been  elected  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Halle. 

Brofessors  D.  J.  Cunningham  and  W.  C  M'Intosh  have  been  appointed 
as  scientific  members  of  a  commission  to  incpiire  into  inland  fisheries  in  Ireland. 

Ernst  Ebermayer  resigns  his  professorship  of  forestry  in  the  University  of 
Miinchen. 

W.  von  Ahles  resigns  his  professorship  of  botany  in  the  Technical  Institute 
in  Stuttgart. 

A  bacteriologist  is  wanted  for  the  Glamorgan  County  Council  and  Cardiff 
Corporation,  who  shall  also  lecture  on  bacteriology  in  the  University  College, 
Cardiff.  The  salary  is  <£300.  Applications  have  to  be  sent  before  6th 
November  to  Mr.  W.  E.  R.  Allen,  County  Offices,  Cardiff. 

During  October  the  Swiney  Lectures  on  Geology  in  connection  with  the 
British  Museum  (Nat.  Hist.)  were  delivered  by  Dr.  R.  H.  Traquair,  who  chose 
for  his  subject  the  "  Bleistocene  Mammalia."  Since  the  Natural  History 
Museum  is  still  without  a  lecture-theatre,  the  course  was  given  at  the  Museum 
of  Bractical  Geology.  After  next  year,  when  Dr.  Traquair's  appointment 
terminates,  the  post  will  be  open  to  any  doctor  of  medicine  or  science  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh. 

A  curious  thing  about  this  lecturing  at  Jermyn  Street  is  that  the  audience 
is  far  smaller  than  it  used  to  be  at  South  Kensington.  However  convenient 
Jermyn  Street  may  be  for  the  agriculturist  in  search  of  water,  or  the  mining 
speculator  who  wants  an  analysis  of  a  new  sample  of  ore,  it  is,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Swiney  lecturer,  more  remote  from  the  ordinary  student  of  natural 
science  than  is  South  Kensington.  This  tells  against  those  who  wish  to  keep 
all  the  Survey  collections  in  their  present  confined  quarters. 

A  circular  from  an  influential  committee  formed  at  the  Dover  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  is  headed  with  the  words  :  "  It  is  at  least  probable  that  the 
closing  year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  which  science  has  played  so  great  a 
part,  may,  at  Baris,  during  the  great  World's  Fair — which  every  friend,  not  of 
science  only,  but  of  humanity,  trusts  may  not  be  put  aside  or  even  injured 
through  any  untoward  event,  and  which  promises  to  be  an  occasion  not  of 
pleasurable  sight- seeing  only,  but  also,  by  its  International  Congresses,  of 
international  communing  in  the  search  for  truth — witness  the  first  select  Witen- 
agemote  of  the  Science  of  the  world." 

It  proceeds  to  say  that,  "  Following  upon  the  hopes  and  counsels  of  Sir 
Michael  Foster's  Fresidential  Address  and  upon  the  reunions  of  the  British  and 
French  Associations,  it  is  felt  that  the  time  is  now  ripe  for  some  more  permanent 
organisation  which  should  maintain,  develop,  and  utilise  the  good  relations  thus 
so  fully  initiated.  It  is  therefore  proposed  to  form  a  General  and  Advisory 
Committee  consisting  of  members  of  the  British  Association,  the  Association 
Francaise,  and  of  other  representatives  of  Fure  and  Applied  Science,  Education, 
Art,  etc.,  with  the  object  of  promoting  arrangements  for  an  International 
Meeting  or  Assembly  in  connection  with  the  Baris  Exposition  of  1900." 

"It  is  widely  felt  that  there  is  not  only  room  but  need  for  some  organisation 
which  would  bring  together,  for  each  of  the  leading  Departments  and  Con- 
gresses of  the  Exposition,  the  specialist,  the  educationalist,  and  the  intelligent 
public ;  and  this  on  all  grounds,  from  those  of  personal  convenience,  and 
economy  of  time,  money,  and  effort,  to  the  highest  considerations  of  scientific 
progress  and  international  amity." 

Names  of  those  willing  to  join  the  General  Committee  of  this  proposed 
Baris  International  Assembly,  which,  we  learn,  has  been  warmly  welcomed  in 
France,  and  has  received  a  munificent  beginning  to  a  guarantee  fund  in  Britain, 


1899]  NEWS  375 

should  be  sent  to  Profs.  Mavor  and  Geddes,  Acting  Secretaries,  T.  R.  Marr, 
Assistant  Secretary,  5  Old  Queen  Street,  Westminster,  London,  S.W.,  or  95 
Boulevard  St.  Michel,  Paris. 

At  the  Paris  Exposition  there  is  also  to  be  an  International  Congress  of 
Physics,  in  regard  to  which  a  prospectus  has  been  issued. 

We  learn  from  the  Scientific  American  that  an  aquarium  will  be  among  the 
attractions  at  the  Paris  Exposition.  "  A  dark  incline  will  lead  visitors  to  it, 
and  suddenly  they  will  feel  as  if  transported  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  sea,  in 
the  midst  of  marine  landscapes  and  inhabitants  of  the  ocean." 

At  a  meeting  held  in  The  Outlook  Tower,  Castlehill,  Edinburgh,  on  14th 
October,  Prof.  James  Geikie,  D.C.L.,  in  the  chair,  an  interesting  and  stimulating 
address  was  delivered  by  Prof.  AVilbur  Jackman,  M.A.,  of  Chicago  University 
and  Training  College,  on  "  Nature-Study,  its  Methods  and  Results  in  School 
Practice."  Even  apart  from  the  able  address,  which  will  doubtless  be  published, 
the  exhibits  of  notes  of  work,  especially  those  in  water-colour,  arranged  round 
the  room,  showed  what  results  await  those  teachers  who  have  the  courage  and 
opportunity  to  devise  courses  of  nature-study  to  mitigate  the  burden  of  book- 
work.  To  many  of  those  present  these  exhibits  and  the  story  of  them  must 
have  seemed  a  revelation,  but  it  was  interesting  to  notice  that  several  authorities 
who  took  part  in  the  discussion,  which  lasted  for  towards  two  hours  after  the 
lecture,  reverted  to  the  necessity  of  "  books."  A  guide-book  for  the  teacher  may 
be  necessary — not  that  there  is  really  a  lack — but  of  more  books  for  the  scholars 
there  should,  in  a  case  like  this,  be  no  mention.  Owing  to  the  overcrowded 
audience,  an  adjournment  after  the  lecture  was  effected  to  the  Castlehill  public 
school,  where,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Prof.  Crum  Brown,  F.R.S.,  an 
interesting  discussion  was  held.  To  this  contributions  were  made  by  Mr. 
Robert  Smith,  B.Sc,  of  University  College,  Dundee,  who  reported  on  some 
nature -study  classes  which  he  had  conducted,  by  Mr.  Robert  Blair,  Science 
Inspector,  by  Dr.  Dunn,  H.M.I. S.,  by  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  of  Aberdeen,  by 
Dr.  Maurice  Paterson  of  the  Free  Church  Training  College,  by  Miss  Stevenson 
of  the  Edinburgh  School  Board,  by  Mr.  Walter  Blaikie,  Prof.  Geddes  of  Dundee, 
and  others. 

There  was  also  an  exhibition  of  maps  of  a  botanical  survey  of  Scotland  by 
Mr.  Robert  Smith,  of  a  cosmosphere  by  Mr.  Walter  Blaikie,  of  a  first  panel  of  a 
proposed  spheric  atlas  by  Prof.  E.  Reclus  of  Brussels,  of  relief  models  by  Mr. 
George  Guyou,  etc.  Altogether  the  meeting  was  one  of  considerable  educational 
importance  in  connection  with  the  teaching  of  natural  science  in  schools. 

In  connection  with  the  problem  which  the  recent  codifying  of  "  nature- 
study  "  has  raised,  we  would  be  frank  in  remarking  that  "  nature-study  "  is  as 
difficult  as  it  is  valuable  as  an  educational  discipline,  and  that,  the  facts  being 
as  they  are,  the  further  education  of  the  teachers  (and  their  better  remunera- 
tion, which  is  an  obvious  correlative  condition)  must  be  recognised  as  indispens- 
able to  success.  Badly  taught  spelling  may  be  bad,  but  it  hardly  affects  morals  ; 
badly  taught  grammar  may  be  worse,  but  it  is  rarely  forcible  enough  to  warp 
the  outlook  of  a  lifetime ;  but  badly  taught  science  by  incompetent  teachers 
is  probably  worse  than  none  at  all.  We  know  full  well  that  there  are  many 
splendidly  equipped  science  teachers  in  our  primary  schools  throughout  the 
country,  but  this  is  certainly  not,  necessarily  not,  the  case  with  most.  To  over- 
hear a  class  repeating  "  the  stomach  is  a  bag  at  the  end  of  the  alimentary  canal  " 
would  suffice  to  show  even  cranks  for  science  teaching  that  the  seamy  side  is 
distressfully  ragged.  And  we  may  quote  another  illustration,  supported  by  an 
editorial  comment  in  our  successful  contemporary  The  American  Naturalist  for 
September,  in  which  it  is  pointed  out  that  The  Great  Round  World,  an  excellent 
juvenile  newspaper,  tells  the  child  audience  that  a  Siberian  traveller  has  found 
a  beautiful   flower  that  blossoms  in  January,  resembling  the  Convolvulus,  a 


376  NEWS  [NOVEMBER 

blossom  lasting  only  a  clay,  and  that  on  the  third  or  fourth  day  it  has  the  ends 
of  the  fine  anthers  tipped  with  glistening  diamond-like  specks — the  seeds.  The 
seeds,  parbleu  !     And  this  is  called  "  Easy  Science." 

We  learn  from  the  very  excellent  September  number  of  the  Journal  of 
Applied  Microscopy  that  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory  at  Wood's  Holl  has 
just  closed  its  twelfth  annual  session.  The  year  has  been  a  very  successful  one, 
additional  courses  were  offered,  attendance  considerably  increased,  and  a  deep 
interest  manifested.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  management  to  further  broaden 
the  scope  of  work.  A  thorough  course  in  nature-study  will  be  introduced  next 
year.  An  addition  to  the  botanical  building  and  a  new  building  for  research 
laboratories  are  also  expected. 

The  Natural  History  Society  of  Montreal  has  issued  an  appeal  for  financial 
aid.  This  has  been  rendered  necessary  by  the  discontinuance  of  the  grant  from 
the  Quebec  Government,  which  used  to  defray  the  cost  of  publishing  The 
Canadian  Record  of  Science.  The  Society  does  good  work  in  maintaining  a 
library  and  museum,  the  latter  open  free  on  Saturdays  and  on  Wednesday  after- 
noons and  visited  by  4000  people  during  the  past  year.  Under  the  auspices 
of  the  Society,  Saturday  half -hour  lectures  to  young  people  are  delivered,  as  well 
as  the  Somerville  lectures  to  grown-ups.  The  number  of  members  is  only  about 
170.     We  hope  the  Society  will  receive  the  support  it  deserves. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Hull  Scientific  and  Field  Naturalists'  Club,  held 
on  20th  September,  it  was  stated  that  54  new  members  had  been  elected  during 
the  past  year,  raising  the  membership  to  165.  At  the  fortnightly  meetings 
during  the  year  lectures  were  delivered,  several  dealing  with  local  natural  history. 
Sectional  meetings  were  also  held,  and  at  them  practical  demonstrations  were 
given  by  the  recorders  and  other  officers  of  the  club.  During  the  summer 
months  field  meetings  were  held  as  usual,  and  excursions  made  to  places  in  the 
neighbourhood.  By  the  publication  of  Transactions  (previously  noticed  by  us) 
the  Society  has  been  able  to  add  to  its  library.  A  microscope  club  has  been 
started  to  enable  members  to  buy  microscopes  at  reduced  rates.  The  President 
for  the  ensuing  year  is  Mr.  R.  H.  Philip.  The  Secretaryship  remains  in  the  able 
hands  of  Mr.  Thos.  Sheppard,  78  Sherburn  Street,  Hull. 

In  Science  for  29th  September  there  are  some  interesting  notes  by  "F.  A.  L."  on 
"  The  Work  of  Foreign  Museums."  The  Australian  Museum  leads  the  list  in  ex- 
penditure, though  this  only  amounts  to  $35,000 ;  the  Colombo  Museum,  the 
official  museum  of  Ceylon,  had  111,000  visitors  in  1898,  and  yet  suffers  for  lack 
of  funds  and  paint ;  the  activitj'  of  the  museum  at  Prag  is  shown  by  the  numerous 
meetings  of  the  association  by  which  it  is  controlled  and  by  its  important  publica- 
tions, e.g.  Fric's  Fauna  der  Gaskohle ;  the  West  Prussian  Provincial  Museum 
is  very  strictly  regional ;  the  Norwich  Museum  likewise ;  the  Manchester 
Museum  is  "  a  very  live  museum,"  but  this  is  hardly  "  news." 

From  the  Report  of  the  Australian  Museum  for  1898  we  glean  the  following 
information  : — Few  purchases  were  made,  owing  to  want  of  funds ;  on  the 
other  hand,  a  circular  appeal  for  objects  illustrating  Australian  ethnology  has 
met  with  a  gratifying  response.  A  large  collection  of  miscellaneous  objects 
from  Pacific  islands  has  been  presented  by  Eev.  S.  Ella.  The  Rev.  H.  A. 
Robertson  of  Erromanga,  New  Hebrides,  has  presented  a  cooking-pot  and.  two 
large  stone  rings,  known  as  Navilah  or  moon-rings,  of  great  rarity  and  value. 
There  have  been  purchased  a  remarkable  inlaid  skull  from  the  Solomon  Islands, 
and  a  valuable  series  of  objects  from  Thio,  New  Caledonia,  including  two 
funeral  masks,  shell  money,  and  a  doigtier  or  spear-thrower.  In  this  depart- 
ment all  the  unexhibited  specimens  have  been  arranged  systematically,  and  the 
phallic  specimens,  of  which  the  Museum  possesses  a  fine  series,  have  been 
arranged  in  a  private  room  and  labelled.  The  zoological  collections  have  been 
enriched  by  many  specimens  from  the  Zoological  Society  of  New  South  Wales, 


1899]  NEWS  377 

including  a  donkey  brought  back  from  the  Soudan  in  1885  by  the  New  South 
"Wales  Infantry.  Prof.  W.  B.  Spencer  presented  several  specimens  of  Central 
Australian  Muridae.  Mr.  "Waite  is  making  a  card  catalogue  of  the  mammals, 
and  finds  the  plan  exceedingly  convenient.  A  new  spirit  house  has  been  built, 
and  thousands  of  specimens  in  spirit  have  been  safely  transferred  to  it.  The 
detrimental  practice  of  keeping  birds'  skins  in  spirits  has  now  been  stopped. 
The  skeleton  of  a  large  sunfish,  Orthagoriscus  viola,  is  being  prepared  by  the 
method  used  for  cartilaginous  skeletons.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  exhibited 
shells  have  to  be  pi-otected  by  movable  covers,  since  their  colours  are  bleached 
by  the  strong  light.  The  Tunicata  of  New  South  Wales  have  been  studied  by 
Prof.  Herdman,  who  has  compiled  a  "  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Tunicata  in 
the  Australian  Museum,  Sydney,  N.S.W.,"  printed  in  Liverpool,  and  published 
about  midsummer  last.  This  gives  to  the  Museum  some  fifty  types.  Under 
Palaeontology  it  is  stated  that  Mr.  C.  W.  de  Vis  of  the  Queensland  Museum 
has  continued  the  determination  of  the  extinct  marsupial  remains.  The  more 
important  donations  were :  Mesozoic,  Carboniferous,  and  Silurian  fossils  of 
Tasmania,  by  T.  Stephens ;  Cretaceous  reptilian  and  fish  remains  from  the 
Flinders  river,  by  J.  B.  Nutting ;  and  Prof.  B.  Tate's  co-types  of  Ordovician 
fossils  from  Central  Australia,  by  W.  A.  Horn.  The  collection  of  meteorites 
has  been  added  to  by  casts,  slices,  and  a  small  iron  meteorite  from  West 
Australia.  Many  Australian  minerals  have  been  presented,  and  among  them  a 
fine  series  of  native  copper  from  Broken  Hill.  These  excerpts  by  no  means 
exhaust  the  interest  of  the  Report.  The  amount  of  work  done  under  discour- 
aging circumstances  is  highly  creditable  to  the  staff.  It  is  clear  they  do  not  go 
to  sleep,  for  sixteen  telephones  have  been  distributed  throughout  the  building, 
"and  have  already  proved  a  source  of  great  convenience  and  saving  of  time." 

Science  notes  that  the  last  report  of  the  Royal  Zoological  Society  of  Amster- 
dam commemorates  the  sixtieth  year  of  its  existence.  Besides  the  well-known 
zoological  garden,  the  Society  maintains  a  fine  aquarium,  a  zoological  museum, 
a  geological  and  palaeontological  collection,  a  library,  etc.,  a  combination  which 
affords  fine  facilities  for  scientific  work.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Fiirbringer's 
monumental  work  on  the  morphology  of  birds  was  among  the  publications  of 
this  Society. 

On  September  11,  Alderman  George  Collard,  Mayor  of  Canterbury,  opened 
in  that  town  a  new  institute,  library,  and  museum,  in  great  part  the  gift  of  the 
late  Dr.  Beaney  of  Melbourne. 

We  learn  from  Nature  that  a  commencement  has  been  made  with  the  new 
Geological  Museum  at  Oxford.  The  Museum  will  cost  about  ,£44,000,  the 
fund  raised  at  a  memorial  to  Prof.  Sedgwick  supplying  .£27,000. 

Science  for  September  22  quotes  from  the  report  of  the  Australian  Museum 
for  1897  an  interesting  observation  in  regard  to  a  specimen  of  the  Galapagos 
tortoise,  Testudo  nigrita,  brought  to  Sydney  in  1853.  It  then  weighed  53 
pounds,  while  at  the  time  of  its  death,  in  1896,  its  weight  had  increased  to 
368  pounds,  "a  more  rapid  rate  of  growth  than  such  animals  are  usually  credited 
with."     It  is  now  mounted  in  the  Museum. 

Science  reports  the  following  gifts  and  bequests  : — $300,000  given  by  Mr. 
Edward  Tuck  of  New  York  to  Dartmouth  College ;  860,000  bequeathed  by 
Mrs.  Mary  D.  Goddard  to  Tufts  College;  810,000  bequeathed  by  Richard  B. 
"Westbrook  of  Philadelphia  to  the  Wagner  Institute  of  Science,  to  endow  a 
lectureship  for  "  the  full  and  fearless  discussion  by  the  most  learned  and  dis- 
tinguished men  and  women  in  our  own  and  other  countries  of  mooted  or  disputed 
questions  in  science,  and  especially  the  theories  of  evolution." 

W7e  have  already  alluded  to  the  fact  that  during  last  year  Mr.  E.  R.  "Waite 
of  the  Australian  Museum  accompanied  H.M.  Col.  S.S.  Thetis  on  a  trawling  and 


37§  NEJVS  [NOVEMBER 

dredging  cruise  under  the  control  of  Mr.  F.  Farnell.  The  cruise,  or  rather  series 
of  four  cruises,  lasted  from  February  18  to  April  9.  The  coast-line  covered 
extended  from  Jervis  Bay  to  the  Manning  River,  and,  except  for  a  trip  to  Lord 
Howe  Id.,  the  greatest  distance  from  land  was  25  miles.  The  depths  at  which 
the  trawl  was  lowered  ranged  between  10  and  90  fathoms.  The  fishes  were  the 
chief  object  of  study;  about  100  species  represented  by  365  specimens  were 
collected,  and  Mr.  Waite's  preliminary  "  Scientific  Report  on  the  Fishes  "  was 
published  last  year  as  an  appendix  to  Mr.  Farnell's  "  Report  upon  Trawling 
Operations."  Several  species  are  new  to  the  colony,  while  a  few  are  new  to 
science.  The  entire  scientific  collections  have  been  deposited  in  the  Museum, 
and  the  results  will  be  published  as  a  Museum  Memoir,  towards  the  expense  of 
which  £400  was  voted.  On  the  last  cruise  to  Lord  Howe  Id.,  heavy  weather 
was  encountered,  and  the  passage  occupied  seventy  hours  instead  of  the  usual 
thirty-six.  Mr.  Waite  and  Mr.  Etheridge,  who  also  was  on  this  trip,  were  left 
on  the  island  for  eleven  days,  since  the  Thetis  was  blown  to  sea  in  the  gale. 
They  collected  here  some  additional  veiy  interesting  remains  of  Meiolania 
platyceps,  the  peculiar  extinct  chelonian,  which  is  also  found  in  Patagonia. 
Also  by  the  help  of  Mrs.  T.  Nicholls  they  obtained  an  additional  collection  of 
shells.  A  large  number  of  sponges,  anemones,  corals,  gorgonias,  echinoderms, 
crustaceans,  and  polyzoa  were  collected  during  the  cruise.  The  number  of 
species  was  very  great,  and  included  many  new  or  hitherto  unrecorded  from  the 
coast  of  New  South  Wales. 

Dr.  Kishinouye  and  other  Japanese  zoologists  have  hired  a  two-storeyed 
building  on  the  shores  of  the  Inland  Sea,  with  the  view  of  converting  it  into  a 
biological  station. 

Professor  J.  Ijima  has  returned  from  a  zoological  expedition  to  Formosa. 

The  Danish  expedition  to  East  Greenland,  under  the  leadership  of  Lieut. 
Amdrup,  returned  to  Copenhagen  on  Sept.  1 3.  It  had  investigated  and  mapped 
the  tract  between  65°  50'  and  57°  22'  N.  lat.,  hitherto  unvisited  by  Europeans. 
At  one  time  it  was  inhabited  by  many  Esquimaux,  all  of  whom  have  now 
perished.  A  collection  of  their  skulls  and  other  relics  was  brought  home. 
Botanical,  geological,  and  zoological  observations  were  made,  as  well  as  anthro- 
pological measurements  on  living  Esquimaux  in  other  parts.  Depots  were  left 
at  60°  6'  and  67°  15'  N.  lat. 

Dr.  Carl  Peters  is  said  to  have  passed  from  Portuguese  territory  into 
Mashonaland,  after  making  some  important  discoveries  of  mica,  saltpetre,  and 
diamonds. 

N attire  reports  that  the  Imperial  Russian  Geographical  Society  and  the 
Ministry  of  Agriculture  have  jointly  arranged  for  a  zoological  exploration  of 
the  Russian  coast-line  of  the  Pacific  in  the  Far  East.  The  expedition  Avill  also 
work  in  conjunction  with  the  "  Society  for  exploring  the  Amur  territory,"  and 
it  is  intended  to  establish  a  marine  zoological  station  at  Vladivostock. 

The  rumour  is  that  Nansen  will  not  undertake  another  north  polar  expedi- 
tion, but  that  his  next  trip  will  probably  be  southwards.  It  is  also  rumoured 
that  the  scientific  interest  of  the  British  Antarctic  Expedition  is  being  threatened 
by  a  predominance  of  geographical  and  physical  considerations.  It  will  be 
deplorable  if  the  biological  problems  are  in  any  way  overlooked,  for  the  most 
that  can  be  said  after  all  is  that  the  Antarctic  fauna  has  been  touched  and 
scratched  at. 

Mr.  H.  J.  Mackinder,  the  Reader  of  Geography  at  Oxford,  succeeded  in 
September  in  reaching  the  summit  of  the  hitherto  unsealed  Mount  Kenia  in 
British  East  Africa. 

Major  Ronald  Ross  and  his  colleagues  have  been  very  successful  at  Sierra 
Leone,  having  shown  that  certain  mosquitoes  {Anopheles  sp.)  there  carry  the 


1899]  NEWS  379 

malarial  germ,  and  that  as  these  breed  in  a  few  stagnant  pools  a  little  energy 
will  suffice  to  get  rid  of  them  and  the  fever  at  once. 

Science  reports  the  return  and  the  success  of  an  expedition  which  sailed  a 
year  ago,  under  the  scientific  direction  of  R.  E.  Snodgrass,  to  the  Galapagos 
Islands  and  to  Cocos  and  Clipperton  Island  west  of  Ecuador.  A  large  collection 
of  animals  has  been  made. 

Prof.  Georg  Bohm,  geologist  of  Freiburg,  has  gone  on  leave  for  a  year  and 
a  half  on  a  journey  to  Asia,  Australia,  and  Central  America. 

An  association  has  been  formed  of  collectors  for  the  purpose  of  exploring 
the  local  lepidopterous  fauna  of  Hildesheim  and  vicinity,  under  the  title  of 
Verein  fur  Schmetterlingsfreunde.  Prof.  A.  Radcliffe  Grote  of  the  Poemer 
Museum  presides. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  Profs.  W.  Libbey  and  C.  M'Clure  of  the  Peary 
Relief  Expedition  have  returned  to  Princeton  with  rich  collections  both  of 
vertebrates  and  invertebrates. 

The  Scientific  American  of  September  23  states  that  a  year  ago  Cornell 
University  secured  30,000  acres  of  woodland  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains  for 
the  exclusive  use  of  her  forestry  department.  The  land  has  been  divided  into 
a  number  of  sections  and  several  seed  beds  have  been  laid  out  in  which  there 
has  been  planted  over  a  million  small  trees  of  different  varieties.  The  students 
of  forestry  will  study  the  theory  of  the  subject  from  October  to  April,  and  from 
then  until  Commencement  they  will  study  the  practical  side  of  forestry. 
Cornell  University  is  the  only  college  in  the  United  States  which  has  a  forestry 
department.  Prof.  John  Gifford  was  recently  elected  to  the  Chair  of  Forestry 
in  the  University. 

Nature  for  September  28  notes  that  Mr.  E.  R.  Waite  has  identified  the 
"  palu  "  or  "  oil-fish  "  of  the  Central  Pacific  as  the  well-known  Ruvettus  firetiosus, 
hitherto  known  only  from  the  North  Atlantic. 

The  Scientific  American  reports  that  by  a  fall  of  rock  at  Niagara  Falls  the 
Horseshoe  Fall  has  been  restored  to  the  shape  from  which  it  derives  its  name, 
which  it  has  belied  of  late  years. 

Science  reports  that  the  German  Government  has  sent  Prof,  von  Volkens  of 
Berlin  to  the  Caroline  Islands  to  investigate  the  soil  and  the  flora. 

The  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  voted  a  hundred 
dollars  to  Prof.  Eigenmann  to  help  in  his  researches  on  cave  animals. 

The  Scientific  American  refers  to  an  interesting  excursion  made  at  the  close 
of  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
A  party  went  to  Sandusky,  Kelley  Island,  and  Put-in  Bay,  at  which  place  they 
explored  the  unique  and  marvellous  Strontia  Cave,  the  only  one  of  the  kind 
known.  The  arches  are  hung  with  prismatic  crystals  of  "  celestite."  The 
place  was  found  by  Mr.  Gustave  Heinemann,  in  1897,  while  opening  a  well. 
Besides  exhibiting  his  grotto,  he  makes  money  by  selling  specimens  of  the 
sparkling  strontia.  Commercially  this  mineral  is  worth  twelve  dollars  a  ton, 
and  is  used  to  clarify  beet-sugar,  and  likewise  in  pyrotechnics,  giving  a  vivid 
crimson  colour  to  fireworks. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
Di\  L.  O.  Howard  discussed  "  Spider-bite  Stories,"  and  noted  that  he  had  been 
unable  to  verify  a  single  serious  or  fatal  case.  He  scoffed  at  the  "  kissing-bug  " 
craze,  which  he  compared  to  the  tarantula  frenzy  and  as  in  great  part  hysterical. 
He  blamed  the  newspapers  for  helping  to  create  morbid  nervousness. 


6 


80  NEWS  [NOVEMBER  1899 


Dr.  Howard,  in  his  paper  on  "  Gad-Flies  "  at  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  noted  that  before  the  Russian 
entomologist  Porchinki  he  had  tried  and  advocated  the  method  of  destroying 
these  insects  by  means  of  a  kerosene  film  spread  over  the  pools. 

Three  cities  contended  for  the  distinction  of  entertaining  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1900,  namely,  Denver, 
Philadelphia,  and  New  York.  The  latter  was  decided  upon.  The  date  was 
fixed  for  June,  from  the  25th  to  the  30th,  in  order  to  suit  members  who  may 
wish  to  attend  the  Paris  Exposition.  The  president  for  1900  is  Prof.  R.  S. 
Woodward,  of  Columbia  University,  distinguished  for  his  services  in  astronomy, 
geodesy,  and  mathematics. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  the  director  of  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey 
has  just  issued  a  pamplet  entitled  "  Maps  and  Descriptions  of  Routes  of  Explora- 
tions in  Alaska  in  1898,  with  General  Information  concerning  the  Territory."  There 
are  ten  maps,  and  special  reports  on  various  expeditions,  general  information 
concerning  the  Territory,  and  tabulated  information,  including  the  gold  pro- 
duction of  Alaska.  The  various  routes  and  means  of  transportation  are  clearly 
shown.  The  publication  is  intended  for  widespread  distribution,  and  copies 
can  be  obtained  by  the  aid  of  Congressmen. 

We  learn  from  Science,  that  in  addition  to  $300,000  subscribed  from  various 
sources  for  the  endowment  of  Brown  University,  on  condition  that  $2,000,000 
be  collected,  Mr.  John  D.  Rockfeller,  already  famous  for  his  munificence,  has 
offered  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  on  condition  that  a  million  be  raised  before 
the  commencement  of  next  year. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  the  New  York  Zoological  Society  has 
secured  from  express  companies  a  concession  in  rates  on  live  animals.  Formerly 
the  cost  of  transporting  live  animals  was  very  high,  and  the  reduction  will  be  a 
great  boon  to  zoological  gardens  and  the  like  throughout  the  States. 

The  renowned  botanist  and  philologist,  Stephan  Ladislaus  Endlicher,  who 
died  in  1849,  was  buried  along  with  his  wife  Cecilia  in  the  Matzlemsdorfer 
Cemetery  in  Vienna.  On  the  21st  of  June  1899  the  bodies  were  removed  to  a 
worthier  resting-place  near  the  main  entrance  to  the  central  Friedhof.  The 
Rector  of  the  University,  Prof.  J.  Wiesner,  and  the  Director  of  the  Botanical 
Gardens,  delivered  short  orations  in  praise  of  Endlicher's  genius  and  the  services 
which  he  rendered  to  botany,  philology,  and  science  in  general.  (See  Verh. 
Zool.  Hot.  Ges.  Wien.  xlix.  1899,  pp.  359-361.) 


Natural  Science 

A  Monthly  Review  of  Scientific  Progress 

December  1899 

NOTES    AND    COMMENTS. 

Eliminated. 

It  is  one  of  the  conditions  of  continued  vigorous  activity  on  an 
organism's  part  that  income  be  at  least  equal  to  expenditure,  and  the 
same  is  true  of  journals.  To  try  to  sustain  the  activity  when  the 
aforesaid  condition  is  not  fulfilled  is  not  uninteresting,  but  there  are 
limits  to  the  possibility  of  continuing  it.  We  regret  to  say  that  we 
have  reached  these  limits  as  regards  Natural  Science,  of  which  this  is 
the  last  number,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned.  In  spite  of  generous 
support  from  many  during  the  past  year,  and  our  own  endeavours  in 
publishing  and  editing,  the  journal  has  not  reached  that  measure  of 
success  which  would  seem  to  us  to  warrant  another  year's  experiment. 
We  make  our  bow,  then,  to  the  process  of  natural  elimination. 


Nature  Studies. 

There  has  been  much  talk  of  late  concerning  nature-studies  and  their 
more  forcible  introduction  as  part  of  school-education.  On  the  one 
hand  we  hear  the  conservatism  of  those  who  think  that  education  had 
much  better  continue  "  on  the  old  lines,"  that  is,  without  any  regulated 
instruction  regarding  our  natural  environment  except  in  so  far  as  that 
means  man  and  his  many  inventions.  The  proper  study  of  mankind, 
they  say,  is  man,  forgetting  that  he  does  not  live  in  vacuo,  and  is  really 
unintelligible  apart  from  his  non-human  environment.  On  the  other 
hand  we  hear  the  enthusiasm  of  those  who  think  that  there  is  a  new 
panacea  for  the  ills  of  minds  and  morals  in  a  codified  system  of  scientific 
teaching.  To  any  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  rudiments  of  the 
rapidly  advancing  art  of  paedagogics  or  possessed  of  unbiassed  common- 
sense,  the  two  extreme  positions  seem  absurd,  the  practical  problem 
being  to  work  our  way  towards  a  teaching  of  the  humanities  which 
will  be  scientific,  and  a  learning  of  science  which  will  be  humanitarian. 

26 NAT.   SC. VOL.  XV.    NO.   94.  38  I 


382  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December 

Those  who  are  seriously  interested  in  the  question  would  find 
food  for  reflection  if  they  would  take  opportunity  to  become 
acquainted  with  "  Nature  Studies  in  Berkshire,"  by  John  Coleman 
Adams  (New  York  and  London :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  pp.  225,  1899). 
It  is  not  that  there  is  any  new  discovery  in  the  book ;  it  is  the  redis- 
covery of  delight.  It  will  probably  not  even  instruct,  but  it  may 
possibly  enlighten.  It  is  not  an  educational  compendium ;  it  is  a 
work  of  art.  In  a  beautifully  bound  and  printed  volume,  with  fine 
photogravures,  and  in  a  style  which  sometimes  reminds  one  of 
Burroughs,  the  author  tells  us  of  the  American  Berkshire ;  and  the 
titles  of  some  of  the  chapters  will  suggest  his  happy  mood  :  A  Whisper 
from  the  Pines,  The  Seamy  Side  of  Summer,  At  the  Sign  of  the 
Beautiful  Star,  The  Great  Cloud  Drive,  The  Fruitage  of  Beauty.  He 
excels  himself  perhaps  in  "  The  Circumvention  of  Greylock,"  which 
means  "  a  bicycle  run  round  a  hill,"  but  the  difference  between  his  title 
and  ours  is  the  difference  between  light  and  darkness.  We  have  re- 
ferred to  the  book  here  because  of  our  conviction  that  its  value  lies  in 
its  being  an  expression  of  delight  in  nature  by  a  cultured  gentleman, 
and  that  if  "  nature  study  "  does  not  at  least  lead  towards  this,  it  is  not 
likely  to  mean  more  than  another  millstone  about  the  neck  of  youth. 


The  Production  of  Parthenogenesis  in  a  Sea- 
Urchin. 

It  is  not  long  since  Delage  made  a  remarkable  experiment,  which 
seemed  to  prove  that  the  nucleus  and  centrosome  of  the  ovum  were 
not  essential  to  reproduction.  Now  comes  Professor  Loeb  of  Chicago, 
and,  likewise  by  actual  experiment,  makes  out  that  even  the  spermato- 
zoon is  not  necessary.  His  results  are  given  in  a  short  note  "  On 
the  nature  of  the  process  of  fertilisation  and  the  artificial  production 
of  normal  larvae  (plutei)  from  the  unfertilised  eggs  of  the  sea-urchin  " 
(Amer.  Journ.  Physiol,  vol.  iii.  pp.  135-138,  Oct.  1899).  As  the 
outcome  of  a  long  series  of  experiments  and  inductions,  he  was  led  to 
believe  that  the  only  reason  why  the  eggs  of  marine  animals  did  not 
develop  parthenogenetically  was  that  something  in  the  constitution  of 
sea- water  prevented  it.  That  something,  he  inferred  from  experi- 
ments on  the  contraction  of  muscles,  was  the  presence  or  absence  of 
ions  of  sodium,  calcium,  potassium,  and  magnesium.  The  two  former 
require  to  be  reduced,  the  two  latter  to  be  increased  :  "  a  great  number 
of  variations  in  this  sense  might  bring  about  the  desired  effect." 
Without  going  into    details,  Professor   Loeb   states    briefly  that  "  the 

mixture  of  about  50  per  cent  —-n  MgCl2  with  about    50    per  cent   of 


1899]  PARTHENOGENESIS  IN  A  SEA-URCHIN  383 

sea-water J  was  able  to  bring  about  the  same  effect  as  the  entrance  of 
a  spermatozoon.      The   unfertilised   eggs    [of  the   sea-urchin  Arbacia] 
were  left  in  such  a  solution  for  about  two  hours.      When  brought  back 
into    normal  sea- water  they  began  to  segment   and    form    blastulae, 
gastrulae,  and  plutei,  which  were  normal  in  every  respect.      The  only 
difference  was  that  fewer  eggs  developed,  and  that  their  development 
was  slower  than  in  the  case  of  the  normal  development  of  fertilised 
eggs.      With  each  experiment  a  series  of  control  experiments  was  made 
to  guard  against  the  possible  presence  of  spermatozoa  in  the  sea-water." 
Professor  Loeb's  conclusion  is  "  that  the  unfertilised  egg  of  the  sea- 
urchin   contains   all   the   essential   elements   for  the   production    of  a 
perfect  pluteus."      "  All  the  spermatozoon  needs  to  carry  into  the  egg 
for  the  process  of  fertilisation  are  ions  to  supplement  the  lack  of" 
favourable  ions,  "  or  to  counteract  the  effects  of  the  other  class  of  ions 
in  the  sea-water,  or  both.      The  spermatozoon  may,  however,  carry  in 
addition  a  number  of  enzymes  or  other  material.      The  ions  and  not 
the  nucleins  in  the  spermatozoon  are  essential  to  the  process  of  fertilisa- 
tion."    Professor  Loeb  believes  that  the  same  principles  hold  good  for 
the  fertilisation  of  other,  if  not  all,  marine  animals,  although  the  ions 
involved  will  probably  differ  in  various  species.      By  marine  animals  he 
seems  to  mean  those  whose  eggs  are  deposited  before  fertilisation.      At 
all  events  he  does  not  include  mammals,  in  which  class  he  considers  it 
possible    that    parthenogenesis  is  prevented  only  by  the  ions  of  the 
blood,  and  that  a  transitory  change  in  those  might  allow  of  it. 

The  experiments  and  conclusions  of  Loeb  are  consistent  with  those 
of  Delage,  Ziegler,  Norman,  Driesch,  and  others.  All  the  ideas  as  to 
the  extreme  importance  of  nucleus,  and  centrosome,  and  polar  bodies 
and  the  like,  are  being  much  shaken,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  ground 
were  being  cleared  for  an  entirely  new  and  far  less  complicated  theory 
of  sexual  reproduction  and  heredity.  It  would  be  interesting  to  com- 
bine the  experiments  of  Delage  and  Loeb,  and  to  see  if  an  ovum  could 
be  made  to  develop  without  either  its  own  nucleins  or  those  of  the 
spermatozoon. 


The  Record  of  a  Great  Work. 

In  four  thick  volumes  the  famous  chemist  Berthelot  has  told  the  story 
•of  his  work  at  the  "  Station  de  Chimie  vegetale  de  Meudon "  from 
1883  to  1899  ("Chimie  vegetale  et  agricole."  Paris:  Masson  et  Cie. 
1899).  The  first  volume  deals  with  the  experiments  bearing  upon  the 
fixation  of  nitrogen  by  micro-organisms  in  the  soil  or  associated  with 
the  roots  of  Leguminosae,  by  silent  electrical  discharges  in  the  air,  and 
by  other  means.      In  the  second   volume   the    central  subject  is  the 

1  These  numbers  are  according  to  corrections  made  by  the  author  in  a  reprint  kindly- 
sent  by  him. 


384  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December 

chemical  history  of  an  annual  plant  from  germination  to  death,  in 
connection  with  which  the  author  recognises  the  enthusiastic  work  of 
his  colleague,  Mr.  G.  Andre.  The  third  volume  consists  of  special 
researches  on  the  chemistry  of  plants,  the  distribution  of  particular 
elements,  the  alleged  formation  and  distribution  of  nitrates  in  plants,  the 
formation  of  oxalic  acid  and  carbonates,  the  process  of  respiration,  and  so 
on.  The  fourth  volume  has  mainly  to  do  with  the  soil,  the  chemical 
nature  of  humus,  and  the  physiological  value  of  the  various  mineral  sub- 
stances. It  concludes  with  an  account  of  the  author's  numerous  researches 
on  the  chemistry  of  wine.  Many  of  the  illustrious  chemist's  results  are 
familiar  through  previous  publication,  and  have  been  met  with  no- 
small  amount  of  criticism ;  it  is  all  the  more  important  that  we  should 
now  have  them  in  collected  form  and  in  detailed  expression,  which 
enables  us  to  see  more  clearly  the  unequal  strength  of  the  evidence  on 
which  the  several  conclusions  rest.  As  the  record  of  a  great  work 
persistently  prosecuted  for  many  years  and  justified  by  many  results 
of  practical  and  theoretical  importance,  the  book  must  command  the 
admiration  and  respect  of  all. 


Floreat  Wood's  Holl. 

Eveky  biologist  who  is  still  young  enough  to  be  enthusiastic,  looks 
with  eagerness  about  this  time  of  year  for  the  arrival  of  the  volume  of 
"  Biological  Lectures  "  from  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  Wood's 
Holl,  Mass.  The  volume  for  1898  (Boston:  Ginn  and  Co.,  1899, 
pp.  343)  has  just  arrived,  in  good  time  for  the  Christmas  holidays, 
when  one  can  enjoy  its  stimuli  with  a  less  preoccupied  mind.  One 
cannot  help  feeling  that  the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  Wood's  Holl 
must  be  bracing,  the  lectures  are  so  vigorous. 

The  volume  begins  with  a  lecture  by  Professor  E.  B.  Wilson  on 
the  structure  of  protoplasm,  which  we  have  already  noticed.  "  The 
evidence  indicates  that  alveolar,  granular,  fibrillar,  and  reticular  struc- 
tures are  all  of  secondary  origin  and  importance,  and  that  the  ultimate 
background  of  protoplasmic  activity  is  the  sensibly  homogeneous  matrix 
or  continuous  substance  in  which  those  structures  appear."  Wilson  is 
also  the  author  of  the  second  lecture  on  cell-lineage  and  ancestral 
reminiscence — a  strong  plea  for  the  acceptance  of  cell-homology.  The 
third  lecture  on  "  adaptation  in  cleavage  "  is  by  Frank  B.  Lillie,  who 
seeks  to  show  that  the  special  features  of  the  cleavage  in  each  species 
are  as  definitely  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  future  larva  as  the  latter 
is  to  the  actual  conditions  of  its  environment.  Professor  E.  G.  Conklin 
discusses  in  the  fourth  lecture  protoplasmic  movement  as  a  factor  in 
differentiation,  showing  how  delusive  it  is  to  consider  the  cell  as  if  it 
were  merely  static,  since  movements  of  the  cytoplasm  play  a  very  im- 


1899]  FLORE  AT  WOOD'S  HOLL  385 

portant  part  in  developmental  processes.  In  the  fifth  lecture  Mr.  A.  L. 
Treadwell  discusses  equal  and  unequal  cleavage  in  Annelids,  in  regard 
to  which  he  seeks  to  show  that  equality  of  cleavage  is  not  an  indica- 
tion of  lack  of  differentiation  in  the  ovum,  for  definite  cells  appear  at 
definite  places  and  at  definite  times,  just  as  accurately  as  in  unequal 
cleavage.  The  sixth  lecture,  by  A.  D.  Mead,  is  more  technical,  dealing 
with  the  debatable  question  of  the  origin  and  homology  of  the  proto- 
troch.  In  the  seventh  lecture  Miss  Cornelia  M.  Clapp  discusses  the 
relation  of  the  axis  of  the  embryo  to  the  first  cleavage  plane,  and 
reaches  "  the  only  reasonable  conclusion  "  that  while  the  first  cleavage 
plane  may  coincide  with  the  median  axis  of  the  embryo,  as  Eoux  and 
others  have  shown,  it  is  not  a  constant  rule  in  any  siugle  case,  much 
less  a  universal  law.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Montgomery,  jun.,  recounts  his 
observations  on  various  nucleolar  structures  of  the  cell,  and  shows  at 
least  that  both  false  and  true  nucleoli  are  structures  of  manifold  com- 
plexity, in  regard  to  which  our  knowledge  is  very  vague.  Dr.  Watase 
follows  with  a  lecture  on  protoplasmic  contractility  and  phosphor- 
escence, in  which  he  gently  leads  up  to  the  conclusion  that  the  true 
physical  basis  of  phosphorescence  finds  its  closest  analogue  in  the 
common  phenomena  of  heat -production,  and  is  as  extensive  as  life 
itself.  Professor  T.  H.  Morgan  discusses  in  the  tenth  lecture  some 
problems  of  regeneration,  showing  that  it  is  not  easy  to  solve  them  all 
by  quoting  Lessona's  law,  or  repeating  the  words  "  natural  selection." 
In  the  eleventh  lecture  Professor  Bumpus,  who  has  previously  made 
good  use  of  sparrows,  shows  that  they  are  subject  to  discriminate  elimina- 
tion. The  twelfth  lecture  by  Professor  Jacques  Loeb,  on  "  The  Here- 
dity of  the  Marking  in  Fish  Embryos,"  has  been  noticed  separately. 

The  late  Mr.  W.  W.  Norman,  whose  loss  to  science  is  deplored, 
was  the  author  of  the  thirteenth  lecture,  which  shows  that  reactions  of 
lower  animals  upon  injury  furnish  no  safe  evidence  of  pain-sensations. 
Professor  W.  B.  Scott  discusses  North  American  ruminant-like  mammals 
in  his  accustomed  style,  and  then  follows  a  fine  essay  by  Professor 
W.  M.  Wheeler  on  Wolff  and  the  Theoria  Generationis.  But,  in  some 
ways,  the  most  impressive  lecture  is  the  last,  in  which  Professor  Whit- 
man discusses  animal  behaviour,  and  furnishes  a  notable  contribution 
to  comparative  psychology. 

The  charm  of  these  lectures  may  be  partly  due  to  the  circumstances 
of  their  delivery,  but  it  is  doubtless  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  each 
is  an  expression  of  personal  work  and  personal  interest.  One  cannot 
but  be  grateful  to  the  Laboratory  at  Wood's  Holl,  which  has  been  the 
stimulus  of  the  fine  series  to  which  this  volume  is  added. — Ploreat 
Wood's  Holl. 


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386  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [december 

Asterionella. 

The  organism  to  which  this  elegant  name  pertains  is  a  diatom  recently 
investigated  by  Messrs.  G-.  C.  Whipple  and  D.  D.  Jackson  {Journal  of 
the  New  England  Water  Works  Association,  vol.  xiv.  No.  1).  It 
causes  trouble  in  water-supplies  by  producing  objectionable  tastes  and 
odours.  It  is  common  in  Massachusetts  waters,  and  its  recent  occur- 
rence in  the  Brooklyn  supply  led  to  the  investigations  here  recorded. 

The  shape  of  this  diatom  resembles  that  of  a  humerus,  and  several 
cells  unite  to  form  star-like  clusters.  The  only  species  is  A.  formosa 
(Hassall),  but  many  varieties  have  been  observed.  The  article  itself 
must  be  consulted  for  details  of  structure. 

The  authors  suppose  that  they  saw  spores  or  spore-like  bodies  in 
the  cells,  but  they  did  not  observe  any  of  these  spores  (?)  developing. 

The  diatom  is  widely  scattered  over  Europe  and  North  America, 
and  is  found  in  large  ponds,  lakes,  and  reservoirs,  where  comparatively 
clear  water  is  stored. 

It  is  said  to  be  more  abundant  near  the  surface  than  in  the 
depths.  Normally  it  occurs  in  the  spring  and  autumn,  that  is, 
regularly  after  periods  of  stagnation ;  but  it  is  in  ground  waters  stored 
in  open  reservoirs  that  it  attains  its  greatest  development.  By  ground 
water  is  meant  water  which  has  percolated  through  the  ground. 

The  numbers  of  Asterionella  vary  from  1000  to  6000  per  cubic 
centimetre  of  water.  The  odour  at  first  is  aromatic,  then  it  resembles 
that  of  geraniums,  and  finally  it  becomes  very  fishy.  The  smell 
varies  with  the  number  of  organisms  in  the  water,  and  is  due  to  a 
substance  analogous  to  the  essential  oils. 

A  chemical  analysis  was  made,  and  the  mineral  matter  found  to 
be  57  per  cent  of  the  dry  weight  of  the  organism,  and  of  this  nearly 
5  0  per  cent  is  silica,  which  is  present  to  a  greater  extent  in  ground  than 
in  surface  waters,  hence  the  greater  prevalence  of  Asterionella  in  the 
former. 

The  only  practical  suggestion  possible  is  that  reservoirs  may  be  so 
designed  as  to  be  easily  isolated  and  cleaned  whenever  necessary. 


New  Mice  from  St.  Kilda. 

Me.  Bakkett  Hamilton  has  recently  described  [Proc.  Zool.  Soc.  1899] 
two  new  species  of  mice  from  St.  Kilda,  and  his  paper  is  of  interest 
in  its  bearing  on  the  role  of  isolation  as  a  factor  in  evolution.  At 
the  same  time,  since  mice  are  very  common  animals  whose  variation- 
statistics  could  be  readily  procured,  one  cannot  at  this  time  of  day 
accept  these  two  alleged  new  British  species  as  securely  based  unless 
they  are  very  thoroughly  compared  with  the  variations  of  Mus  sylvaticus 
and  Mus  musculus.     Let  us  illustrate  our  difficulties. 


1899]  ALLEGED  NEW  MICE  387 


Alleged  New  Mice. 

The  length  of  the  head  and  body  of  the  largest  St.  Kilda  specimen 
of  Mus  hirtensis  n.  sp.  is  1 0  7  mm.  for  the  male  and  110  mm.  for  the 
female.  This  is  exactly  the  size  of  a  full-grown  Mus  sylvaticus  in 
Elginshire.  The  skull  of  an  Elginshire  specimen  just  measured 
(apparently  not  an  old  one  if  we  judge  from  the  teeth)  is  28  mm. 
long,  1  mm.  less  than  the  largest  St.  Kilda  skull.  The  differences  in 
ears  and  tail  do  not  impress  us,  and  still  less  those  of  colour.  Even 
in  one  county  Mus  sylvaticus  shows  considerable  diversity  of  coloration. 
At  this  season,  when  they  sometimes  come  indoors  to  supplant  the 
house-mouse  for  a  time,  specimens  are  trapped  without  a  speck  of 
yellow  or  brown  on  the  side  of  neck  or  belly,  while  others  are  of  a 
nearly  uniform  reddish  colour  on  their  upper  parts  with  a  very  distinct 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  white  belly  and  sides.  These  are 
minor  differences,  giving  no  evidence  of  more  than  "  individual 
variation."  It  may  be,  indeed,  that  they  are  merely  "  individual 
modifications  "  sensu  strict 0. 

Tn  Texan  cornfields  Mus  musculus  sometimes  assumes  in  summer 
the  reddish  colour  of  some  native  species  of  Muridae,  while  the  belly 
often  becomes  white  or  nearly  white ;  the  same  species  caught  in 
Elginshire  in  October  sometimes  has  the  belly  almost  of  the  same 
colour  as  the  back.  It  seems  impossible  to  regard  these  as  even 
varieties. 

To  illustrate  further.  A  collection  was  made  of  an  American 
species  of  Cricctus  (Hespcromys),  and  the  individuals  were  kept  in 
captivity  for  a  year  or  two.  They  varied  in  size,  but  did  not  vary 
much  in  colour,  which  was  predominantly  brownish  grey.  A  fresh 
capture,  however,  was  reddish,  and  suggested  for  the  moment — we  are 
all  open  to  the  temptation — a  new  variety.  After  some  months  of 
captivity  it  changed  to  the  normal  colour  of  the  species.  In  all  prob- 
ability the  original  difference  was  simply  the  result  of  "  modification." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trap  in  Sutherland  and  Skye  to  see 
whether  individuals  of  the  Mus  hirtensis  type  are  not  to  he  found 
there,  for  it  is  possible  that  the  alleged  new  species  is  not  the  out- 
come of  prolonged  isolation,  but  was  imported  in  hay  or  straw  for 
the  minister's  horse  a  century  ago. 

The  other  form  Mus  muralis  n.  sp.  is  interesting  on  account  of  its 
colour,  but  as  to  its  skull  characters  it  appears  to  us  that  they  will  be 
found  in  perhaps  every  tenth  old  specimen  of  Mus  musculus  that  comes 
to  hand. 

Our  point,  however,  is  apart  from  these  details.  It  is  that  when 
we  are  dealing  with  forms  for  whose  characters  it  would  be  easy  to 
formulate  variation-curves,  this  should  not  be  neglected  by  those  who 
would  substantiate  their  claim  to  add  new  species  to  the  British  fauna. 


388  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December 


British  Mammals. 

The  mammals  in  Britain  are  so  few  compared  with  other  components 
of  our  fauna,  that  one  naturally  expects  great  accuracy  in  the  descriptions 
which  experts  furnish.  There  may  be  better  things  than  great  accuracy, 
but  it  is  at  least  a  preliminary  essential,  and  it  is  by  no  means  always 
realised  even  in  regard  to  British  mammals.  Which  is  disappointing. 
Without  ourselves  claiming  any  infallibility  we  may  illustrate  our 
disappointment — made  keener  by  our  gratitude — by  referring  to  a  well- 
known  handbook  which  seems  to  us  to  require  a  second  edition.  The 
author  says  that  the  common  squirrel  has  a  head  and  body  about  8^ 
inches  in  length,  but  every  squirrel-catcher  knows  that  a  full-grown 
squirrel  has  a  head  and  body  about  10  inches  in  length.  The  picture 
given  of  the  common  (?)  squirrel  shows  an  animal  with  a  tail  longer 
than  the  head  and  body  ! 

Of  Mus  sylvaticus  the  author  says  that  it  has  a  head  and  body  about 
4^  in.  long ;  the  fraction  suggests  great  accuracy,  but  a  full-grown 
specimen  in  Elginshire  often  has  a  head  and  body  4^-  in.  long.  Of 
Mus  flavicollis  it  is  said  "  head  and  body  4^-  in.  long,"  while  of  the  field 
vole  it  is  stated  "  length  of  head  and  body  about  3^-  to  4^  in.  long," 
which  surely  suggests  that  field  voles  vary  greatly  in  size,  while  field 
mice  do  not.  Which  is  not  the  case.  It  is  possible  that  the  alleged 
species  Mus  flavicollis  may  be  distinct  from  smaller  varieties  of  the 
wood-mouse  found  in  England,  but  in  Scotland  there  are  abundant 
intermediate  forms,  some  of  them  as  "  large  and  handsome  "  as  Mus 
flavicollis. 

We  may  be  making  some  mistake,  but  we  are  puzzled  elsewhere, 
as  when  the  author  says  "  with  the  exception  of  the  mouse-coloured  bat, 
the  Noctule  is  the  largest  of  the  British  members  of  the  order,"  and 
gives  the  length  of  its  head  and  body  as  about  3  inches.  But  he 
states  the  length  of  the  head  and  body  of  the  mouse-coloured  bat  at 
2|-  inches. 

The  author  gives  twenty-six  pairs  of  teeth  as  the  maximum  in  the 
common  porpoise,  but  a  male's  skull  in  our  possession  has  thirty  pairs 
in  the  upper  jaw.  Of  Sowerby's  whale  the  author  says  "  general  colour 
white  above  and  black  beneath,"  but  he  must  have  seen  the  beast  belly 
uppermost,  for,  when  white  is  present,  it  is  beneath,  not  above.  The 
adults  of  both  sexes  which  we  have  seen  in  the  flesh  had  no  white 
whatever,  not  even  "  white  vermicular  streaks."  It  is  remarkable  that 
one  very  distinct  species  of  Cetacean  is  left  out  of  the  handbook 
altogether,  though,  judging  from  the  number  of  skulls  in  collections,  it 
is  not  the  rarest  one.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  we  make  these 
remarks  in  no  cavilling  spirit,  but  merely  to  show  that  even  in  the 
works  of  experts  the  standard  of  accuracy  is  still  not  quite  high  enough. 


1899]  PHYLOGENY  OF  THE  RODENTS  389 

Phylogeny  of  the  Rodents. 

The  two  preceding  notes  may  be  said  to  have  dealt  in  great  part  with 
little  details  about  Eodents,  and  it  is  at  once  relevant  and  pleasant  to 
direct  attention  to  a  recent  work  which  deals  with  Eodents  as  a  whole. 
We  refer  to  Tycho  Tullberg's  great  work,  "  Ueber  das  System  der 
Nagethiere.  Eine  phylogenetische  Studie."  (K.  Gesellschaft  der 
Wissenschaften  zu  Upsala,  1899,  pp.  514,  57  plates.)  Beginning  with 
an  introduction  which  discusses  the  canons  of  phylogenetic  inquiry  and 
the  general  problem  on  hand,  the  author  passes  to  a  detailed  statement 
of  his  anatomical  results.  On  the  foundation  furnished  by  these  he 
rears  his  phylogenetic  system,  proceeding  in  an  orderly  way  which  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  follow,  discussing  adaptation  after  adaptation,  and  the 
possible  causes  of  various  lines  of  structural  change  characteristic  of 
the  sub-orders  and  families.  The  fourth  part  of  the  big  book  deals 
with  the  distribution  of  Eodents  in  the  past  and  present.  He  attaches 
little  importance  to  the  alleged  affinities  between  Eodents  and  Mar- 
supials ;  he  emphasises  the  contrasts  between  Duplicidentata  and 
Simplicidentata,  but  does  not  think  that  these  are  inconsistent  with  the 
view  that  both  arose  from  a  common  pre-Eodent  stock ;  and  finally  he 
suggests  a  genealogical  tree  of  the  order.  To  discuss  his  decisions  on 
affinities  in  brief  compass  would  be  impossible,  but  the  work  is 
impressive  as  a  phylogenetic  study  in  which  a  vigorous  attempt  has 
been  made  not  only  to  trace  the  possible  steps  in  the  evolution  of  an 
order,  but  to  detect  the  possible  causes  which  determined  the  direction 
of  these  steps. 


Phylogeny  of  Rust. 

The  origin  of  the  rust  fungi  has  recently  given  rise  to  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  discussion,  and  Professor  Dietel,  in  an  interest- 
ing paper  (Bot.  Ccntralbl.  lxxix.  Nos.  3-4),  considers  the  question  of 
their  descent  from  one  or  more  plurivorous  forms — forms,  that  is, 
which  inhabited  indifferently  hosts  belonging  to  the  most  widely 
different  families  of  flowering  plants.  At  the  present  day,  however, 
only  one  species,  a  Crunartium,  is  known  to  retain  this  peculiarity, 
having  been  shown  by  Fischer  to  be  capable  of  life  on  plants  belonging 
to  both  Eanunculaceae  and  Asclepiadeae.  But  Professor  Dietel 
adduces  a  mass  of  collateral  evidence  which  seems  to  show  that  the 
balance  of  probability  at  least  lies  on  the  side  of  his  hypothesis.  It 
would  indeed  be  difficult  to  account  on  any  other  grounds  for  the  close 
morphological  resemblances  existing  between  forms  which,  while 
biologically  distinct  and  inhabiting  plants  belonging  to  the  most  widely 
different  families,  are  at  the  same  time  almost  indistinguishable  by  any 


39°  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [december 

other  features.  Triphragium  clavcllosum,  for  example,  is  confined  to 
Aralia  nudicaulis,  and  differs  from  T.  Crcdelae,  which  lives  on  Credela 
chinensis,  merely  by  the  size  of  the  spores,  a  difference  which  does  not 
exceed  the  dimensions  of  a  single  micron. 

Such  forms  must  obviously  be  looked  upon  as  having  sprung  from 
a  common  ancestor,  which  in  this  case  must  have  lived  on  both  hosts 
indifferently,  especially  as  the  two  species  agree  in  the  possession  of 
characters  which  distinguish  them  sharply  from  all  other  Triphragia. 

Another  example  is  supplied  by  Leptopuccinias  like  P.  Arcchavaletae 
living  on  Sapindaceae,  P.  heterospora  on  Malvaceae,  P.  Elytrariae  on 
Acanthaceae,  and  P.  Lantoneae  on  Verbenaceae,  all  of  which  closely 
resemble  each  other  in  the  form  of  their  spores  and  spore-beds  ;  while 
all  possess  in  common  such  distinctive  characters  as  the  preponderance 
of  unicellular  teleutospores,  isolated  individuals  of  which  may  reach  a 
much  greater  size  than  their  fellows,  and  the  occasional  occurrence  of 
isolated  bicellular  spores  which  also  vary  in  size,  and  the  septum  of 
which  is  often  oblique,  while  the  only  morphological  differences  are  to 
be  found  in  slight  diversities  in  the  size  of  the  spores  and  in  the 
thickness  of  their  walls. 

Further  evidence  of  the  same  kind  is  furnished  by  the  only  three 
Puccinosiras  known,  and  may  probably  be  found  in  a  number  of  other 
heteroecious  forms. 

A  striking  morphological  resemblance  is  also  observable  between 
certain  Leptopuccinias  and  the  teleutospores  of  heteroecious  species 
parasitic  on  widely  different  plants,  but  possessing  aeciclia  which  live 
on  the  same  hosts  as  the  Leptopuccinias  in  question,  e.g.  Puccinia 
aecidii  leucanthemi,  which  forms  aecidia  on  Chrysanthemum 
leucanthemum,  gives  rise  on  Carex  montana  to  teleutospores  which 
closely  resemble  those  borne  by  the  Lepto-form  Puccinia  leucanthemi 
on  the  former  host. 

Professor  Dietel  cites  a  large  number  of  such  correspondences,  and 
believes  that  they  point  to  the  origin  of  the  heteroecious  and  Lepto- 
forms  in  a  common  ancestor  inhabiting  such  widely  different  hosts  as 
Carices  and  Composites,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Professor  Magnus  is 
of  opinion  that  the  resemblance  is  purely  accidental,  and  ascribable  to 
the  great  similarity  existing  among  Leptopuccinias  as  a  whole,  owing 
to  adaptation  to  their  peculiar  mode  of  life. 

The  coronate  Puccinias,  including,  along  with  those  heteroecious 
species  which  form  their  aecidia  on  Rhamnus,  the  two  Leptopuccinias 
also  living  on  the  same  host,  and  P.  Festucae,  which  forms  its  aecidia 
on  Lonicera,  are  distinguished  from  all  other  Uredines  by  the  possession 
on  the  teleutospores  of  a  crown  of  processes  which  appear  to  be  devoid 
of  adaptational  significance,  and  must  be  considered  as  pointing  to  a 
common  ancestry  for  these  forms,  especially  as  the  only  other  Uredine 
inhabiting  Lonicera,  is  Puccinia  longirostris,  in  which  the  crown  is 
replaced  by  a  single  long  process  on  the  apex  of  the  teleutospore,  but 


1899]  PHYLOGENY  OF  RUST  391 

which  resembles  in  all  other  particulars  one  of  the  Lepto-forms  inhabiting 
Rhamnus.  Fischer  prefers  the  view  that  in  this  case  the  ancestral  form 
was  capable  of  completing  the  whole  cycle  of  its  life-history,  as  well  on 
grasses  as  on  various  species  of  Rhamnus,  and  that  its  descendants 
became  specialised  so  as  to  form  either  aecidia  on  Rhamnus  and  the 
uredo-teleutospore  generation  on  grasses,  or  the  aecidia  was  dropped 
and  the  uredo-teleutospore  generation  alone  persisted  on  Rhamnus  as  in 
the  Leptopuccinias  in  question. 

As,  however,  these  give  rise  to  several  generations  on  the  same 
host  in  the  course  of  each  year,  Dietel  is  unable  to  recognise 
any  sufficient  cause  for  the  disappearance  of  the  aecidial  generation, 
and  believes  a  more  probable  view  to  be  that  the  ancestral  form  only 
bore  teleutospores,  and  that  the  uredo  and  aecidial  generations 
originated  at  a  later  phylogenetic  stage,  a  hypothesis  which  receives 
some  support  from  Brefeld's  well-known  views  regarding  the  origin  of 
the  Uredines  from  the  Auricularias,  a  saprophytic  group  which  possesses 
no  spore  form  comparable  with  either  aecidio-  or  uredo-spores,  both  of 
which  may  have  originated  as  an  adaptation  to  a  parasitic  mode  of 
existence,  though  not  necessarily  on  all  the  host  plants  inhabited  by 
the  parent  form. 


Ferments  in  Fimsri. 


^j 


The  fat-splitting  ferment  first  obtained  in  a  pure  state  by  Professor 
Green  during  his  classical  researches  on  the  germination  of  castor  oil 
seeds,  or  at  least  a  ferment  possessing  similar  properties,  has  just  been 
obtained  by  Mr.  E.  H.  Biffin  {Annals  of  Botany,  1899,  p.  363),  from  a 
fungus  which  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  growing  on  the 
endosperm  of  a  germinating  cocoa-nut,  and  which  apparently  belongs  to 
the  Hypocreaceae,  though  to  which  section  of  the  family  it  must 
ultimately  be  referred  remains  undecided,  owing  to  the  constant  sterility 
of  the  perithecia,  in  which  no  ascospores  have  as  yet  been  found, 
though  chlamydospores  and  sickle-like  microconidia  are  abundant  on 
the  mycelium.  The  fungus  grows  freely  on  sterilised  slices  of  cocoa-nut 
and  Brazil-nut  endosperm,  as  well  as  in  cocoa-nut  milk  and  similar  media, 
with  the  result  that  the  oil  which  these  contain  gradually  disappears, 
being  decomposed  into  glycerine  and  fatty  acids,  the  former  of  which  is 
absorbed  by  the  plant  and  forms  its  source  of  carbohydrate  food 
material,  while  the  latter  accumulates  in  the  fluid  and  increases  its 
acidity. 

Mr.  Biffin  has  succeeded  in  isolating  the  ferment  by  the  usual 
process  of  extraction  with  water  and  precipitation  by  means  of  alcohol, 
when  a  white  substance  was  obtained,  which,  when  re-dissolved  in 
water,  furnished  a  solution  possessing  the  properties  of  the  fungus,  in  so 
far  as  these  are  concerned  in  the  decomposition  of  fats. 


392  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December 

The  same  fungus  appears  also  to  secrete  a  cellulose -dissolving 
ferment,  as  its  hyphae  may  be  seen  to  penetrate  with  ease  the  walls  of 
the  endosperm  cells. 


More  Sports. 

The  Annals  of  Botany  (Sept.  1899)  contains  an  interesting  paper  by 
Professor  H.  de  Yries  on  the  inheritance  of  sports.  He  has  obtained 
a  race  of  Dipsacus  sylvestris  in  which  the  leaves  are  all  spirally  arranged, 
instead  of  being  in  the  opposite-decussate  system,  typical  of  this  plant 
in  general.  The  original  parents  were  two  individuals  raised  from 
seed  sown  in  1884;  these  were  carefully  isolated,  and  from  their  seed 
1650  plants  were  obtained  in  1886,  Dipsacus  sylvestris  being  a  biennial 
plant ;  but  of  this  large  number  only  two  retained  the  spiral  phyllo- 
taxis.  These  were  allowed  to  seed  while  all  the  others  were  destroyed 
before  flowering,  and  the  third  generation,  composed  of  about  the  same 
number  of  plants,  contained  sixty-seven  twisted  individuals,  or  about 
four  per  cent.  The  fourth  generation  gave  ten  per  cent,  but,  owing  to 
an  accident,  its  seed  could  not  be  employed,  so  that  another  fourth 
generation  was  raised  from  the  remaining  seed  of  the  third  generation 
sown  in  1891,  and  resulted  in  a  yield  of  thirty-four  per  cent  of  twisted 
individuals,  a  percentage  which  has  not  been  greatly  exceeded  in 
subsequent  cultivations. 

The  gradual  rise  in  the  percentage  of  good  plants  is  accounted  for 
by  improvements  in  the  cultural  methods,  especially  with  regard  to  the 
amount  of  space  put  at  the  disposal  of  individuals,  while  the  richness 
of  the  soil  and  the  time  of  sowing  are  likewise  factors  of  essential 
importance  in  the  production  of  successful  results ;  in  short,  the  per- 
petuation of  such  useless  if  not  harmful  variations  requires  the  presence 
of  an  environment  as  favourable  as  possible  to  the  life  of  the  plant. 


A  Pontifical  Plant. 

It  cannot  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  Natural  Science  that  it  has  been 
prone  to  get  excited  over  the  creation  of  a  new  species,  but  our 
esteemed  contemporary  Science  (October  20,  1899)  has  called  our 
attention  to  one  which  affords  us  a  purr  of  delight.  The  reference  is 
to  the  Daily  Chronicle,  where  botanists  might  naturally  overlook  it. 
As  to  the  description  of  the  new  species,  it  is  given  in  somewhat 
unconventional  language,  but  this  may  be  pardoned  in  the  new 
departure  of  a  London  Daily.  "  The  Pope  takes  great  interest  in  an 
electric  plant,  to  which  he   has  given   the  name   '  Ofrlcina   Electrica 


1899]  A  PONTIFICAL  PLANT  393 

Vaticana  Alessanclro  Volta '  in  honour  of  Volta.  A  few  days  ago  His 
Holiness  made  an  inspection  of  these  plants,  and  the  employees  of  the 
Vatican  Gardens  were  presented  to  him  by  the  Chief." 


Neptuneopsis. 

The  opinion  is  not  infrequently  expressed  that  it  is  hopeless  now  to 
expect  novelties  among  the  larger  mollusca,  and  certainly  the  great 
majority  of  new  species  recently  described  have  been  of  small  dimen- 
sions. Now,  however,  as  if  to  show  how  far  from  exhausted  are  the 
riches  of  the  sea,  we  have  a  handsome  gastropod  with  a  shell  over  16 
cm.  in  length  from  comparatively  shallow  water  (33  fathoms)  off  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  constitutes  a  new  genus,  to  which  the  name 
Neptuneopsis  has  been  given  by  Mr.  G.  B.  Sowerby,  and  it  has  been 
placed  in  the  family  Volutidae,  though  it  seems  to  have  relationships 
also  with  the  Buccinidae,  Fusidae,  and  Cancellariidae.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, the  greatest  mystery  regarding  this  new  shell  is  that  its 
publication  (with  a  handsome  coloured  plate)  has  been  undertaken  by 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  Cape  Colony. 


A  Note  on  Inheritance. 

"  Until  recently,"  says  Professor  Jacques  Loeb,  "  heredity  has  been 
treated  chiefly  as  a  problem  for  whose  solution  one  single  theory  or  one 
single  principle  was  considered  possible  and  sufficient."  Various 
theories  have  been  propounded,  but  none  have  been  generally  accepted. 
"  They  overlook  the  fact  that  heredity  is  a  collective  term  for  a  series 
of  heterogeneous  circumstances  which  cannot  possibly  be  explained  by 
one  principle."  A  more  analytical  study  "  has  led  to  the  conception 
that  very  different  circumstances  determine  the  various  details  in 
heredity,"  and  the  author  gives  the  results  of  one  of  his  studies 
prompted  by  this  conception  {Biol.  Lectures  Wood's  Hoi  I  for  1898,  pp. 
227-234,  6  figs.). 

But  before  we  report  on  this,  may  we  suggest  that  it  would  be 
clearer  to  agree  that  heredity  is  the  most  convenient  term  for  the 
relation  between  successive  generations,  for  then  it  is  self-evident  that 
there  are  several  quite  distinct  problems  to  be  faced.  There  is  the 
question  of  the  material  basis  of  inheritance,  whether  in  germ-cell  or 
bud  or  otherwise ;  there  is  the  question  as  to  how  this  material  basis 
has  come  to  be  what  it  is — capable  of  reproducing  an  organism  more  or 
less  like  the  parent ;  there  is  the  detailed  comparison  of  one  generation 
with  another,  and  the  attempt  to  distinguish  how  far  the  resemblances 


394  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December 

and  differences  are  due  to  real  transmission  of  heritable  qualities,  and 
how  far  to  similarity  in  the  induced  "  modifications " ;  there  is  the 
analysis  of  the  inheritance  by  statistical  and  experimental  methods,  the 
biggest  result  of  which  has  been  Galton's  law ;  and  there  is  the  at 
present  almost  unassailable  problem  of  conceiving  how  the  heritable 
qualities  work  their  way  into  realisation  during  the  process  of  develop- 
ment —  a  problem  that  leads  us  away  from  the  strict  problem  of 
heredity  to  that  of  "  the  principles  of  development."  In  short,  we 
hardly  think  that  the  serious  student  of  heredity  has  ever  thought  that 
he  was  facing  one  problem  to  which  it  might  be  expected  some  day  to 
find  one  answer.  In  any  case,  we  cannot  admire  the  ingenious 
observer's  phraseology  when  he  says  that  "  what  we  call  heredity  is 
composed  of  very  heterogeneous  constituents."  He  speaks  of  the  so- 
called  theories  of  Eimer  as  "  nothing  but  a  play  on  words,"  but  might 
not  Loeb  strengthen  his  case  by  taking  his  own  words  more  seriously  ? 

The  particular  problem  which  Professor  Loeb  discusses  is  that  of  the 
tiger-like  markings  in  the  yolk  sac  of  the  embryo  of  the  fish  called 
Fundulus — a  subject  in  regard  to  which  he  has  previously  published 
results.  The  origin  of  the  coloration  is  as  follows : — black  and  red 
chromatophores  are  found  on  the  surface  of  the  yolk  sac  ;  they  gradually 
creep  upon  the  blood-vessels  and  ensheath  these,  exhibiting  chemo- 
tropism  clue  especially  to  the  oxygen  of  the  blood,  or  stereotropism 
(another  brave  word),  or  both.  "  The  heredity  of  the  markings  is, 
therefore,  in  this  case  determined  by  a  stimulus  which  the  blood- 
vessels exert  upon  another  tissue,  namely,  the  chromatophores.  Both 
tissues  are  formed  rather  independently  of  each  other,  but  from  the  fact 
that  the  chromatophores  must  creep  upon  the  blood-vessels,  and  that 
the  latter  have  a  hereditary  arrangement,  the  marking  becomes  heredi- 
tary too.  This  contradicts  those  theories  of  heredity  which  try  to 
derive  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  animal  from  corresponding  peculiarities 
of  the  sexual  cell,  for  instance,  Weismann's  theory."  But  this  is 
lamentable  confusion ;  for  no  one  surely  has  supposed  that  there  are 
not  analysable  immediate  conditions  operative  at  every  stage  of 
development :  the  point  of  Weismann's  theory  is  that  the  inherited 
organisation  determines  the  particular  occurrence  and  sequence  of  these 
conditions,  and  is  thus  the  primary  though  not  the  immediate  cause  of 
the  results. 

Loeb  gives  an  interesting  figure  of  the  tail  of  an  embryo,  in  which 
the  chromatophores  are  seen  to  have  crept  upon  the  median  artery 
while  the  vein  remains  free.  This  suggests  that  the  oxygen  of  the 
blood  may  be  one  of  the  causes  that  force  the  chromatophores  to  creep 
upon  the  blood-vessels.  But  this  is  not  the  whole  reason,  for  wherever 
a  vein  is  isolated  they  creep  upon  it  too.  Moreover,  the  back  of  the 
embryo  is  coloured  black  by  pigment  cells  which  follow  the  brain  and 
the  spinal  cord. 

The  observations  are  interesting,  but  they  appear  to  us  to  have  to 


1899]  A  NOTE  ON  INHERITANCE  395 

do  with  the  conditions  of  development,  and  not  with  the  strict  problem 
of  heredity.  Nor  is  the  necessity  for  such  investigations  by  any  means 
a  new  discovery,  for  many  years  have  passed  since  Professor  His  pro- 
tested that  "  to  think  that  heredity  will  build  up  organic  beings  without 
mechanical  means  is  a  piece  of  unscientific  mysticism." 


The  Cell  as  a  Unit  of  Organisation. 

The  view  has  often  been  expressed  that  the  functions  of  a  cell  depend 
upon  the  mutual  relations  of  its  component  parts.  That  is  to  say, 
there  is  a  "  cell-firm,"  in  which  the  most  important  partners  are  the 
nucleoplasm,  the  cytoplasm,  and  the  centrosomes,  a  firm  which  owes 
its  power  and  its  success  to  the  mutualism  of  its  partners.  Dr.  F. 
Schenck  has  recently  published  an  interesting  paper  discussing  this 
conception  ("  Physiologische  Charakteristik  der  Zelle,"  pp.  vi. +  123. 
Wiirzburg :  A.  Stuber  (C.  Kabitzch),  1899.  Price  3  marks),  in 
which  lie  comes  to  the  following  conclusions  : — 

Not  every  cell  can  be  called  a  physiological  individual,  such  as  a 
Protozoon  is,  for  there  are  cells  which  are  merely  parts  of  a  physio- 
logical individual.  The  process  of  vital  combustion,  and  what  directly 
depends  on  this,  cannot  be  regarded  as  dependent  on  the  co-operation 
of  the  characteristic  components  of  the  "  cell-firm,"  and  to  a  certain 
degree  even  assimilation  is  independent  of  the  particular  organisation. 
The  latter  is,  however,  implied  in  growth,  regeneration,  and  differentia- 
tion ;  in  these  processes  the  components  of  the  cell  combine  to  form  a 
unit  of  organisation.  But  sometimes  the  result  cannot  be  explained 
from  within  the  cell  itself,  but  depends  upon  the  physiological  relations 
between  the  cell  and  the  larger  system  of  which  it  forms  a  part.  The 
cell-structure  of  an  organism  is  the  structural  expression  of  a  functional 
division  of  labour  in  which  the  nucleus  plays  the  more  important 
(organising)  role,  while  the  cytoplasm  is  its  medium  reacting  to 
external  stimuli.  Processes  of  division,  in  which  the  third  important 
partner — the  centrosome — has  an  influential  role,  have  for  their  end 
the  distribution  of  nucleoplasm  and  cytoplasm  in  such  proportions  that 
appropriate  cellular  functions  continue.  There  is  nothing  novel  or 
startling  in  these  conclusions,  but  they  are  temperately  expressed  and 
illustrated  in  considerable  detail ;  and  we  can  heartilv  commend  the 
publication  to  those  particularly  interested  in  cell-problems. 


396  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [decembek 

The  Biological  Corner  of  a  Natural  History 

Museum. 

Professor  L.  Cuenot  discusses  in  La  Fcuille  des  Jeunes  Naturalistes 
(xxix.  1899,  pp.  195-197)  the  possibility  and  utility  of  collections  to 
illustrate  facts  and  problems  of  general  biology.  He  instances  the 
cases  in  the  entrance  hall  in  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History), 
and  some  illustrations  which  he  saw  in  the  University  Museum  in 
Cambridge,  but  he  protests,  like  Herrera,  that  what  has  hitherto  been 
the  exception  should  in  the  future  prove  the  rule. 

He  takes  the  chapters  in  L  Annie  Biologique,  and  suggests  that, 
although  one  must  not  expect  too  much  in  museum  illustration  of 
these,  one  may  reasonably  look  for  more  than  is  at  present  offered. 
At  Nancy  he  has  himself  tried  to  realise  some  of  his  ideals.  Regenera- 
tion, parasitic  castration  and  peculiarities  of  sex-inhibition,  homochromy 
and  other  protective  adaptations,  variation,  sexual  dimorphism, 
convergence,  and  the  like  may  be  vividly  illustrated  without  great 
difficulty.  Even  heredity  he  would  illustrate  by  generations  of  mice, 
and  the  recapitulation-doctrine  by  placing  young  Comatulas  in  their 
stalked  stage  beside  Pentacrinus.  There  is  obviously  no  difficulty 
except  that  of  time  and  money,  which  applies  to  other  kinds  of  exhibits, 
and  the  pains  of  thought  which  inhibit  many  of  these  valuable  sugges- 
tions. It  is  only  fair  to  note,  however,  that  the  number  of  these 
biological  exhibits  is  rapidly  increasing  both  at  home  and  abroad. 


Linne's  Type  Specimens  of  Fishes. 

One  of  the  many  excellent  outcomes  of  Dr.  Gunther's  presidency  of 
the  Linnean  Society  will  be  seen  in  his  Anniversary  Address  for  May 
last,  just  issued.  In  this  address  he  deals  with  the  fish  preserved  in 
Linne's  own  collection,  which  has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Society 
for  about  a  century.  How  little  they  have  been  valued  by  the 
Society  may  best  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  Dr.  Gunther  records, 
"in  order  to  render  them  more  secure  in  the  future,  your  Council  has 
ordered  them  to  be  transferred  [from  loose  sheets  of  paper]  to  dust- 
proof  glass-topped  boxes."  One  only  hopes  that  Dr.  Gunther  will  see 
that  every  precious  Linnean  specimen  is  placed  in  a  glass-topped  box 
before  he  leaves  the  presidential  chair ;  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  this  was  not  done  years  ago. 

The  fishes  owned  by  Linne  consist  of  168  skins,  and  came  from 
three  sources,  Scandinavia,  Germany  (chiefly  freshwater),  and  South 
Carolina.  They  are  all  preserved  like  plants  in  a  herbarium,  and 
on  the  sheets  of  paper  are  usually  notes  in  Linne's  handwriting,  while 
those  from  South  Carolina  usually  have  a  band  of  paper  round  the  tail, 


1899J  LINNE'S  TYPE  SPECIMEN  OF  FISHES  397 

inscribed  by  Dr.  Alexander  Garden,  who  sent  the  specimens  to  Linne. 
Of  these  168  skins  about  40  are  "types,"  and  nearly  all  these  came 
from  Dr.  Garden,  and  all  of  them  are  American. 

Dr.  Giinther  has  given  a  careful  description  of  each  skin,  the  marks 
or  writing  upon  it  or  upon  the  label  or  sheet  of  paper,  and  has  added 
comments  of  his  own  on  previous  identifications,  and  other  points  of 
interest.  Altogether  a  very  excellent  and  valuable  Presidential 
Address. 


The  Molluscan  " Liver"  So-Called. 

To  the  student  of  the  comparative  physiology  of  the  Invertebrates  the 
word  "  liver  "  is  a  red  rag.  It  has  been  applied  to  many  different  kinds 
of  organs,  and  with  its  vertebrate  connotation  it  has  fitted  none  of  them 
well.  For  a  time,  indeed,  it  seemed  as  if  the  recognised  way  of  deal- 
ing with  a  puzzling  organ  was  to  "  call  it  a  liver  and  have  clone  with 
it."  But  we  have  at  least  got  beyond  the  stage  of  hypocrisy,  if  not  of 
ignorance,  and  we  speak  of  "  the  so-called  liver."  So  at  least  do 
Messrs.  Biedermann  and  Moritz  in  a  recent  study  of  the  organ  in 
question  in  Molluscs  (Pflihgcrs  Archiv  f.  Physiologic,  lxxv.  1899,  pp. 
1-86),  and  it  seems  for  the  time  a  convenient  device, — for  the 
attempts  to  introduce  such  terms  as  "  hepatopancreas,"  "  poly-enzymatic 
gland,"  "mid-gut  gland,"  "gastric  gland,"  and  the  like  have  not  been 
very  successful.  Do  what  we  will,  the  "  liver  "  is  always  with  us,  or 
with  our  students  at  least,  and  therefore  it  seems  better  to  give  it  a 
slow  death  in  the  shackles  of  "  so-called."  But  let  us  attend  to  the 
last  news  in  regard  to  the  function  of  this  organ  in  the  snail. 

The  so-called  "  liver  "  of  snails  contains  three  kinds  of  cells,- — (a) 
secretory  cells,  whose  secretion  digests  starch  and  cellulose  in  the 
stomach,  (b)  absorptive  cells,  and  (c)  lime  cells.  The  two  last  accumulate 
stores  of  glycogen,  fat,  and  perhaps  some  albuminoid  substance.  The 
lime-cells  have  especially  to  do  with  the  storage  of  fat  and  calcium 
phosphate.  The  fresh  secretion  has  no  appreciable  digestive  effect  on 
albuminoids.  There  is  no  absorption  in  the  intestine,  which  is  lined 
by  ciliated  and  glandular  epithelium ;  its  fluid  contents  pass  into  the 
recesses  of  the  so-called  "  liver  "  and  back  again.  This  appears  to  be 
the  gist  of  the  research,  and  it  means  another  step  out  of  obscurity. 


Phylogenetic  Senescence. 

Those  who  know  Professor  E.  Wiedersheim  and  his  works  will  agree 
witli  us  when  we  say  that  he  cannot  be  blamed,  as  human  anatomists 
often  are,  for  undue  preoccupation  with  the  static  aspects  of  man's 
body.      In  his  essay  on  retrogression  and  in  his  book  on  the  evidence 

27 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   94. 


39§  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS  [December  1899 

of  the  past  in  man's  present  structure,  he  impressed  us  with  the  idea 
that  we  carry  about  with  us  a  museum  of  relics,  that  some  of  our 
structures  are  at  present  in  a  transition-stage  of  function-change,  and 
that  some  parts  are  even  progressing. 

In  a  recent  essay,  entitled  "  Senescenza  filogenetica "  (Rivista  di 
Scienze  Biol.  1899,  Fasc.  iv.  pp.  1-7),  he  has  pointed  out  (1)  that 
organs  in  process  of  phylogenetic  regression,  e.g.  the  tips  of  the  lungs, 
the  caudal  end  of  the  spinal  cord,  Morgagni's  pouches  in  the  larynx, 
and  the  posterior  molars,  have  their  weak  spots,  their  loci  minoris 
resistentiae,  where  they  are  peculiarly  disposed  to  disease ;  (2)  that 
organs  and  parts  of  organs  in  process  of  function-change,  e.g.  the 
thyroid,  the  thymus,  the  inferior  nasal  muscles,  and  perhaps  the 
tonsils,  are  likewise  peculiarly  open  to  attack  ;  and  (3)  that  progressive 
parts,  such  as  certain  muscles  and  bones,  are  strong  in  their  progress- 
iveness,  and  less  liable  to  disease  than  the  parts  in  the  two  preceding- 
categories.  One  cannot  help  wondering  with  another  reviewer,  Dr. 
W.  A.  Nagel,  whether  the  last  statement  will  hold  good  in  regard  to 
our  brains,  which  we  fondly  hope  are  also  on  the  line  of  progress.  c 

There  appear  to  be  two  distinct  ways  of  interpreting  this 
"  phylogenetic  senescence."  On  the  one  hand,  we  have  to  consider  the 
immediate  physiological  conditions,  e.g.  of  diminished  blood-supply 
and  weakened  innervation,  which  may  lessen  the  resisting  power  of  a 
dwindling  organ.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have,  with  Weismann,  to 
go  further  back,  and  consider  the  possibility  of  a  germinal  struggle  and 
selection  among  the  stronger  and  weaker  determinants,  and  supple- 
mentary to  both  interpretations  there  is  the  normal  action  of  natural 
selection. 


Studies  in  Plant  Morphology. 

Schumann  of  Berlin  has  recently  published  through  Engelmann 
(Leipzig)  a  second  part  (pp.  207-313)  of  his  "  Morphologische  Studien." 
The  studies  are  of  a  special  and  somewhat  abstruse  character,  dealing 
with  flower-  and  leaf-arrangement  and  including  questions  of  develop- 
ment, mechanical  conditions  and  the  like.  They  will  be  read  with 
interest  by  the  somewhat  limited  number  of  botanists  who  can 
appreciate  or  follow  such  discussions.  The  first  (No.  III.)  deals  with 
the  vexed  question  of  the  peculiar  inflorescence  in  the  Boraginaceae 
and  Solanaceae,  and  is  a  criticism  of  a  publication  by  Kolkwitz.  The 
second  (No.  IV.)  is  an  account  of  the  branch-  and  floral-development 
in  a  commonly  grown  greenhouse  plant,  Scirpus  setaceus  (Isolepis 
setacea).  No.  V.  deals  with  the  leaf-arrangement  in  screw-pines,  while 
No.  VI.,  occupying  two-thirds  of  the  whole  part,  and  entitled  "The 
Shifting  of  Organs  on  Growing  Shoots,"  is  mainly  a  criticism  of 
Schwendener's  views  on  the  same  subject. 


Trees  in  Winter. 

By  P.  Q.  Keegan,  LL.D. 

The  external  aspect  of  our  forested  and  scattered  trees  in  winter  is 
very  familiar,  but  the  mysteries  of  their  interior  being  at  that  season 
are  wrapped  in  obscurity,  and  demand  for  their  elucidation  all  the 
analytical  acumen  and  manipulative  skill  that  can  be  bestowed  upon 
the  *  subject.  Up  till  within  the  last  few  years  neither  out-door 
naturalists  nor  arm-chair  faddists  cared  very  much  about  the  secret 
arcanum,  the  slumbrous  hibernating  activities,  or  rather  passivities,  of 
the  denizens  of  the  forest  while  enduring  the  sharp  rigours  of  the 
deepest  winter.  They  seemed  only  to  sleep,  a  few  appeared  to  be 
absolutely  dead,  their  sprouting  germinative  activity  was  no  more,  and 
save  for  the  mystical  entanglement  of  the  leafless  boughs  and  the 
picturesque  intricacy  of  the  bud-studded  twigs,  there  was  no  basis, 
no  attractive  feature  anywhere  apparent  to  call  forth  physiological  or 
artistic  interest.  If  the  life  of  the  forest  wras  to  be  studied  and 
adequately  comprehended,  it  must  be  done,  as  was  thought,  when  buds 
had  burst  and  leaves  had  shot  forth  and  flowers  had  blown  into  full 
expansion,  when  life  was  everywhere  quivering  and  tingling  in  the 
running  sap  and  swollen  root  and  stirring  leaf.  Such  was  the  im- 
pression ;  but  it  was  narrow  and  one-sided,  it  ignored  the  best  half  of 
the  affair,  it  disdained  the  law  that  organised  matter  adapts  itself  to 
circumstances,  to  the  wintry  chill  as  well  as  to  the  sultry  glare,  that 
it  operates  by  counterparts,  so  to  speak,  neither  of  which  is  complete, 
but  each  a  supplementary  constituent  of  the  grand  totality. 

The  justification  for  the  foregoing  remarks  will,  I  think,  be  found 
by  any  one  who  cares  to  make  himself  conversant  with  the  history  of 
scientific  research  anent  the  winter  life  of  our  trees.  Previous  to  the 
year  1870a  few  plant  analysts  and  botanical  chemists  had  investigated 
various  parts  and  organs  such  as  barks,  buds,  etc,  gathered  during  the 
winter  season ;  but  at  all  events,  in  1871  Eichard  observed  that  in  the 
month  of  February  there  was  a  deficiency  of  starch  in  certain  twigs  of 
willow,  linden,  and  birch,  which  cases,  however,  he  considered  to  be 
mere  exceptions  to  the  law  broached  by  Mohl,  founded  by  Hartig  and 
Sachs,  and  generally  held  true  at  the  time,  viz.  that  the  reserve  starch 

399 


4°°  P-    Q-   KEEGAN  [december 

undergoes  no  change  in  winter.  N.  J.  C.  Muller  was  the  first  to 
observe  the  disappearance  of  the  rind  starch  in  winter,  and  he  thought 
that  it  migrated  into  the  wood.  Russow,  in  the  winter  of  1880-81, 
examined  the  barks  of  ninety-two  different  tree  stems  up  to  sixty  years 
old,  and  found  starch  only  in  ten  kinds,  but  as  compared  with  the 
autumnal  content  it  showed  a  great  diminution ;  experimenting  again 
in  the  colder  winter  of  1882,  he  found  that  in  all  species  of  tree  the 
starch  had  disappeared  up  to  isolated  traces,  it  being  transformed 
principally  into  fat-oil ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  starch  had  all  the  time  remained  unchanged  in  the  wood  of  all 
the  species  investigated.  He  found,  moreover,  that  towards  the  end 
of  March  the  rind  starch  had  been  copiously  formed  again,  i.e.  long 
before  the  bursting  of  the  buds,  the  suppression  of  the  carbohydrate 
thus  lasting  from  November  till  April.  In  1884  Baranetzky  and 
Grebnitzky  published  the  results  of  their  researches.  They  found  that 
not  only  the  rind  starch  but  also  the  wood  starch  was  reduced  in 
winter,  and  may  even  disappear  altogether,  e.g.  in  lime  tree,  fat-oil 
stepping  into  its  place ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  hard-wooded  trees,  while 
the  starch  vanishes  entirely  from  the  rind,  it  remains,  though  somewhat 
reduced  in  quantity,  in  the  wood.  In  1890  Dr.  A.  Fischer  confirmed 
the  views  of  these  observers,  and  further  investigated  the  method  and 
course  pursued  in  the  process  of  the  starch  dissolution  in  fat- trees 
during  the  autumn.  He  emphasised  the  opinion  that  the  entire 
wood-starch  of  the  younger  twigs  in  fat-trees  is  transformed  on  the 
spot,  i.e.  the  principal  mass  of  the  starch  undergoes  no  translocation. 
He  was  also  disposed  to  conclude  that  the  greater  part  of  the  fat  in 
the  older  wood  of  certain  trees  is  never  changed  at  all,  whereas  that 
contained  in  the  rind  disappears  almost  entirely  in  spring  and  summer. 
He  further  recognised  eight  phases  of  starch  transformation,  viz.  a 
maximum  in  October  and  in  April,  a  minimum  in  December,  January, 
and  February,  and  again  in  the  latter  half  of  May,  a  dissolution  in 
November  and  beginning  of  May,  a  regeneration  in  March,  and  a 
storing  up  from  June  till  October.  In  1891  Monsieur  Emile  Mer, 
who  had  studied  the  distribution  of  starch  in  the  principal  trees  and 
indigenous  shrubs  of  France,  found  that  in  the  middle  of  November  a 
great  change  had  already  been  wrought,  the  starch  had  nearly  all 
disappeared  from  the  cortex  and  liber  at  least  in  the  branches  as  well 
as  in  the  middle  and  upper  parts  of  the  trunk ;  in  the  wood  it  had 
notably  diminished  in  white -wooded  trees,  though  still  abundant  in 
hard-wooded  trees,  while  plants  with  persistent  leaves  hardly  held  it 
any  longer  save  at  the  base  of  the  stem  and  in  the  current  year's 
twigs  chiefly  on  a  level  with  the  buds.  He  found  that  the  starch 
gradually  passes  from  the  wood  into  the  liber,  first  from  the  medullary 
rays,  then  from  the  wTood  parenchyma,  and  finally  from  the  medullary 
sheath  and  pith ;  the  rays  of  the  young  liber  are  the  last  to  yield  up 
the   vanishing   starch.       Apparently   this   absorption    must   needs,    he 


1899]  TREES  IN  WINTER  401 

thinks,  be  attributed  to  the  respiratory  combustion  exerted  by  the 
woody  and  liberian  tissues  from  the  moment  when  the  leaves  have 
lost  their  assimilatory  activity  up  till  the  beginning  of  the  winter  rest. 
"  As  long,"  he  says,  "  as  a  certain  degree  of  moisture  remains  in  the 
tissues,  life  is  maintained  there,  and  it  may  occur  that  the  starch 
reserve  is  entirely  absorbed.  In  the  same  way,  after  the  fall  of  the 
leaf,  woody  plants  still  continue  for  a  certain  time  to  vegetate  and  to 
respire ;  it  is  in  the  liber  that  this  function  seems  to  be  most  active 
and  most  persistent.  It  is  not  only  a  more  or  less  complete  absorption 
of  the  starch  reserve  that  is  produced  in  autumn,  it  even  works  a 
profound  change  in  the  distribution — due  to  this  that  the  foci  of  attrac- 
tion are  displaced.  It  is  known,  in  fact,  that  starch  is  borne  always 
to  the  points  where  vitality  is  most  developed.  Now  in  this  season 
the  only  regions  where  there  still  remains  a  residue  of  vegetative 
activity  are,  on  the  one  hand,  the  buds  which  the  young  branches 
bear,  on  the  other  the  roots  whose  vegetation  is  prolonged  for  a  certain 
time  after  that  of  the  aerial  organs  exposed  to  the  first  cold.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  season  advances  the  respiratory  combustion  slackens, 
and  from  the  moment  when  the  vegetable  enters  into  the  period  of 
latent  life,  the  distribution  of  the  starch  remains  stationary  during 
nearly  three  months"  {Comptcs  Bendics,  vol.  cxii.  for  1891,  p.  964). 

I  think  it  would  be  difficult  to  quote  or  translate  a  passage  which 
reflects  more  faithfully  and  lucidly  the  inevitable  results  of  true 
scientific  observation  and  experiment  upon  the  veritable  scientific 
intelligence.  The  facts  are  interpreted  aright  and  referred  back,  so  to 
speak,  to  their  real,  i.e.  their  physiological  cause.  It  has  been  main- 
tained that  the  winter  period  of  rest  of  our  deciduous  trees  is  not 
dependent  on  external  conditions,  such  as  temperature  or  moisture,  but 
on  internal  changes,  and  especially  on  such  as  enable  the  starch- 
containing  cells  to  transform  their  starch  into  sugar.  Sachs  thought 
that  possibly  there  must  be  a  very  slow  production  of  ferments  before 
the  buds  can  develop  in  spring,  as  they  cannot  by  any  means  be  caused 
to  develop  in  autumn  or  beginning  of  winter,  although  meanwhile  their 
reserve  materials  are  not  chemically  changed.  Nevertheless,  a  study 
of  the  actual  condition  of  affairs  within  the  veil  of  mystery  that 
enwraps  the  winter  forest,  reveals  the  groundlessness  of  the  opinion 
that  the  reserve  materials  are  chemically  unchanged.  In  point  of 
fact,  we  discern  that  the  protoplasm  contained  in  the  delicate,  colour- 
less tissues  of  the  bark  becomes  very  rich  in  fatty  matter,  probably 
operative  as  a  resistant  to  the  extremes  of  cold.  The  starch,  moreover, 
which  in  most  of  our  trees  is  laid  up  in  the  wood  and  in  special  reser- 
voirs below  the  buds,  is  during  the  hard  season  very  rich  in  substance 
and  poor  in  water,  the  grains  seem  to  be  smaller  than  in  summer,  and 
amylodextrine  seems  to  accompany  it,  i.e.  altogether  it  is  hardly  in  a 
condition  well  fitted  for  chemical  transformation.  No  doubt  glucose 
or   other   combustible   carbohydrate    may   gradually  all  the  while   be 


4°2  P.   Q.  KEEGAN  [december 

entering  into  solution  in  the  cell  sap ;  Tout  the  quantity  thereof  must 
be  extremely  small,  perhaps  not  much  more  than  sufficient  to  forefend 
the  utter  and  final  extinction  of  the  feeble  spark  of  life  that  continues 
to  glimmer  amid  the  bitter  cold  and  benumbing  surroundings.  More- 
over, although  it  is  recognised  that  ferments  are  the  products  of  cells 
in  process  of  disorganisation,  there  is  some  doubt  whether  even  this 
process  goes  on  in  the  dead  waste  and  middle  of  winter.  Bather  a 
universal  torpor  seems  to  reign  in  the  domain  of  plant  life,  and,  in  a 
general  way,  "  as  you  were  "  is  the  word  of  command  from  November 
till  March.  On  these  grounds,  therefore,  and  for  other  reasons  too 
abstruse  to  be  succinctly  recited,  I  am  disposed  to  conclude  that  the 
winter  period  of  rest,  even  in  our  evergreens,  does  actually  and  prin- 
cipally (I  do  not  say  entirely)  depend  on  the  external  conditions  to 
which  the  plant  is  subjected.  In  the  case  of  the  Coniferae,  their 
limitation  of  growth  towards  the  north  is  due  to  dry  winds  on  sunny 
days  in  winter  stimulating  transpiration  at  a  time  when  the  roots  can 
draw  no  fresh  supplies  of  moisture  from  the  frost-bound  soil.  Hence 
in  the  evergreen  leaves  of  this  order,  special  protective  contrivances 
against  excessive  transpiration  are  indispensable.  In  our  deciduous 
dicotyledonous  growths,  on  the  other  hand,  these  special  defences  are 
apparently  incompatible  with  that  full  and  free  activity  of  the  chloro- 
phyllian  protoplasm  in  summer  which  is  necessary  to  build  up 
characteristically  hard  woods. 

Descending  now  to  particulars,  it  is  proper  to  mention  that  what 
Fischer  has  termed  fat-trees  are  those  which  are  soft- wooded,  and  con- 
tain at  the  period  of  the  starch  minimum  in  winter  (December, 
January,  and  February)  no  starch  at  all  in  the  rind,  wood,  or  pith,  e.g. 
Scotch  fir,  birch,  alder,  poplars,  lime,  Bobinia ;  in  spruce  fir,  larch,  yew, 
juniper,  etc., the  wood  never  becomes  completely  devoid  of  starch,  but  even 
in  these  fat  predominates  in  the  wood  in  winter.  Starch-trees,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  hard-wooded,  and  while  in  winter  the  starch  dis- 
appears completely  from  their  bark  and  pith,  it  remains  almost 
unchanged  in  quantity  in  the  wood  and  medullary  sheath.  The 
ultimate  cause  of  these  differences  seems  to  be  that  the  assimilatory 
activity  of  the  foliar  organs  of  the  trees  in  the  first  category  is  not  so 
active  as  it  is  in  those  of  the  other.  More  starch  is  produced  in  the 
leaves  of  the  latter,  the  starchy  reserves  of  the  medullary  rays  and 
wood  parenchyma  are  more  redundant  and  not  so  readily  exhausted  ; 
hence  vitality  is  more  developed,  the  annual  rings  are  broader,  and  the 
excess  of  plastic  substance  is  used  up  in  the  thickening  of  the  autumn 
zone  of  wood,  the  whole  contributing  to  raise  its  density  and  hardness 
considerably  as  compared  with  that  of  firs,  pines,  and  other  fat-trees. 
My  own  investigations  lead  me  to  consider  that  the  wood  of  conifers  is 
very  poor  in  starch  at  all  times,  even  in  isolated  trees  developed  in  the 
highest  noon  of  summer ;  while  again,  although  at  this  season  the 
wood  of  birch,  alder,  lime,  etc.,  is  very  rich  in  starch,  it,   even  before 


1899]  TREES  IN  WINTER  403 

the  leaf  falls,  easily  degrades  and  suffers  what  may  be  called  a  dextrine 
change. 

Is  the  process  of  deassimilation  likewise  checked  and  brought  to 
rest  within  the  inner  arcanum  of  our  trees  in  winter  ?  Do 
tannoids,  resins,  volatile  oils,  waxes,  tannins,  and  coloured  pigments 
continue  to  be  produced  as  the  outcome  of  the  spent  and  exhausted 
energy  of  the  chlorophyllian  protoplasm  ?  "  Assimilation,"  says 
Mesnard,  "  may  be  very  feeble  and  even  be  annulled  completely,  but 
deassimilation  should  not  be  null  as  it  is  indispensable  to  the  proper 
functioning  of  the  cell."  Wigand,  in  a  general  way,  declared  that  the 
young  shoot  in  the  condition  of  winter-bud  contains  no  tannin,  but  has 
starch ;  he  imagined  that  the  tannin  is  changed  into  starch,  and  in 
that  condition  held  as  it  were  its  winter  sleep.  In  1875  Oser  con- 
cluded that  the  tannin  of  the  current  year's  twigs  of  oak  decreased  in 
winter,  it  being  possibly  used  up  in  a  kind  of  internal  respiration,  the 
tannic  acids  being  very  easily  oxidisable.  In  1888  E.  Schulze  dis- 
cussed the  question,  Are  the  leaves  of  evergreen  trees  emptied  in 
autumn  like  caducous  leaves,  or  are  they  filled  with  reserve  materials 
like  the  other  persistent  organs  ?  He  performed  numerous  micro- 
chemical  experiments,  and  concluded  that  only  in  Gymnosperms  and 
in  most  Dicotyledons  do  the  leaves  serve  as  magazines  of  reserves 
during  the  resting  period.  He  found  that  not  only  starch  but  fatty 
oil  and  tannin  may  still  be  detected  in  the  winter  foliage ;  sometimes 
tannin  is  found  there  alone,  sometimes  it  exists  along  with  starch  or 
oil,  but  they  are  rarely  found  side  by  side  in  the  same  cell ;  moreover, 
when  oil  accompanies  tannin,  the  cells  which  contain  the  oil  are 
generally  deprived  of  starch.  Starch  and  tannin  occur  in  the  winter 
leaves  of  oak,  holly,  mistletoe,  spindle-tree,  etc.,  whereas  those  of  ivy, 
guelder  rose,  firs,  pines,  etc.,  contain  tannin  only.  G.  Kraus  carefully 
examined  the  youngest  shoots  of  several  trees  and  shrubs  monthly 
during  the  winter,  and  found  that  the  tannin  of  the  twigs  formed  in 
the  preceding  vegetation  period  undergoes  no  change  in  the  winter 
months,  and  hence  Oser's  idea  of  its  mission  as  a  respiratory  material 
falls  to  the  ground,  and  Schulze's  and  Haberland's  opinion  that  it  is  a 
reserve  substance  is  consequently  unsatisfactory. 

Nevertheless,  I  think  there  is  some  satisfactory  evidence  to  prove 
that  if  tannin,  i.e.  the  capital  product  of  deassimilation,  does  not  increase 
during  the  dead  months  of  December,  January,  and  February,  it  at  all 
events  develops  to  some  extent ;  this  is  to  say,  by  further  exposure  to 
the  oxidising  agencies  of  light  and  air  it  suffers  dehydration,  or  a 
molecular  rearrangement  of  its  constituent  atoms.  For  instance,  it  is 
during  the  wintry  gloom  that  the  leaves  of  ivy  assume  their  brightest 
red,  the  buds  of  the  Norway  maple  are  red  in  autumn  but  become  of  a 
still  darker  red  in  the  course  of  the  winter,  the  holly  berry  never 
shows  so  ruddy  a  radiance  as  about  the  merry  Christmas  time,  and 
many  other  illustrations  may  readily  be  recalled.      Indeed,  from  the 


404  P-   Q-   KEEGAN  [December 

analogy  of  the  autumn  manifestation  of  colorific  effect  investing  the 
woodlands  at  a  time  when  the  assimilatory  activity  becomes  dull  and 
deadened,  there  is  nothing  unreasonable  in  the  assumption  that 
oxidising  effects  continue  to  be  produced  later  on  when  only  a  feeble 
minimum  of  protoplasmic  respiration  remains  as  the  last  remnant  of 
vitality.  Even  in  dead  leaves  the  glucose  and  other  autoxidisable 
substances  disappear,  at  least  in  part,  as  the  result  of  the  direct  action 
of  atmospheric  oxygen.  So  that  whether  the  process  be  regarded  as 
either  physiological  or  chemical  or  both  combined,  it  would  be  absurd 
to  imagine  that  a  substance  absorbing  oxygen  so  readily  as  tannin  does, 
can  remain  totally  unaffected  through  fresh  winds,  sunny  skies  at 
times,  and  a  small  absolute  content  of  aerial  moisture.  Judging  from 
the  analogy  of  the  fruit,  wherein  tannin  remains  long  and  in  some 
cases  even  is  completely  destroyed  by  oxidation,  it  would  seem  that  the 
tannin  of  the  winter  boughs  and  leaves  gradually  becomes,  as  the 
season  advances,  more  complex  in  composition,  less  easily  crystallisable, 
and  less  soluble ;  possibly  it  takes  up  new  carbon  radicals,  whereby, 
while  retaining  an  analogous-chemical  constitution,  its  reducing  pro- 
perties are  not  diminished. 

It  might  be  imagined  that  a  property  like  wax-formation,  suberifica- 
tion,  etc.,  to  which  plants  owe  their  great  power  of  resistance  to  the 
effects  of  climate,  would,  if  not  specially  prominent,  be  at  all  events 
not  altogether  suspended  during  the  winter  months.  It  appears, 
however,  that  even  in  these  respects  the  palsying,  life-consuming 
influences  of  cold  are  not  arrested.  "  The  resin  and  wax  metamorphosis 
are  probably  conditioned  by  a  slackening  of  the  cellular  activity,"  says 
Wigand.  On  the  other  hand,  according  to  Uloth,  who  had  carefully 
studied  the  wax-formation  in  Acer  striatum  and  other  trees,  this  process 
is  not  a  physiological  but  rather  a  purely  chemical  one,  requiring  a 
peculiar  condition  of  the  cellulose,  with  the  co-operation  of  light  and  of 
a  certain  high  temperature,  and  hence  takes  place  only  during  summer. 
"  During  the  winter,"  he  states,  "  as  is  seen  distinctly  after  the  fall  of 
the  leaves,  the  wax-forming  process  stands  still  in  order  to  begin  anew 
with  the  second  spring  entirely  in  the  same  way  m  before."  This 
attestation  is  of  some  importance,  inasmuch  as  it  throws  some  light  on 
the  vexed  question  of  the  precise  physiological  character  and  position 
of  a  substance,  the  origin  of  which  has  proved  rather  a  bugbear  to  all 
serious  students  of  arboreal  chemistry.  My  own  impression  is  that 
wax,  suberin,  etc.,  represent  the  products  of  chemical  decomposition 
(deassimilation)  resulting  from  the  specially  vigorous  and  rapid 
activity  of  certain  locally  restricted  non-sexual  propagative  cells,  such, 
for  instance,  as  compose  the  phellogen  and  the  epidermis  of  young 
leaves  ;  and  this  being  so,  the  fact  that  this  unwonted  energy  is 
arrested  in  winter  becomes  easily  explicable,  and  is  by  no  means 
extraordinary. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  of  the  phenomena   connected   with   the 


1899]  TREES  IN  WINTER  405 

winter  rest  of  our  trees  is  the  lavish  accumulation  of  oxalate  of  calcium 
in  the  buds  and  even  in  the  pith  of  the  young  shoots.  A  section 
made  even  in  October  through  the  bud  of  sycamore,  alder,  or  ash 
reveals  an  extraordinary  state  of  affairs.  What  does  it  all  mean  ? 
The  cells  seem  reeking,  as  it  were,  with  large  or  small  crystals  well  and 
truly  formed.  In  sycamore  buds  these  are  very  large,  while  in  those 
of  the  ash  they  are  of  all  sizes  apparently.  A  transverse  section  of 
the  bud-scales  of  the  latter  tree  shows  a  peculiar  collenchymatous  tissue 
filled  with  a  thickly  granulated  plasma  which  invariably  encloses 
among  several  tiny  rodlets  of  oxalate  of  calcium,  a  large  octahedron  of 
the  same  substance.  "  The  oxalate  formed  in  the  autumn  in  the  buds 
is  still  unchanged  in  spring,"  says  Wehmer.  Kraus  concludes  that  it 
is  a  reserve  food  material  and  not  an  excretion,  and  is  taken  up  in 
spring ;  but  after  careful  study  and  consideration  I  am  disposed  to 
conclude  that  it  merely  represents  an  oxidation  product  of  the 
carbohydrates ;  in  fact,  it  is  the  result  of  a  specially  active  metabolism 
connected  with  the  molecular  rearrangement  of  certain  carbohydrates 
while  being  subjected  to  an  unwonted  and  extraordinary  intensity  of 
respiration. 

Patterdale,  Westmorland. 


Lacepede's  "  Tableaux  .   .   .  des  Mammiferes  et 

des  Oiseaux,"  1799. 

By  C.  Davies  Sherborn. 

In  Natural  Science  for  December  1897  (p.  432)  there  will  be  found  a 
letter  by  me  upon  Lacepede's  "  Tableaux."  These  "  Tableaux "  are 
classifications  of  mammals  and  birds,  and  their  interest  consists  in  the 
fact  that  in  them  many  generic  names  are  used  for  the  first  time  in 
literature.  In  the  communication  referred  to  above,  I  mentioned  that 
an  edition  of  Buffon  had  been  discovered  in  which  these  "  Tableaux  " 
occurred,  and  that  the  volume  containing  these  "  Tableaux  "  was  dated 
1799.  As  this  was  the  date  of  the  original  publication,  and  as  the 
original  publication  had  been  lost  sight  of  practically  since  it  first  saw 
the  light,  the  discovery  was  apparently  of  considerable  importance. 

In  June  1899  I  received  a  kindly  communication  from  Mr.  C.  W. 
Richmond  of  the  United  States  National  Museum,  pointing  out  that 
according  to  the  Journal  Typogrwphique  of  Paris,  the  edition  of  Buffon 
in  question,  although  dated  1799,  apparently  came  out  in  livraisons  of 
two  volumes  a  month,  and  that  the  particular  volume  containing  the 
"  Tableaux "  (vol.  xiv.  of  the  Quadrupeds)  was  not  published  until 
October  1802.  Mr.  Pdchmond  has  since  published  the  whole  story  in 
The  Auk,  vol.  xvi.  No.  4,  October  1899,  pp.  325-329. 

Now  let  me  deal  with  the  Buffon  first.  The  edition  in  question 
was  published  in  76  vols.  18 mo,  Paris,  1799-1809.  It  was  printed 
by  Plassan,  and  published  by  Saugrain.  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
35th  livraison  (vol.  xiv.  "  Quadrupedes,"  and  vol.  x.  "  Poissons  "),  that  is 
in  Oct.  1802,  the  entire  work  was  purchased  by  the  brothers  Didot 
{Jovrn.  Typographiquc,  August  25,  1803,  p.  358)  and  reissued  with 
new  title-pages,  bearing  their  imprint  instead  of  that  of  Saugrain,  but 
carrying  the  same  date,  viz.  1799,  the  date  in  the  original  issue 
being  expressed,  "  L'an  vii  de  la  Pepublique,"  and  in  the  Didot  issue 
as  "An  vii — 1799."  The  Saugrain  title-pages  were  torn  out  and  the 
Didot  title-pages  pasted  upon  the  guard  thus  left,  Didot  then  issued 
in  1804  vols,  xi.-xiv.  of  Poissons,  and  in  1809  vols.  i.  ii.  of  Cetaces, 
thus  completing  the  76  vols.  The  copy  in  the  British  Museum  (Nat. 
Hist.)  is  of  the  second  issue,  with  the  exception  of  vol.  i.  of  the  "  Quad. 

406 


December  1899]  LACEPEDE S  "  TABLEAUX"  4°7 

Ovipares,"  which  still  bears  the  Saugrain  title-page ;  Professor  Newton 
has  the  greater  part  of  an  original  set  containing  some  of  the  Saugrain 
title-pages,  which  formerly  belonged  to  Mr.  de  Winton,  while  Mr.  de 
Winton  has  recently  acquired  a  second  set,  bearing  the  Didot  replace- 
ments. Now  it  seemed  quite  possible  that  the  Saugrain  issue  was 
published  as  a  whole  at  first,  and  proving  unsaleable  was  after- 
wards issued  in  livraisons  of  2  vols,  per  month  ;  but  it  was  not  so. 
Mr.  Richmond's  authority  {Journ.  Typ.)  is  quite  accurate,  for  it  is 
proved  to  be  so  by  a  reference  to  the  Journal  G6ndral  de  la  LitUrature 
de  la  France,  which  not  only  gives  from  month  to  month,  practically 
the  same  information  as  does  the  Journ.  Typ.,  but  definitely  states  on 
7  Nivose  vii.  (December  28,  1798)  that  Plassan  would  publish  an 
18mo  ed.  of  Buffon  by  Lacepede,  2  vols,  on  the  1st  of  each  month, 
beginning  Floreal  vii.  (Ap.  20,  1799).  The  Journ.  Ge'ne'ral  also 
announces  the  final  volumes,  xiv.  "Quads."  and  x.  "  Poissons,"  in 
Brumaire,  xi.  (October  1802).  Probably  Saugrain  dated  his  volumes 
l'an  vii.  because  they  were  all  printed  and  ready  to  issue  by  that  year, 
but  why  Didot  so  dated  his  new  title-pages  is  a  mystery.  Engelmann, 
Bill.  Hist.  Nat.  1846,  p.  322,  refers  to  a  separate  issue  of  the  "Tableaux'" 
in  1802  in  18mo,  Plassan;  and  among  the  bibliological  treasures  of 
Professor  Newton  is  a  unique  copy  of  this,  containing  only  the  birds, 
which  belonged  to  Fischer  de  Waldheim,  and  has  his  annotations 
throughout.  It  is  repaged  but  otherwise  identical  with  the  correspond- 
ing part  of  the  birds  in  vol.  xiv.  of  the  "  Quads."  in  the  Didot  Buffon. 
So  much  for  the  Didot  Buffon,  for  much  of  the  elucidation  of 
which  we  must  thank  Mr.  Richmond.  Let  us  now  consider  the  history 
of  the  "  Tableaux."  As  stated  in  my  previous  letter,  Lacepede  read  his 
paper  on  Mammals  before  the  Institute  on  21  Prairial  An  vii.  (June  9, 
1799),  and  his  paper  on  Birds  6  Fructidor  An  vi.  (August  23,  1798), 
or  nearly  a  year  before.  They  were  published  together  in  the  Mdmoires 
de  VInstitut,  vol.  iii..  in  1801.  They  have  been  frequently  quoted  as 
1799,  but  no  copy  has  ever  been  produced  in  support  of  the  statement. 
I  imagined  I  had  found  the  1799  issue  in  the  Buffon,  but  Mr.  Rich- 
moncl  has  argued  that  I  was  mistaken.  There  was  still  another  refer- 
ence in  Engelmann  (p.  376)  to  an  issue  "  in-4,  Paris,  An  vii.  (1799), 
Plassan  (38  pages)."  This  tract  I  had  searched  for  for  years,  and 
almost  despaired  of  obtaining,  when  quite  by  chance  I  discovered  its 
more  exact  title,  made  a  fresh  attempt,  and  after  several  months 
succeeded  in  securing  a  partly  uncut  copy.  Here  is  the  full  title, 
"  Discours  |  d'ouverture  et  de  cloture  I  du  cours  |  d'liistoire  naturelle  | 
Donne  clans  le  Museum  national  d'Histoire  naturelle,  |  l'an  vii  de  la 
Republique,  |  et  |  Tableaux  methodiques  |  des  mammiferes  et  des 
oiseaux,  |  par  le  Cen  Lacepede,  |  De  l'lnstitut  national  de  France  [7 
lines  of  titles,  etc.]  |  a  Paris  |  chez  Plassan,  Imprimeur-Libraire.  | 
L'an  vii  de  la  Republique.  |  — These  "  Discours  "  occupy  5  5  pp., 
p.  56  is  devoted  to  "Errata,"  and  then  follows  "Tableau  des  divisions, 


4o8  C.    DA  VIES  SHE R BORN  [December 

sous-divisions,  ordres  et  genres  des  mammiferes  par  de  Cen  Lacepede," 
[etc.]  "  A  Paris,  chez  Plassan  [etc.]  L'an  vii  de  la  Kepublique,"  pages 
1-18;  followed  by  "Tableau  des  sous-classes,  divisions,  sous-divisions, 
ordres  et  genres  des  oiseaux"  [no  title-page  or  date],  pages  1-20,  and 
"  de  l'imprimerie  de  Plassan." 

The  whole  is  bound  in  the  original  boards,  and  is  uncut  in  two 
places;  is  obviously  a  complete  and  perfect  book;  contains  the  38  pp. 
tract  referred  to  by  Engelmann  on  p.  376  ;  and  was  reviewed  in  detail 
in  the  Joum.  ge'ne'ral  Litt.  France,  iii.  1800,  Nivose  An  viii.  (December 
21,  1799,  to  January  19,  1800),  p.  7.  Having,  therefore,  found  this 
missing  book,  we  are  now  in  a  position  to  speak  definitely  as  to  the 
date  of  Lacepede's  generic  and  specific  names.  They  first  appeared 
in  print  quite  towards  the  end  of  1799,  in  the  newly  found  tract. 
They  were  quoted  by  Daudin  in  his  "  Traite  Orn."  1800  (Richmond, 
Auk,  xvi.  p.  327) ;  they  were  printed  in  Me'm.  de  I'Inst.  iii.  1801,  reset 
and  repaged,  and  with  the  "errata"  which  appeared  in  p.  56  of  the 
"  Discours '"'  corrected  ;  they  also  appeared,  with  additions  by  Daudin, 
in  vol.  xiv.  of  the  Quadruples  of  Didot's  Buffon  in  October  1802  ;  from 
which  volume  separates  were  issued  in  the  same  year,  of  which  one 
copy,  and  that  of  birds,  is  known.  It  is  further  to  be  noted,  as  a 
correction  of  my  previous  note,  that  of  the  specific  names  Lacepede 
supplied  one  each  to  the  mammals,  as  seen  in  the  original  tract  and  in 
the  Mem.  de  I'Inst.,  while  the  whole  of  the  other  specific  names  are 
Daudin's,  and  their  date  must  of  course  be  a  matter  of  separate 
individual  inquiry. 

Professor  Newton,  who  has  followed  the  whole  inquiry  in  the 
kindest  and  closest  manner,  has  carefully  examined  the  1799  tract 
and  says  :  "  My  impression  is  that  the  two  '  Tableaux  '  (Mammals  and 
Birds),  each  of  which  has  its  own  pagination,  distinct  from  that  of  the 
'  Discours,'  must  have  been  printed  before  the  '  Discours '  were — - 
and  the  Birds  indeed  so  long  before  as  An  vi.,  on  the  6  Fructidor, 
of  which  year  the  table  tvas  shown  to  and  a  memoir  upon  it  read 
before  the  Institute,  as  he  himself  [Lacepede]  stated  on  the  21 
Prairial  of  the  following  year,  when  he  presented  the  Mammal  scheme. 
You'  will  observe  that  the  '  Tableau '  of  Birds  in  your  copy  has  no 
separate  title-page,  and  it  looks  as  if  that  was  printed  off  in  An  vi. — 
the  '  Tableau  '  of  Mammals  not  being  printed  till  the  following  year — 
in  which  year  also  the  little  Buffon,  according  to  its  original  title- 
page  ('chez  Saugrain,'  etc.),  was  printed,  i.e.  1799,  while  in  my  view 
the  original  'Tableau'  of  Birds  belongs  to  An  vi.,  i.e.  1798! 
Whether  publiccdion  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word  can  be  claimed 
successfully  for  that  date  is  more  than  I  should  like  to  say ;  but  there 
ought,  I  think,  to  be  no  doubt  that  his  genera  both  of  Mammals  and 
Birds  were  published  in  An  vii.  (1799)." 

In  a  further  letter  Professor  Newton  points  out,  that  while  in  the 
Mini,  de  I'Inst.  the  errata  that  appeared  on  p.  56  of  the  "Discours" 


1899]  LACEPEDE'S  "TABLEAUX"  409 

were  corrected,  they  were  not  corrected  in  vol.  xiv.  of  the  "  Quadrupedes  " 
of  the  Saugrain  Buffon.  And  this  fact  seems  to  suggest  that  the 
seventy  volumes  issued  by  Saugrain  were  all  printed  in  or  before 
Tan  vii.  (1799).  Why  their  publication  was  delayed,  or  arranged  as 
two  volumes  a  month,  we  may  never  know. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that — 

Lacepede's  "Tableaux,"  1799,  exist. 

Their  date  is  1799. 

All  the  generic  names  are  Lacepede's. 

The  specific  names  in  the  original  tract  and  in  Mem.  de  Vlnst.  are 
Lacepede's  ;  but  all  the  rest  which  appeared  in  the  1802  volume  are 
Daudin's. 

I  have  entered  rather  fully  into  this  subject,  and  if  the  general 
reader  of  Natural  Science  considers  the  whole  thing  a  bore,  it  will  at 
least  show  him  that  much  and  tedious  labour  is  necessary  before  one 
can  solve  so  apparently  simple  a  problem  as  the  date  of  publication  of 
a  mere  name,  or  even  of  an  individual  volume. 


REFERENCES. 

C.  D.  Sherborn.     Natural  Science,  December  1897,  p.  432. — C.  W.  Richmond.     The 
Auk,  vol.  xiv.  No.  4,  October  1899,  p.  325. 


British  Museum 

(Natural  History), 
London,  S."\V 


An  Extension  of  the  Method  of  treating  Variations, 
with  Examples  and  certain  Conclusions. 

By  H.  M.  Kyle,  M.A.,  B.Sc.  (St.  Andrews). 

It  is  proposed  to  give  in  this  paper  a  short  account  of  an  extension  of 
the  method  at  present  used  in  the  study  of  variations.  Examples  will 
be  shown  in  order  to  illustrate  the  working  of  this  method,  and  a  brief 
discussion  of  the  conclusions  towards  which  the  results  already  obtained 
point  will  be  added.1 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the  details  of  the  present  method, 
since  they  are  now  so  well  known,  and  only  the  underlying  principles 
will  be  mentioned  in  order  to  preserve  the  continuity  of  the  subject 
and  display  the  exact  point  of  the  new  departure.  For  the  sake  of 
clearness  the  various  stages  will  be  denoted  by  propositions,  three  in 
number:  (1)  the  application  of  the  laws  of  probability;  (2)  a  law 
which  holds  for  all  the  individuals  of  a  "  group  " ;  (3)  a  formula  for 
determining  to  which  of  known  groups  any  chosen  individual  belongs. 

1.  The  variations  of  any  organ  or  part  of  an  organ  in  a  series  of 
individuals  of  the  same  race  or  species  conform  to  the  laws  of  prob- 
ability. When  arranged  in  order  these  variations  form  a  curve  which 
may  be  expressed  by  one  of  several  algebraic  equations.  The  most 
common  of  these  equations  is  that  known  as  the  "  Probability  Integral." 
Further,  when  the  variations  of  one  organ  have  been  expressed,  a  con- 
stant can  be  found  showing  the  relation  of  these  variations  to  those 
of  another  organ ;  in  other  words,  the  correlation  of  organs  can  be 
expressed  mathematically. 

With  two  great  exceptions  the  examples  hitherto  given  have  been 
concerned  with  the  variations  of  particular  organs  and  the  correlation 
of  these  variations.  The  conclusions  have  been  restricted  for  the  most 
part  to  displaying  the  "  fact "  of  variation  and  the  importance  of  the 
mathematical  method.  More  recently  an  effort  has  been  made  to  pass 
beyond  this  stage  and  connect  the  observed  change  in  a  range  of 
variations  at  different  times  with  a  known  change  in  the  environmental 
conditions. 

It  is  necessary  here  to  enter  into  a  slight  criticism  of  this  position 

1  For  conclusions,  see  pp.  417  rt  scq. 
410 


dec.  1899]        METHOD  OF  TREATING    VARIATIONS  411 

iu  order  to  contrast  it  with  the  position  shown  later.  If  it  is  sought 
to  connect  directly  the  rate  of  Arariation  in  any  one  particular  organ 
or  part  of  an  organ  with  a  certain  change  in  environmental  conditions, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  the  conclusions  reached  will  depend 
much  more  upon  the  pre-existing  assumptions  with  regard  to  the 
relations  of  the  organism  and  environment  than  upon  the  actually 
observed  facts. 

This  can  be  shown  mathematically.  If  $(x)  represent  a  group  of  organisms, 
i.e.  their  characters,  let  x1  be  one  single  character ;  4>(-x\)  will  then  represent 
this  character  in  the  group  and  ^'(^1)  its  rate  °f  variation.  Further,  let  f(x) 
represent  the  group  of  environmental  conditions,  then  f'(x)  is  the  rate  of 
variation  of  this  group.  That  <j>(x)  varies  with  f(r)  is  the  accepted  position  in 
biology. 

That  <f>'(x1)  =  kf'(x)  is  the  above  position  with  regard  to  the  rate  of  variation 
in  a  single  organ,  where  k  is  a  constant  depending  on  /"(•*')•  Brit  x  is  composed 
of  many  variables,  say  xv  x.,,  x3,  etc.,  hence  the  true  relation  between  the  rate  of 
variation  in  <f>(x)  and  f{x)  must  be  <£'(J"i  J'->  xz  ■  •  •)=%f '(#)•  These  two  equa- 
tions cannot  both  be  true  except  on  two  extreme  probabilities  :  that  the  other 
organs  do  not  vary,  or  that  the  rate  of  variation  is  the  same  for  all.  This 
means  that  ^(j^),  ^'('''n)  •  •  •  which  include  the  variations  due  to  growth  and 
correlation,  are  all  equal  and  each  =  <f>(x1).  This  assumption  is  obviously  a 
very  great  one,  but  even  then  we  have  only  come  to  the  observed  fact  that 
4>'(xi)  =  kt'(x)-  We  come  now  to  the  conclusion  that  k  measures  the  rate  of 
change  of  4>(J-'i)  "with  regard  to  f(x),  but  what  then  1  The  meaning  we  give  to 
h  must  obviously  depend  upon  the  assumption  we  make  as  to  the  relations 
between  <}>(x)  and  f(x).  In  other  words,  I-  cannot  be  taken  to  prove  our 
original  assumption.  There  seem  to  be  but  two  ways  of  regarding  the  relation 
between  the  rate  of  variation  of  an  organ  and  a  change  in  the  environment,  the 
one  that  the  relation  is  direct,  the  change  in  the  environment  causing  the 
alteration  of  the  organ  during  growth ;  the  other  that  the  relation  is  indirect— 
the  change  in  the  environment  bringing  about  the  alteration  in  the  organ  by 
destroying  the  individuals  which  did  not  possess  the  actually  observed  altered 
organ.  In  the  former  case,  k  is  like  any  observed  constant  in  the  science  of 
physics ;   in  the  latter,  it  is  a  measure  of  natural  selection. 

The  question  then  conies  to  be,  which  of  these  assumptions  will  best 
explain  the  facts  ?  Hitherto  the  theory  of  natural  selection  has 
nourished  under  the  belief  that  it  could  explain  the  facts  rather  than 
that  the  facts  were  rightly  explained.  In  the  conclusions  of  this 
paper  an  endeavour  will  be  made  to  show  how  this  theory  rests  on  an 
assumption  which,  however  probable  in  appearance,  must  always 
remain  unproven,  and  it  will  be  suggested  that  the  counter-theory 
explains  the  facts  better. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  just  comparison  of  the  changes  in  a 
single  organ  with  the  changes  in  the  environment,  it  is  equally 
difficult,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make  such  a  comparison  for  the  species. 
It  is  the  "  species  "  that  has  formed  the  starting-point  of  the  theory  of 
natural  selection,  and  by  the  light  of  the  "  species  "  the  structures  of 
the  individual,  its  birth,  every  portion  of  its  life,  and  even  its  death, 
have  been  interpreted.  But  the  "  species  "  is  a  quantity  not  easy  to 
measure,  and    it    thus   seems    very  wide  of   the   mark   to    talk  of  a 


412  H,  M.  KYLE  [December 

character,  or  the  variation  in  a  character,  as  being  "  good  for  the 
species,"  as  having  a  "  selective  valne,"  when  nothing  definite  is 
known. 

On  the  one  side,  therefore,  we  have  "  organs,"  on  the  other  side 
"  species "  ;  and  when  we  consider  things  as  they  naturally  are,  over 
all  is  the  environment.  Is  it  not  possible,  then,  to  find  a  method  of 
grasping  the  mean  ?  Between  the  organs  and  the  species  lies  the 
most  real  of  all,  the  individual — the  unity  of  biology.  If  we  conld 
but  understand  the  single  life  in  its  entirety  through  concentrating  and 
testing  on  it  all  the  conceptions  of  biology,  we  should  know  better 
the  meaning  of  "  change "  —  how  it  arises,  and  thence  also  the 
meaning  of  "  evolution." 

This  is  the  background  of  the  task  which  Professor  Heincke  1  set 
himself.  After  various  trials  at  combining  variations,  and  the  making 
of  formulas  to  represent  groups  and  species,  he  advanced  towards  a 
method  of  determining,  and  a  conception  of  the  individual — not  as  an 
abstraction,  but  as  something  real  and  composed  of  organs,  and  forming 
one  of  many  exactly  equal  under  equal  conditions. 

The  method  consists,  not  in  the  correlation  of  the  variations  of  two 
or  three  characters,  but  in  the  correlation  of  the  averages  of  as  many 
characters  as  possible.  If  the  variations  of  many  characters  are 
obtained,  those  of  each  character  may  be  arranged  about  the  centre  0, 
as  in  the  ordinary  mode  of  dealing  with  variations.  Hence  a  system 
of  groups  of  variations  is  obtained,  each  group  representing  the  most 
probable  distribution  of  the  variations  for  that  character,  and  the 
common  centre  representing  the  average  of  each  group.  If  the  varia- 
tions are  then  arranged  in  parallel  columns  they  may  be  summed  up 
and  treated  as  if  they  were  deviations  from  the  common  average  at  0. 

In  other  words,  the  sum  represents  the  distribution  of  the  variations 
just  as  the  ordinary  arrangement  of  deviations  about  an  average  repre- 
sents their  chance  distribution. 

The  assumption  underlying  this  method 2  is  that  each  group  of 
variations  conforms  to  the  same  "type"  of  probability,  that  of  the 
"  probability  integral."  This  assumption  has  already  been  challenged 
as  if  it  invalidated  the  whole  principle,  but  although  it  is  not  easy  to 
say  what  correction  should  be  made,  a  summation  is  certainly  possible, 
and  the  warrant  of  its  being  near  the  truth  is  shown  in  the  results. 

The  law  which  arises  from  this  summation  holds  good  over  all  the 
individuals  of  a  group  under  the  same  conditions.  It  gives  the  second 
proposition. 

2.  The  standard  deviation  of  all  the  variations  of  the  individuals 
when  grouped   about  the  common  centre  0  is  T18,  and  the  probable 

1  "  Naturgeschichte  des  Herings,"  Abliandl.  des  Dculsch.  Seefi'sch.-Vereins,  R.  ii.  H.  1, 

1898. 

2  A    further   assumption   is   that   each   character    presents   an    independent   series   of 

variations. 


1899]  METHOD  OF  TREATING    VARIATIONS  413 

error  1.      The  proof  of  this  proposition  here  given  is  slightly  altered 
from  that  given  in  the  original,  but  seems  a  little  clearer. 

Let  k  be  the  number  of  characters, 
n  the  total  number  of  variations, 
I  d  any  deviation  of  any  character, 

v  the  corresponding  variation, 
'  iv  the  corresponding  probable  error, 
and  N  the  number  of  variations  of  any  character. 

T,  Sum  of  all  the  variations  _  1       /  Variations  of  any  character         \ 

Number  of  variations         k      \Number  of  variations  of  this  character/ 

V  _  *    ^    (V\  +  V2  +  V3    •    • 


lX-     V=k*\  N 


j        ,d1  +  d.2  +  d3 


10 


-I* 


N 

dl  +  di)  +  d.i  .  . 

"  iVr' 

IV 


1  ^  /Average  deviationN 
k       \    Probable  error    / 

but  on  the  assumption  that  has  been  made,  if  the  number  of  indi- 
viduals and  characters  observed  be  increased,  each  fraction  on  the  right- 
hand  side  of  this  equation  tends  to  an  equality,  and  from  the  probability 
integral — 

Average  deviation  x  _        1       _  1 .1  q 
Probable  error  '8453 

Hence,  the  sum  of  all  the  variations  l  divided  by  the  number  of  varia- 
tions is  equal  to  1*18,  and  this  is  the  standard  deviation  of  a  curve 
whose  centre  is  at  0  and  whose  probable  error  is  1. 

Two  examples  may  be  given  in  order  to  illustrate  this  conclusion. 
The  first  is  of  a  group  of  50  herring  from  the  White  Sea,  and  is  taken 
from  the  work  of  Prof.  Heincke. 

v  v 

—  for  5  characters,       differs  from  PI  8  by  0"40 
n 

for  these  +  3  more,       „         „  by  0-29 

for  13  other  characters  ,,  ,,  by  0*25 

for  all  (21)  „  „         „  by  0-21. 

The  difference  between  theory  and  observation  is  evidently  very  small. 
In  the  second  example  the  variations  of  54  plaice  from  St.  Andrews 
Bay  are  tabulated  in  full  according  to  the  method.      Under  the  second 

1  The  terminology  used  here  is  that  of  Galton,  Weldon  and  Pearson.  "Deviations" 
are  the  observed  fluctuations  about  the  average  of  any  character,  "Variations"  these 
deviations  when  expressed  in  terms  of  the  probable  error.  These  correspond  with  the  terms 
used  by  Heincke. 

28 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   94. 


414 


H.  M.  KYLE 


[DECEMBER 


heading  are  arranged  the  frequencies  of  the  variations,  under  the  third 
the  average  or  standard  deviation  of  the  variations  for  each  successive 
group  of  five  characters,  and  under  the  fourth  the  probable  error  of 
each  group. 


Average 

Deviations 1  ex 

pressed  in  terms  of  the  " 

Errors  of  Mean 

Devia- 

Prob- 

Character. 

Squares." 

tion  of 
Varia- 
tions. 

able 
Error. 

-3 

2-5 

2    1-5 

1       -5-0+    -5 

l 

1-5 

2 

2-5 

3  + 

Intermaxilla  (I 

) 

2 

9 

20 

14 

7 

2 

i 

Intermaxilla  (a 

)    3 

5 

14 

24 

4 

4 

Tail  (/)  . 

1 

10 

15 

14 

9 

5 

-1-14 

•96 

Eye  (0  . 

1 

1 

6 

12 

8 

6 

5 

Mandible 

1 

4 

6 

4 

4 

9 

5 

2 

2 

4 

Head  (d) 

3 

5 

10 

6 

9 

4 

\ 

Head  (b) 

2 

3 

0 

7 

0 

11 

18 

0 

7 

0 

5 

1 

Head  (I) 

6 

16 

21 

7 

4 

-1-42 

1-29 

Body-Height 

2 

0 

4 

5 

7 

8 

4 

5 

0 

8 

5 

C.  Vertebrae 

4 

7 

J 

A.  Vertebrae 

5 

o 

■\ 

Fin-rays  P(r) 

2 

24 

26 

2 

»  "   p(0 

1 

8 

13 

2 

-1-33 

1-12 

„       A 

1 

4 

0 

4 

8 

6 

4 

6 

5 

1 

2 

3 

„       D 

1 

2 

3 

7 

3 

12 

8 

6 

0 

3 

1 

3 

, 

Average  deviation  for  all  the  characters  l-29 


Probable  error 


1-09. 


The  conclusion  one  would  draw  from  these  two  examples  is  that  the 
assumption  which  permits  theory  and  observation  to  agree  so  closely 
cannot  be  far  from  correct.  The  characters  were  not  taken  in  any 
fixed  order,  and  the  results  show  how  the  observed  values  fluctuate 
about  the  theoretical,  the  first  group  having  an  average  deviation 
lower  than  the  theoretical  value,  whilst  the  second  and  third  have  higher. 
This  fluctuation  gives  point  to  an  important  corollary  founded  by  Prof. 
Heincke  on  the  theory  shown  above,  namely,  that  if  one  or  two  char- 
acters only  of  all  the  individuals  of  a  fixed  group  could  be  examined 
the  variations  would  also  agree  with  this  law.  The  difficulty  of  ob- 
taining this  fixed  group  of  individuals  similar  in  all  respects  as  to  age 
or  size,  place  or  living  conditions,  etc.,  is  therefore  the  only  drawback. 

A  second  corollary  of  even  greater  importance  is  also  deduced 
from  this  theory.  If  this  formula  represents  the  "  essence "  of  the 
variations  of  all  the  individuals,  the  conditions  being  the  same,  it  must 
also  do  so  for  one.  The  variations  of  each  individual  are  equally 
balanced  on  either  side  of  the  average,  that  is,  if  the  variations  of  all 
the  characters  of  each  single  individual  could  be  tabulated  they  would 
be  distributed  about  the  mean  according  to  the  above  law. 
1  The  signs  +  and 


are  not  used  in  obtaining  the  "  Average  deviation." 


1899]  METHOD  OF  TREATING   VARIATIONS  415 

From  this  theoretical  conclusion  we  are  led  on  to  the  practical  out- 
come. If  the  conditions  are  altered  we  get  a  second  group  of 
individuals  each  of  which  conforms  to  the  same  law,  but  the  centre  of 
the  averages  is  altered.  Hence  if  any  individual  be  chosen  at  random 
from  one  of  these  groups  we  should  be  able  to  tell  by  an  examination 
of  its  characters  to  which  group  it  belonged.  Hence  the  following 
practical  rule. 

3.  The  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  variations  in  the  characters  of 
a  certain  group  is  a  minimum  for  the  individuals  of  that  group. 

This  follows  directly  from  the  equation  of  the  probability  integral, 

V 


*  sjir 

the  nearer  y  approaches  the  centre  of  the  curve,  or  the  average,  the 
smaller  x2  becomes.  This  being  true  for  all  the  characters,  we  have 
that  *Zx2  is  a  minimum  for  the  variations  in  the  characters  of  a  certain 
group.  Hence,  if  it  is  desired  to  know  to  which  of  several  known 
groups  a  certain  individual  belongs,  it  is  necessary  to  calculate  the 
variations  of  each  character  of  the  individual  from  the  respective 
averages  of  the  several  groups,  then  find  the  sum  of  the  squares  of 
these  variations,  and  the  least  sum  shows  the  group  to  which  the 
individual  is  most  nearly  allied.  The  more  characters  that  are  taken 
the  more  likely  is  the  result  to  be  right,  but  less  characters  are  neces- 
sary the  greater  the  number  of  individuals.  The  first  example  taken 
to  illustrate  this  is  one  of  several  given  by  Prof.  Heincke.  It  refers  to 
a  single  specimen  of  the  group  of  herring  obtained  from  the  White 
Sea,  which  had  58  vertebrae  where  the  average  was  53'6.  One  might 
think,  therefore,  that  this  individual  was  abnormal  for  this  group,  or 
belonged  to  quite  another  group.  Two  other  groups  are  therefore 
taken,  the  one  from  the  west  and  south-west  coast  of  Norway  (Vaarsild), 
which  has  57*5  as  the  average  number  of  vertebrae,  the  other  from 
the  Jutland  Bank  off  Denmark,  which  has  56*6  vertebrae  on  the 
average.  When  other  characters  are  considered,  however,  and  the 
variations  of  this  single  individual  form  the  averages  of  the  three 
groups  calculated  according  to  the  method,  we  find  that 

From  the  average  of  the  White  Sea  (35  characters)       .  .  (x2  or)v2  =  3"213 

,,             ,,              Vaarsild  (35  characters  .         .  .  v2  =  3'696 

,,             ,,              White  Sea  (37  characters)       .  .  -t»2  =  3*225 

,,              ,,               Jutland  Bank  (37  characters)  .  w2  =  3-617 

In  each  case  the  least  value  shows  that  this  individual  more  closely 
approaches  to  the  herring  of  the  White  Sea  in  spite  of  its  having  a 
seemingly  abnormal  number  of  vertebrae.  From  this  it  follows  that 
whilst  in  one  character  an  individual  may  be  very  much  above  the 
average,  it  has  a  variation  or  group  of  variations  in  other  characters 
below  the  average,  which  balance  by  "  defect "  what  the  first  has  in 
'"  excess." 


416 


H.  M.  KYLE 


[DECEMBER 


The  second  example  taken  deals  with  the  group  of  plaice  from  St. 
Andrews.  In  one  respect  they  do  not  precisely  conform  to  the  condi- 
tions necessary  for  obtaining  a  "  pure "  group,  in  that  both  male  and 
female  are  taken.  The  warrant  for  doing  so  is  that  at  the  size  (12 
inches  on  average)  no  distinct  differences  between  the  two  sexes  with 
regard  to  these  characters  can  be  detected.  These  are  compared  with 
the  plaice  from  Grimsby  and  Aberdeen.  The  comparison  is  not  made 
with  the  total  averages  of  these  last  two  groups,  but  only  with  those 
of  two  portions  which  are  similar  in  all  respects  to  one  another  and 
similar  with  regard  to  size  and  sex  to  those  from  St.  Andrews. 

It  has  been  known  l  that  the  plaice  of  St.  Andrews  Bay  are  the 
young  of  the  plaice  which  spawn  somewhere  near  the  Aberdeenshire 
coast,  and  it  was  therefore  of  interest  to  find  out  if  this  new  method 
of  research  would  support  the  testimony  obtained  by  another. 


Characters. 


Intermaxilla  (I) 
Intermaxilla  («) 

Tail  (I)  . 

Eye  (b)  . 
Mandible 

Head  (d) 

Head  (b) 

Head  (I) 
Body  height 

C.  Vertebrae 

A.  Vertebrae 

Fin-rays  P(r) 

,,       P(0 

„         A 
D 


Averages 
for 

zd 

ZcP 

Aberdeen. 

n 

n 

26-80 

+  •4 

•16 

21-17 

-•11 

•278 

29-56 

+  •23 

•467 

35-72 

+  •085 

•381 

46-70 

+  •194 

•384 

39-09 

+  •155 

•32 

48-72 

+  •01 

•38 

24-31 

+  •08 

•37 

65-18 

+  •16 

•40 

30-03 

+  •14 

•36 

12-96 

+  •13 

•33 

11-53 

+  •12 

•30 

10-93 

+  -095 

•28 

54-28 

+  •086 

•26 

72-67 

+  •065 

•247 

Averages 

for 

St.  Andrews. 


26-40 
21-70 
28-64 
36-07 
46-07 
39-13 
49-57 
23-76 
64-37 
30-05 
12-95 
11-52 
11-13 
54-31 
72-91 


2d2 

2d 

Averages 
for 

n 

n 

Grimsby. 

•58 

+  •76 

27-16 

■59 

-•01 

20-92 

2-08 

+  •74 

30-89 

1-57 

+  •49 

35-83 

1-305 

+  •30 

45-60 

1-43 

+  •02 

37-73 

2-03 

-•46 

47-20 

2-06 

-•09 

25-28 

2-04 

-•23 

63-00 

1-84 

—  *22 

30-07 

1-67 

-•19 

12-94 

1-54 

-•20 

11-30 

1-42 

-•20 

10-91 

1-33 

-•21 

53-98 

1-250 

-•22 

72-51 

St.  Andrews  varies  by  *247  from  Aberdeen,  and  1-250  from  Grimsby. 


The  characters  of  this  table  might  have  been  specially  arranged  in 
order  to  show  a  uniform  gradation  of  the  differences  which  are  tabulated 

under  the  headings  —  and  — .  But  they  were  tabulated  just  as  they 
presented  themselves,  and  the  fluctuations  in  these  differences  instead 
of  being  a  flaw  in  the  principle  only  show  how  necessary  it  is  to  take 
more  than  a  few  characters.  The  small  number  of  characters  here 
taken,  and  the  seemingly  very  slight  differences  between  the  two 
original  groups  of  Grimsby  and  Aberdeen,  make  a  severe  test  of  the 
theory,  and  thus  the  results  are  the  more  convincing.  The  values  of 
the  deviations  between  St.  Andrews  and  the  other  groups  gradually 


1  Dr.  T.  W.  Fulton  :  Rep.  Fish.  Board  for  Scotland,  No.  XL,  1893,  Part  III.  p.  176. 


1899]  METHOD  OF  TREATING   VARIATIONS  417 

become  smaller  with  the  addition  of  every  new  character,  and  would 
continue  getting  smaller  if  more  were  added,  because  the  number  n 
increases  faster  than  the  deviations.      But  the  relative  proportions  of 

2d2 

these  deviations  shown  under  the  headings  of  -—  would  remain  almost 
constant,  as  it  does  from  the  sixth  character  onwards.  These  propor- 
tions show  that  the  specimens  from  St.  Andrews  are  several  times 
nearer    to    those    from     Aberdeen     than     to     those     from     Grimsby. 

2d 

Further,  from  the  columns  of  the  simple  deviations,  — ,  we  get  an- 
other important  conclusion.  The  signs  of  the  deviations  are  different, 
and  this  shows  that  if  two  curves  were  drawn  to  represent  the 
deviations  along  the  same  axis  of  the  characters  of  the  groups  from 
Grimsby  and  Aberdeen,  then  the  St.  Andrews  group  would  lie  between. 
It  will  have  been  noticed  that  instead  of  calculating  the  variations 
for  each  character,  the  simple  deviations  are  employed.  The  reason  for 
this  is  that  when  the  average  deviation  is  small,  less  than  1,  as  it  is 
for  the  most  of  these  characters,  and  when  therefore  the  average  devia- 
tions of  both  known  groups  are  the  same  or  nearly  so,  there  is  very 
little  error  introduced  by  using  the  deviations  directly.  In  this  case 
if  the  deviations  had  been  expressed  in  terms  of  the  probable  error  the 
results   would   have   shown  larger  numbers,  as  in    the  case  of  Prof. 

Heincke's  example,  but   the  proportions  between  the  numbers  under 

2d  2d2 

—  and  —  would  have  been  almost  the  same. 

We  may  turn  now  from  the  mathematical  to  the  biological  aspect, 
and  however  uninteresting  the  mathematical  method  may  be  to  most 
biologists  the  ideas  which  it  springs  from  and  the  conceptions  it  leads 
to  will  certainly  be  the  reverse.  Mathematical  expressions  for  the 
relations  between  the  phenomena  presented  by  living  organisms, 
figures  or  numbers  for  the  facts  of  life  and  the  changes  in  organs,  are 
utterly  meaningless  in  themselves  unless  the  biological  standpoint  is 
carefully  maintained  in  the  foreground.  And  it  is  just  in  this  that 
one  of  the  chief  merits  of  Heincke's  position  lies. 

If  the  student  of  biology  brings  to  his  studies  a  wholesome  scepticism 
of  what  has  hitherto  been  reported  true  or  false,  and  yet  in  spite  of  his 
scepticism  still  retains  a  strong  desire  to  know  and  understand  things, 
he  will  soon  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  manner  or  method  of 
acquiring  knowledge  is  of  as  much  if  not  greater  importance  than  the 
actual  knowledge.  The  phenomena  of  life,  we  say,  form  the  raw 
materials  of  knowledge,  and  yet  the  mind  cannot  grasp  the  complex 
relations  and  interplay  of  structure  with  structure,  of  organism  with 
organism,  and  of  those  with  the  environment,  by  entering  straightway 
into  the  investigation  of  phenomena,  here,  there,  and  everywhere.  Some 
preconceived  notions  of  the  subject  in  hand,  and  even  more,  of  the 
right  attitude  of  the  observer  to  the  things  observed,  must  be  formed ; 
otherwise,  however  unwillingly,  we  shall  fall  into  one  of  two  grave 
errors — either  lay  stress  on   the  phenomena  and   pile  up  detail  upon 


4i 8  H.  M.  KYLE  [December 

detail  of  description  and  fact  without  law  or  connection,  or  tending  too 
much  the  other  way,  show  too  much  of  the  observer  and  become  guilty 
of  anthropomorphism.  The  latter  attitude  is  but  too  prevalent  amongst 
opponents  and  upholders  alike  of  the  theory  of  natural  selection. 

The  attitude  here  advocated  lies  between  these  two.  The  details 
and  facts  are  welcomed,  but  "  facts  "  do  not  make  true  knowledge,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  any  theory  which  makes  the  observer  inclined  to 
read  into  the  facts  his  own  personal  notions  of  "  utility  "  or  "  advantage," 
for  example,  must  be  considered  as  too  prone  to  misinterpret  the  actual 
phenomena.  What  we  wish  rather  is  the  attitude  of  a  philosopher 
who  perceives  well  the  facts,  but  holds  himself  aloof  from  opinion,  and 
seeks  some  method  as  an  intermediary  and  aid  to  interpretation.  What 
this  method  should  be  is  not  difficult  to  conceive. 

The  outstanding  feature  in  the  Darwinian  hypothesis — seized  upon 
by  its  clerical  critics  at  the  first  appearance  of  the  Origin  of  Species — 
was  the  stress  laid  upon  "  chance."  The  conception  therein  involved 
was — not  that  anything  ever  happened  at  random  or  haphazard,  but 
that  the  changes  occurring  might  be  conveniently  so  expressed.  As  is 
well  known,  this  theory  of  chance  has  been  developed  more  and  more 
of  recent  years  as  a  separate  study,  until  the  biologist  has  come  to 
regard  it  with  suspicion  as  something  foreign  to  his  own  subject.  And 
yet  is  there  not  some  truth  in  this  theory  of  chance  ?  And  again,  have 
natural  selectionists  the  prerogative  of  this  truth  ? 

The  truth  underlying  this  theory  is  not  far  to  seek.  Life,  we  may 
say,  depends  on  many  "chances."  Hence,  knowing  the  various  sources 
of  danger,  we  may,  as  if  insurance  agents,  calculate  the  "  chance  "  of  a 
particular  individual  surviving  to  a  certain  age.  In  a  deeper  sense, 
again,  if  we  knew  the  causes  of  variation  we  should  be  able  to  calculate 
the  "  chance "  of  the  appearance  of  any  particular  variation  under 
certain  conditions.  What  we  have  before  us  at  any  time  is  only 
partially  the  truth,  and  even  if  we  knew  all  that  had  ever  occurred  and 
understood  all,  we — not  being  omnipotent — could  only  state  as  a 
probability  what  would  occur  next. 

This  is  the  justification  for  the  theory  of  "  chance,"  or  we  should 
rather  say  of  "  probability."  1  Has  the  theory  of  natural  selection 
any  exclusive  right  to  this  conception  ? 

We  may  judge  of  this  more  closely  by  following  the  facts  grouped 
under  the  three  propositions  stated  above.  From  (1)  we  learn  that 
the  variations  in  any  character  are  naturally  grouped  about  a  certain 
average,  and  are  usually  distinguished  as  plus  and  minus  variations  from 
that  average.  If  then  we  hold  by  natural  selection,  and  maintain  that 
hy  this  law  evolution  may  proceed  by  slow  minute  steps,  so  that  "even 
a  grain  in  the  balance  shall  decide  which  shall  live  and  which  shall 
die," — which  variations  shall  we  call  "  useful  "  or  "  favourable  "  ?      If  it 

1  A  mathematical  description  of  the  meaning  underlying  these  words  will  be  found  in  the 
"Chances  of  Death,"  by  Karl  Pearson. 


1899]  METHOD  OF  TREATING   VARIATIONS  419 

is  said  that  we  can  only  tell  this  by  the  result,  when  the  "  fittest "  has 
proved  itself,  when  the  "  selection  "  has  already  taken  place,  this  simply 
means  that  we  are  unwilling  or  unable  to  understand  the  present.  In 
reality  there  cannot  be  two  opinions.  A  plus  variation  may  be  "useful" 
to-day,  "  harmful "  to-morrow,  and  similarly  for  a  minus  one. 

It  will  be  said,  however,  that  "  plus  "  and  "  minus  "  do  not  exist  in 
nature,  and  that  the  most  "  useful "  or  most  "  favourable  "  is  the  mean 
or  average  condition.  How  then  shall  we  understand  the  continual 
recurrence  of  variations  from  the  mean  ?  As  shown  by  Galton,  the 
tendency  of  successive  generations  is  to  produce  offspring  nearer  the 
average  than  the  parents,  and  hence,  on  the  theory  of  the  survival  of 
the  "  fittest,"  or  most  "  favourable  "  variations,  we  are  unable  to  explain 
the  presence  of  extremes. 

Natural  selection  is  based  on  (1)  the  rate  of  increase  of  offspring, 
(2)  enormous  destruction  and  "  struggle,"  (3)  survival  of  the  best  fitted 
to  the  conditions.  If  we  let  our  minds  run  smoothly  in  the  train  of 
thought  suggested  by  the  form  of  the  premises,  the  conclusion  is 
inevitable.  But  if  we  inquire  more  closely  into  the  "  struggle  "  and 
"  destruction  "  in  any  particular  case,  say  of  the  eggs  and  youug  of  the 
herring  in  the  sea,  we  find  ourselves  obliged  to  consider  this  destruction 
as  indiscriminating  and  independent  of  struggle,  and  that  consequently 
both  the  "  fit  "  and  "  unfit  "  survive  ;  in  other  words,  we  cannot  apply 
these  latter  words  even  "  metaphorically." 

If  natural  selection  thus  fails  to  interpret  present  phenomena  as 
shown  in  the  variations  of  single  organs,  its  difficulties  increase  when 
we  consider  the  individuals.  From  the  study  of  organs  we  might  con- 
clude that  Nature  was  aiming  at  the  conservation  of  the  average,  but 
when  we  examine  many  organs  we  find  that  the  average  of  one  may 
be  combined  with  the  extremes  of  others.  Hence  greater  fitness  in 
this  or  that  has  to  make  up  for  greater  unfitness  here  or  there.  In  the 
same  region  the  individuals  of  a  group  at  the  same  period  of  life  are 
thus  equal  in  the  combination  of  their  characters.  This  has  been  shown 
to  be  a  theoretical  deduction  from  the  first  proposition,  and  it  has  been 
exemplified  under  propositions  II.  and  III.  Any  conception  of  greater 
or  less  fitness  is  here  completely  excluded. 

When  we  turn,  however,  to  different  regions  and  consider  different 
groups  of  the  same  species  we  find  that  the  average  of  the  individuals 
has  changed,  and  if  we  examine  successive  groups  in  successive  regions 
we  find  intermediate  stages  of  the  averages.  It  might  be  thought, 
then,  that  natural  selection  has  brought  about  these  differences  in  the 
different  regions.  If  so,  then  we  must  change  our  conception  of 
natural  selection  because  there  is  little  or  no  "  struggle  "  between  the 
different  groups,  consequently  no  discriminating  destruction  and  no 
"  survival  of  the  fittest." 

It. is  not  to  the  present  purpose  to  criticise  further  the  theory  of 
natural  selection,  or  plead  for  the  theory  of  probability.      This  latter, 


420  H.    M.    KYLE  [DECEMBER 

we  see,  can  be  divorced  from  the  former,  and  in  its  making  for  accuracy- 
is  in  truth  but  the  expression  of  rationalised  scepticism.  Let  us  turn 
to  certain  of  the  conclusions  to  which  Heincke  has  been  led  by- 
employing  the  theory. 

The  variations  that  we  find  conforming  to  the  laws  of  mathematics 
cannot  be  considered  as  the  "  beginnings  "  or  "  makings  "  of  new  varieties 
and  species ;  they  are  the  actual  condition  of  affairs,  the  product  and 
reflex  of  the  varying  elements  of  the  environment.  These  variations 
in  structure  are  found  to  show  the  same  appearance  year  after  year, 
and  thus  a  similar  curve  of  variations  will  be  obtained  year  after  year 
although  the  individuals  examined  are  of  different  generations.  Similar 
curves  are  obtained  for  different  groups  of  the  same  species  taken  from 
different  regions  although  the  mean  or  average  value  is  changed.  If 
we  look  to  the  environment  we  see  that  the  conditions  there  of  tem- 
perature, salinity,  etc.,  present  similar  curves.  We  are  surely  entitled 
to  connect  these  two  sets  of  variation  and  state  that  the  one  gives  rise 
directly  to  the  other. 

The  variations  in  organs  which  are  of  specific  importance  are  for 
the  most  part  formed  in  the  early  stages  of  ontogeny  when  the  organ- 
ism is  plastic  and  sensible  to  the  fluctuations  in  the  environment. 
The  range  of  variations  is  represented  by  the  "  variation  coefficient," 
the  "  probable  error  "  of  the  variations.  This  is  not  exactly  the  same 
for  different  regions,  and  hence  forms  a  means  of  comparing  the  ranges 
of  the  variations  in  the  different  environments.  It  also  represents  the 
average  capability  of  varying  which  each  group  possesses  with  regard 
to  the  particular  organ,  whilst  the  total  range  of  deviations  actually 
observed  represents  the  variability  for  the  group,  and  thence  of  the 
species.      The  importance  of  the  conception  is  evident. 

The  individual  as  a  combination  of  organs  is,  however,  the  turning- 
point  of  the  position  of  Heincke.  Eeference  might  be  made  to  eminent 
biologists  who  have  expressed  similar  ideas,  but  perhaps  Herbert  Spencer 
comes  the  nearest.  His  conceptions  of  "  life,"  the  "  balance  of  organs," 
"  direct  and  indirect  equilibration,"  are  almost  exactly  repeated  by 
Heincke  in  other  words.  But  whereas  Spencer  took  a  broad  view  of  the 
problems  of  evolution,  and  thence  showed  the  various  factors  in  perhaps 
their  true  perspective,  Heincke  has  concentrated  his  attention  on  the 
meaning  of  certain  carefully  observed  facts. 

Each  individual  of  a  group  is  the  chance  combination  ("permuta- 
tion ")  of  a  number  of  possibilities,  each  combination  being  equally  prob- 
able. Hence  the  individuals  at  the  same  stage  of  life,  whether  as 
larvae,  young,  or  adults,  possess  an  equal  "  balance  "  of  the  possible  varia- 
tions of  their  organs.  And  similarly  for  other  groups,  the  destruc- 
tion that  occurs  is  a  destruction  of  combinations  of  equal  value  with 
one  another  and  with  those  that  survive.  The  survivors  give  rise  to 
further  combinations,  each  within  the  same  range  of  variability  as 
before,  and  each  equally  probable,  the  exact  combination  and  balance 


1899]  METHOD  OF  TREATING   VARIATIONS  421 

depending  upon  the  immediately  surrounding  conditions.  Thus,  whilst 
each  new  individual  represents  a  fresh  combination  of  the  "  possibili- 
ties," the  mingling  of  the  sexual  elements  is  the  "  dissolution  of  the 
chance."  Death  is  not  the  giving  place  to  the  "more  fit,"  nor  the 
resignation  of  the  individual  for  the  good  of  the  species,  but  the  natural 
ending  that  comes  to  all  by  whatsoever  "  chance." 

"  Utility  should  therefore  be  replaced  by  probability."  The 
individuals  of  the  race  start  out  on  life  with  the  same  opportunities 
and  capabilities,  and  the  probability  of  the  so-called  "  success  in  life  " 
is  inversely  proportional  to  the  "  chances  of  death."  By  man's  agency 
these  latter  may  be  and  are  continually  being  altered,  and  thus  give 
rise  to  appearances  which  have  formed  the  foundation-stone  of  natural 
selection.  But  apart  from  man  it  is  permissible  to  conclude  from  the 
balance  of  things  that  the  chances  of  success  in  life  are  in  exact  in- 
verse proportion  to  the  chances  of  death.  If  the  conditions  of  life 
were  continually  recurring,  therefore,  with  periodic  regularity,  the 
chances  would  be  practically  constant  and  the  "  balance "  of  the  in- 
dividuals would  remain  the  same.  But  when  the  conditions  of  life 
change  and  the  change  remains  constant  the  balance  of  the  organs  in 
the  individuals  is  altered.  Thus,  whilst  the  adults  may  or  may  not 
be  affected — for  the  chances  of  death  may  be  increased  or  diminished — 
the  combination  of  organs  in  the  youngest  must  alter,  and  from  this 
directly-caused  change  new  races  will  arise. 

A  fine  distinction,  but  an  important  one,  should  be  noted  here. 
Darwin  observed  that  species  the  most  widespread  and  most  abundant 
varied  the  most.  This,  however,  does  not  truly  represent  the  case. 
As  we  pass  over  the  different  regions  inhabited  by  the  species  we  see 
that  the  diversity  in  characters  is  greater  than  in  a  smaller  species.  In 
reality  the  "  variation,"  i.e.  the  variation-coefficient  in  the  individuals 
of  the  different  regions,  may  be  exactly  the  same  for  all,  where  that 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  larger  species  is  its  greater  "  variability." 

From  this  aspect  of  variability  we  can  understand  how  the  in- 
dividuals of  a  group  differ  from  one  another  in  all  parts  of  the  body 
and  at  all  stages  of  development.  No  two  individuals  are  "  alike," 
though  all  are  "  normal "  and  equally  "  fit."  This  variability  shows 
itself  not  merely  in  the  earliest  stages,  but  through  every  stage  of  de- 
velopment for  many  characters.  Hence  we  get  differences  due  to 
growth  or  age,  the  "  balance  "  of  the  different  organs  not  remaining  the 
same  throughout. 

From  these  fundamental  positions  Professor  Heincke  passes  to  a 
criticism  of  systems  of  classification,  and  to  suggestions  for  a  new  and 
better  one.  The  older  systems  have  begun  with  orders  and  classes  and 
worked  down  towards  species  and  varieties.  This  method  has  succeeded 
for  the  orders,  but  not  for  the  species.  Hence  we  must  begin  at  the 
other  end,  below  the  "  species,"  and  work  up  to  the  orders. 

The  first  group,   therefore,   is  the    Bace  or    "  Stem "  ("  Family "). 


422  H.  M.   KYLE  [December  1899 

This  includes  "  those  individuals  which  live  within  a  certain  region, 
under  equal  conditions,  have  the  same  habits,  and  stand  in  close  blood- 
relationship  through  intercrossing  and  reproduction."  The  characters 
of  these  individuals  will  come  under  the  laws  formulated  here  as  pro- 
positions II.  and  III. 

The  older  systems  regarded  the  above  as  the  species,  but  in  a 
natural  system  the  "  species "  is  the  second  group.  It  is  a  certain 
"  combination  "  of  races  whose  exact  limitation  has  to  be  determined  in 
all  particular  cases.  The  species  is  but  a  larger  "  race,"  and  may  be 
sharply  marked  off  from  or  merge  into  the  races  of  another  species. 
The  sharper  the  races  can  be  marked  off  from  one  another  the  clearer 
will  be  the  distinction  between  the  species. 

As  this  paper  is  so  short,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  make  any 
summary.  The  endeavour  has  been  to  display  the  meaning  and  im- 
portance of  Heincke's  work,  and  if  further  information  is  desired  refer- 
ence should  be  made  to  the  original  work. 


REFERENCES. 

1.  Bateson,  W.,  "  Materials  for  the  Study  of  Variation,"  1894. 

2.  Bateson,  W.,  "  Progress  in  the  Study  of  Variation,"  Science  Progress,  1897-98. 

3.  Darwin,  C,  "  Origin  of  Species,"  6th  ed.  1882. 

4.  Dunckeii,  G.,    "Die  Methode  der  Variationstatistik,"  Arch.  Entivickmech.  Bd.  viii. 

H.  1,  1899. 

5.  Duncker,  G.,  "  Fr.  Heincke,  Natur.  Geschichte  des  Herings,"  Kritisches  Referat  Biol. 

Centraibl.  Bd.  xix.  1899. 

6.  Galton,  F.,  "Hereditary  Genius,"  1869. 

7.  Galton,  F.,  "Correlations  and  their  Measurements,"  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  1888. 

8.  Galton,  F.,  "Natural  Inheritance,"  1889. 

9.  Geddes,  P.,  and  Thomson,  J.  A.,  "Evolution  of  Sex,"  1892. 

10.  Heincke,  F.,  "  Naturgeschichte  des  Herings,"  1898. 

11.  Morgan,  C.  Ll.,   "Animal  Life  and  Intelligence." 

12.  Pearson,  K.,  "On  the  Mathematical  Theory  of  Evolution,"  Tr.  Roy.  Soc.  1894-95. 

13.  Pearson,  K.,  "Chances  of  Death,"  1897. 

14.  Schmidt,  E.,  "  Anthropologische  Methoden,"  1888. 

15.  Spencer,  E.,  "Principles  of  Biology,"  1866. 

16.  Thomson,  J.  A.,  "Science  of  Life,"  1899. 

17.  Vernon,  H.  M.,  "Effect  of  Environment  on  the  Development  of  Echinoderm  Larva1," 

Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  1896. 

18.  Weismann,  A.,  "The  Germ  plasm,"  1893. 

19.  Weismann,  A.,  "Romanes  Lecture,"  1894. 

20.  Wallace,  A.  R.,  "Darwinism,"  1889. 

21.  Weldon,  W.  F.  R.,  "Certain  Correlated  Variations  in  C'rangon  vulgaris,"  Proc.  Roy. 

Soc.  v.  li.  1892. 

22.  Weldon,  W.  F.  R.,  "On  Certain  Correlated  Variations  in  Carcinus  mocnas,"  ibid.  v. 

liv.  1893. 

23.  Weldon,  W.  F.   R.,  "Remarks  on  Variation  in  Animals  and  Plants,"  ibid.  v.  lvii. 

1895. 

24.  Weldon,  W.  F.  R.,  Presidential  Address,  Brit.  Assoc.  Bristol,  1898. 


A  Zoologist  on  the  Principles  of  Science.1 

By  F.  A.  Bather,  M.A. 

Professor  Brooks  entitles  his  book  "  The  Foundations  of  Zoology,"  but 
he  ends  by  referring  to  it,  more  justly,  as  "  my  work  on  the  Principles 
of  Science."  It  is  not  modesty  that  selects  the  less  comprehensive 
title.  It  is  desire  to  emphasise  the  belief  "  that  the  principles  of  science, 
as  distinguished  from  the  concrete  sciences,  are  part  of  biology." 

The  ground  taken  is  that  the  methods  of  extending  knowledge,  as 
well  as  the  generalisations  therefrom,  are  operations  of  the  human 
mind.  Every  physical  science  rests  on  a  metaphysical  basis,  which 
has  its  origin,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  in  the  mind.  It  is  the 
student  of  animals  who  has  to  face  the  problems  presented  by  the 
origin  of  the  mind ;  and  it  follows  that,  when  questions  are  raised 
concerning  the  operations  of  the  mind  in  scientific  study,  "  the  zoologist 
has  a  peculiar  right  to  ask  answers,  in  addition  to  the  right  which  he 
shares  with  other  students  of  science."  Or,  from  another  point  of 
view,  since  life  is  response  to  the  order  of  nature,  the  study  of  the 
order  to  which  response  is  made  is  as  much  a  part  of  biological  study 
as  is  the  organism  which  responds. 

When  I  found  this  to  be  the  author's  conception  of  his  office,  a 
sense  of  incompetence  urged  me  to  withdraw  from  the  attempt  to  deal 
with  matters  so  profound.  But  the  description  of  the  book  as  "  a 
course  of  lectures  delivered  at  Columbia  University  "  reassured  me :  at 
least  I  was  capable  of  learning.  We  students  of  zoology  need  a  book 
to  show  us  the  relations  of  our  science  to  broader  schemes  of  philo- 
sophy, a  book  written  from  our  own  standpoint  and  condescending  to 
our  ignorance.  The  fact  that  this  need  is  not  recognised  by  all  of  us 
merely  shows  how  real  a  need  it  is.  And  here,  perhaps,  lies  the  chief 
value  of  the  present  work.  Dr.  Brooks  has  so  deserved  a  reputation 
as  a  zoologist,  that  any  writings  by  him  on  "  the  foundations  of 
zoology "  are  sure  to  be  read  by  his  fellow-workers  ;  and  through 
these  essays  their  interest  will  be  stimulated  and  their  intellectual 
sympathy  widened.      But  as  "  a  course  of  lectures  "  !     Well,  the  least 

1  "The  Foundations  of  Zoology,"  by  William  Keith  Brooks.  Columbia  University 
Biological  Series,  vol.  v.,  8vo,  pp.  viii.  +3-40.  New  York  :  The  Macmillan  Co.  London  : 
Macmillan  and  Co.,  Ltd.,  1899.     Price  10s.  6d.  net. 

423 


424  F.  A.  BATHER  [December 

that  can  be  said  is  that  the  students  of  Columbia  University  have  not 
been  fairly  treated.  Some  old  lectures  "  prepared  at  different  times 
and  for  various  reasons "  have  been  furbished  up  and  intermingled 
with  extracts  from  reviews  and  other  magazine  articles.  The  almost 
unavoidable  consequence  is  superabundant  repetition,  not  always  free 
from  inconsistency,  a  want  of  coherence,  not  wholly  remedied  by  an 
interjected  paragraph  or  two,  an  absence  of  logical  arrangement  and 
continuity  in  the  development  of  the  main  thesis,  and  long  complicated 
sentences  to  be  attacked  only  by  the  midnight  reader  with  a  wet  towel. 

Despite  these  defects,  the  conclusions  or  leading  ideas  of  the  book, 
if  not  simple,  are  few.  In  fact  the  author  states  that  his  sole  purpose 
is  to  show  that  mechanical  conceptions  of  life  and  mind  cannot  make 
right  deductions  from  true  principles  untenable  (p.  29).  This  state- 
ment, however,  scarcely  illustrates  the  scope  of  the  work,  and  the 
reader  will  doubtless  wish  to  know  what  those  particular  deductions 
may  be  that  Dr.  Brooks  holds  to  be  proof  against  all  attack.  I  shall 
therefore  attempt  a  brief  relation  of  the  leading  ideas  in  the  book. 

The  two  fundamental  conceptions  that  appeal  specially  to  the 
biologist,  and  are  in  large  measure  the  outcome  of  his  labours,  are  the 
principle  of  genetic  continuity  and  the  principle  of  fitness.  Significant 
resemblances  recognised  between  the  phenomena  of  nature  may  be  due 
to  genetic  continuity ;  and  the  order  of  nature  may  be  the  order  of 
fitness. 

The  meaning  attached  to  fitness  by  Dr.  Brooks  is  at  once  seen  in 
the  second  Lecture,  entitled  "  Huxley,  and  the  problem  of  the  Naturalist." 
It  is  mainly  a  criticism  of  Huxley's  essay  on  "  The  Physical  Basis  of 
Life,"  and  its  keynote  may  be  thus  expressed. — Admitting  that  proto- 
plasm is  the  physical  basis  of  life,  and  even  supposing  that  its  properties 
are  a  result  of  its  molecular  structure,  still  life  is  not  one  of  those  pro- 
perties, but  the  adjustment  of  the  properties  to  the  environment,  so  as 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  species.  As  Aristotle  put  it,  the  essence 
of  a  living  being  is  not  what  it  is  made  of  or  what  it  does,  but  why  it  does 
it.  The  problem  of  the  naturalist  is  therefore  the  study  of  this  adjust- 
ment;  in  other  words,  the  problem  of  fitness  (p.  39).  Later  on,  how- 
ever (p.  246),  we  are  told  that  "  the  problem  of  the  naturalist  is  not 
the  existence  of  adaptations  as  such,  but  the  existence  of  adaptive 
species."     The  limitation  will  be  found  important. 

The  problem  stated,  we  proceed  to  its  consideration ;  and  the  next 
three  lectures  deal  with  one  of  the  proposed  solutions,  that  of  Lamarck, 
and  the  so-called  Neo-Lamarckian  emendation  of  it.  "  Stated  briefly," 
and,  I  think,  fairly,  "  it  is  the  doctrine  that  organic  evolution  has  been 
brought  about,  or  at  least  greatly  aided,  by  the  inheritance  of  nurture." 
By  "  nurture  "  we  are  to  understand  all  manner  of  modification  due  to 
the  external  world. 

To  this  doctrine  Professor  Brooks  raises  an  objection  that  seems  to 
have  an  insecure  foundation.      We  all  admit  a  present  fitness  in  the 


1899]    A  ZOOLOGIST  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  01  SCIENCE     425 

organic  world,  by  no  means  an  absolute  fitness,  but  enough  to  call  for 
explanation.  We  also  admit  that  living  individuals  are  capable  of 
nurture.  But,  says  our  author,  the  nurture  may  be  good  or  bad,  quite 
as  often  the  latter  as  the  former.  Therefore  "  the  view  that  nature  is 
inherited  nurture  throws  no  light  on  the  problem  of  fitness."  Accept- 
ing the  premises,  and  setting  aside  natural  selection  and  other  factors, 
we  might  "rant  that  unfit  modifications  would  so  counterbalance  fit 
modifications  that  the  conclusion  would  follow.  All  turns  on  what  is 
meant  by  good  and  bad  nurture.  Nurture  is,  broadly  speaking,  the 
influence  of  environment  on  the  individual.  Now  environment  can  be 
called  favourable  or  unfavourable  only  from  a  relative  standpoint ;  that 
is,  so  far  as  the  individual  is  or  is  not  adapted  to  it.  We  know  no 
absolute  good,  no  ultimate  morality.  As  Dr.  Brooks  elsewhere  says, 
"  no  natural  response  can  be  beneficial  under  all  circumstances " ; 
education  and  experience  (which,  be  it  noted,  are  forms  of  nurture) 
enable  organisms  to  distinguish  the  harmful  from  the  beneficial 
occasions  (p.  13).  It  is  admitted  that  we  start  with  individuals 
fairly  adapted  to  their  environment,  and  that  change  in  the  individual 
or  the  race  is  induced  by  change  of  environment.  But  it  is  clear  that 
any  change  of  environment  breaks  the  harmony  and  must  be  unfavour- 
able to  the  individual :  natural  actions  are  beneficial  only  "  so  far  as 
the  environment  is,  on  the  average,  like  the  ancestral  environment" 
(p.  10).  The  change  continues  unfavourable  until  the  individual  or 
the  race  is  modified  in  accordance  with  it ;  but  this  modification  is 
itself  beneficial  only  so  long  as  the  same  change  persists  or  continues 
in  the  same  direction.  Nurture  is  found  to  have  been  "  bad,"  when 
the  change  of  environment  has  been  only  temporary  or  extraordinary. 
Man,  subject  as  he  is  to  so  many  and  great  changes  of  environment,  is 
often  led  into  surroundings  or  habits  at  variance  with  the  general  con- 
ditions that  govern  the  existence  of  his  race :  these  things  we  rightly 
call  "  bad."  But  with  other  organisms  and  in  physical  nature  changes 
of  environment  are,  as  a  rule,  secular,  and  proceed  equably  in  a  certain 
direction.  Therefore  their  action  on  individuals  is  regular ;  in  other 
words,  the  nurture  is  "  good "  on  the  whole.  But  if  it  be  conceded 
that  the  good  preponderates  ever  so  little  over  the  bad,  the  objection 
of  Dr.  Brooks  becomes  invalid. 

Other  considerations  advanced  by  our  author  may  render  the 
Lamarckian  doctrine  unnecessary  or  less  probable ;  but  I  fail  to  see 
that  they  prove  the  inheritance  of  modifications  to  be  either  impossible 
or  ineffectual. 

The  first  consideration  is  the  truth  of  natural  selection  and  its 
adequacy  to  account  for  animated  nature  as  we  see  it.  Most  Neo- 
Lamarckians  admit  natural  selection,  though  not  its  complete  adequacy. 
But  even  that  might  be  admitted  without  diminishing  the  adequacy  or 
effect  of  any  other  factor.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that, 
under  any  theory  of  heredity  and  development,  the   rate  of  progress 


426  F.  A.  BATHER  [december 

through  selection  will  be  proportional  to  the  number  of  variations  in 
the  direction  of  progress.  If  variations  be  governed  by  the  laws  of 
chance  alone,  that  number  must  be  less  than  when  variations  are 
determined  in  the  direction  of  the  environment  by  the  inheritance  of 
modification.  Fitness  would  be  reached  more  readily  if  modifications 
were  inherited. 

The  second  consideration  is  more  subtle.  It  is  a  question  whether 
education  or  the  action  of  the  external  world  can  add  anything  to  the 
nature  of  the  organism,  whether  it  does  not  merely  unfold  and  develop 
the  original  nature.  Here  is  the  old  difference  between  development 
by  epigenesis  and  by  evolution.  Dr.  Brooks  makes  a  compromise 
that  seems  consistent  with  common  sense.  The  organism,  he  says, 
would  not  develop  without  the  education,  but  the  character  of  the 
development  is  due  to  its  original  nature  (p.  15).  No  vital  action 
takes  place  without  a  stimulus ;  but  the  stimulus  is  one  thing,  the 
character  of  the  action  is  another,  and  is  dependent  on  the  nature  of 
the  organism.  Thus  in  ontogeny  each  change  may  be  called  forth  by 
some  mechanical  stimulus,  either  within  the  body  or  without,  and  yet 
the  nature  of  the  whole  may  depend  on  the  nature  of  the  germ 
(p.  59).  "External  conditions  press  the  button,  but  it  takes  all  the 
inherent  potency  of  living  matter  to  do  the  rest"  (p.  61). 

An  ingenious  application  of  this  conception  may  be  noted  in  pass- 
ing. It  is  that  "  organs  once  adjusted  to  the  external  world  may, 
after  the  adjustment  has  lost  its  meaning,  be  still  retained,  because 
they  furnish  physiological  stimuli,  which  excite  developmental 
changes  in  the  organic  mechanism"  (p.  10).  Thus  Dr.  Brooks 
accounts  for  the  retention  of  so-called  rudimentary  organs  and  recapitu- 
latory stages. 

But  we  have  to  see  how  the  conception  affects  the  problem  of 
fitness.  If  it  be  correct,  if,  in  other  words,  nurture  adds  nothing  to 
nature,  then  there  is  nothing  to  be  inherited.  But  the  problem  does 
not  become  easier  of  solution.  It  consists  of  two  parts  :  the  adapta- 
bility of  the  individual ;  and  the  adaptation  of  the  race.  The  adapta- 
bility of  the  individual  resolves  itself  into  the  adaptability  of 
protoplasm,  and  none  is  so  bold  as  to  say  he  knows  the  explan- 
ation of  this.  Turning  to  the  adaptation  of  the  race ;  each  new 
germ  would,  on  this  conception,  be  similar  in  all  respects  to  the 
primordial  protoplasm,  being  in  fact  nothing  but  an  extended  part 
thereof,  but  gradually  becoming  more  and  more  gifted  with  the  power 
of  growing  into  a  being  modified  in  accordance  with  its  environment. 
But  it  is  very  difficult  to  see  why  or  how  it  should  obtain  this  power, 
except  through  education.  The  faculty  of  being  educated  was,  we 
may  suppose,  present  in  the  original  protoplasm ;  and  it  has  gone  on 
being  educated  ever  since.  Some  portions  of  it,  from  one  cause  or 
another,  did  not  respond  so  readily  to  education,  and  they  have  been 
expelled  in  consequence ;  that  is  what  we  mean  by  natural  selection. 


1899]    A  ZOOLOGIST  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENCE     427 

True  it  is  that  this  way  of  looking  at  the  case  brings  in  the  direct 
action  of  the  environment  just  as  much  as  ever,  and  that  everything 
depends  on  this  and  on  the  fundamental  properties  of  protoplasm,  or, 
if  you  will,  living  protoplasm  (we  know  no  other).  Thus,  by  accept- 
ing the  contentions  of  Dr.  Brooks,  I  am  led  to  the  very  position  he  is 
trying  to  attack. 

Here  seems  the  place  to  allude  to  two  passages  much  further  on 
in  the  book  (p.  187).  "A  living  thing  is  a  being  which  responds  to 
the  stimulus  of  one  event  in  such  a  way  as  to  adjust  its  actions  to 
other  events  of  which  the  stimulus  is  the  sign,  and  as  all  that  have 
not  thus  responded  have  been  exterminated  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, the  adjustment  of  the  survivors  is  no  more  than  might  have  been 
expected."  "  They  who  assert  that  it  [natural  selection]  is  inadequate 
because  it  fails  to  show  why  beneficial  response  should  ever  follow  a 
stimulus,  and  thus  furnish  fitness  to  be  selected,  must  remember  that 
all  science  is  inadequate  to  exactly  the  same  degree." 

These  sentences  seem  to  imply  that  the  fitnesses  or  adjustments 
selected  are  the  outcome  of  response  to  a  stimulus,  and  not  merely 
response,  but  beneficial  response,  i.e.  response  in  harmony  with  the 
environment.  We  do  not  know  and  need  not  know  the  why  or  how 
of  this  responsive  faculty ;  it  is  to  be  enough  for  us  that  it  is  a  pro- 
perty of  living  things.  It  is  not  clear  how  this  differs  from  the 
following  statement  by  another  author  : — "  All  adaptations,  at  any  rate 
all  adjustments  concerning  whose  action  and  efficacy  there  is  no  dispute, 
have  arisen  in  the  same  way  as  the  enlargement  of  a  muscle  by 
exercise,"  i.e.  as  beneficial  response  to  a  stimulus ;  and  this  faculty  of 
response  is  "  a  fundamental  property  of  protoplasm "  (Cunningham, 
Nat.  Sci.  vol.  viii.  pp.  328  and  330  ;  May  1896).  But  there  must  be  a 
difference,  for  these  are  assertions  which  Dr.  Brooks  combats  with 
abundance  of  sarcasm. 

Perhaps  the  explanation  is  that  we  have  here  "  a  bad  and  unapt 
formation  of  words."  "  Adjustment "  seems  to  be  used  in  two  senses  : 
the  act  of  adjusting  and  the  result  of  adjusting.  Just  so  Professor 
Brooks  sometimes  uses  " nurture  instead  of  acquired  characters"  whereas 
the  latter  are  elsewhere  more  correctly  spoken  of  as  "  the  effects  of 
nurture  "  (pp.  55  and  172).  Since  Dr.  Brooks  and  the  Neo-Lamarckian 
both  admit  (I  believe)  the  operation  of  natural  selection,  the  difference 
between  them  seems  to  lie  in  this :  that,  according  to  Dr.  Brooks,  the 
faculty  of  adjusting  is  a  character  that  varies  and  is  selected  and 
inherited;  while,  according  to  the  Neo-Lamarckian,  the  results  of 
adjusting  are  the  characters  that  are  selected  and  inherited.  It  is, 
however,  clear  that  selection  can  act  on  the  faculty  of  adjusting,  only 
through  its  concrete  results.  Further,  no  human  being  can  perceive 
whether  the  faculty  of  adjusting  is  transmitted,  except  by  seeing  the 
results.  But  in  the  ovum  these  results  will  not  be  manifest  to  the 
most  keen-eyed  microscopist ;  like  all  other  characters,  they  will  appear 


428  F.  A.  BATHER  [December 

gradually.  Who  then  shall  decide  whether  they  are  the  results  of 
adjustment  de  novo  in  each  case,  or  whether  they  are  the  inherited 
results  of  prior  adjustment  ?  So  far  the  history  of  the  controversy  has 
shown  every  test-case  to  be  capable  of  two  interpretations. 

In  Lecture  IV.,  "  Lamarck,"  a  third  consideration  is  brought  forward. 
Dr.  Brooks  tries  to  show  that  inheritance  of  modifications,  even  if 
admitted,  would  not  produce  such  a  world  as  we  know.  This  he  does 
by  citing  a  number  of  instances  in  which  the  modifications  affect  other 
species  {e.g.  the  bee's  sting,  the  serpent's  poison),  or  other  individuals 
than  the  ones  exhibiting  them  {e.g.  the  rabbit's  white  tail) ;  also 
modifications  for  the  good  of  the  species,  occurring  only  in  non-repro- 
ductive individuals,  and  therefore  incapable  of  inheritance.  He  main- 
tains that  "  in  all  cases  the  structure,  habits,  instincts,  and  faculties  of 
living  things  are  primarily  for  the  good  of  other  individuals  than  the 
ones  that  manifest  them"  (p.  88);  "there  is  nothing  anomalous  or 
exceptional "  in  the  instances  which  he  selects.  This  does  not  mean 
that  the  serpent's  tooth  is  useful  to  the  rabbit,  or  that  bees  sting  us 
for  our  moral  edification.  None  the  less  it  is  a  hard  saying,  and 
difficult  of  application  to  such  protective  structures  as  the  carapace  of 
the  tortoise,  or  to  such  (apparently)  useless  characters  as  baldness. 

In  the  vast  majority  of  instances  this  "  general  law  "  can  be  nothing- 
else  than  that  an  organism  has  such  structure,  faculties,  etc.,  as  enable 
it  to  produce  offspring.  But  we  are  told,  every  character  is  primarily 
for  the  good  of  others.  Senile  characters,  which,  as  in  the  Ammonites, 
appear  ever  earlier  in  succeeding  generations,  may  be  explained  as  due 
to  the  direct  action  of  the  environment,  or  perhaps  in  some  roundabout 
way  by  natural  selection.  But  imagination  boggles  at  the  idea  that 
they  were  of  use  to  offspring  born  long  before  the  characters  appeared. 

The  deeply  interesting  Lecture  V.  adduces  migration  as  instance  of 
an  action  for  the  preservation  of  the  species,  but  often  leading  to  the 
loss  of  the  individual,  i.e.  an  action  for  the  good  of  others,  and  therefore 
not  explicable  on  Lamarckian  principles.  But  though  natural  selection 
be  admitted,  no  multiplication  of  similar  instances  can  disprove  the 
operation  of  the  Lamarckian  factor. 

Lecture  VI.  attacks  the  evolutionist  philosopher,  he  who  holds  not 
merely  that  the  universe  has  evolved,  but  that  its  evolution  in  that 
particular  way  was  a  necessity  from  the  beginning,  and  that  all  was 
latent  and  determined  in  the  primal  nebula.  Not  that  this  philosophy 
may  not  be  correct,  but  that  it  is,  as  Huxley  said,  premature. 

A  note  shows  the  fallacy  of  Galton's  and  Weismann's  view  that  the 
ancestors  of  an  individual  are  doubled  for  each  generation  that  one 
traces  them  back.  The  fallacy  lies  in  the  omission  to  recognise  the 
almost  inevitable  inter-breeding. 

Lecture  VII.  continues  the  criticism  of  Galton.  His  data  "  fail  to 
prove  that  the  '  principle  of  organic  stability '  owes  its  existence  to 
anything  except  past  selection ;  that  regression  to  mediocrity  occurs 


1899]    A  ZOOLOGIST  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENCE     429 

when  ancestry  is  studied  uncomplicated  by  nurture;  that  the  'mid- 
parent  '  is  anything  else  than  the  actual  parent ;  that  '  sports '  are 
fundamentally  different  from  the  ordinary  differences  between  in- 
dividuals ;  or  that  natural  selection  is  restricted  to  the  preservation  of 
sports"  (p.  178).  Galton's  statistics  are  no  evidence  as  to  the  effects 
of  inheritance,  because  inheritance  is  of  many  characters,  not  of  one 
only ;  and  in  the  statistics  the  effects  of  nurture  are  not  sifted  out. 

Lecture  VIII.  defends  the  pure  natural  selection  theory  of  Darwin 
against  two  criticisms. 

First,  that,  since  natural  selection  "does  not  produce,  but  only 
preserves  the  fitness  which  exists,  it  does  not  show  why  there  should 
be  any  fit  to  survive,  but  only  why  the  unfit  are  exterminated." 
Dr.  Brooks  says  "  the  statement  that  selection  could  not  act  unless  they 
[the  useful  variations]  existed  is  childish"  (p.  184).  Why?  Because 
"  it  is  obvious."  Very  well !  then  it  is  equally  obvious  that  natural 
selection  does  not  "  account  for  the  whole  history  of "  any  character 
Granting  variations,  natural  selection  is  an  adequate  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  species.  But  this  is  not  the  same  as  the  evolution  of  our 
present  fauna  and  flora  from  a  protoplasmic  slime.  Childish  though 
our  curiosity  may  be,  we  cannot  close  our  minds  to  the  questions  : 
Why  does  living  matter  vary  ?  how  is  it  that  variations  are  inherited  ? 
is  there  a  limit  to  variation  other  than  that  imposed  by  physical  con- 
ditions ?  with  many  other  questions  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
operation  of  sorting  into  species,  but  which  call  for  answer  before  we 
can  understand  the  mode  of  organic  evolution.  Because  Darwin,  as 
Dr.  Brooks  justly  urges  (p.  187),  wrote  for  a  certain  set  of  readers  and 
on  a  certain  problem,  this  is  no  reason  why  we  are  never  to  proceed 
beyond  that  problem. 

The  second  criticism  is  that  many  differences  can  have  no  selective 
value  in  their  incipient  stages,  whether  of  organic  structure,  as  instanced 
by  Mivart,  or  of  mental  action,  as  instanced  by  Bomanes.  This 
objection  can  only  be  met  by  dealing  with  each  instance  in  turn,  and 
showing  that  it  has  selective  value. 

Lecture  IX.,  "  Natural  Selection  and  the  Antiquity  of  Life," 
appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Geology,  and  was  dealt  with  in  Natural 
Science  for  October  1894. 

The  remainder  of  the  book  considers  the  evidence  for  purpose  in 
nature,  and  first  the  argument  from  design  as  given  by  Paley.  This  is 
stated  in  two  forms.  First  (p.  258),  "(1)  Nothing  accounts  for  watches 
but  mind.  (2)  Nothing  accounts  for  living  things  unless  it  accounts 
for  watches.  (3)  Nothing  but  mind  accounts  for  living  things."  This 
is  most  obscure,  and  the  phrase  "  accounts  for "  is  ambiguous.  If  it 
means  "  is  the  sole  cause  of,"  then  the  minor  premise  begs  the  question 
or  else  is  absurd.  If  we  interpret  (2)  as,  "  The  cause  of  living  things 
involves  the  cause  of  watches,"  which  is  true,  then  the  only  conclusion 
is,  "  The   cause   of  living  things  involves  mind,"  even  as  it  includes 

29 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.    94. 


43°  F.   A.  BATHER  [December 

many  other  things,  which  are  the  results  of  life,  not  its  cause.  The 
second  statement  of  Paley's  argument  has  for  its  major  premise 
"  Evidence  of  usefulness  is  evidence  of  design."  But  this  also  is  just 
what  has  to  be  proved,  and  it  certainly  cannot  be  laid  down  as  a 
universal  proposition. 

But  it  is  late  in  the  day  to  be  discussing  the  logic  of  the  argument 
from  design,  and  it  is  only  for  sake  of  reference  that  I  venture  on  a 
more  complete  statement: — (1)  Watches  and  the  like  are  admirably 
fitted  for  a  useful  purpose.  (2)  They  arc  the  result  of  design.  There- 
fore (3)  other  things  admirably  fitted  for  a  useful  purpose  are  'probably 
the  result  of  design.  (4)  The  structure  of  living  things  is  so  fitted. 
(5)  Therefore  they  are  evidence  of  design.  Design  in  every  case  is 
understood  to  imply  a  designing  mind.  This  cannot  carry  conviction. 
Premise  (2)  is  an  induction  liable  to  be  upset  by  a  new  fact.  Pro- 
position (3)  is  an  argument  from  analogy  only.  Premise  (4)  can  only 
be  proved  by  the  accumulation  of  instances. 

The  argument,  in  short,  is  one  of  probabilities,  and  the  important 
question  is  how  far  those  are  affected  by  the  acceptance  of  natural 
selection. 

Dr.  Brooks  rightly  remarks  that  "  the  mere  extension  of  the  domain 
of  natural  causation,"  "  the  demonstration  of  the  mutability  of  species," 
in  a  word,  evolution  by  descent,  cannot  give  a  blow  to  the  argument. 
The  fitness  is  not  thereby  affected,  and  the  conception  of  design 
appears  even  more  necessary. 

Nor  does  the  substitution  of  physical  causes  in  place  of  special 
creation  weaken  the  inference.  The  fitness  remains,  however  brought 
about ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  designer  should  not  work 
through  physical  causes. 

Huxley  is  represented  by  Dr.  Brooks  as  saying  that  there  is  a 
wider  teleology  which  is  untouched  by  natural  selection ;  but  his 
words  are — "  not  touched  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution  " — a  very  different 
matter,  as  Huxley  always  insisted.  What  he  did  say  about  the 
Darwinian  theory  was  that  it  was  absolutely  "  opposed  to  teleology  as 
it  is  commonly  understood."  Since  the  commoner  teleologists  agreed 
with  Huxley  in  this  opinion  at  least,  it  is  fruitless  for  Dr.  Brooks  to 
raise  objections.  How  far  the  more  subtle  teleologists  may  be  affected 
is  another  matter. 

The  new  aspects  of  the  case  introduced  by  admitting  the  all-potency 
of  natural  selection  seem,  put  baldly,  to  be  these : — Our  proposition 
(4)  ceases  to  be  true ;  since  natural  selection  implies  that  for  every 
individual  which  is  fit  and  persists,  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  are  unfit 
and  perish.  This  is  a  different  idea  from  the  absence  of  perfection  in 
those  selected,  which  would  not  invalidate  the  argument  from  design. 
Applying  the  teleologist's  favourite  analogy,  the  present  point  may  be 
enforced  in  two  ways,  thus:  that  a  designer  99-9  per  cent  of  whose 
plans    are   rejected    has    chosen   a  wrong  profession  ;  or  that  if  of  a 


1899]    A  ZOOLOGIST  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENCE     431 

thousand  stones  one  happens  to  fit  a  hole  in  the  wall,  this  is  no  proof 
that  it  was  shaped  with  that  hole  in  view. 

Next,  the  probability  of  proposition  (3)  is  lessened.  The  argu- 
ment from  analogy  loses  much  of  its  force.  Watches  may  be  good  or 
bad,  but  from  the  beginning  they  have  been  made  with  the  express 
design  of  measuring  the  divisions  of  the  day ;  to  reach  this  result, 
obstacles  are  overcome  and  portions  of  the  physical  universe  bent  to 
the  will  of  the  designer.  On  the  theory  of  natural  selection,  the 
evolving  species  presents  none  of  these  features  ;  we  deceive  ourselves 
when  we  see  in  the  Palaeozoic  brachiopod  signs  of  the  direction  in 
which  its  Mesozoic  descendants  will  evolve ;  obstacles  if  presented  are 
not  overcome,  but  cause  the  line  of  evolution  to  swerve ;  no  part  of 
the  physical  environment  is  controlled  by  the  species  to  its  good, 
but  the  history  of  the  species  is  controlled  by  the  environment. 

The  argument  from  design,  as  stated  by  the  older  teleologists,  seems 
to  be  seriously  weakened  by  the  theory  of  natural  selection  as  stated 
by  Darwin.  On  the  other  hand,  that  same  theory  may,  as  Dr.  Brooks 
shows,  enable  us  to  restate  the  argument  in  a  more  convincing  manner. 
First  it  is  to  be  noted  that  all  human  contrivances  are  subject  to 
natural  selection  in  the  same  way  as  are  the  contrivances  of  other 
animals  and  as  the  animals  themselves.  This  strengthens  the  analogy, 
but  does  not  render  it  anything  other  than  analogy ;  for  liability  to 
natural  selection  is  no  proof  of  similarity  in  other  respects.  Natural 
selection,  to  adopt  a  phrase  dear  to  Dr.  Brooks,  shows  how  things 
happen,  but  it  does  not  show  why  they  happen. 

Further  consideration  reveals  a  more  fundamental  change  in  our 
ideas.  "  The  modern  zoologist,"  says  Dr.  Brooks,  "  must  ask  whether 
we  are  sure  that  nothing  but  mind  accounts  for  watches "  (p.  259). 
"  The  progress  of  zoology  has  forced  us  to  ask  anew  the  old  question 
whether  a  watch  may  not  be  part  of  the  chain  of  physical  causation 
just  as  truly  as  the  spider's  web  or  the  cat.  .  .  .  The  discovery  of 
natural  selection  has  put  the  matter  in  a  new  light"  (p.  264).  If  the 
suggestion  be  admitted,  "  Paley's  analogy "  does  indeed  "  become  im- 
pregnable," but  his  major  premise  (that  mind  is  the  cause)  becomes 
the  proposition  to  be  proved. 

The  problem  remains,  but  must  be  attacked  in  another  way. 
Whatever  be  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  life,  there  is  no 
doubt  as  to  the  usefulness  of  those  phenomena  to  the  living  beings 
that  exhibit  them ;  and  in  this  lies  an  apparent  distinction  between 
living  and  not  living  things.  This  faculty  of  using  or  controlling- 
portions  of  the  physical  world,  a  faculty  which  Dr.  Brooks  chooses  to 
express  by  the  word  "  contrivance,"  may  be  regarded  as  "  interference 
with  the  order  of  physical  nature"  (p.  273).  Without  following  Dr. 
Brooks  in  his  discussions  of  personal  identity  and  spontaneous  genera- 
tion, we  may  agree  to  the  continuity  of  life,  and  must  admit  that  this 
faculty  is  coextensive   with   life.      Now  natural  selection  shows  us   the 


432  F.  A.  BATHER  [december 

"  chain  of  physical  causation  which  joins  the  works  of  man  and  of  other 
living  beings  to  that  part  of  the  order  of  nature  to  which  they  are 
adjusted."  The  remaining  question  is  whether  life  itself  and  all  its 
faculties  are  purely  physical  phenomena,  or  contain  something  which 
cannot  "  be  expressed  in  terms  of  physical  matter  and  mechanical 
energy."  If  purely  physical,  then  usefulness  and  contrivance  are  a 
part  of,  and  not  interference  with,  the  order  of  physical  nature ;  and 
living  beings  can  "  afford  no  peculiar  evidence  of  purpose."  But  the 
question  is  not  yet  answered,  and  the  argument  from  contrivance, 
though  its  probability  is  vastly  lessened,  has  not  yet  received  its  death- 
blow. 

But,  supposing  the  mechanical  conception  of  life  to  be  established, 
and  admitting  that  the  argument  from  contrivance  would  thereby  lose 
its  force,  the  attempted  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  designer  would  not 
on  that  account  be  supplanted  by  disproof.  Further,  whatever  the 
scientific  account  of  nature  may  ultimately  be,  it  can  throw  no  light 
upon  the  primal  cause  or  final  purpose  of  the  whole  or  of  any  part. 
Science  tells  us  what  takes  place,  and  how  it  takes  place,  she  dis- 
covers the  succession  of  events  and  gives  us  a  reasonable  confidence  in 
the  steadfastness  of  that  succession,  but  she  refuses  to  admit  any 
necessity  therefor,  and  as  to  any  cause  that  lies  behind  the  veil  of 
the  physical  universe,  she  remains  for  ever  dumb. 

But,  though  the  scientific  method  may  throw  no  light  on  anything 
beyond  the  facts  of  nature,  it  is  still  open  to  inquiry  whether  the  con- 
sideration of  nature  as  a  whole  may  not  throw  some  light  upon  the 
ultimate  cause.  Thus  we  are  led  to  the  conception  finely  expressed  by 
Oerstedt  in  the  phrase :  "  The  works  of  nature  are  the  thoughts  of 
God."  This  view  has  been  elaborated  by  a  great  philosopher,  Bishop 
Berkeley,  and  by  a  great  naturalist,  Louis  Agassiz.  Each  in  his  way 
maintains  that  the  phenomena  of  nature  constitute  "  a  language  in 
which  the  Creator  tells  us  the  story  of  creation  for  our  delight  and  in- 
struction and  advantage."  But  each  weakened  his  case  and  lost  the 
adhesion  of  modern  naturalists,  because,  as  Dr.  Brooks  insists,  he 
attempted  to  prove  too  much.  Agassiz  thought  it  necessary  to  show 
that  the  laws  of  nature  were  nothing  but  categories  of  thought,  that 
they  were  arbitrary,  and  that  no  physical  explanation  of  them  was 
possible.  Berkeley  wrote :  "  The  great  Mover  and  Author  of  nature 
constantly  explaineth  Himself  to  the  eyes  of  men  by  the  sensible  inter- 
vention of  arbitrary  signs,  which  have  no  similitude  or  necessary 
connection  with  the  things  signified."  And  in  another  place  he  held 
that  this  language  of  nature  was  necessary  to  assist  the  governed.  But 
the  modern  naturalist  is  aware  of  many  a  physical  explanation  unknown 
to  Agassiz ;  he  sees  more  connection  between  the  sign  and  the  thing 
signified  than  was  possible  for  Berkeley ;  and  he  refuses  to  admit  any 
necessity  in  the  matter. 

But    a  conception    supported   by  indefensible    arguments    is    not 


1899]    A  ZOOLOGIST  ON  THE  PRINCIPLES  OE  SCIENCE     433 

necessarily  false.  "  As  I  understand  Agassiz,"  says  Dr.  Brooks,  "  it  is 
not  because  natural  history  is  a  language  that  he  holds  it  to  be 
intended ;  but  because  it  is  delightful  to  listen  to  the  language  of 
nature,  and  because  it  abounds  in  beneficial  instruction  for  mankind." 
And  again  :  "As  I  understand  Berkeley,  it  is  not  because  nature  is 
orderly,  but  because  the  order  of  nature  is  useful,  and  instructive,  and 
full  of  delights  for  living  things,  that  he  holds  it  to  be  a  language." 
Let  us  admit  that  response  to  nature  and  the  study  of  nature  are  all 
these  things  ;  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  the  language  is  necessary 
or  unnecessary,  and  I  do  not  see  how  it  follows  that  the  language  is 
intended.  It  may  be  so,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  "  the  modern  zoologist 
must  also  ask  whether  natural  selection,  so  far  as  it  accounts  for  living 
things  and  their  works  and  ways,  does  not  in  the  same  measure  account 
for  language ;  both  that  which  men  use  among  themselves  and  that 
which  we  find  in  nature"  (p.  337). 

We  close  the  book,  then,  as  ignorant  of  fundamental  truths  as  when 
we  opened  it.  But  we  have  now  reasons  for  our  ignorance.  Professor 
Brooks,  in  so  far  as  he  has  adhered  to  his  maxim — -"  The  assertion  that 
outstrips  evidence  is  a  crime  " — has  convinced  us  of  his  main  thesis, 
which  indeed  is  a  corollary  of  that  statement,  and  may  be  expressed  in 
the  words  on  the  wrapper  of  this  Eeview  : 

Nunquam  aliud  natura,  aliiul  sapientia  elicit. 

British  Museum 

(Natural  History), 
London,  S.W. 


On  the  Multinuclear  Cells  of  some  Grasses. 

By  Rudolf  Beer. 

Plates  I.  and  II. 

A  few  years  ago  we  unhesitatingly  affirmed  that  the  cell  was.  the 
ultimate  unit  of  the  animal  or  vegetable  body.  At  the  present  day  we 
do  indeed  continue  to  uphold  the  cell  as  the  elementary  structural 
component  of  the  living  body,  but  not  without  some  misgivings,  since 
recent  research  has  made  us  acquainted  with  various  phenomena  which 
we  find  it  difficult  to  reconcile  with  this  conception.1 

The  work  of  a  large  band  of  investigators  has  shown  that  in  a 
number  of  tissues,  both  animal  and  vegetable,  the  intercellular  wall 
forms  by  no  means  so  sharp  a  separation  between  the  protoplasmic 
bodies  as  was  formerly  believed.  In  these  cases  the  refined  methods  of 
modern  research  have  revealed  to  us  a  system  of  delicate  fibrils  of  pro- 
toplasm which  pass  through  perforations  in  the  cell-wall,  and  directly 
connect  neitdibourino;  cell-bodies. 

Further  cause  for  uncertainty  has  been  given  by  the  discovery  of 
multinuclear  cells,  i.e.  cell-cavities  which  contain  a  single  protoplasmic 
body  in  which  are  included  a  plurality  of  nuclei.  Among  the  lower 
plants  we  meet  with  whole  groups  of  organisms  (e.g.  Siphoneae)  in 
which  the  body  shows  no  septation  into  cells,  although  it  is  frequently 
both  large  and  highly  differentiated. 

To  use  Sachs'  phrase,  the  bodies  of  these  plants  are  "  non-cellular," 
for  they  contain  a  large,  continuous  mass  of  protoplasm  which  is 
studded  with  innumerable  nuclei  (15  2  and  16). 

The  embryo-sac  of  the  higher  plants,  at  one  time  of  its  existence, 
contains  a  large  number  of  nuclei  (8) ;  the  laticiferous  tubes  of  a  num- 
ber of  plants  (Euphorbieae,  etc.)  are  also  multinuclear  (18);  the 
elongated  bast-cells  (18),  the  cells  of  the  suspensor  of  some  Leguminosae 
(6),  the  older  internode  cells  of  Characeae  (10),  the  older  parenchyma 

1  A  full  explanation  of  the  terms  used  in  this  paper  will  be  found  in  two  articles, 
by  Mr.  Hill  and  myself,  which  were  published  in  previous  numbers  of  this  journal 
(7  and  1). 

2  These  numerals  refer  to  papers,  etc.,  quoted  at  end  of  article. 

434 


December  1899]  MULTINUCLEAR  CELLS  435 

cells  of  many  Monocotyledons  (9),  the  tapetal  cells  in  the  sporangia  of 
Angiopteris  (4),  the  generative  cells  of  the  vessels  in  Dioscoreaceae  (3), 
the  older  parenchyma  cells  of  Taraxacum  officinale  (15),  the  large 
parenchyma  cells  of  Cercus  niv.ltangularis  (18),  the  young,  elongated 
pith-cells  of  Ochrosia  coccinca  (18)  have  all  been  shown,  by  various 
observers,  to  be  furnished  with  a  plurality  of  nuclei. 

All  our  experience  teaches  us  that  wherever  a  number  of  nuclei 
appear  (whether  these  be  sooner  or  later  separated  by  a  cell-wall,  or 
remain  together  in  a  multinuclear  cell),  they  arise  from  the  division  of 
an  original  mother  -  nucleus.  When  a  nucleus  divides  into  two 
daughter-nuclei,  it  does  so  by  one  of  two  ways. 

Either  it  becomes  constricted  here  or  there,  and  without  more  ado 
breaks  into  two  or  more  parts,  or  it  first  passes  through  a  complicated 
series  of  preparatory  stages  in  which  certain  of  its  internal  parts 
describe  the  most  curious  "  figures,"  and  then  only  separates  into  two 
dauo-fiter-nuclei.  In  the  former  case  the  division  is  said  to  be  direct 
or  simple  fragmentation,  in  the  latter  it  is  described  as  indirect  or 
karyokinetic  (7).  It  is  generally  supposed  that  a  nucleus  which  is 
fragmenting  has  lost  the  power  of  dividing  activity  by  karyokinesis. 
The  great  German  cytologist,  Strasburger,  writing  in  1880,  says: 
"  According  to  my  entire  experience  karyokinetic  division  and  frag- 
mentation cannot  be  brought  together,  and  certainly  one  cannot  replace 
the  other"  (17). 

Eecently,  however,  the  Italian  observer,  Buscalioni  (2),  has  shown 
that  this  separation  of  the  two  forms  of  division  is  by  no  means  neces- 
sarily the  case,  and  that  in  the  development  of  the  embryo-sac  of  Vicia 
Faba,  Lupinus,  Fritillaria  impcrialis,  and  Lcucojum  vcrnum,  and  in  the 
laticiferous  tubes  of  Urtica,  fragmentation  and  karyokinesis  may  take 
place  side  by  side  with  one  another,  or  the  same  nucleus  may  first 
divide  directly  and  then  indirectly.  Moreover,  both  Buscalioni  and 
Dixon  (5),  as  well  as  Miss  Sargent  (14),  have  observed  a  curious  con- 
dition of  the  nucleus  in  which  some  of  the  preparatory  stages  of  karyo- 
kinesis are  gone  through,  but  before  the  process  is  complete  the  nucleus 
divides  directly.  Whether  this  is  really  an  intermediate  stage  pointing 
to  the  fundamental  identity  of  the  two  processes,  as  the  authors  appar- 
ently suppose,  is  doubtful.  The  facts  clearly  indicate,  however,  that 
the  two  varieties  of  division  are  by  no  means  incompatible  with  one 
another  (19). 

Some  observations  which  I  recently  made  on  certain  vegetative 
cells  of  some  Gramineae  give  additional  support  to  this  view. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  as  widely  known  among  botanists  as  it 
should  be  that  in  certain  members  of  the  Gramineae,  especially  in  Zea 
Mays  (Indian  corn),  multinuclear  cells  of  the  most  pronounced 
character  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 

If  a  section  be  made  through  the  stem-region  of  a  young  plant  so 
as  to  pass  through  the  enveloping  leaf-sheaths,  the  parenchyma  cells  of 


436  RUDOLF  BEER  [December 

the  foliar  bases  will  give  most  instructive  illustrations  of  nuclear 
multiplication  unaccompanied  by  cell-division.  In  the  younger  leaf- 
bases  each  cell  contains  a  single  nucleus  which  is  a  well-defined, 
generally  spherical  body  that  stains  very  feebly,  except  the  large  and 
conspicuous  nucleolus,  which  is  its  most  striking  feature.  As  success- 
ively older  sheaths  are  examined  it  will  be  found  that  the  nuclei 
increase  in  size,  the  nucleoli  keeping  pace  with  the  general  growth. 
Moreover,  the  clear,  granule-free  space,  the  "Hof"  of  Rosen  (12  and 
13),  which  is  clearly  seen  surrounding  the  nucleolus,  becomes  broader 
and  more  noticeable  with  advancing  age.  The  next  stage  is  that  in 
which  the  nuclei  have  undergone  fragmentation,  and  several,  sometimes 
five  or  more,  nuclei  can  be  seen  in  one  cell.  The  direct  method 
is,  however,  not  the  only  way  in  which  the  plurality  of  nuclei 
originate  within  these  cells,  for  I  have  observed  quite  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases  in  which  the  multinuclear  condition  was  either  partly 
or  entirely  due  to  karyokinetic  division.  The  mother-nucleus  of  the 
young  cell  may  undergo  karyokinetic  division,  and  by  that  means  give 
rise  to  several  nuclei  in  one  cell,  whilst  the  neighbouring  cells  may 
attain  the  same  end  by  nuclear  fragmentation. 

Again,  within  one  cell  which  contains  a  number  of  nuclei  one 
nucleus  may  show  karyokinetic  figures,  whilst  another  is  as  clearly 
fragmenting.  Moreover,  out  of  a  group  of  nuclei,  which  I  have  reason 
to  think  originated  by  direct  division,  some  may  proceed  to  divide 
further  by  karyokinesis.  These  cases  are  of  considerable  interest  as 
they  plainly  show  that  the  nuclei,  which  are  in  a  condition  for  frag- 
mentation, have  by  no  means  necessarily  lost  their  power  for  active, 
karyokinetic  division. 

In  the  older  leaf-bases  of  Zca  Mays  direct  nuclear  division  of  a 
somewhat  different  order  seems  to  prevail  exclusively. 

In  the  fragmentation  of  both  the  younger  and  the  older  nuclei  the 
same  impulse  to  divide  seems  to  underlie  the  process,  but  the  manner 
in  which  it  acts  differs  in  the  two  cases. 

In  order  to  understand  this  difference,  and  since  the  process  in  the 
younger  cells  of  Zca  Mays  does  not  seem  to  conform  in  all  respects  to 
the  usual  descriptions  of  fragmentation,  I  may  perhaps  be  excused  for 
touching  on  this  subject  at  greater  length.  In  what  follows  I  will 
rely  chiefly  on  the  observations  which  I  have  made  on  longitudinal 
sections  of  the  growing-point  of  the  root  of  Zca  Mays,  since  the  steps 
can  here  be  followed  with  especial  clearness.  The  same  observations 
can  (with  greater  difficulty,  however)  be  made  on  the  nuclei  of  the 
leaf-sheaths.  Multinuclear  cells  occur,  but  more  sparingly  distributed 
than  in  the  foliar  organs,  in  the  growing  point  of  the  root.  The 
resting  nucleus  is  a  spherical  or  oval  body  which  stains  feebly 
except  in  the  large  nucleolus.  This  nucleolus  may  in  some  cases 
attain  an  enormous  size,  as  for  instance  in  the  cells  which  are  the 
precursors  of  a  vessel,  it  usually  has  a  perfectly  homogeneous  appear- 


1899]  MULTINUCLEAR  CELLS  437 

ance,  but  in  the  dermatogen  cells  vacuoles  may  be  detected  iu  its 
interior,  it  is  immediately  surrounded  by  a  more  or  less  broad  invest- 
ment of  perfectly  clear  substance,  the  "  Hof,"  which  is  sharply 
marked  off  from  the  granular,  peripheral  nuclear  substance. 

The  first  step  in  the  division  of  such  a  nucleus  is  the  division  of 
the  nucleolus.  Immediately  after  division  the  two  nucleoli  lie  in  one 
"  Hof."  In  the  next  stage  that  can  be  found  each  nucleolus  is 
surrounded  by  its  own  "  Hof."  This  clear  belt  grows  more  and  more 
pronounced  whilst  the  granular  nuclear  substance  is  gradually  encroached 
upon  and  finally  forms  only  a  peripheral  investment  to  the  clear  balls 
of  substance  which  surround  the  nucleoli.  The  thin  layer  of  granular 
substance  that  lies  between  the  two  clear  areas  appears  to  disintegrate 
or  at  any  rate  to  separate  without  any  previous  constriction,  and  the 
two  spheres  of  clear  substance,  each  containing  a  nucleolus,  are 
separated  from  one  another  and  form  the  daughter  nuclei.  The  clear 
body-substance  of  these  daughter  nuclei  becomes  later  more  granular, 
and  the  nuclei  may  move  some  distance  apart. 

Observations  show  that  it  is  not  merely  a  question  of  the  dis- 
integration of  the  granular  layer  between  the  clear  areas,  but  that  there 
is  an  actual  strain  pulling  the  nuclei  in  two. 

It  should  here  be  mentioned  that  every  nucleus  which  is  provided 
with  several  nucleoli  must  not  necessarily  be  regarded  as  indicating 
a  stage  of  nuclear  fragmentation,  although  by  far  the  majority  of 
resting  nuclei  have,  in  Zca,  only  a  single  nucleolus  each. 

When  older  leaf -sheaths  of  Zca  Mays  are  examined,  nuclear  frag- 
mentations are  seen,  which  differ  considerably  from  those  which  have 
been  mentioned  above,  and  conform  much  more  nearly  to  the  stages 
which  have  been  described  in  other  plants  by  previous  observers. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  difference  between  direct  nuclear 
division  in  the  younger  and  older  cells  of  Zca  is  that  whilst  the  former 
takes  place  without  the  appearance  of  constrictions  and  changes  of 
form  in  the  nucleus,  the  latter  is  conspicuously  marked  by  the  grotesque 
intermediate  shapes  which  that  body  assumes. 

The  entire  absence  of  constricting  nuclei  in  the  young  leaf-bases, 
which  are  obviously  developing  multinuclear  cells,  is  the  most 
characteristic  and  at  first  the  most  puzzling  feature  about  them. 
Another  point  in  which  the  older  nuclei  differ  from  the  younger  is  that 
in  the  former  no  constant  relation  between  fragmentation  and  a  pre- 
ceding nucleolar  division  can  be  made  out.  Sometimes  two  or  more 
nucleoli  appear  here  also,  and  one  goes  to  each  fragmentation  product, 
but  just  as  often  one  nucleolus  alone  is  present  throughout  the 
process. 

These  differences,  which  at  a  first  glance  are  so  striking,  are 
possibly  associated  with  the  alteration  in  constitution  which  the 
nucleus  suffers  with  advancing  age.  The  young  nucleus  is  large,  and 
has  every  appearance  of  being  rich  in  water ;  the  nucleus  of  the  older 


43§  RUDOLF  BEER  [december 

cells  is  a  smaller,  shrunken,  and  more  solid  body,  provided  with  a 
comparatively  small  nucleolus.  One  can  well  understand  how  those 
internal  differentiations,  which  we  have  described  for  the  young  nucleus, 
could  not  readily  take  place  in  the  dense  body  of  the  more  aged 
nucleus.  In  consequence  there  would  be  no  line  of  weakness  formed 
which  would  sharply  and  cleanly  break  across  under  the  influence  of 
the  tension  impelling  division  ;  instead,  the  dense  nuclear  substance 
would  be  drawn  out  and  variously  contorted  at  the  line  of  division. 

The  nuclear  differentiation,  accompanied  by  a  constriction  which  is 
so  seldom  found,  marks  the  link  between  the  fragmentation  in  the 
younger  and  older  cells.  In  this  case  the  nuclear  substance,  whilst 
not  being  too  dense  to  allow  the  internal  changes  to  take  place, 
has  yet  become,  even  in  the  granular  substance,  too  firm  for  a  clean 
break  to  be  formed  between  the  daughter  nuclei. 

Judging  from  these  observations  on  Zca  Mays,  the  vexed  question 
whether  nucleolar  division  does  or  does  not  always  precede  nuclear 
fragmentation,  is  not  one  to  be  answered  in  a  sentence.  The  age,  the 
general  density  of  the  nucleus  in  that  particular  tissue  or  plant,  the 
intensity  of  the  impulse  to  divide,  all  have  to  be  carefully  considered. 
The  discordant  statements  made  on  this  subject  by  eminently  careful 
observers  are  to  be  explained  by  their  having  examined  the  same 
tissues  at  different  ages  or  grown  under  different  conditions  (cf.  6,  11, 
and  17). 

Before  leaving  the  subject  it  should  be  mentioned  that  these  older 
nuclei  which  are  fragmenting  by  constriction  never  show  karyokinetic 
figures,  and  have  apparently  lost  the  power  of  dividing  indirectly. 

As  has  been  mentioned,  the  above  observations  were  made  on  the 
leaf-sheaths  and  root-apices  of  Zca  Mays.  In  the  latter  the  directly 
and  indirectly  dividing  nuclei  could  be  found  in  adjoining  cells,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  leaf-sheaths.  Multinuclear  cells  of  a  similar  appearance 
have  also  been  observed  in  the  stem  of  Zca,  in  the  leaf-sheaths  of 
Sccale  cerealc  (rye),  the  leaf-sheaths  and  young  stems  of  Triticwn 
vulgare  (wheat),  the  leaf-sheaths  of  Hordeum  sativum  (barley),  and 
Dactylis  glomcrata  (cock's-foot  grass). 

In  conclusion,  1  should  mention  that  the  best  results  were  obtained 
from  young  seedlings  of  the  plants  mentioned  ;  plants  of  Zea,  a  little 
over  a  foot  high,  made  excellent  material. 


REFERENCES. 

1.  Beer,    Rudolf,    "The   Nucleolus,"   Natural  Science,  vol.  vii.   (September),  p.  185, 

1895. 

2.  Buscalioni,    L.,    "  Osservazioni   e  richerche    sulk  cellula   vegetale,"    Estratto  dal- 

V  Ann.  del  r.  inst.  hot.  di  Roma,  vol.  vii.  1898. 

3.  Buscalioni,   L.,   and   R.    Pirotta,    "Sulla  presenza   di   dementi   vascolari   multi- 

nucleati    nelle    Dioscoreacee,"    Estratto    dall'    Ann.    del   r.    inst.    hot.    di   Roma, 
vol.  vii.  1898. 

4.  Campbell,  D.  H.,  "  The  Structure,  etc.,  of  Mosses  and  Ferns,"  p.  273  (and  Fig.  143  C). 

London,  1895. 


Natural     Science 
Vol..  XV. 


Plahe     I 


Fig. 7. 


Fiq.  6. 


Natural     Science 

Vol.  XV. 


Plahe    II. 


Fig. 15 


Fiq  .  14-. 


1899]  MULTINUCLEAR  CELLS  439 

5.  Dixon,  H.  H.,  "  Abnormal  Nuclei  in  the  Endosperm  of  Fritillaria  imperialis,"  Annals 

of  Botany,  vol.  ix.  p.  665,  1895. 

6.  Hegelmaier,    F.,    "Ueber   aus   mehrkernigen    Zellen    aufgebatue    Dicotyledonen- 

Keimtrager,"  Bot.  Zeit.  p.  497,  1880. 

7.  Hill,  M.  D.,    "Cell-Division,"  Nat.  Sci.   vol.  iv.   (January  and  June),  pp.  38  and 

417,  1894. 

8.  Hofmeistek,  W.,  "On  the  Germination,  etc.,  of  the  Higher  Cryptogamia,"  English 

translation,  p.  406  (and  Plate  LIX.  Fig.  15),  1862. 

9.  Johoav,   F.,    "Ueber  die  Zellkerne  in  den  Secretbehaltern  u.   Parenchymzellen   der 

hbheren  Monocotylen."     Inaug.-Diss.     Bonn,  1880. 

10.  Johow,  F.,  "  Ueber  die  Zellkerne  von  Chara  foetida,"  Bot.  Zeit.  p.  729,  1S81. 

11.  Montgomery,  T.  H.,  "Comparative  Cytological  Studies,  etc.,"  Journal  of  Morphology, 

vol.  xv.  p.  265,  189S. 

12.  Rosen,  F.,  "  Ueber  tinctionelle  Unterscheidung  verschiedener  Kernbestandteile  und 

der  Sexualkerne,"  Cohn's  Bcitr.  zur  Biol,  der  Pflanzen,  Bd.  v.  p.  443. 

13.  Rosen,    F.,    "Kerne    und    Kernkorperchen    in    meristematischeii    und    sporogenen 

Gewebe,"  Cohn's  Beitr.  zur  Biol,  der  Pflanzen,  Bd.  vii.  p.  225. 

14.  Sargent,  E.,  "Direct  Nuclear  Division' in  the  Embryo-sac  of  Lilium  martagon," 

Annals  of  Botany,  vol.  x.  p.  197,  1896. 

15.  Schnitz,  F.,  "Einige  Beobachtungen  iiber  die  vielkernigen  Zellen  der  Siphonscladia- 

ceen,"  Festschrift  d.  naturfor.  Gesellsch.  in  Halle,  1879. 

16.  Schmitz,   F.,    "Ueber   die    Zellkerne   der   Thallophyten,"    Vcrhandl.   d.    nat.   hist. 

Vercins  d.  preuss.  Jlhcinlande  u.   JTesffalens,  p.  122,  1880. 

17.  Strasburger,  E.,  "Einige  Bemerkungen  iiber  vielkernige  Zellen,  etc.,"  Bot.  Zeit.  p. 

845,  1880. 

18.  Treub,  M.,  "Sur  les  cellules  vegetales  a  plusieurs  noyaux,"  Archives  Keerlandaiscs, 

T.  xv.  p.  39. 


EXPLANATION   OF   PLATES   I.    AND    II. 

Figs.  1-8. — Parenchyma  cells  from  leaf-sheaths  of  Zea  Mays.      Fig.  2  in  longitudinal  section 

the  rest  transverse. 
Figs.  9-13. — Cells  from  the  growing  point  of  the  root  of  Zea  Mays.      Longitudinal  section. 
Fig.  14. — Parenchyma  cells  from  leaf-sheaths  of  Secale  cereale.     Transverse  section. 
Fig.  15. — a.  Parenchyma  cell  from  leaf-sheath  of  Triticum  vulgare. 

b.   Parenchyma  cells  from  stem  of  same.     Transverse  section. 


■    LIBRARYU,! 


FRESH    FACTS. 


Memory  in  Fishes.  L.  Edinger.  "  Haben  die  Fische  ein  Gedachtnis  1 " 
Das  Ergebniss  einer  Sammelforschung  mitgetheilt  in  der  neurologischen  Sektion 
der  Versammlung  Deutscher  Naturforscher  und  Aerzte  in  Miinchen,  1899. 
Sonderabdruck  aus  der  Beilage  zur  AUgemeinen  Zeitung,  Nos.  241  and  242, 
vom  21  und  25  Oktober  1899.  Miinchen,  30  pp.  We  have  been  favoured 
with  a  copy  of  this  interesting  paper,  embodying  the  results  of  observations 
which  have  been  communicated  to  Prof.  Edinger  since  he  made  his  appeal 
for  information  a  couple  of  years  ago.  It  seems  to  be  clear  (1)  that  the 
instinctive  impulse  to  flee  from  certain  impressions  may  be  lessened  as  the 
fishes  find  the  stimulus  harmless  and  become  accustomed  to  it,  and,  contrariwise, 
that  they  may  become  shy ;  (2)  that  the  optic  or  chemical  stimulus  normally 
associated  with  food  may  be  replaced  by  the  image  of  the  feeder.  There  is 
therefore  a  kind  of  memory,  but  it  is  very  different  from  that  of  mammals.  It 
may  be  recalled  that  Prof.  MTntosh,  of  St.  Andrews,  was  one  of  those  who 
answered  the  question,  "Have  fishes  a  memory'?"  with  a  decided  affirmative, 
when  the  matter  was  discussed  a  couple  of  years  ago. 

More  Traces  of  Neomylodon.  Erland  Nordenskiold.  "  Neue 
Untersuchungen  fiber  Neomylodon  listai,"  Zool.  Anzeig.  xxii.  1899,  pp.  335- 
336.  The  author  has  made  laborious  excavations  in  the  cave  at  Ultima 
Esperanza  (South  Patagonia),  where  previous  digging  discovered  the  pieces  of 
skin,  etc.,  belonging  to  the  somewhat  shadowy  creature,  Neomylodon  listai. 
He  has  found  a  number  of  bones  which  he  thinks  should  go  with  the  skin. 
Their  description  will  be  awaited  with  interest. 

Concerning  an  Ancient  Fish.  A.  Smith  Woodward.  "Note  on 
Scapanorhynchus,  a  Cretaceous  Shark  apparently  surviving  in  Japanese  Seas," 
Ann.  Nat.  Hist.  iii.  1899,  pp.  487-489.  A  shark  in  all  essential  respects 
identical  with  the  supposed  extinct  genus  Scapanorhynchus  has  been  obtained 
from  the  deep  sea  off  Yokohama,  and  described  by  Profs.  D.  S.  Jordan  and 
Mitsukuri.  It  has  been  called  31  itsukurina,  but  Mr.  Smith  Woodward  points 
out  that  in  all  the  generic  characters  which  can  be  compared  it  agrees  with  the 
above-named  predaceous  shark  of  the  Cretaceous  Seas. 

Rule  of  the  Nucleus.  Jacques  Loeb.  "Warum  ist  die  Regeneration 
kernloser  Protoplasm astiicke  unmoglich  oder  erschwert1?"  Arch.  Entwiclcelungs- 
mechanik,  viii.  1899,  pp.  689-693.  In  this  paper,  which  the  author  has  been 
kind  enough  to  send  us,  there  is  a  fresh  suggestion  rather  than  a  fresh  fact. 
The  suggestion  is  that  the  nucleus  is  the  oxidation-organ  of  the  living  substance, 
and  that  non-nucleated  fragments  of  cells  are  incapable  of  regeneration  because 
the  oxidation-function  has  sunk  below  the  required  minimum.  The  fragments 
gradually  die  of  asphyxia.  This  should  be  compared  with  the  observations  of 
Schenk  referred  to  in  another  part  of  this  number  of  Natural  Science. 

A  Contribution  to  Experimental  Embryology.  Jacques  Loeb.  "Ueber 
den  Einfluss  von  Alkalien  und  Sauren  auf  die  embryonale  Entwickelung  und  das 
Wachsthum,"  Arch.  EntwickelungsmecJianiJc,  viii.  1899,  pp.  631-641,  1  pi. 
Experiments  on  the  developing  larvae  of  the  sea-urchin  Arbacia  show  that  even 
extremely  minute  additions  of  sodium  hydrate  solution  to  the  sea-water  hasten 
the  development  and  growth,  while  acids  have  the  reverse  effect.  The  reason 
suggested  is  that  weak  alkalies  promote  the  oxidation-processes  and  therefore  the 
synthetic  processes  in  the  living  substance. 

A  Triassic  Cuttlefish.  K.  Picard.  "Ueber  Cephalopoden  aus  dem 
unteren  Muschelkalk  bei  Sondershausen "  (Zeitschr.  deutsch.  geol.  Ges.  li. 
pp.  299-309,  pi.  xvi.  Oct.  1899)  describes  Campylosepia  triasica,  n.g.  et  sp.  on 

440 


December  1899]  FRESH  FACTS  441 

the  evidence  of  a  curved  rostrum  and  an  impression  of  the  pro-ostracum  ;  a  few 
of  the  septal  lamellae  are  preserved.  The  author  regards  it  as  belonging  to  the 
Sepiadae  and  as  a  link  between  the  belemnites  and  cuttlefish,  and  he  compares 
it  with  Belosepia,  The  latter,  however,  is  a  Tertiary  form,  and  no  true  Sepia  is 
known  from  Mesozoic  rocks.  This  fact,  while  increasing  the  interest  of  the 
discovery,  leads  us  to  ask  for  more  evidence. 

Autogamy  in  Primulaceae.  A  Field  Naturalist,  M.A.  Camb.  "The 
Primrose  and  Darwinism,"  London  Quarterly  Review,  clxxxiv.  October  1899, 
pp.  209-235.  This  very  interesting  and  circumstantial  indictment  of  Darwin's 
conclusions  in  regard  to  cross-fertilisation  in  primroses  occurs  in  a  place  where 
it  may  be  overlooked  by  many  botanists.  After  relating  his  observations  and 
stating  his  criticisms,  the  unknown  author  says :  "  It  is  not  possible  from  the 
above  considerations  in  reference  to  the  method  of  Darwin's  experiments,  and 
especially  also  from  the  above  case  of  the  primrose,  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
Darwin  has  not  established  his  theory  that  cross-fertilisation  is  necessary  to  the 
full  fertility  of  flowers.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  of  opinion  that  the  primrose 
gives  strong  confirmatory  evidence  to  Axell's  view,  that  under  natural  and  equal 
conditions  self-fertilisation  of  flowers  is  both  the  legitimate  fertilisation  and  the 
most  productive." 

Elimination  in  Sparrows.  Hermon  C.  Bumpus.  "The  elimination 
of  the  unfit  as  illustrated  by  the  introduced  sparrow,  Passer  domesticus,"  a 
fourth  contribution  to  the  study  of  variation.  Eleventh  Lecture  in  Biol. 
Lectures  at  Wood's  Holl  in  1898.  Boston,  1899,  pp.  209-226.  After  a  severe 
storm  a  number  of  English  sparrows  were  brought  to  the  anatomical  laboratory 
of  Brown  University.  Seventy-two  revived  ;  sixty-four  perished  ;  and  the 
author  has  made  a  careful  comparison  of  the  eliminated  and  the  surviving.  He 
has  reached  three  conclusions  : — (1)  That  the  birds  which  perished  were  elimin- 
ated because  of  deficiency  in  certain  structural  characters  possessed  by  the 
survivors  ;  (2)  the  process  of  selective  elimination  is  most  severe  with  extremely 
variable  individuals,  no  matter  in  what  direction  the  variations  may  occur  ; 
(3)  disregard  of  structural  qualifications  finally  produces  a  throng  of  degenerates, 
whose  destruction  will  follow  the  arrival  of  adversity. 

Another  Enigma.  Bichard  Heymons.  "  Ueber  blaschenformige  Organe 
bei  den  Gespenstheuschrecken.  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Kenntniss  cler  Eingeweide- 
nervensystems  bei  den  Insecten,"  Sitzber.  Preuss.  Ahxd.  Berlin,  1899,  pp.  563- 
575,  2  figs.  In  the  head  of  a  European  stick-insect,  Bacillus  rossii,  there  lie 
near  the  gullet,  and  associated  with  the  pharyngeal  ganglion,  two  little  vesicles 
of  ectodermic  origin  which  are  very  puzzling.  They  are  neither  ganglionic  nor 
glandular,  and  contain  a  central  chitinous  spherule  surrounded  by  several 
concentric  chitinous  lamellae.  Perhaps  they  are  comparable  to  the  "  corpora 
allata "  which  occur  in  a  number  of  other  insects,  but  they  are  not  the  same 
in  detail,  and  besides  we  do  not  know  what  the  "  corpora  allata  "  are.  Heymons 
tried  by  experiment  to  find  out  something  about  their  function,  but  the  result 
was  inconclusive.  He  leaves  their  nature  an  enigma,  except  that  he  suggests 
that  they  may  have  something  to  do  with  the  visceral  nervous  system. 

New  Pelagic  Nemertean.  W.  McM.  Woodworth.  "Preliminary 
account  of  Planktonemertes  agassizii,  a  new  pelagic  Nemertean,"  Bull.  Mus. 
Comp.  Zool.  Harvard,  xxxv.  1899,  pp.  1-4,  1  pi.  This  new  form,  like  the 
only  other  known  genus,  the  "Challenger"  Pelagonemertes,  was  taken  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean  from  considerable  depths.  In  its  leaf-like  body,  hyaline  structure, 
rhynchocoelom  as  long  as  the  body,  unarmed  proboscis,  dendrocoelous  gut, 
and  absence  of  cephalic  grooves  or  organs  of  special  sense,  it  resembles  Pelago- 
nemertes ;  but  its  distinctive  features  are :  a  common  external  opening  for 
mouth  and  proboscis,  supraoesophageal  ganglia  smaller  than  the  suboesophageal, 
the  presence  of  a  median  dorsal  vessel,  and  the  large  number  of  lateral  diverti- 
cula of  the  intestine. 


SOME    NEW    BOOKS. 


THE  SPRINGS  OF  CONDUCT. 

The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct.  By  Alexander  Suther- 
land, M.A.  In  two  vols.  Pp.  xiii.  +  461,  vi.  +  336.  London  :  Long- 
mans, Green,  and  Co.  1898. 

We  need  make  no  apology  for  reviewing  this  interesting  work  in  Natural 
Science,  for,  as  the  author  tells  us,  full  half  of  the  book  is  a  detailed  expansion 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters  of  the  "Descent  of  Man."  "  Darwin  showed  in 
these  chapters  a  noble  gift  of  insight,  but  to  have  made  good  his  position  from 
point  to  point,  to  have  left  nothing  behind  him  unreduced,  would  have  de- 
manded a  labour  which  neither  his  own  health  nor  the  length  of  an  ordinary 
life  would  have  permitted."  Mr.  Sutherland  has  done  good  service  in  filling  in 
Darwin's  scheme.  Many  persons  have  made  vorlaufige  Mittheilungen  on  the 
same  subject,  but  Mr.  Sutherland  has  written  a  treatise  of  great  value.  If  he 
had  submitted  his  two  volumes  to  a  candid  friend  at  a  distance,  who  rejoiced 
in  the  exercise  of  the  blue  pencil,  if  he  had  made  the  two  volumes  into  one,  if 
he  had  avoided  such  question-begging  phrases  as  "  the  moral  instinct,"  if  he  had 
called  his  book  "  The  Evolution  of  Sympathy,"  he  would  have  commanded  an 
interested  audience  whom  this  treatise  will  never  touch.  We  would  not  seem 
ungrateful,  the  book  is  the  outcome  of  eleven  years  of  hard  work,  it  is  full  of 
careful  erudition,  it  is  most  intelligibly  written ;  our  regret  is  simply  that  a 
lack  of  worldly  wisdom  or  self-criticism  has  robbed  the  book  of  much  of  its 
utility  by  leaving  it  so  large. 

Nowhere  else  that  we  know  of  can  we  find  such  a  carefully  selected  treasury 
of  facts  bearing  on  parental  care,  conjugal  affection,  and  the  feeling  of  kinship — 
all  working  towards  a  theory  of  the  evolution  of  sympathy  on  which  the  author 
believes  morality  to  be  founded.  He  shows,  to  our  thinking  conclusively,  how 
there  was  worked  out  among  animals  an  inheritance  of  altruistic  emotions 
which  became  in  man  the  springs  of  good  conduct ;  but  we  do  not  think  that 
he  has  been  equally  successful  in  showing  how  man  became  moral,  that  is, 
became  accustomed  to  "  think  the  ought,"  to  control  his  conduct  in  reference 
to  general  ideas  and  ideals.  According  to  Mr.  Sutherland,  "  the  moral  instinct 
is  in  social  animals  the  result  of  that  selective  process  among  the  emotions 
which  tends  to  encourage  those  that  are  mutually  helpful,  and  to  weaken  those 
that  are  mutually  harmful,"  but  what  he  has  actually  been  working  at  is  the 
growth  of  sympathetic  emotions,  not  the  origin  of  the  distinctively  ethical 
note  which  characterises  many  human  actions.  The  evolution  of  altruistic 
feelings  is  one  thing  ;  the  distinction  between  good  behaviour  and  moral  conduct 
is  another ;  and  the  book  seems  to  us  to  fail  seriously  in  not  appreciating  the 
distinction.  But  as  a  treatise  on  the  evolution  of  sympathy,  on  the  springs  of 
good  conduct,  it  is  admirable,  and  most  useful  to  biologist  and  moralist  alike. 

X. 
442 


December  1899]  THE  TIDES  443 


THE  TIDES. 

The  Tides  Simply  Explained,  with  Practical  Hints  to  Mariners.  By 
the  Rev.  J.  H.  S.  Moxly,  B.A.,  T.C.D.  Pp.  v.  +  151.  Rivingtons  : 
London,  1899. 

There  are  many  excellent  points  about  this  little  book,  although  we  are  not 
prepared  to  accept  all  the  positions  taken  up  by  the  author.  Laplace,  Airy, 
Kelvin,  and  G.  H.  Darwin,  our  recognised  exponents  of  tidal  theory,  are  severely 
dealt  with,  especially  the  last  named.  The  author's  object  is  to  show  that  the 
much-reviled  "  Equilibrium  Theory " — the  theory,  in  fact,  which  is  usually 
described  in  our  elementary  physical  geographies — is,  in  a  slightly  modified 
form,  amply  sufficient  to  explain  all  tidal  mysteries.  Consequently  he  argues 
strongly  against  the  rival  kinetic  or  perturbation  theory  as  it  might  be  termed. 
In  his  criticism  of  Darwin's  dictum  that  a  vertical  force  cannot  produce  sideways 
motion,  he  seems,  however,  to  confuse  vertical  force  with  vertical  pressure ;  and 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  loose  and  inaccurate  reasoning  between  pp.  38  and  40 — 
reasoning  which  fortunately  does  not  affect  the  main  design  of  the  book.  In  the 
constructive  part  of  his  book  Mr.  Moxly  is  decidedly  at  his  best,  and  we  are  not 
acquainted  with  any  clearer  statement  of  the  results  that  (with  the  assumption 
of  the  two  tides  each  day)  naturally  follow  from  the  equilibrium  theory.  In 
some  of  his  discussions  he  is  particularly  happy,  as,  for  example,  in  his  account 
of  the  single  daily  tide  in  high  latitudes,  of  the  high  tides  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
and  other  anomalies.  C.   G.   K. 


A  TREATISE  ON  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. 

Crystallography.  By  W.  J.  Lewis,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  Cambridge  Natural  Science  Manuals, 
Geological  Series.  Pp.  xii. +  612,  553  figs.  The  University  Press, 
1899.     Price  14s.  net. 

This  substantial  volume  is  a  very  full  and  complete  geometrical  treatise, 
covering  much  the  same  ground  as  Professor  Maskelyne's  "  Morphology  of 
Crystals,"  which  was  published  by  the  Oxford  University  Press  in  1895.  The 
aim  of  the  author  is  evidently  to  supply  the  practical  needs  of  university 
students,  to  whom  the  drawing  and  calculation  of  crystals  measured  in  the 
laboratory  is  an  exercise  by  which  a  knowledge  of  Crystallography  can  best  be 
obtained  ;  two  chapters  of  considerable  length  devoted  to  the  subject  of  crystal 
drawings  and  projections  are  accordingly  introduced  at  an  early  stage,  and 
the  general  description  of  the  various  classes  of  crystals,  which  occupies  the 
greater  portion  of  the  book,  is  illustrated  by  abundant  examples  of  drawings 
and  calculations  very  fully  worked  out.  Frequent  references  to  crystals  in 
the  University  Collection  indicate  that  the  book  contains  many  original 
observations. 

The  chapters  on  the  systems  and  their  various  subdivisions  are  followed  by 
a  chapter  on  twin  crystals,  which  occupies  about  100  pages,  and  is  probably 
the  most  extensive  general  treatment  of  this  subject  which  has  been  published 
since  Sadebeck's  volume  on  "  Applied  Crystallography." 

The  book  presents  the  appearance  of  a  mathematical  treatise,  and  may 
discourage  the  non-mathematical  student,  but  the  methods  of  proof  employed 
will  be  found  to  be  in  reality  simple  and  so  expressed  as  to  demand  no  advanced 
mathematical  knowledge ;  they  are  consequently  somewhat  laboured  and  lengthy, 
but  the  more  concise  and  elegant  treatment  by  analytical  methods  is  given  in  a 
chapter  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

A  short  chapter  on  the  physical  properties  of  crystals  is  introduced  merely 


444  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [December 

for  the  purpose  of  justifying  the  classification  into  seven  systems ;  frequent 
reference  to  the  optical  characters  is  also  made  in  the  detailed  description  of 
various  crystals. 

Several  new  terms  are  employed ;  most  of  the  classes  formerly  known  as 
hemimorphic  are  called  acleistous  ;  monoclinic  crystals  are  divided  into  a  gonoid, 
a  plinthoid,  and  a  hemimorphic  class ;  an  axis  of  symmetry  which  is  polar  is 
called  uniterminal,  a  name  that  appears  awkward  where  all  the  other  terms  are 
of  Greek  origin. 

The  representation  of  crystal  axes  by  interrupted  dots  and  dashes  is  of 
doubtful  expediency,  since  they  become  difficult  to  distinguish  among  other 
lines  ;  but  the  author  ingeniously  makes  use  of  this  contrivance  to  indicate  their 
"  order  "  when  they  are  axes  of  symmetry  by  the  numbers  of  clots.  The  number 
of  the  chapter  might  have  been  given  at  the  head  of  each  page,  for  frequent 
references  are  made  to  previous  chapters. 

The  reader  will  perhaps  not  expect  to  find  a  philosophic  treatment  of  the 
principles  which  underlie  the  geometry  of  crystals  in  a  book  designed  for  the 
practical  instruction  of  students  ;  if  the  subject  be  new  to  him  he  may  wonder 
why  a  crystal  is  treated  merely  as  an  isolated  problem  in  drawing,  projection, 
and  calculation  ;  but  let  him  master  the  contents  and  we  think  that  he  will 
acquire  a  very  considerable  knowledge  of  geometrical  crystallography,  which 
will  set  him  thinking  about  the  signification  of  the  beautiful  laws  which  prevail 
in  this  subject. 

CLASSES  OF  CRYSTALS. 

Darstellung  der  32  moglichen  Krystallklassen.     By  H.  Baumhauer. 
Leipzig:  Engelmann,  1899;  36  pp.,  32  figures,  and  1  plate. 

Much  attention  has  recently  been  paid  to  the  subject  of  crystal  symmetry, 
and  the  treatment  and  nomenclature  of  the  32  classes  have  undergone  many 
changes. 

In  this  short  pamphlet  Professor  Baumhauer  adds  another  to  several 
attempts  which  have  been  made  to  describe  these  classes  in  a  simple  and 
systematic  manner.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  say  here  that  he  classifies  them 
according  to  their  axes  of  symmetry,  and  distinguishes  between  those  which 
are  and  those  which  are  not  intersections  of  symmetry  planes  by  the  not  very 
happy  terms  homogeneous  and  inhomogeneous  ;  axes  perpendicular  to  a  sym- 
metry plane  are  distinguished  by  the  equally  unsatisfactory  term  symmetrical. 

The  plate  which  gives  a  summary  of  the  classes  succeeds  perhaps  better 
than  any  previously  published,  in  making  the  symmetry  apparent,  and  will  be 
of  use  to  teachers. 

EOCK-ANALYSIS. 

Praktische  Anleitung  zur  Analyse  der  Silicatgesteine.      Pp.  8G.     Leipzig: 

W.  Engelmann,  1899. 

This,  as  its  title  further  sets  forth,  is  a  translation  by  Dr.  E.  Zschimmer  of 
the  introductory  portion  of  Bulletin  No.  148  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey,  the  concluding  part  of  that  work  being  a  most  valuable  series  of  rock 
analyses.  These  analyses  are  omitted  in  the  translation,  which  deals  only  with 
the  analytical  methods  adopted  by  Prof.  F.  W.  Clarke  and  Dr.  W.  F.  Hille- 
brand  in  the  laboratory  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  The  methods 
aim  at  an  exactitude  in  rock  analyses  hitherto  found  wanting  in  the  published 
work  of  many  of  the  earlier  chemists  who  have  contributed  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  composition  of  rocks.  In  the  analyses  given  in  the  Bulletin  just  cited, 
extremely  small  quantities  of  elements  have  been  detected  and  estimated  in 


1899]  ROCK-ANALYSIS  445 

rocks  in  which  their  presence  would  hardly  have  been  suspected,  and  which  in 
ordinary  analyses  would  have  been  unsought  and  overlooked.  The  translation 
contains  some  additional  remarks  upon  and  references  to  the  later  observations 
of  Dr.  Hillebrand,  and  on  p.  33,  a  woodcut,  not  given  in  the  original  Bulletin, 
illustrates  the  construction  of  a  modified  form  of  Gooch's  apparatus,  as  employed 
in  the  U.S.  Survey  laboratory  for  the  determination  of  combined  water.  The 
translation  is  well  printed  and  has  an  index,  but  although  it  is  a  most  useful 
and  convenient  publication,  the  original  Bulletin  No.  148,  with  its  well-tabulated 
analyses,  will  probably  be  more  frequently  consulted  in  this  country  than 
Dr.  Zschimmer's  careful  translation. 

MESOZOA  AND  SPONGES. 

Traite  de  Zoologie  Concrete.  Lecons  professees  a  la  Sorbonne.  Tome  ii. 
lre  Partie  Mesozoaires,  Spongiaires.  By  Yves  Delage  and  P^dgard 
Hero  hard.  Pp.  ix.  +  244,  with  15  coloured  pis.  and  274  figures  in  the 
text.  Paris:  Librairie  C.  Reinwald,  Schleicher  Freres,  1899.  Price 
12s.  Gd. 

The  new  instalment  of  this  great  work  sustains  the  high  level  of  its  pre- 
decessors in  its  fulness  and  clearness  of  exposition,  and  in  its  liberality  of 
excellent  illustrations.  The  first  part  contains  the  fullest  connected  account  as 
yet  published  by  the  so-called  Mesozoa,  and  is  therefore  of  great  interest.  Four 
classes  are  recognised: — (1)  Mesocoelia,  viz.  Salinelia ;  (2)  Mesenchymia,  in- 
cluding Treptoplax  and  Trichoplasc  ;  (3)  Mesogonia,  comprising  Dicyemiae  and 
Orthonectiae ;  and  (4)  Mesogastria,  viz.  Pemmatodiscus.  An  appendix  treats 
of  Physemaria,  Cementaria,  Pompholyxia,  Kunstleria,  and  Siedleckia.  The 
authors  have  conferred  a  great  boon  on  zoology,  in  bringing  together  the  avail- 
able information  in  regard  to  these  obscure  creatures  which  are  as  interesting 
as  they  are  puzzling. 

The  second  part  deals  with  the  sponges,  to  our  knowledge  of  which  Prof. 
Delage  has  made  some  notable  contributions.  As  was  expected,  there  is  a  care- 
ful discussion  of  the  affinities  of  the  class,  in  which  Delage's  own  views  are 
naturally  followed,  though  the  diversity  of  opinion  is  duly  recognised.  The 
classification  adopted  is  as  follows  : — I.  Calcaria,  including  Homocoelida  and 
Heterocoelida ;  II.  Incalcaria,  including  Triaxonia  (Hexactinellida  and  Hexa- 
ceratida)  and  Demospongiae  (Tetractinellida,  Monaxonida,  and  Monoceratida). 
An  appendix  deals  with  the  doubtful  Abyssospongea,  which  probably  do  not 
deserve  the  name.  A  zoological  treatise  on  different  lines  may  well  be  con- 
ceived, but  it  will  be  hard  to  excel  this  one  in  clearness  and  fulness,  or  in  beauty 
of  illustration. 

ELEMENTS  OF  VERTEBRATE  EMBRYOLOGY. 

Die  Elemente  der  Entwickelungslehre  des  Menschen  unci  der  Wirbelthiere. 
Anleitung  unci  Eepetitorium  fur  Stuclierende  unci  Aerzte.  By  Dr. 
Oscar  Hertwig,  Director  of  the  Anatomical-Biological  Institute  of  the 
University  of  Berlin.  8vo,  pp.  vi.  +  406,  with  332  figs.  Jena  : 
Gustav  Fischer,  1899  [dated  1900].     Price  7.50  marks,  8.50  bound. 

In  twelve  years  Prof.  Hertwig's  well-known  Lehrbuch  has  passed  through 
six  editions,  and  has  been  translated  into  English,  French,  Italian,  and  Russian  ; 
and  no  one  who  has  used  it,  whether  as  student  or  teacher,  will  wonder  at  its 
great  success.  It  is  a  model  of  lucidity,  it  is  well  illustrated,  it  is  flavoured 
with  the  salt  of  general  ideas,  and  it  is  full  of  suggestion. 

But  as  he  worked  at  the  later  editions,  Prof.  Hertwig  began  to  feel  that  it 
was  impossible  to  cater  for  two  sets  of  appetite.     The  expert  wished  for  more 

30 NAT.   SC. VOL.   XV.    NO.   94. 


446  SOME  NE  IF  BOOKS  [decembeb 

detail  and  the  student  for  less.  Hence  the  publication  of  the  present  "  Elements  " 
which  is  adapted  to  the  busy  student,  while  further  editions  of  the  Lehrbuch 
will  be  specialised  for  his  teachers.  Beyond  that  some  paragraphs  have  in- 
corporated recent  results,  there  is  little  to  distinguish  this  new  volume  from  its 
predecessors,  but  it  is  shorter  and  perhaps  simpler,  and  more  emphasis  is  given 
to  the  summaries.     All  must  wish  it  good  speed. 

CO-OPERATIVE  GEOGRAPHY. 

The  International  Geography.  By  Seventy  Authors.  Edited  by  Hugh 
Robert  Mill,  D.Sc,  etc.  Pp.  xix.  +  1088.  London  :  George  Newnes, 
Limited,  1899.     Price  16s. 

The  method  of  compiling  a  hand-book  of  geography  by  the  collaboration  of 
a  number  of  authors,  each  of  whom  is  a  native  of  the  country  he  describes,  or 
has  had  especial  opportunities  of  making  himself  thoroughly  conversant  with 
the  subject  of  which  he  treats,  has  self-evident  advantages.  It  has,  however, 
its  drawbacks.  Authors  are  apt  to  give  undue  prominence  to  their  particular 
theories,  and  to  entertain  different  views  as  to  what  details  should  be  included, 
with  the  consequence  that  the  book  is  lacking  in  uniformity.  For  the  con- 
tributors to  this  work  the  editor  has  drawn  up  a  set  of  rules,  setting  forth  the 
heads  of  information  and  the  order  in  which  they  shoidd  be  discussed.  But 
these  rules  have  not  always  been  followed.  In  some  cases  the  geology  has  not 
been  touched  upon,  in  others  internal  communications  have  received  little 
attention,  and  boundaries  are  sometimes  clearly  denned  where  they  are  definitely 
fixed  and  marked  on  maps,  while  no  mention  is  made  of  others  which  are  still 
subjects  of  dispute. 

Two  or  three  instances  will  suffice  to  show  how  the  division  of  labour  has 
resulted  in  a  want  of  unity  in  the  whole.  On  p.  16  it  is  stated  that  Thales 
invented  gnomonic  projection,  and  the  reader  will  naturally  turn — in  vain — to 
the  preceding  chapter  to  find  out  what  that  projection  is.  The  writer  of  the 
chapter  on  Mathematical  Geography  has  evidently  had  some  difficulty  in  com- 
pressing all  he  had  to  say  into  the  space  allotted,  and  could  not  foresee  that  his 
colleague  would  mention  a  projection  now  used  only  on  charts  for  Great  Circle 
sailing.  The  apparent  antagonism  contained  in  the  sentences,  "  Further  north 
the  Parana  takes  the  name  of  Paraguay  "  (p.  850),  and  "  They  (the  Parana  and 
Paraguay)  both  rise  in  Brazil,"  needs  only  a  feAv  words  of  explanation.  Another 
case  is  of  more  importance,  the  two  sentences  being  contradictory ;  on  p.  423 
Ave  are  told  that  "  no  definite  geomorphic  line  divides  them  (the  islands  of  the 
archipelago  between  Asia  and  Australia)  into  an  Asiatic  and  an  Australian 
group.  '  Wallace's  Line '  ...  is  only  a  faunal  boundary  "  ;  and  on  p.  533  we 
find,  "  This  line,  therefore,  clearly  follows  what,  in  very  recent  geological  times, 
was  the  shore  of  the  continent  of  Asia  " — a  boundary  still  marked  by  a  belt  of 
deep  water. 

Other  small  discrepancies  might  be  pointed  out,  and  are  to  be  expected  in 
so  comprehensive  a  work  on  its  first  appearance,  and  considering  the  vast 
amount  of  labour  involved  in  gathering  together  so  large  a  staff  of  collaborators, 
providing  for  the  translation  of  articles  written  in  foreign  languages,  and  in  the 
general  supervision  of  the  whole  work. 

Nevertheless,  a  large  measure  of  success  has  been  attained,  the  individual 
chapters  are  on  the  whole  of  a  high  order,  many  of  them  being  really 
excellent,  more  particularly  those  from  the  pens  of  professed  geographers,  who 
are  accustomed  to  regard  a  country  from  all  points  of  view,  and  treat  the 
physical  features,  geology  and  climate,  in  connection  with  the  occupations  of  its 
inhabitants.  Professor  W.  M.  Davis'  description  of  the  United  States  deserves 
especial  mention,  and  the  editor's  chapter  on  the  British  Isles  has  also  great 
merit,  apart  from  one  or  two  slips  in  the  historical  paragraphs. 


1899]  CO-OPERATIVE  GEOGRAPHY  447 

When  a  new  edition  is  required,  as  no  doubt  it  will  be,  some  alterations 
should  be  made  in  the  allotment  of  space,  on  the  basis  of  the  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  not  on  a  comparison  of  text-books  ;  for  "  The  International  Geography  " 
is  more  than  a  mere  text-book.  It  may  be  found  advisable  to  slightly  extend 
the  work,  so  as  to  form  two  volumes  of  more  moderate  size.  Space  might  also 
be  profitably  saved  by  the  omission  of  the  historical  paragraphs.  A  history  of 
a  country  compressed  into  a  single  paragraph  is  useless,  nor  has  history  a  locus 
standi  in  a  geographical  work  unless  it  be  connected  with  the  physical  features. 
Except  Professor  Davis,  who  indicates  briefly  how  the  natural  features  deter- 
mined the  lines  of  penetration  into  the  American  continent,  hardly  any  author 
gives  more  than  a  few  bare  historical  facts. 

In  conclusion,  we  must  give  a  word  of  praise  to  the  numerous  small  sketch- 
maps  and  diagrams  scattered  throughout  the  volume.  They  are  clearly  and 
carefully  drawn,  and  exhibit  the  particular  facts  or  phenomena  they  are  designed 
to  impress  on  the  reader,  unobscured  by  unnecessary  details. 


PALAEONTOLOGY   IN   MINIATURE. 

Palliontologie.  Bv  Dr.  Rudolf  Hoernes,  Professor  in  the  University  of 
Graz.  Pp.  "212,  with  87  figs.  Leipzig:  G.  J.  Goschen,  1899. 
Price  80  pf. 

This  primer  of  palaeontology  is  a  little  marvel.  Of  a  size  familiarised  to 
many  students  of  ten  years  ago  by  Macalister's  "  Zoology "  and  MacNab's 
"  Botany,"  with  excellent  type,  with  over  fourscore  excellent  figures,  and  with 
over  200  pages  of  sound,  descriptive  palaeontology  by  a  well-known  authority,  it 
costs  about  nine  pence  !  We  should  like  to  hear  the  comments  of  a  British  pub- 
lisher on  this  the  95th  number  of  the  Sammlung  Goschen.  After  an  intro- 
duction of  32  pages  on  the  scope  and  aims  of  palaeontology,  there  are  50  pages 
on  the  plants  of  the  past,  and  more  than  100  on  the  animals.  The  author  has 
been  more  conservative  than  was  necessary,  thus  Spongiae  are  ranked  under 
Coelenterata,  Anthozoa  precede  Hydrozoa,  Vermes  are  separated  by  Echino- 
dermata  from  Bryozoa  and  Brachiopods,  and  so  on.  As  we  peruse  it,  how- 
ever, some  of  the  simplicity  of  the  table  of  contents  disappears,  for  while  Pisces 
form  the  first  class  of  Vertebrata,  it  is  expressly  noted  that  forms  like 
Amphioxus  and  Palaeospontl//(us  may  well  be  referred  to  special  classes.  We 
have  great  admiration  for  this  little  book,  but  would  make  two  general 
criticisms  : — (1)  that  there  is  too  little  suggestion  of  history,  of  movement,  of 
progress,  of  evolution,  in  short,  of  the  keynote  of  a  true  palaeontology ;  and  (2) 
that  in  a  primer,  above  all,  insecure  conclusions  should  be  very  cautiously 
stated,  and  surely  the  doctrine  of  Kinetogenesis,  for  instance,  which  finds  a 
prominent  place  in  the  introduction,  is  still  an  insecure  generalisation. 

Missouri  Botanical  Garden  Tenth  Annual  Report.     St.  Louis,  Mo.,  U.S.A., 
published  by  the  Board  of  Trustees,  1899. 

This  well-known  publication  sustains  its  former  high  standard  in  every 
respect.  The  present  report  is  specially  valuable,  because  it  gives  a  resume  of 
the  work  of  the  Garden  for  the  first  decade  of  its  existence,  1889-98  ;  and  also 
a  complete  index,  of  51  pages,  of  the  ten  volumes  of  the  Record. 

The  objects  of  the  late  Mr.  Shaw,  the  founder,  are  summarised,  and  not  the 
least  important  of  these  is  the  encouragement  of  botanical  research  in  the 
broadest  sense.  The  endowment  of  the  generous  founder  enables  these  objects, 
which  he  contemplated,  to  be  carried  out  successfully,  and  permits  of  the  gradual 
growth  and  extension  of  the  Garden  in  all  its  branches. 

The  interchange  of  seeds,  cuttings,  and  small  plants  with  similar  institutions 


448  SOME  NE  W  BOOKS  [December 

abroad,  is  another  noteworthy  feature  of  the  Garden.  The  herbarium  grows 
apace,  and  plans  have  been  prepared  for  the  construction  of  a  museum.  The 
library  alone  ought  to  attract  students  from  a  wide  area ;  it  has  32,000  books, 
and  over  200,000  index  cards ;  but  it  is  specially  rich  in  pre-Linnean  works, 
over  500  of  which  were  gifted  in  1892  by  the  late  Dr.  Ed.  Lewis  Sturtevant. 

An  able  biographical  sketch  of  Dr.  Sturtevant  by  Prof.  C.  S.  Plumb  is 
given  in  the  Record.  Sturtevant  did  much  for  the  cause  of  agriculture  in 
America,  and  his  name  will  long  be  associated  with  the  famous  herd  of  Ayr- 
shire cattle  which  he  established,  and  with  the  cultivation  of  maize. 

A  short  illustrated  paper  on  "  A  Sclerotoid  Disease  of  Beech  Roots,"  by 
Hermann  von  Schenk,  appears  as  research  work  from  the  Garden.  The 
condition  was  found  on  one  clump  of  trees,  and  their  roots  were  devoid  of  the 
fungus-covering  or  mycorhiza  common  to  beeches  and  most  other  forest  trees. 
Farther  investigation  may  throw  light  on  this  unusual  condition. 

The  most  important  part  of  the  Report  consists  of  a  paper  by  F.  Lamson- 
Scribner  on  "  Notes  on  the  Grasses  in  the  Bernhardi  Herbarium,  collected  by 
Thaddeus  Haenke,  and  described  by  J.  S.  Presl."  This  article  consists  of  25 
pages  of  letterpress  and  54  full-page  plates,  which  will  be  admired  by  all 
students  of  the  Gramineae ;  the  drawings  are  by  Mrs.  M.  D.  B.  Willis,  nee 
Baker,  and  they  recall  to  British  botanists  the  faithful  work  of  Parnell,  but 
in  the  matter  of  reproduction,  on  paper  of  superior  finish,  the  former  surpass 
the  latter.  The  collection  includes  a  large  number  of  American  species  from 
the  Pacific  coasts  of  Mexico,  California,  and  Peru ;  many  from  the  Philippines, 
and  a  few  from  Nootka  Sound.  Most  of  the  genera,  and  certainly  the  facies 
of  these  grasses,  resemble  those  of  South  Africa.  One  word  of  caution  may  be 
permitted ;  the  terminology  of  Presl  has  been  adhered  to,  but  the  majority  of 
the  genera  have  been  revised  since  1830,  and  if  the  Herbarium  of  the  Missouri 
Botanical  Garden  is  to  be  of  use  to  modern  students,  its  classification  must 
also  be  modern.  R.  T. 


The  North  American  Slime-Moulds,  being  a  list  of  all  Species  of  Myxo- 
mycetes  hitherto  described  from  North  America,  including  Central 
America.  By  T.  H.  Macbride,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Botany  in 
the  State  University  of  Iowa.  Pp.  231  with  18  plates.  New  York 
and  London:   The  Macmillan  Co.,  1899.     Price  10s.  net. 

This  book  is  likely  to  form  the  classic  on  the  subject  for  North  America. 
Apart  from  the  scientific  interest  of  the  work  one  is  compelled  to  admire  the 
binding,  the  paper,  the  type,  and  the  beautiful  photo-reproductions  of  the 
plates. 

The  only  general  works  published  within  recent  years  on  the  subject  are 
Massee's  "  Myxogastres,"  in  1893;  Lister's  "  Mycetozoa,"  in  1895:  a  worthy 
third  is  Professor  Macbride's  "  Slime-Moulds,"  if  we  may  follow  the  author  in 
giving  them  this  name,  for  it  is  unfortunate  that  botanists  cannot  agree  as  to 
the  proper  name  that  should  be  applied  to  those  organisms  which  seem  to 
occupy  the  border  line  between  the  two  organic  kingdoms. 

The  volume  begins  with  a  general  deselection  of  the  vegetation  and 
reproduction  of  the  slime-moulds.  It  is  pointed  out  that  they  are  not  uni- 
cellular organisms,  as  was  formerly  taught,  but  multinuclear  and  karyokinetic. 
From  the  resemblance  of  the  protoplasmic  mass  to  that  of  a  giant  amoeba  arises 
the  claim  of  the  zoologist  to  consider  the  slime-mould  his  special  property. 

But  the  author  prefers  to  leave  the  question  of  their  higher  relations  alone, 
recognising  that  no  one  test  can  be  applied  as  a  universal  touchstone  to  separate 
plants  from  animals.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  study  of  the  slime-moulds  rests 
chiefly  with  the  botanists,  and  it  is  expedient  to  leave  it  in  their  hands. 

Over  400  species  of  slime-moulds  have  been  described,  and  half  of  these 


1899]  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  SLIME-MOULDS  449 

have  been  recognised  in  the  United  States.  One  degenerate  species,  Plas- 
modiophora  brassicae,  occasions  the  disease  known  as  "  club-root "  in  cabbage, 
and  "  finger-and-toe  "  in  turnip  ;  while  it  is  alleged  that  Plasmodium  malariae 
may  be  the  cause  of  malarial  fever,  and  if  it  turn  out  to  be  a  slime-mould,  then 
the  group  suddenly  acquires  an  unusual  human  interest.  Apart  from  these 
two  the  slime-moulds  are  of  no  economic  importance.  Advice  is  given  regard- 
ing the  collecting  and  preserving  of  material,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  book 
is  taken  up  with  classification.  The  descriptions  of  the  genera  and  species  are 
most  carefully  given,  while  the  measurements  of  the  spores  are  in  microns. 

For  the  sake  of  the  British  farmer  we  wish  that  the  following  statement 
made  by  Professor  Macbride  regarding  Plasmodiophdra  were  true  for  the 
British  Isles  : — 

"  Careful  search  continued  through  several  years  has  not  availed  to  bring 
this  species  to  my  personal  acquaintance."  It  is  unfortunately  too  true, 
however,  that  British  farmers  lose  thousands  of  pounds  annually  through  the 
ravages  of  Plasmodiophora  in  their  turnip  crops.  R.  T. 


A  CRITICISM  OF  THE  BIOLOGICAL  GOSPEL. 

From  Comte  to  Benjamin  Kidd.  The  Appeal  to  Biology  or  Evolution  for 
Human  Guidance.  By  Robert  Mackintosh,  M.A.,  B.D.,  D.D., 
Professor  at  Lancashire  Independent  College,  xxii.  +  287  pp.  Lon- 
don :   Macmillan  and  Co.,  1899. 

"  The  appeal  to  biology,  outlined  by  Comte,  newly  defined  and  emphasised 
by  Darwinism,  has  now  been  stated  in  the  most  extreme  form  logically  possible," 
by  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd.  Dr.  Mackintosh  has  weighed  the  results  of  this  appeal 
in  the  balances  and  finds  them  very  short  weight.  In  fact,  he  indicates  that  the 
appeal  is  gratuitous.  There  is  available  elsewhere  much  better  guidance  for 
human  conduct  than  biology  can  offer,  and  the  appeal  to  biology  is  apt  to  be 
misleading,  as  well  as  unsatisfactory.  These  are  hard  words,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  biology  is  still  very  young,  much  too  young  to  give  advice. 
Some  have  tried  to  force  its  hand  and  the  results  do  not  look  well,  but  it  was 
not  a  fair  game  to  play.  The  science  is  too  young  to  become  a  basis  for  the  art 
of  life. 

The  author  is  brilliantly  clever  ;  there  is  not  a  dull  page  in  the  book,  perhaps 
not  a  dull  sentence  ;  his  criticisms  of  even  purely  biological  matters  make  one 
feel  what  the  science  has  lost  in  his  being  outside  of  it.  To  contradict  him  is 
impossible,  for  he  is  so  reasonable ;  to  correct  him  is  impossible,  for  the  time  is 
not  yet  ripe  ;  to  believe  him  is  (for  a  biologist)  impossible,  for  he  proves  too 
much.  It  seems  to  us  that  biology,  preoccupied  with  its  own  concrete  problems, 
has  simply  stammered  like  a  child  when  forced  to  confront  the  big  problem  of 
human  life  ;  it  has  something  to  say,  but  it  is  not  ready  to  say  it.  That  it 
will  eventually  have  a  rational  word  to  say,  and  one  which  will  rhyme  with  the 
best  word  of  the  moralist,  we  never  doubt. 

Part  I.  deals  with  Comtism,  the  appeal  to  biology,  the  appeal  to  history,  and 
the  doctrine  of  altruism.  Part  II.  discusses  the  "simple  evolutionism"  of 
Spencer  and  Leslie  Stephen.  Part  III.  deals  with  Darwinism,  or  Struggle  for 
Existence,  and  includes  a  splendid  chapter  on  the  metaphysics  of  natural 
selection.  Part  IV.  has  to  do  with  Weismann  and  Benjamin  Kidd,  so  widely 
apart,  and  yet  in  one  respect  so  near  akin.  Finally  we  have  a  summary  and 
conclusions.  It  is  easy  to  write  these  lines  ;  but  to  criticise  is  another  matter, 
and  we  frankly  confess  that  we  must  refrain,  though  the  temptation  is  great. 
We  refrain  for  this  reason,  that  although  we  are  unable  to  agree  with  the  author's 
central  conclusions,  we  feel  that  he  has  done  great  service  in  showing  that  the 
appeal  to  biology  is  premature.  X. 


45o  SOME  NE IV  BOOKS  [December 


OUR  PLAY. 

Die  Spiele  der  Menschen.     By  Karl  Groos,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in 
Basel.      Pp.  538.     Jena:  Gustav  Fischer,  1899.     Price  10  marks. 

Two  or  three  years  ago  Professor  Groos  rather  startled  us  by  his  book  "  Die 
Spiele  der  Thiere,"  in  which  he  showed  that  play  was  one  of  the  most  serious 
things  in  the  world.  This  book  was  translated  last  year  by  Mrs.  Baldwin,  and 
published,  with  a  preface  and  an  appendix  by  Professor  J.  Mark  Baldwin,  under 
the  title  "  The  Play  of  Animals  :  a  .Study  of  Animal  Life  and  Instinct."  The 
author's  thesis  has  thus  become  familiar.  Play  is  not  mere  by-play,  but  a 
matter  of  serious  moment ;  it  is  the  expression  of  an  instinct  developed  by 
natural  selection,  and  justified  (1)  because  the  playful  young  animal  can  rehearse 
without  responsibilities,  and  practise  for  its  future  life  without  serious  con- 
sequences, play  being  really  the  young  form  of  work ;  and  (2)  because  the 
young  animal  is  able  in  play  to  learn  many  lessons  which  would  otherwise  have 
to  be  inherited  as  special  instincts,  thus  lessening  the  burden  of  inheritance, 
and  putting  a  premium  on  intelligence.  To  which  may  be  added  that  the  play- 
period  affords  elbow-room  for  new  departures — an  "  Abdnderungsspielraum" — 
before  natural  selection  begins  to  operate  with  its  usual  sternness. 

In  the  volume  now  before  us  Professor  Groos  applies  his  "  practice  theory  " 
of  play  to  the  games  of  children  and  men,  and  on  the  whole  seems  to  succeed 
in  corroborating  it,  though  the  case  does  not  seem  to  us  quite  so  clear  as  it  was 
when  animals  alone  were  dealt  with.  The  first  section  deals  with  playful  experi- 
menting—sensory, motor,  intellectual,  and  emotional.  The  second  section  dis- 
cusses combative  play,  love  play,  imitative  play,  and  social  play.  Then  follows 
a  general  consideration  of  the  theory  of  play,  looked  at  from  six  points  of  view — 
physiological,  biological,  psychological,  aesthetic,  sociological,  and  educational. 

We  do  not  know  whether  to  admire  most  the  author's  erudition,  or  his 
vivacity,  or  his  intellectual  perspective.  The  result  is  certainly  a  notable  con- 
tribution to  the  theory  and  art  of  life.  It  invests  the  familiar  adage,  "All 
work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy,"  with  a  profoundness  of  solemn 
meaning. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  volume  will  also  be  translated  by  Mrs.  Baldwin, 
who  dealt  so  successfully  with  the  first,  for  it  is  a  book  that  ought  to  have  the 
widest  possible  circulation,  not  merely  because  it  is  a  thorough  vindication  of 
what  we  may  call  the  Darwinian  theory  of  play,  but  also  for  its  practical  sug- 
gestiveness  to  parent  and  teacher,  physician  and  artist. 


MATSCHIE'S  CATALOGUE  OF  FRUIT-BATS. 

Die  Fledermiiuse  der  Berliner  Museums  fur  Naturkunde :   1  Lieferung,  Die 
Megachiroptera.       By    P.    Matschie.      8vo,  pp.    viii.  +  103,    pis.    14. 
•   Berlin:  George  Reimer,  1899.     Price  24  marks. 

The  British  Museum  "  Catalogue  of  Chiroptera,"  by  the  late  Dr.  Dobson, 
having  been  published  so  far  back  as  1878,  has  long  been  completely  out  of 
date ;  and  naturalists  should  therefore  welcome  Dr.  Matschie's  new  descriptive 
synopsis,  of  which  the  first  instalment  is  before  us.  It  appears  that  the  late 
Professor  Carl  Peters,  Director  of  the  Berlin  Museum  from  1857  to  1883, 
contemplated  the  publication  of  a  monograph  of  the  Bats,  for  which  were 
prepared  no  less  than  75  lithographic  plates,  executed  by  the  well-known 
artists  F.  Wagner  and  G.  Miitzel.  These  plates  remained  in  the  hands  of  Herr 
G.  Reimer,  the  publisher, '"after  the  death  of  Professor  Peters,  but  no  accom- 
panying MS.  was  found  among  the  effects  of  the  latter.  This  being  so, 
Dr.   Matschie  determined  to  write  the  text  for  a  descriptive  synopsis  of  the 


1899]  MATSCHIE' S  CATALOGUE  OF  FRUIT-BATS  451 

order  de  novo,  while  the  publisher  undertook  to  supply  such  additional  plates 
as  were  required  to  bring  the  work  thoroughly  up  to  date.  At  least  15  of 
such  new  plates  are  announced  for  issue,  11  of  which  have  been  drawn  and 
lithographed  by  the  late  Mrs.  Matschie.  With  such  a  wealth  of  illustration, 
the  work  starts  with  a  strong  promise  of  success.  It  is  announced  to  be  com- 
pleted in  four  parts. 

The  present  fasciculus  deals  with  the  important  and  interesting  group  of 
Megachiroptera  or  Fruit-Bats,  all  the  members  of  which  Dr.  Matschie  follows 
his  predecessors  in  placing  in  the  single  family  Pteropodidae.  In  this  family 
the  author  recognises  20  genera  and  122  species,  together  with  numerous  sub- 
genera and  sub-species.  And  here  it  may  be  remembered  that,  although  the 
distinction  is  clear  enough  in  the  systematic  index,  it  would  have  been  better  if 
the  number  of  sub-species  had  been  more  markedly  distinguished  in  the  text 
from  those  of  species.  Moreover,  to  our  thinking,  a  few  more  plates  of  the 
animals  themselves,  in  addition  to  the  numerous  figures  of  skulls,  would  have 
added  decidedly  to  the  general  interest  of  the  fasciculus,  and  have  made  it  more 
attractive  at  least  to  the  amateur  naturalist. 

In  regard  to  the  limits  of  genera  the  author  differs  considerably  from  some 
English  naturalists.  He  regards,  for  instance,  the  curious  Pteralopex  atrata,  of 
the  Solomon  Islands,  as  representing  merely  a  sub-genus  of  Pteropus,  instead 
of  a  genus  by  itself ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Cynojrterus  marginatus  from 
Sarawak,  described  by  Mr.  O.  Thomas  in  1893,  is  considered  worthy  of  separa- 
tion as  a  distinct  genus  {Dalionycteris).  Moreover,  there  are  several  important 
emendations  on  the  Dobsonian  nomenclature,  Eousettus,  Gray,  replacing 
Xantharpyia,  Gray,  while  Gelasinns,  Temminck,  stands  for  the  preoccupied 
Ifarpyia,  Illiger.  If  this  latter  change  can  be  substantiated  it  will  save  the 
transference  of  the  name  Cephalotes  from  the  genus  it  usually  stands  for  to  the 
above-named  group  {Harpyia),  as  has  been  proposed  by  Mr.  T.  S.  Palmer ;  but 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  experts  will  admit  the  innovation.  Although 
changing  preoccupied  names  when  they  are  literally  identical  with  their 
precursors,  Dr.  Matschie  refuses  to  admit  that  a  name  like  Macroglossa 
necessitates  the  abolition  of  Macroglossus  ;  but  here,  again,  we  are  on  danger- 
ously debatable  ground. 

So  far  as  we  have  tested  them,  the  generic  and  systematic  definitions  seem 
clearly  and  accurately  drawn  up ;  but  how  these  work  in  actual  practice  can 
only  be  demonstrated  when  new  genera  or  species  have  to  be  described.  Special 
value  attaches  to  the  author's  notes  on  the  distribution  of  the  species  of 
Epauletted  Bats  {Ep>omophoru&)  in  Africa,  and  the  zoo-geographical  sub-regions 
of  that  continent,  but  there  seems  too  much  tendency  to  make  the  species  fit  in 
with  the  regions. 


-'o1 


MULTIPLICATION  OF  MOSSES. 

Untersuchungen  uber  die  Verinehrung  der  Laubmoose  durch  Brutorgane 
und  Stecklinge.  Von  Dr.  Carl  Correns.  8vo.  Pp.  xxiv.  +  472, 
with  187  figures.     Jena:  G.  Fischer,  1899.     Price  15  marks. 

By  no  means  the  least  exciting  group  of  plants  are  the  Mosses.  How 
interesting  their  position  in  the  scale  of  plant-life,  so  far  removed,  excepting 
only  their  close  allies  the  Liverworts,  from  everything  else,  and  separated  by  as 
great  a  gulf  from  the  less  highly  organised  Algae  as  from  the  more  highly 
organised  Ferns !  How  remarkable  their  life-history,  with  its  clearly  marked 
division  into  two  phases,  distinct  but  never  separated !  How  puzzling  the 
comparison  of  organs  and  members  with  those  of  the  higher  plants  !  On  the 
one  hand  the  leaf  that  is  not  a  leaf,  on  the  other  hand  the  unmistakable  leaf- 
like character  in  structure  and  function  of  the  base  of  the  highly-organised 
spore-capsule.     But   perhaps   the  most  striking  feature  of  the  group  is  their 


452  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [december 

power  of  reproducing  vegetatively.  Almost  any  portion  of  the  plant  will,  under 
favourable  conditions  of  moisture  and  temperature,  give  rise  to  a  new  individual, 
and  there  are  also  a  great  variety  of  means  by  which  this  can  be  naturally 
effected.  It  is  this  last  aspect  of  their  biology  which  forms  the  subject  of  Dr. 
Correns'  substantial  contribution  to  Muscology,  a  work  which  we  are  sure  will 
be  perused  with  much  interest  by  the  increasing  number  of  botanists  who  are 
specially  interested  in  the  Mosses.  The  book,  which  is  partly  special,  partly 
general,  opens  with  a  short  introduction  (pp.  xvii.-xxiv.),  in  which  terms  are 
explained  and  methods  described.  The  "  brood-organs "  are  in  brief  those 
organs  which  are  definitely  produced  for  the  purpose  of  vegetative  reproduction  ; 
the  "  Stecklinge,"  on  the  other  hand,  are  those  parts  of  the  plant  which  will  on 
separation  form  a  new  individual,  but  have  not  been  definitely  developed  to 
that  end.  The  greater  part  of  the  book  (pp.  1-322)  is  "  special,"  comprising 
first  an  account  of  the  investigated  cases  of  multiplication  by  "brood-organs," 
arranged  systematically  in  tribes,  families  and  genera,  and  secondly  those 
species  in  which  the  other  method  obtains.  This  is  followed  by  a  "general" 
part  (pp.  325-360),  arranged  in  five  sections,  treating  of  the  morphology  and 
phylogeny,  structure,  development  and  germination,  more  especially  of  the 
"  brood-organs,"  and  of  their  value  for  systematic  purposes.  A  bibliography 
occupies  a  few  pages,  and  the  book  closes  with  an  index  of  the  plants  mentioned 
in  the  text.  One  cannot  have  too  many  illustrations  in  a  work  of  this  kind, 
and  the  187  which  are  distributed  through  the  text  form  a  valuable  help  to 
the  elucidation  of  the  subject-matter.  R. 

ANOTHER  BOOK  ON  BACTERIA. 

Bacteria,  especially  as  they  are  related  to  the  Economy  of  Nature,  to 
Industrial  Processes,  and  to  the  Public  Health.  By  Geokge  Newman, 
M.D.,  F.R.S.E.,  D.P.H.  (Camb.),  etc.,  Demonstrator  of  Bacteriology 
to  King's  College,  London.  Pp.  viii.  +  351,  with  15  micro-photo- 
graphs by  E.  G.  Spitta.     London:  John  Murray,  1899.     Price  6s. 

In  his  short  preface  the  author  expressly  disclaims  any  attempt  to  write 
either  a  record  of  original  work  or  a  laboratory  text-book.  His  object  is  merely 
to  discuss  in  a  popular  scientific  form  the  present  state  of  knowledge  concerning 
bacteria.  As  the  title  indicates,  the  bacteria  considered  are  not  only  those 
capable  of  producing  pathogenic  effects,  but  include  the  vast  number  of  those 
which  are  concerned  in  natural  and  industrial  processes. 

Embracing  so  wide  a  range  of  subject,  and  being  designedly  written  to 
suit  the  lay  reader,  the  descriptions  are  unavoidably  often  sketchy  and  in- 
complete. But  the  author  is  in  his  happiest  vein  when  dealing  with  the 
role  of  bacteria  in  natural  processes,  and  with  their  industrial  application,  and 
to  this  the  greater  part  of  the  book  is  devoted.  The  chapters  on  the  bacteria 
in  the  soil,  the  bacteria  of  fermentation,  and  the  bacteria  of  milk  and  its 
products,  are  specially  valuable  to  medical  readers  for  the  lucid  and  interesting- 
account  they  give  of  the  far-reaching  beneficial  effects  of  bacteria.  The 
ordinary  student  of  medicine  is  too  apt  to  associate  bacteria  with  disease  alone, 
and  the  author  is  to  be  congratulated  on  presenting  in  so  attractive  a  form  an 
outline  of  the  immensely  greater  activities  which  these  lower  vegetable  organisms 
possess.  Whether  the  brief  description  of  the  chief  pathogenic  bacteria  could 
be  of  equal  value  or  interest  to  the  lay  reader,  we  are  inclined  to  doubt,  and 
it  would  be  easy  to  criticise  adversely  some  of  the  details  given  in  this  section. 
But  the  shortcomings  of  this  latter  part  are  only  of  minor  importance,  and 
do  not  detract  from  the  value  of  the  preceding  chapters. 

The  book  is  illustrated  by  several  good  illustrations  from  micro-photographs, 
and  by  a  number  of  outline  drawings  of  bacteria,  for  which  the  writer  claims 
only  a  diagrammatic  significance.      It  may  be  permitted  to  point  out  that  some 


1899]  ANOTHER  BOOK  ON  BACTERIA  453 

of   the  latter   have   scarcely   even   that    claim — notably    the    drawing    of    the 
bacillus  of  malignant  oedema  on  page  174. 

We  would,  however,  cordially  recommend  the  book  to  all  who  desire  to 
gain  an  introduction  to  the  vast  science  of  bacteriology,  and,  more  particularly, 
to  medical  men  who  take  any  interest  in  natural  processes  outside,  but 
intimately  related  to,  their  immediate  profession.  I).  A.   Welsh. 


PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY. 

Laboratory  Manual — Experiments  to  illustrate  the  Elementary  Principles  of 
Chemistry.  By  H.  W.  Hillyer,  Ph.D.  New  York  :  The  Macmillan 
Company;  London:  Macmillan  and  Company.  Pp.  vi.  +  200(100 
pages  blank).     Price  4s.  net. 

The  character  of  this  book  fully  corresponds  to  its  second  title,  and  the 
teacher  of  elementary  students  both  in  school  and  college  will  find  it  useful  in 
laboratory  work.  The  book  is  divided  into  two  parts,  Part  I.  dealing  with 
preparation  and  properties  of  the  elements  and  their  compounds,  whilst  Part  II.  is 
a  guide  to  experiments  in  verification  of  quantitative  laws.  The  experiments 
are,  on  the  whole,  very  well  chosen,  and  the  directions  for  their  performance  are 
definite  and  accurate,  illustrative  diagrams  being  given  where  necessary.  In 
the  last  section,  dealing  with  "Molecular  weight  by  chemical  means,"  scarcely 
sufficient  stress  is  laid  on  the  fact  that  the  basicity  of  the  acids  to  which  the 
method  is  applicable  must  be  determined  beyond  all  doubt  if  a  conclusive  result 
is  to  obtained.  Students  almost  invariably  ignore  this  essential  condition,  so 
that  the  point  ought  to  be  specially  emphasised. 


A  FRENCH  CONCHOLOGY. 

1.  Lcs  coquilles  marines  des  cotes  de  France.     By  M.  Locard.      Large  Svo, 

pp.  384,  with  348  figures  in  the  text.      Paris  :  J.  B.  Bailliere  et  Fils, 
1892.     Price  18  francs. 

2.  Les  coquilles  marines  au  large  des  cotes  de   France.     By    M.    Locard. 

Large  Svo,  pp.  198.      Paris:  J.  B.  Bailliere,  1899.      Price  6  francs. 

By  the  issue  of  the  second  of  the  volumes  above  mentioned,  Mons.  Locard 
has  completed  the  publication  of  his  "  Conchyliologie  Frangaise."  As  stated 
in  the  introduction  to  the  first  volume,  his  object  was  to  give  short  but  precise 
descriptions  of  all  the  species  of  shells  which  are  to  be  found  in  French  waters, 
so  that  the  student  and  collector  might  be  able  to  name  his  specimens  without 
having  recourse  to  large  and  expensive  works. 

The  first  volume,  published  in  1892,  dealt  Avith  the  shells  of  the  French 
coasts.  A  second,  published  in  1893,  gave  descriptions  of  those  living  in  the 
fresh  and  brackish  waters  of  the  country.  A  third,  published  in  1 894,  described 
the  terrestrial  shells ;  and  now  the  whole  is  completed  by  a  volume  on  the 
marine  shells  found  outside  the  French  coasts  between  the  coralline  zone  and  a 
depth  of  about  2000  metres. 

We  propose  to  notice  the  first  and  last  of  these  volumes,  which  contain 
descriptions  of  all  the  genera  and  species  of  shells  that  have  been  found  in  the 
seas  around  France.  Mons.  Locard's  work  is  essentially  a  conchological  one. 
The  animals  themselves  are  not  described  ;  neither  are  questions  of  classification 
or  synonomy  touched  upon,  the  reader  being  referred  for  these  points  to  his 
previous  work,  the  "Prodrome  de  Malacologie  Franchise."  But  he  defines  the 
families  and  genera  which  he  has  adopted,  and  gives  a  description  of  each 
species  of  shell,  with  a  mention  of  its  geographical  and  bathymetrical  distribu- 
tion.    Many  of  the  species  are  illustrated  by  figures  in  the  text,  of  which  there 


454  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [December 

are  348  in  the  first  volume,  but  there  are  no  illustrations  in  that  on  deep-water 
shells. 

Most  of  the  figures  are  either  of  natural  size  or  are  enlargements  of  small 
species,  but  those  of  larger  shells  are  unequally  reduced,  some  being  one-third, 
some  one-half,  some  two-thirds  of  actual  size,  while  one  (Tritonium  nodiferum) 
is  only  one-eighth  of  such  size,  which  gives  a  false  impression  of  its  dimensions. 
The  figures  are  not  woodcuts,  but  are  photo-prints  from  good  drawings,  and 
suffice  for  purposes  of  recognition. 

In  the  first  volume  he  enumerates  1186  species,  including  14  Brachiopods, 
but  there  are  many  among  them  which  other  conchologists  would  probably 
regard  as  varieties.     The  numbers  of  each  class  are  as  follow  : — 

Gastropoda            .  .  .  .777 

Scaphopoda            .  .  .  .11 

Lamellibranchiata  .  .  .        384 

Brachiopoda           .  .  .  .14 


1186 


In  his  last  volume  he  gives  a  brief  account  of  the  successive  dredging 
expeditions  by  which  the  deeper  waters  have  been  explored,  from  that  of  the 
Porcupine  in  1869  to  those  undertaken  by  private  individuals  in  1895  and 
1896.  The  species  obtained  from  these  greater  depths  number  625,  and  286 
of  them  do  not  occur  in  the  shallower  waters.  Thus  he  makes  the  total 
number  of  shell-bearing  Mollusca  found  on  or  near  the  coasts  of  France  to  be 
1488. 

M.  Locard  may  be  congratulated  on  having  completed  a  work  of  so  much 
labour,  and  one  which  cannot  fail  to  be  useful  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
molluscan  fauna  of  the  seas  around  France.  Moreover,  as  a  large  number  of 
these  species  occur  also  on  our  own  coasts  his  volumes  will  also  be  of  service  to 
British  conchologists.  A.  J.  J-B. 

TOWARDS  PERFECTION. 

Animal  Biology,  an  Elementary  Text-Book.  By  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  F.R.S., 
Professor  of  Zoology  and  Geology  in  University  College,  Bristol,  and 
Lecturer  on  Comparative  Anatomy  in  the  Bristol  Medical  School. 
Third  Edition,  revised.  8vo,  pp.  viii.  +  313,  with  135  figures.  London  : 
Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  1899.      Price  8s.  6d. 

This  well-known  and  much-appreciated  text-book  has  been  modified  a  little 
to  meet  changes  in  the  requirements  of  the  London  University  examinations, 
part  of  it  has  been  at  the  same  time  rewritten,  and  many  illustrations  have 
been  added, — the  result  being  that  the  book,  so  excellent  before,  has  made  a 
marked  step  towards  perfection.  It  is  one  of  the  soundest  books  that  can  be 
put  in  the  student's  hands. 

At  the  same  time,  we  have  one  general  criticism  to  make, — that  the  book 
is  even  in  its  improved  form  distinctly  smaller  than  its  title.  Prof.  Lloyd 
Morgan  has  in  other  works  made  biologists  his  debtors  by  his  lucid  and 
balanced  exposition  of  the  general  problems  of  biology,  and  by  his  original 
contributions  towards  their  solution  ;  he  has  also  elsewhere  discoursed  in  a 
most  interesting  way  on  the  habits  of  birds  and  beasts,  and  shown  how  much 
may  be  gained  from  their  study ;  but  of  all  this  there  is  little  trace  in  the 
volume  before  us,  which  conforms  with  others  in  being  mainly  morphological, 
differs  from  most  in  giving  a  fair  place  to  physiology,  but  agrees  with  almost 
all  in  leaving  out  bionomics.  Perhaps  the  author  is  right  in  his  reserve,  but 
we  doubt  it — for  him.     His  position,  hoAvever,  is  indicated   in  the  sentence, 


1899]  TOWARDS  PERFECTION  455 

"  With  regard  to  aetiology,  the  aim  will  be  rather  to  pave  the  way  for  a  study 
of  causes  by  an  accurate  presentation  of  facts,  than  to  deal  at  any  length  and 
more  than  incidentally  with  the  theory  of  evolution  or  the  doctrine  of  descent." 

J.  A.  T. 


VARIATION  -  STATISTICS. 

Die  Methode  der  Variations-statistik.     By  Georg  Duncker.     Pp.  74,  with 
8  figures.     Leipzig:  Engelmann,  1899.     Price  2  marks,  40  pfg. 

As  Dr.  Duncker  explained  his  position  in  the  last  number  of  Natural  Science, 
as  Mr.  H.  M.  Kyle  discusses  the  same  method  in  the  present  number,  and  as 
Professor  Davenport  has  published  an  English  guide  to  the  use  of  the  method, 
we  need  not  waste  space  by  trying  to  summarise  this  booklet  on  the  method  of 
variation-statistic.  We  believe  that  it  is  not  altogether  perfect — it  would  have 
been  almost  a  miracle  if  it  had  been — but  it  is  a  clear  statement  of  the  method 
by  one  who  has  used  it  to  good  purpose  ;  and  we  are  grateful  to  Dr.  Duncker 
not  only  because  he  has  been  a  pioneer  in  a  fruitful  path  of  investigation,  but 
because  he  has  made  it  possible  for  any  one  with  a  head  on  his  shoulders  to 
follow  in  his  steps. 


NOMENCLATUEAL  CHANGES  IN  THE  EDENTATA. 

Elsewhere  we  have  called  attention  to  certain  emendations  in  the  nomen- 
clature of  the  Chiroptera.  A  paper  by  Mr.  T.  S.  Palmer  in  the  Proc.  Biol.  Soc, 
Washington,  vol.  xiii.  p.  71,  suggests  others  among  the  Edentata.  In  an  earlier 
part  of  the  same  journal  for  the  current  year  Mr.  G.  S.  Miller  urged  that  the 
Armadillos  commonly  known  as  Xenurus  should  be  designated  Tatoua,  Gray 
(1865),  on  account  of  the  preoccupation  of  the  former  term.  Now  Mr.  Palmer 
states  that  Tatoua  must  itself  yield  place  to  the  still  earlier  Cabassous, 
M'Murtrie  (1831).  Such  constant  changes  (altogether  apart  from  the  question 
whether  barbarous  names  like  the  foregoing  are  admissible)  are  much  to  be 
deprecated  ;  and  the  least  an  innovator  can  do  is  to  make  sure  that  he  has 
got  hold  of  the  earliest  name.  Otherwise  it  is  in  every  way  far  better  to  let 
matters  stand  as  they  are. 

Mr.  Palmer  further  urges  that  Cyelothurus,  for  the  Pigmy  Ant-eater,  must 
give  way  to  Cyclopes,  Gray  (1821);  and,  what  is  much  worse,  that  Uroleptes, 
Wagler  (1831),  must  replace  its  own  name  (Tamandua)  for  the  Tamandua 
Ant-eater. 


UNGER  AND  ENDLICHER. 

Briefwechsel  zwisehen  Franz  Unger  und  Stephan  Endlicher,  herausgegeben 
und  erlaiintert  von  G.  Haberlandt.  Nut  Portrats  und  Nachbildungen 
zweier  Briefe,  pp.  184.     Berlin:  Borntraeger,  1899.     Price  5  marks. 

In  this  publication  Prof.  Haberlandt  has  made  a  most  interesting  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  19th  century  Botany.  Unger  and  Endlicher  were  great 
men  and  great  botanists,  and  this  careful  edition  of  their  correspondence  is  full 
of  instruction  not  unmixed  with  amusement. 


456  SOME  NE  W  BOOKS  [decembeb 


A  CARBONIFEROUS  LANDSCAPE. 

Eine  Landschaft  der  Stemkohlen-Zeit.  Erlaiiterung  zu  der  Wandtafel 
bearbeitet  und  herausgegeben  im  auftrage  der  Direction  der  Konigl. 
Preuss.  geologischen  Landesanstalt  und  Bergakademie  zu  Berlin.  By 
Dr.  H.  Potome.  Pp.  40,  with  30  figs,  and  a  plate.  Leipzig:  Born- 
traeger,  1899.     Price  with  the  "Tafel,"  25  marks. 

To  restore  the  past  is  one  of  the  most  hazardous  of  tasks,  and  many  have 
tried  it  with  indifferent  results.  We  have  not  as  yet  received  the  "Wandtafel" 
referred  to  above,  but  if  it  is  in  proportion  to  its  size  as  good  as  the  plate 
accompanying  the  pamphlet,  it  must  be  very  good,  for  Dr.  Potome  has  put 
brains  as  well  as  artistic  feeling  into  his  picture.  It  is  based  upon  plastic 
reconstructions  of  carboniferous  plants,  and  seems  to  us  so  successful  that  we 
hope  eagerly  for  more  to  follow. 


L.  ANTHROPOLOGIE,  Tome  x.  No.  4. 

L.  Anthropologic  for  July  and  August  contains  some  articles  which  will  be  of 
more  than  passing  interest  to  those  who  are  following  the  successive  discoveries 
bearing  on  the  prehistoric  civilisation  of  Western  Europe. 

(1)  Boule  and  A.  Verniere  (L'Abri  sous  roche  du  Bond  pres  Saint-Arcons- 
d'Allier  (Haute  Loire))  describe  the  exploration  of  the  rock-shelter  of 
Rond,  in  the  Auvergne  district,  which  has  yielded  remains  characteristic  of  the 
Reindeer  period.  Hitherto  no  stations  of  this  description  have  been  found  in 
this  part  of  France,  at  least  that  could  be  so  dated  from  their  relics.  The 
station  of  Rond  was  situated  under  an  overlianiriiur  cliff  of  the  volcanic  rock  so 
common  in  the  locality.  Part  of  the  accumulated  debris  had  been  previously 
removed,  but  sufficient  remained  to  give  an  area  of  undisturbed  strata  of  some 
12  yards  in  length  by  4  yards  in  breadth.  At  some  depth  in  a  talus  of  dis- 
integrated rock  and  other  materials  the  excavators  came  upon  a  black  bed  of 
ashes  and  organic  matters,  8  inches  thick,  in  which  they  discovered  several 
hearths,  some  bone  and  flint  implements,  and  osseous  remains  of  various 
animals,  including  cave-hyena,  reindeer,  horse,  stag,  etc.  Both  the  relics  and 
the  fauna  are  regarded  by  the  authors  as  characteristic  of  the  Reindeer  period. 

(2)  Dr.  Verneau  (Les  nouvelles  trouvailles  de  31.  Abbo  dans  la  Burma- 
Grande)  recurs  to  the  much  debated  age  of  the  prehistoric  men  of  Mentone, 
whose  skeletons  have,  from  time  to  time,  been  disinterred  in  the  Baousse- 
Rousse  caves,  near  that  town.  Since  1892,  when  three  skeletons  were  dis- 
covered in  the  Barma-Grande  cave,  two  more  have  come  to  light  in  the  same 
cave  (1894),  both,  however,  being  at  a  depth  of  5  feet  less  than  the  former. 
One  of  these  skeletons — 1'75  in.  (about  5  feet  8i  in.)  in  height  and  strongly 
dolichocephalic — had  associated  with  it  a  few  ornaments  of  perforated  teeth 
and  shells.  Thus  in  every  respect  it  closely  resembled  the  three  burials  dis- 
covered in  1892.  The  second,  though  only  a  few  feet  distant,  showed  evidence 
of  having  been  subjected  to  great  heat,  as  the  bones  were  much  carbonised. 
Dr.  Verneau  observes  that  the  heat  was  applied  to  the  body  in  situ,  and  that 
consequently  it  lay  either  on  the  surface  of  what  was  then  the  floor  of  the  cave 
or  in  a  very  superficial  trench.  In  the  deposits  beneath  these  skeletons  por- 
tions of  the  lower  jaw  of  a  reindeer  and  some  flint  implements  were  found, 
which  he  assigns  to  the  same  chronological  horizon  as  the  human  remains  of 
the  later  Palaeolithic  caves  of  France.  The  general  conclusion  arrived  at  is, 
that  the  two  groups  were  contemporary,  the  three  skeletons  having  been  interred 
in  deep  pits  in  Palaeolithic  debris,  while  the  two  upper  ones  were  deposited  at 
or  near  what  was  then  the  floor  of  the  cave.     On  the  whole  he  regards  these 


1899]  SERIALS  457 

Mentone  skeletons,  with  their  associated  relics,  as  approaching,  in  their  general 
fades,  more  to  Palaeolithic  than  to  Neolithic  civilisation. 

(3)  Salomon  Reinack  (JJn  nouveau  texte  sur  Vorigine  du  commerce  de 
retain)  combats  the  generally  accepted  opinion  that,  from  the  earliest  times,  the 
Phoenicians  had  a  monopoly  of  the  tin  trade  from  the  Cassiterides  to  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  until  they  were  dispossessed  of  it  by  the 
Romans.  He  sets  himself,  with  his  usual  facility  in  linguistic  researches,  to 
prove  the  following  propositions  :  (1)  that  the  Phoenician  trade  in  tin  has  not 
been  attested  prior  to  the  year  600  B.C.;  (2)  that  the  Phoenicians  had  not  a 
monopoly  of  this  commerce  at  any  time  ;  and  (3)  that  the  Greeks  themselves 
never  attributed  to  the  Phoenicians,  but  to  another  people,  the  first  commercial 
intercourse  with  the  Cassiterides.  His  opinion  is  that  the  maritime  commerce 
in  tin  was  discovered  by  the  barbarians  of  Western  Europe,  but  only  long  after 
they  became  acquainted  with  the  value  of  the  metal,  and  the  regions  where  it 
was  to  be  found,  through  its  transmission  to  the  East  by  land  routes.  This 
view  he  considers  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  archaeological  evidence,  which 
shows  the  diffusion  of  tin,  amber,  spiral  ornaments,  the  types  of  bronze  weapons 
and  other  objects,  throughout  the  whole  of  Central  and  North-Western  Europe 
during  the  Bronze  Age. 

We  have  to  congratulate  our  contemporary,  La  Feuille  des  Jeunes  NaUiralistes, 
and  the  editor,  Mr.  Adrien  Dollfus,  on  the  fact  that  the  November  number 
begins  the  thirtieth  year  of  the  journal's  existence.  To  Mr.  Jean  Dollfus 
thanks  are  due  for  his  liberal  assistance,  which  has  made  it  possible  to  continue 
the  modest  price,  and  to  form  the  valuable  library  which  is  at  the  disposal  of 
the  journal's  readers.     May  La  Feuille  be  evergreen,  is  our  sincere  wish  ! 

Science  for  October  20  has  an  interesting  article  by  Walter  T.  Swingle,  U.S. 
Department  of  Agriculture,  on  the  dioecism  of  the  fig  on  its  bearing  upon 
caprification,  a  paper  read  before  Section  G  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  at  the  Columbus  meeting. 

In  the  Irish  Naturalist  for  October,  Dr.  Scharff  describes  an  interesting 
variety  of  Limax  marginatus,  Mull.  (var.  nov.  niger).  Specimens  were  found 
during  a  preliminary  survey  of  the  MacGillicuddy's  Reeks,  at  an  altitude  of 
2500  to  3100  feet. 

The  October  number  of  the  Journal  of  Conchology  contains,  amongst 
other  articles,  a  very  useful  synopsis  of  the  American  species  of  Diplodontidae, 
by  Professor  Dall,  and  an  interesting  paper  by  Mr.  Edgar  A.  Smith,  in  which 
fourteen  new  species  of  South  African  marine  shells  are  described  and  figured. 

The  Rev.  A.  H.  Cooke  contributes  an  important  paper  to  the  Journal  of 
Malacology  on  the  "  Nomenclature  of  the  British  Nudibranchiata,"  to  which 
is  appended  a  revised  classification  of  the  group,  based  upon  Bergh.  In  the 
same  number  Mr  Henry  Suter  has  an  interesting  paper  on  some  New  Zealand 
molluscs  (Paryphanta,  Rhytida,  Eudodonta,  Scalaria,  etc.),  and  Mr.  J.  Cosmo 
Melvill  and  Mr.  Edgar  A.  Smith  contribute  illustrated  papers  describing  new 
species. 

The  Naturalist  for  November  contains,  inter  alia,  articles  on  Lincolnshire 
Phalangidea,  by  Rev.  E.  A.  Woodruffe-Peacock  ;  on  Lincolnshire  Diptera,  by  the 
Rev.  A.  Thornley ;  on  the  modern  tendency  of  mycological  study,  by  Mr. 
Massee ;  and  on  the  chemistry  of  the  Lakeland  trees,  by  Dr.  Keegan. 

The  Irish  Naturcdist  for  November  contains  a  long  review  of  Dr.  Scharff's 
"  History  of  the  European  Fauna,"  by  Mr.  G.  E.  H.  Barrett-Hamilton. 

In  the  Plant  World,  No.  11,  vol.  ii.  1899,  the  first  paper  is  by  R.  S. 
Williams — "Botanical  Notes  on  the  way  to  Dawson,  Alaska."      It  describes 


458  SOME  NEW  BOOKS  [deoember 

in  an  interesting  itinerary  the  plants  that  came  under  observation.  The  wealth 
of  mosses  and  lichens  is  noticed,  and  at  Dawson  city  the  prevalence  of  the 
Ericaceae  and  the  scarcity  of  Compositae — -features  common  to  sub-alpine  and 
sub-arctic  situations. 

A  paper  by  L.  H.  Pammel,  "Some  Ecological  Notes  on  the  Muscatine 
Flora,"  is  a  study  in' hydrophytes,  mesophytes,  and  xerophytes  found  in  certain 
zones.  A  continued  paper  by  Mrs.  C.  A.  Creevey,  "  Plant  Juices  and  their 
Commercial  Values,"  gives  a  popular  account  of  methods  of  extracting 
juices  from  plants  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  physiological  effects 
following  the  drinking  of  these  juices. 

In  Nature  Notes  for  November,  Mr.  A.  E.  Martin  discusses  editors  and 
annotators  of  Gilbert  White's  "  Selborne,"  Mr.  F.  Coleman  discourses  on  birds 
and  insects  as  meteorologists,  Messrs.  C.  B.  and  C.  T.  Plowright  describe 
Broadland  in  winter-time,  and  the  Rev.  George  Henslow  gives,  for  the  benefit  of 
young  botanists,  a  beautifully  clear  statement  of  the  evolutionist  view  of  the 
origin  of  species.  Naturally,  he  does  not  refrain  from  giving  his  own  inter- 
pretation of  the  factors  —  the  power  to  vary  is  called  into  action  by  new 
conditions,  and  the  organs  change  in  conformity  or  adaptation  to  these. 

The  Westminster  Review  for  November,  which  we  have  received,  is  full  of 
interesting  matter,  but  the  only  article  directly  touching  biological  questions  is 
a  continued  criticism  of  the  Contagious  Diseases  Acts. 

In  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  No.  44,  vol.  viii.  August  1899,  one 
paper  is  of  interest  to  the  biologist,  namely,  "  Studies  in  the  Cyperaceae," 
by  Theo.  Holm,  and  "  On  the  abnormal  development  of  some  specimens  of 
Car  ex  stipata,  Muhl.,  caused  by  Livia  vernal  is,  Fitch "  (with  seven  figures 
in  the  text  drawn  from  nature  by  the  author). 

The  diseased  condition  in  question  shows  itself  in  the  hypertrophied  leaves, 
which  become  white,  except  at  the  tips,  while  they  are  flat  from  base  to  apex, 
and  are  devoid  of  the  usual  sheath.  The  larvae  of  the  parasite  were  located  on 
the  upper  surface  of  the  leaves,  and  although  the  parasitism  was  purely 
superficial  from  its  beginning  to  end,  yet  it  resulted  in  the  almost  complete 
non-development  of  stomata,  chlorophyll,  lignin,  and  the  partial  non-absorption 
of  silica.  What  sort  of  insect  Livia  remalis  is  may  be  found  in  works  on 
entomology — at  least  one  would  expect  so, — for  no  light  is  thrown  upon  it  in 
the  article.  Can  any  one  suggest  what  advantage  the  author  finds  in  using  : 
mestome-bundle  for  fibro-vascular  bundle,  mestome-sheath  for  bundle-sheath, 
bark-parenchyma  for  cortex-parenchyma,  perihadromatic  bundle  for — what  1 
pericambium  for  pericycle,  protohadrome  for  protoxylem,  leptome  for  phloem  1 

There  is  no  need  of  bundle  after  mestome,  which  is  equivalent  to  the  whole 
term,  fibro-vascular  bundle.  In  roots  one  speaks  of  cortex-parenchyma,  not 
bark-parenckyma.  It  is  years  since  pericambium  was  given  up  for  the  better 
term,  pericycle,  because  the  form  was  apt  to  be  confused  with  cambium. 

We  have  just  received  from  Dr.  L.  Bordas,  Chef  des  Travaux  Zoologiques  in 
the  Faculty  of  Science  at  Nancy,  a  paper  from  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Annales 
du  Musee  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Marseille,  in  which  he  shows,  as  we  had 
previously  occasion  to  note  in  "  Fresh  Facts,"  that  the  respiratory  trees  of 
Holothuroids  have  four  functions — respiratory,  hydrostatic,  plastidogenetic,  and 
excretory. 

We  have  received  the  first  part  of  Volume  III.  of  the  Transactions  and  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Perthshire  Society  of  Natural  Science,  which  contains  the 
following  papers  : — "  List  of  the  Rhynchota  of  Perthshire,"  by  T.  M.  M'Gregor 
and  G.  W.  Kirkaldy ;  "The  Flora  of  Durdie  and  Arnbathie,"  by  James 
Menzies ;  "  The  Feathered  Tenants  of  our  Dwellings,"  by  Lieut.-Col.  W.  .H.  M. 
Duthie ;  "  On  the  Protection  of  Wild  Birds  in  Perthshire,"  by  Col.  Campbell ; 


1899]  SERIALS  459 

"A  Naturalist's  Notes  on  the  Recent  Voyage  of  the  '  Blencathra '  to  the  Arctic 
Regions,"  by  William  S.  Bruce;  "Notes  on  the  Larch  Disease,"  by  Alex  Pit- 
caithly.  The  society  is  now  in  its  thirty-third  year,  and  seems  to  be  in  a  very 
healthy  state.  It  is  fortunate  in  having  a  splendid  county  to  work  in,  a  fine 
local  museum,  an  indefatigable  curator,  and  an  enthusiastic  president. 

The  Societe  Neuchateloise  de  Geographie  has  been  good  enough  to  send  us 
its  Bulletin  (tome  xi.  1899,  pp.  320).  It  contains  many  instructive  papers,  e.g. 
on  the  "  Prealpes  Romandes,"  by  Dr.  H.  Schardt  ;  on  "  Persia,"  by  Elisee 
Reclus ;  on  "  Esquimo  Skulls,"  by  Dr.  Alex.  Schenk  ;  on  "Skulls  from  the 
Valley  of  the  Rhone,"  by  Prof.  E.  Pitard.  A  clever  geological  map  illustrates 
Dr.  Schardt's  paper. 

The  November  number  of  the  American  Journal  of  Science  has  the  following 
articles: — "Types  of  March  Weather  in  the  United  States,"  by  O.  L.  Fassig ; 
"Some  New  Minerals  from  the  Zinc  Mines  at  Franklin,  N.J.,  and  Note  Con- 
cerning the  Chemical  Composition  of  Ganomalite,"  by  S.  L.  Penfield  and  C.  H. 
Warren  ;  "Action  of  Acetylene  on  Oxides  of  Copper,"  by  F.  A.  Gooch  and  De 
F.  Baldwin;  "Andesites  of  the  Aroostook  Volcanic  Area  of  Maine,"  by  H.  E. 
Gregory  ;  "  New  Mode  of  Occurrence  of  Ruby  in  North  Carolina,"  by  J.  W.  Judd 
and  W.  E.  Hadden,  with  crystallographic  notes  by  -J.  H.  Pratt.  The  scientific 
intelligence  includes  an  obituary  of  the  late  Prof.  Edward  Orton. 

The  thirty-ninth  publication  of  the  Field  Columbian  Museum  (No.  5,  vol.  i. 
of  the  botanical  series)  contains  an  account  of  Iliginbotliamia,  a  new  genus  of 
Dioscoreaceae,  of  other  new  forms  in  the  same  order,  and  of  various  newr 
Amaranthaceae,  by  Dr.  Edwin  B.  Uline. 

The  Report  and  Transactions  of  the  South-Eastern  Union  of  Scientific 
Societies  for  1899  appears  with  admirable  promptness.  It  contains  the  reports 
of  various  departments,  the  presidential  address  by  Mr.  W.  Whitaker  on  the 
deep-seated  geology  of  the  Rochester  district,  and  numerous  papers  of  interest 
which  we  noted  at  the  time  of  the  annual  meeting. 

The  October  number  of  the  Journal  of  School  Geography  contains  inter  alia 
an  interesting  article  entitled  "Life  in  the  Grass  Lands,"  in  which  a  lively  en- 
deavour is  made  to  relate  human  functions  in  the  Steppes  with  the  environ- 
mental conditions.  The  article  is  extracted  from  "Man  and  his  Work:  an 
Introduction  to  Human  Geography,"  by  Dr.  A.  J.  Herbertson,  of  the  Oxford 
Geographical  School,  and  Mrs.  F.  D.  Herbertson,  BA.  The  book  should  have 
been  sent  for  review  to  Natural  Science. 

The  American  Naturalist  for  October  has  the  following  articles  : — "Notes 
on  European  Museums,"  by  O.  C.  Farrington ;  "  On  Some  Changes  in  the 
Names  of  Fossil  Fishes,"  by  O.  P.  Hay;  "The  Utility  of  Phosphorescence  in 
Deep-sea  Animals  "  (to  attract  food),  by  C.  C.  Nutting  ;  "  A  new  Hydroid  from 
Long  Island  Sound  (Sti/lactis  hooperi)"  by  C.  P.  Sigerfoos  ;  "  A  Balloon-making 
Fly,"  by  J.  M. '  Aldrich  and  L.  A.  Turley ;  "Species  of  Blissus  in  North 
America,"  by  F.  M.  Webster ;  and  "  Synopsis  of  North  American  Astacoid  and 
Thalassinoid  Crustacea,"  by  J.  S.  Kingsley. 

Among  the  articles  in  Knowledge  for  November  we  note  "Shells  as  Orna- 
ments, Implements,  and  Articles  of  Trade,"  by  R.  Lydekker  ;  "  Ups  and  Downs 
in  our  Daily  Weight,"  by  W.  W.  Wagstaff;  and  "Recent  Work  of  the  U.S. 
Biological  Survey,"  by  W.  M.  Webb. 

The  Victorian  Naturalist  for  October  contains  inter  alia  a  discussion  of  the 
question  "  Myxomycete  or  Mycetozoon?"  by  D.  M  Alpine,  and  descriptions  of 
some  Australian  birds'  eggs  by  D.  Le  Souef. 


460  SOME  NE IV  BOOKS  [December  1899 

Among  the  articles  in  the  Zoologist  for  November  there  is  an  interesting 
diary  by  Edmond  Selous  concerning  the  habits  of  nightjars,  and  an  account  by 
J.  L.  Monk  of  the  spawning  of  Bombinator  pachypus  after  two  years  of 
captivity  in  England. 

Science  Gossip  for  November  contains,  among  other  articles,  the  following  : — 
"  On  colouring  of  Birds'  Eggs,"  by  R.  J.  Hughes,  and  "  On  Armature  of  Helicoid 
Land-shells,"  by  G.  K.  Gude.  There  is  also  on  p.  191  a  suggestion  well  worthy 
of  consideration  in  regard  to  co-operative  science  collections. 

The  Journal  of  the  Institute  of  Jamaica  (vol.  ii.  No.  6,  issued  31st  August 
1899)  contains  much  interesting  matter,  a  large  number  of  short  historical 
articles,  e.g.  "  The  Story  of  the  Life  of  Columbus  and  the  Discovery  of  Jamaica," 
by  the  editor  Mr.  Frank  Cundall,  and  many  scientific  papers,  of  which  those  by 
Mr.  J.  E.  Duerden,  the  enthusiastic  and  indefatigable  curator  of  the  museum, 
may  be  especially  noted. 

Rhodora  for  November  has  among  its  articles  one  on  adventitious  plants  of 
Drosera,  by  R.  G.  Leavitt,  and  one  on  the  white  blackberry,  by  A.  M.  Mitchell. 

We  have  also  received  the  following  : — 

On  the  physiological  perception  of  musical  tone.  Being  the  seventh  Robert 
Boyle  Lecture  delivered  before  the  Oxford  University  Junior  Scientific  Club  on 
6th  June  1899.  By  Prof.  John  Gray  M'Kendrick,  M.D.  ;  LL.D.  ;  F.R.SS. 
L.  and  E.     Pp.  65.     London:  Henry  Frowde,  1899.     Price  one  shilling  net. 

A  continuation  of  Aclocpie's  "  Faune  de  France,"  dealing  with  birds  (pp.  87- 
336,  with  621  figures.  Paris  :  Bailliere,  1899,  price  5  francs),  which  sustains 
the  reputation  of  the  previous  volumes. 

Also  a  paper  by  Mr.  A.  C.  Seward,  previously  noticed  in  our  pages,  "  On 
the  Structure  and  Affinities  of  Matonia  jtectinata,  R.  Br.,  with  notes  on  the 
geological  history  of  the  Matonineae,"  Phil.  Trans.  Series  B,  vol.  cxci.  1899. 
Pp.  171-209,  4  pis.     Price  4s.  6d. 

The  first  Lancashire  Sea-Fisheries  memoir,  "  Oysters  and  Disease,  an  account 
of  certain  observations  upon  the  normal  and  pathological  histology  and  bacteri- 
ology of  the  oyster  and  other  shell-fish,"  by  Profs.  W.  A.  Herdman  and  R. 
Boyce.     4to,  pp.  60,  8  pis.     London  :  Philip  and  Son,  1899.     Price  7s.  6d.  net. 

"The  Concilium  Bibliographicum  in  Zurich  and  its  work,"  by  W.  E.  Hoyle, 
M.A.,  and  Clara  Nordlinger  of  the  Manchester  Museum  (which  is  proud  to  be 
the  possessor  of  the  only  complete  set  of  the  Zurich  cards  in  England).  The 
paper  is  reprinted  for  private  distribution  from  the  Library  Association  Record, 
November  1899;  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  may  do  something  to  promote 
increased  appreciation  of  Dr.  Field's  self-sacrificing  bibliographic  energy. 

"Notes  on  the  Binney  Collection  of  Coal-measure  Plants,"  by  A.  C.  Seward, 
M.A.  Part  I.  deals  with  Lepidophloios,  and  Part  II.  with  Megaloxylon  gen.  nov. 
Froc.  Cambridge  Philos.  Soc.  x.  1899,  pp.  137-174,  2  pis.  and  5  figs. 


OBITUARIES. 


The  following  deaths  have  been  recently  announced  : — Dr.  Oscar  Baumann, 
the  African  explorer,  at  Vienna,  on  October  12  ;  Edward  Case,  on  September 
22,  an  English  engineer  well  known  for  his  method  of  groyning  to  prevent 
encroachments  of  the  sea  on  the  coast ;  Corxelio  Desinioni,  on  June  29,  in 
Gavi,  Italy,  a  historian  of  geography,  in  his  86th  year;  on  September  19,  in 
Poturzyca  (Galicia),  in  his  72nd  year,  Graf  Wladimir  Dzieduszycki,  curator 
and  founder  of  his  Natural  History  Museum  in  Lemberg,  which  is  especially 
rich  in  birds ;  Prof.  H.  R.  Geiger,  sometime  assistant  on  the  U.S.  Geological 
Survey,  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  July  18;  on  July  2,  in  Regensburg,  Wilhelm  Geyer, 
a  well-known  enthusiast  on  aquaria  ;  on  July  1 6,  Nikolaus  W.  Grigorjew,  a 
young  phyto-palaeontologist,  in  Charkow ;  Dr.  Ragnar  Hult,  geographer  and 
botanist,  at  Helsingfors,  in  his  42nd  year  ;  Paul  Janet,  the  illustrious  professor 
of  philosophy  at  the  Sorbonne ;  on  July  2,  in  Para,  the  botanist,  Dr.  F.  Kuhla, 
about  to  start  on  a  botanical  expedition  to  the  tributaries  of  the  Upper  Amazon  ; 
on  June  30,  in  Stockholm,  in  his  78th  year,  Dr.  Matts  Adolf  Lindblad, 
for  twenty  years  docent  in  botany  in  the  University  of  Upsala,  known  as  a 
mycologist;  in  Budapest,  in  his  55th  year,  Gezavon  Mihalkovics,  the  famous 
anatomist,  professor  of  anatomy  and  embryology  in  the  University  of  Budapest ; 
on  October  16,  Dr.  Edward  Orton,  geologist,  professor  in  the  Ohio  State 
University,  president  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science ;  on  August  9,  Mr.  William  Pamplin,  in  his  93rd  year,  the  doyen  of 
English  botanists,  who  contributed  largely  to  the  "  London  Catalogue  of  British 
Plants  " ;  Lady  Prestwich,  who  recently  published  a  biography  of  her  husband, 
at  Parkstone,  on  August  26,  at  the  age  of  66  ;  on  August  2,  in  Buenos  Aires,  in 
his  72nd  year,  Georg  Ruscheweyh,  a  keen  lepidopterist ;  in  Scutari  (Albania) 
the  ornithologist  Georg  Freiherr  Schilling  von  Canstatt  ;  on  October  21, 
James  Simpson,  for  eighteen  years  curator  of  the  Anatomical  Museum,  University 
of  Edinburgh  ;  W.  A.  Snow,  late  instructor  in  entomology  in  Stanford  University, 
drowned  on  October  10,  in  San  Francisco  harbour ;  on  August  3,  in  Lucerne, 
Siegfried  Stauffer,  founder  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  there ;  in 
September,  Dr.  Carl  Gustaf  Thomson,  curator  of  the  entomological  depart- 
ment of  the  zoological  museum  in  Lund,  an  authority  on  Hymenoptera ;  at 
Lakefield  (Ontario),  Mrs.  C.  P.  Traill,  botanist,  in  her  97th  year;  on  September  9, 
in  Pols  (Steiermark),  the  ornithologist  Dr.  Stephan  Freiherr  von  Washington, 
in  his  41st  year ;  Dr.  Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S.,  the  distinguished  geologist,  on 
November  18,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two. 


31 NAT.    SC VOL.   XV.    NO.   94.  46  I 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


A  PORTUGUESE  PARALLEL  TO  NEOMYLODOX  LISTAL 

If  a  mouse  may  help  a  lion,  may  I  venture  to  draw  attention  to  the  rather 
striking  parallelism  which  exists  between  the  discovery  of  such  fresh  remains 
of  Neomylodon  in  the  dust  of  a  large  cavern  near  Lost  Hope  Inlet,  and  Dr. 
Gadow's  find  of  several  skeletons  of  the  Norway  Lemming  {Lemmus  lemmus) 
near  Athouguia  in  Portugal. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Gadow  I  was  permitted  to  announce  the  dis- 
covery at  the  meeting  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  March  3,  1896  (see  P.  Z.  S., 
March  6,  1896,  pp.  304-306).  The  circumstances  of  the  case  are  quite  close 
to  those  attending  the  discovery  of  Neomylodon.  In  both  cases  the  bones  were 
discovered  buried  under  the  dust  of  a  cave,  in  both  cases  they  were  surprisingly 
fresh  (the  Lemming  remains  were  quite  recent,  having  the  skin  and  the  liga- 
ments attached  to  them),  and  in  both  cases  the  remains  found  are  those  of  an 
animal  believed  to  have  been  long  since  extinct  in  the  country  where  they 
were  found. 

The  present  range  of  the  Norway  Lemming  does  not  extend  south  of  about 
58°  30'  north  latitude,  while  even  in  Pleistocene  times  it  had  been  previously 
unknown  from  any  localities  south  of  England,  yet  its  remains  as  found  in 
Portugal  had  the  appearance  of  having  belonged  to  quite  recently  dead  animals. 

It  would  seem  then  that  even  in  countries  where  the  climate  is  damp,  or 
certainly  not  dry,  it  is  possible  that,  given  the  aid  of  a  sheltering  cave,  and  of 
abundance  of  dry  dust,  the  remains  of  mammals,  both  small  and  large,  may  be 
preserved  in  quite  a  fresh  state  for  long  periods. 

G.  E.  H.  Barrett-Hamilton. 

KlLMANOCK,  AllTHURSTOWN, 

Ireland. 


BIOLOGICAL  ANALOGY  AND  SPEECH-DEVELOPMENT. 

As  language  (speech)  is  entirely  a  human  invention — just  as  chess  and 
piano-playing  are — the  science  of  language  is  not  entitled  to  be  classed  as 
a  natural  science ;  so  it  is  with  much  diffidence  that  I  write  to  you  on  the 
subject.  But  as  you  published  Mr.  Henry  Cecil  Wyld's  paper  on  "  Biological 
Analogy  and  Speech-development "  in  your  January  (1899)  Number,  may  I 
venture  to  point  out  to  Mr.  Wyld  that  in  his  criticism  of  the  fallacy  of 
Professor  Paul's  reasoning  he  might  possibly  mislead  as  many  readers  as 
Professor  Paul  has. 

Mr.  Wyld  says  (p.  48)  that  "  the  safest  way  to  think  of  language  is  as  a 
habit  of  body  expressing  a  habit  of  mind." 

The  question  naturally  arises,  "  Is  this  a  safe  way  to  think  of  any  human 
invention  1 " 

462 


December  1899]  CORRESPONDENCE  463 

One  might  just  as  well  say  that  the  safest  way  to  think  of  bicycle-riding  is 
as  a  habit  of  body  expressing  a  habit  of  mind,  though  the  cerebration  is 
unconscious — in  the  case  of  good  riders — just  as  it  is  with  accomplished 
speakers  in  language. 

But  wherein  comes  the  element  of  safety  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Wyld  1  I 
should  prefer  to  say  that  Mr.  Wyld's  way  of  thinking  of  language  is  a  very 
vague  one,  and  vagueness  of  thought  is  not  an  element  of  safety  in  scientific 
inquiry. 

It  seems  to  me  far  safer  for  writers  on  the  subject  never  to  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  language  (speech)  is  a  human  invention,  and  has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  biological  analogy  or  biological  phenomena. 

Then  we  shall  probably  hear  a  great  deal  less  of  the  "  life  "  and  "  growth  "  of 
language,  its  "  evolution,"  its  "  branches,"  its  "  offshoots  ";  that  it  is  an  "  organ- 
ism," that  it  has  "roots,"  and  that  there  are  "  mother-languages  "  and  "  sister- 
languages  " ;  and  all  the  rest  of  the  jargon  with  which  philologists  becloud 
their  subject. 

Philologists  will  retort  that  these  terms  are  merely  metaphorical :  but  these 
metaphors  mislead,  and  have  misled  many  who  read  books  on  philology  to  get 
a  knowledge  of  what  language  is.  J.  I.  Hazeland. 

Kobe  Club,  Kobe,  Japan, 
Sept.  6,  1899. 


NEW  MEXICO  BIOL.  STATION. 

Your  note  on  p.  157  about  the  N.  M.  Biol.  Station  is  incorrect. 
The  Biol.  Station  was  conducted  by  myself  and  Miss  Wilmatte  Porter,  and 
concerned  itself  not  at  all  with  geology  or  anthropology.  The  students  were 
mostly  public  school  teachers,  and  occupied  themselves  with  the  biology  of 
flowers,  particularly  the  structure  of  flowers  as  related  to  insect  visitors.  Some 
Avork  was  also  done  on  the  mouth-parts  of  bees,  and  a  few  other  things.  It 
seemed  to  me  Ave  had  as  much  success  as  Ave  deserved,  and  the  outlook  for  the 
future  is  encouraging.  It  is  regretted  that  there  is  no  millionaire  available  to 
endoAv  the  institution ;  but  the  country  is  full  of  neAV  and  interesting  things, 
and  is  itself  a  laboratory  better  endoAved  than  that  of  many  a  wealthy  college, 
so  that  the  naturalist  avIio  cannot  find  profitable  occupation  must  be  stupid 
indeed.  The  station  differs  from  most  others  in  concerning  itself  with  terrestrial 
life  (not  fresliAvater,  or  marine),  Avhich  is  especially  Avorth  the  attention  of  the 
student  in  this  region,  OAving  to  the  desert  conditions,  resulting  in  such  interest- 
ing adaptations. 

Your  notes  on  Dr.  Judd's  paper  (p.  89)  are  interesting.  Yesterday  I  saAv 
a  little  spider  Avhich  beautifully  mimicked  an  ant  of  the  genus  Formica.  Now 
you  might  say,  Avhat  for  1  The  ant  is  a  fairly  soft,  harmless  thing,  apparently 
as  good  meat  as  the  spider.  But  the  great  enemy  of  spiders  is  a  certain  Avasp, 
Avhich  stores  up  spiders  for  its  young.  Now  the  wasp  doesn't  ivant  ants,  doesn't 
use  that  kind  of  meat.  So  the  spider  taken  for  an  ant  will  escape,  though  the 
ant  is  harmless.  This  couldn't  be  seen  on  general  principles,  one  has  to  know 
about  the  customs  of  the  Avasp.  Theo.  D.  A.  Cockerell. 

Mesilla  Park,  New  Mexico,  U.S.A. 


NEWS. 


The  following  appointments  have  recently  been  made  : — Dr.  Hugo  Berger,  to 
be  professor  of  the  history  of  "  Erdkunde  "  in  Leipzig  ;  Dr.  Edgar  R.  Cummings, 
as  instructor  in  geology  in  the  University  of  Indiana,  Bloomington ;  Dr.  E.  A. 
Darling,  as  bacteriologist  to  the  Cambridge  Board  of  Health,  to  succeed  Dr.  G. 
B.  Henshaw  ;  Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport,  to  fill  the  post  in  the  University  of  Chicago 
left  vacant  by  the  removal  of  Professor  Wheeler  to  the  University  of  Texas ; 
W.  L.  H.  Duckworth,  M.A.,  as  lecturer  in  physical  anthropology  at  Cambridge 
University ;  O.  Franges,  to  be  professor  of  pisciculture  at  the  University  of 
Agram  ;  Dr.  Sigmund  Fuchs,  as  professor  of  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of 
domestic  animals  at  the  Agricultural  Station  at  Vienna  ;  Dr.  K.  W.  Genthe,  as 
an  instructor  in  zoology  in  the  University  of  Michigan ;  Dr.  L.  C.  Glen,  as 
professor  of  geology  in  South  Carolina  College ;  Dr.  Hans  Hausrath,  to  be 
professor  of  forestry  in  the  Technical  Institute  of  Karlsruhe ;  Dr.  Henneberg,  as 
docent  in  anatomy  at  Giessen  ;  Dr.  L.  Hiltner,  as  director  of  the  bacteriological 
laboratory  in  the  Imperial  Health  Office  in  Berlin ;  V.  Hlavinka,  as  professor  of 
geodesy  in  the  University  of  Agram ;  Dr.  S.  J.  Holmes,  as  an  instructor  in 
zoology  in  the  University  of  Michigan ;  Dr.  E.  Jacky,  as  assistant  on  the 
botanical  side  of  the  pomological  institute  in  Proskau ;  J.  J.  Jahn,  to  be  pro- 
fessor of  mineralogy  and  geology  in  the  Technical  Institute  in  Brunn  ;  Dr.  H. 
S.  Jennings,  as  an  instructor  in  zoology  in  the  University  of  Michigan  ;  Dr. 
Stefan  Jentys,  as  professor  of  agriculture  and  botany  in  the  University 
of  Agram ;  Dr.  Johannes  Christoph  Klinge,  to  be  a  head  botanist  and 
the  librarian  in  the  botanic  garden  of  St.  Petersburg ;  S.  J.  Korshinsky, 
to  be  director  of  the  herbarium  of  the  Academy  of  St.  Petersburg ; 
Dr.  Alfred  Krolopp,  as  assistant  professor  of  botany  in  the  University 
of  Agram ;  Dr.  Daniel  P.  MacMillan,  to  an  appointment  in  connection 
with  the  Child-Study  Department  recently  created  in  connection  with  the 
public  schools  of  Chicago — probably  the  first  appointment  of  this  sort,  and, 
we  sincerely  hope,  not  the  last ;  Dr.  W.  D.  Merill,  as  instructor  in  biology, 
with  special  reference  to  botany,  in  the  University  of  Rochester ;  Dr.  Merton 
L.  Miller,  associate  in  anthropology  in  the  University  of  Chicago ;  Dr.  B. 
Nemec,  as  docent  in  vegetable  anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  Tschech 
University  of  Prag ;  W.  A.  Orton,  as  lecturer  on  botany  in  the  St.  Louis 
Manual  Training  School  in  New  York ;  C.  W.  Prentiss,  as  an  assistant  in 
zoology  at  Harvard  University ;  Dr.  Eugen  Bonier,  as  docent  for  geography  in 
the  University  of  Lemberg ;  Dr.  J.  T.  Rothrock,  reappointed  state  com- 
missioner of  forestry  for  the  state  of  Pennsylvania ;  John  Louis  Sheldon,  as 
assistant  in  botany  in  the  University  of  Nebraska  in  Lincoln ;  Dr.  E.  0.  Sisson, 
as  director  of  the  histological  laboratory  in  the  recently  consolidated  medical 
schools  of  Keoduk,  Iowa ;  G.  Tanfiljew,  to  be  a  head  botanist  in  the  botanical 
institute  in  St.  Petersburg ;  Mr.  J.  L.  Tuckett,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  as  an  additional  demonstrator  of  physiology  ;  Dr.  Velich,  as  docent 
in  the  physiology  and  pathology  of  animals  in  the  Tschek  University  of  Prag ; 

464 


DECEMBER  1899]  NE1VS  465 

Nikolaus  Warpachowsky,  as  director  of  the  Government  Fisheries  in  Archangel ; 
Dr.  Karl  "Wenle,  as  docent  in  geography  and  ethnology  in  the  University  of 
Leipzig ;  W.  A.  Willard,  as  an  assistant  in  zoology  in  Harvard  University ;  S. 
R.  Williams,  as  an  assistant  in  zoology  in  Harvard  University. 

Dr.  K.  Eckhardt,  Professor  of  Physiology  at  Giessen,  has  recently  celebrated 
the  fiftieth  year  of  his  function  as  a  university  teacher. 

Professor  Henry  G.  Jessup,  who  has  held  the  chair  of  Botany  in  Dartmouth 
College  for  twenty-two  years,  has  resigned. 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Society  has  adjudicated  a  Royal  medal  to  Professor 
William  Carmichael  M'Intosh  for  his  important  monographs  on  marine  animals, 
his  work  on  the  fisheries  industries,  and  his  success  in  establishing  the  Gatty 
Marine  Laboratory  at  St.  Andrews. 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Society  has  adjudicated  the  Davy  medal  to  Mr. 
Edward  Schunck,  F.R.S.,  for  his  investigations  on  madder,  indigo,  and  chloro- 
phyll. 

The  gold  medal  of  the  Highland  and  Agricultural  Society  of  Scotland  has 
been  awarded  to  Professor  Cossart  Ewart  in  recognition  of  his  experiments  on 
hybridisation,  telegony,  and  the  like. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Lister,  University  Demonstrator  of  Comparative  Anatomy,  and  Mr. 
A.  C.  Seward,  University  Lecturer  in  Botany,  have  been  elected  to  fellowships  in 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  in  recognition  of  their  important  scientific  work. 

Dr.  G.  Elliott-Smith,  one  of  the  assistant  demonstrators  of  Anatomy  at 
Cambridge,  well  known  for  his  researches  on  the  comparative  anatomy  of  the 
mammalian  brain,  has  been  elected  a  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College. 

Professor  G.  Sims  Woodhead  has  been  elected  to  a  Fellowship  at  Trinity 
Hall,  Cambridge. 

The  degree  of  M.A.  honoi'is  causa  has  been  conferred  by  the  University  of 
Cambridge  on  Dr.  W.  Somerville,  recently  elected  Professor  of  Agriculture  there. 

Grants  from  the  Moray  fund  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  have  been  made 
to  Professor  E.  A.  Schafer  for  the  expenses  of  research  on  the  cerebral  nervous 
system,  and  to  Dr.  John  Malcolm  for  experiments  on  the  alterations  in  bone 
marrow  produced  by  nucleins  and  their  allies. 

At  the  unveiling  of  the  monument  to  Johannes  Miiller,  at  his  birthplace, 
Coblentz,  on  October  2nd,  Professors  Virchow  and  Waldeyer  were  the  chief 
speakers.  The  former  pointed  out  that  Johannes  Miiller  was  par  excellence  a 
biologist ;  the  latter  referred  especially  to  Midler's  influence  on  the  University  of 
Berlin,  and  on  the  Prussian  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  following  gifts  and  bequests  are  announced  : — D.  F.  Converse,  a  mill- 
owner  of  Spartanburg,  S.C,  left  one-third  of  his  estate,  valued  at  half  a  million 
dollars,  to  Converse  College,  an  institute  which  he  founded  ten  years  ago  in 
Spartanburg  for  the  higher  education  of  women  ;  by  the  will  of  the  late  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  Yale  University  receives  $100,000,  and  Vanderbilt  University  half 
that  sum  ;  £20,000  given  by  Mr.  Charles  Holcroft  for  the  new  Birmingham 
University,  bringing  the  total  endowment  up  to  £315,400  ;  £10,000  was  recently 
subscribed  towards  enlarging  the  Durham  University  College  of  Science,  for 
which  £50,000  is  needed. 

Vassar  College  has  been  promised  825,000  towards  a  biological  laboratory 
on  condition  that  an  equal  amount  be  raised  otherwise. 

Mr.  E.  E.  M'Millin  has  given  the  Ohio  Academy  $250  for  scientific  investi- 
gations, with  a  provisional  promise  that  the  gift  may  be  annual. 

Mr.  E.  Tuck  has  given  $300,000  to  Dartmouth  College,  U.S.A. ;  the  late 
Mrs.  M.  J.  Goddard  left  $60,000  to  Tufts  College. 


466  NEWS  [DECEMBER 

The  list  continues: — $140,000  left  by  Dr.  Calvin  Ellis,  formerly  Dean  of 
the  Harvard  Medical  School,  to  the  University ;  $90,000  bequeathed  by  Miss 
Lucy  Ellis,  to  be  added  to  the  fund  left  by  her  brother,  Dr.  Ellis ;  $50,000 
given  by  an  anonymous  donor  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  for  the 
dormitory  system ;  $25,000  bequeathed  to  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown, 
Conn.,  by  J.  H.  Sessions  ;  $10,000  given  to  the  Iowa  Wesleyan  University 
by  ex-Senator  James  Harlan. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  a  large  collection  of  water-colour  paintings  of 
Japanese  fishes  by  a  Japanese  artist  has  been  presented  to  the  University  of 
Michigan  by  Frederick  Stears,  of  Detroit,  and  is  at  present  on  exhibition  in  the 
University  Museum. 

Prof.  Starr  of  Chicago  has  presented  his  collection  illustrating  the  ethno- 
graphy of  Mexico  to  the  Folk  Lore  Society,  who  have  offered  to  deposit  it  in 
the  Museum  of  Archaeology  and  Ethnology  at  Cambridge. 

£1000  has  been  bequeathed  by  the  late  Mr.  C.  P.  Daly  to  the  American 
Geographical  Society  for  the  foundation  of  a  medal  to  be  awarded  for  distin- 
guished services  in  geography. 

The  American  Naturalist  notes  that  the  sons  of  the  late  Prof.  J.  Marcou 
have  presented  his  geological  library  to  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  in  New  York. 

Over  fifty  students,  says  the  American  Naturalist,  attended  the  Coldspring 
Harbour  biological  laboratory  during  the  summer  of  this  year. 

It  is  noted  in  Science  that  the  expenses  of  the  University  of  Chicago  for 
printing  and  publishing  during  the  academic  year  ending  June  30,  1899,  were 
over  $44,000,  while  the  receipts  were  only  $17,000.  It  is  probable  that  no 
other  University  supports  its  publications  with  such  liberality. 

It  is  stated  in  the  Scientific  American  that  the  number  of  women  in  attend- 
ance at  the  German  Universities  during  the  summer  semester  of  1899  was  355. 
There  were  179  at  Beilin,  45  at  Bonn,  27  at  Breslau,  29  at  Gottingen,  13  at 
Heidelberg,  and  19  at  Halle.  The  University  at  Strasburg  has  just  decided  to 
admit  women  to  its  courses.  Hitherto  it  has  closed  its  doors  to  women,  but 
now  there  is  no  German  university  where  they  may  not  pursue  their  studies. 

There  are  fifteen  Universities  in  France,  with  27,080  students,  of  Avhom 
12,059  belong  to  Paris.  The  total  expenditure  is  13,859,500  francs,  of  which 
10,524,200  has  each  year  to  be  found  by  the  State. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  last  year  the  regents  of  the  University  of 
California  sent  out  invitations  to  the  architects  of  Europe  and  the  United  States 
to  participate  in  a  competition  whose  object  was  to  secure  the  best  possible  plans 
for  new  buildings  for  the  university.  A  careful  programme  was  outlined,  and 
in  deference  to  European  architects,  Antwerp  was  selected  as  the  city  where  the 
first  competition  should  be  held,  and  101  plans  were  received  from  architects 
in  every  country  in  Europe  and  from  the  United  States  as  well.  A  represent- 
ative international  jury  passed  on  the  plans. 

On  September  8  they  announced  that  the  plan  of  M.  E.  Benard,  of  Paris, 
was  successful  and  would  receive  the  $10,000  prize.  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.  Hearst 
gave  $100,000  for  defraying  the  necessary  expense  of  the  competition  ;  she  has 
also  promised  to  bear  the  cost  of  some  of  the  buildings.  The  whole  scheme 
calls  for  $20,000,000. 

It  is  good  news  that  the  Liverpool  Marine  Biology  Committee  has  published 
the  first  of  a  series  of  Memoirs  on  typical  British  marine  plants  and  animals, 
edited  by  W.  A.  Herdman,  D.Sc,  F.B.S.  No.  1  is  on  Ascidia,  by  Professor 
W.  A.  Herdman,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.     It  has  60  pp.  and  5  plates,  and  costs  Is.  6d. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  series  of  special  studies,  written  by  those  who  are 


1899]  NEWS  467 

thoroughly  familiar  with  the  forms  of  which  they  treat,  will  be  found  of  value 
by  students  of  Biology  in  our  laboratories  and  in  marine  stations,  and  will  be 
welcomed  by  many  others  working  privately  at  marine  natural  history. 

It  is  proposed  that  the  forms  selected  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  common 
Irish  Sea  animals  and  plants,  of  which  no  adequate  account  already  exists  in 
any  text-book. 

The  first  three  Memoirs  will  be  issued  before  the  end  of  1899,  and  others 
will  follow,  it  is  hoped,  in  rapid  succession  : — Memoir  I.  Ascidia,  W.  A.  Herd- 
man  ;  Memoir  II.  Cockle,  J.  Johnstone ;  Memoir  III.  Echinus,  H.  C.  Chadwick ; 
Dendronotus,  J.  A.  Clubb ;  Zostera,  R.  J.  Harvey  Gibson ;  Halidrys,  C.  E. 
Jones  j  Godium,  R.  J.  H.  Gibson  and  Helen  Auld ;  Diatoms,  F.  E.  Weiss ; 
Gigartina,  O.  V.  Darbishire ;  Alcyonium,  S.  J.  Hickson  ;  Plaice,  F.  J.  Cole 
and  J.  Johnstone ;  Botrylloides,  W.  A.  Herdman ;  Cuttle-fish,  W.  E.  Hoyle  ; 
Ostracod,  Andrew  Scott ;  Patella,  J.  R.  Ainsworth  Davis ;  Calamis,  I.  C. 
Thompson  ;  Actinia,  J.  A.  Clubb ;  Polyzoon,  Laura  R.  Thornely ;  Calcareous 
Sponge,  R.  Hanitsch ;  Porpoise,  A.  M.  Paterson ;  Arenicola,  J.  H.  Ashworth  ; 
Oyster,  W.  A.  Herdman. 

The  editor  acknowledges  a  welcome  donation  of  £100  from  Mr.  F.  H. 
Gossage  of  Woolton,  wdiich  has  met  the  expense  of  preparing  the  plates  in 
illustration  of  the  first  few  memoirs,  and  so  has  enabled  the  Committee  to 
commence  the  publication  of  the  series  sooner  than  would  otherwise  have  been 
possible. 

The  Committee  desire  to  intimate  that  no  copies  of  these  memoirs  will  be 
presented  or  exchanged,  as  the  prices  have  been  fixed  so  low  that  most  of  the 
copies  will  have  to  be  sold  to  meet  the  cost  of  production. 

The  memoirs  may  be  obtained,  post  free  at  the  net  prices  stated,  from  the 
Hon.  Treasurer,  Mr.  I.  C.  Thompson,  53  Croxteth  Road,  Liverpool ;  Professor 
Herdman,  University  College,  Liverpool ;  or  the  Curator,  Biological  Station, 
Port  Erin,  Isle  of  Man. 

The  Millport  Marine  Biological  Station  issues  an  appeal  for  a  sum  of  £300, 
required  for  the  pumping  and  circulating  apparatus.  The  fund  for  this  is  to  be 
kept  independent  of  the  general  maintenance  accounts.  The  Millport  Marine 
Station  has  the  distinction  of  being  a  scientific  institution  founded  and  main- 
tained by  private  liberality  on  the  part  of  persons  interested  in  the  advance- 
ment of  science,  and  it  will  be  a  matter  for  congratulation  if,  before  the 
Glasgow  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  1901,  its  equipment  is  complete 
in  the  important  department  to  which  this  appeal  has  special  reference. 

We  read  in  Science  that  teachers  in  Philadelphia  public  schools  are  now 
allowed  to  take  their  classes  for  a  half-day  once  or  twice  a  year  to  the  Zoological 
Gardens  and  Fairmount  Park,  the  visit  counting  as  part  of  the  regular  class 
duties. 

Science  reports  some  of  the  general  results  of  the  third  Princeton  expedition 
to  Patagonia,  conducted  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Hatcher  and  his  assistant  Mr.  O.  A. 
Paterson. 

(1)  A  good  preliminary  geological  survey  of  that  part  of  southern  South 
America  lying  between  the  Andes  on  the  west  and  the  Atlantic  on  the  east, 
and  between  the  Straits  of  Magellan  and  the  forty-seventh  parallel  of  south 
latitude,  sufficient  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  a  geological  map  of  the  region. 

(2)  Very  extensive  and  complete  collections  of  fossils  from  all  the  horizons 
known  to  that  region,  with  the  exception  of  the  Pyrotherium  beds. 

(3)  The  discovery  of  four  distinct  and  previously  unreported  geological 
horizons. 

(4)  A  collection  of  more  than  a  thousand  skins  and  skeletons  of  recent  birds 
and  mammals. 

(5)  Extensive  collections  of  the  freshwater,  terrestrial,  and  littoral  inverte- 
brates. 


468  NE  WS  [DECEMBER. 

(6)  Botanical  collections,  especially  of  the  mosses,  hepaticae,  and  flowering 
plants,  not  including  the  grasses  and  sedges. 

(7)  A  large  series  of  photographs  illustrating  the  geology  and  physical 
geography  of  Patagonia. 

The  geology  will  be  treated  of  by  Mr.  Hatcher,  the  Tertiary  invertebrates  by 
Dr.  Ortmann,  the  fossil  vertebrates  by  Messrs.  W.  B.  Scott  and  Hatcher,  and 
the  recent  birds  by  Mr.  W.  E.  D.  Scott. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Biological  Section  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences  on  October  9,  Professor  H.  F.  Osborn  gave  an  account  of  the  explora- 
tion of  the  American  Museum  party  in  Southern  Wyoming,  which  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  Dinosaur  remains ;  Professor  E.  B.  Wilson  reported  the  dis- 
covery of  females  of  Polypterus  in  Egypt,  but  with  unripe  ovaries,  and  the 
rediscovery  of  the  branchiate  Oligochaete  Alma;  and  Professor  Dean  reported 
finding  on  the  Californian  coast  freshly  hatched  young  of  Bdellostoma,  and 
many  stages  of  Chimaera  collieri. 

Professor  Franz  von  Hohnel  of  Vienna  has  undertaken  a  botanical  explora- 
tion in  Brazil. 

In  Nature  for  November  9  Mr.  John  C.  Willis  gives  an  account  of  the 
facilities  now  available  in  Ceylon  for  botanical  research. 

We  learn  from  the  Scientific  American  that  the  Duke  of  Abruzzi  has  found 
an  important  mistake  in  the  last  map  of  Franz  Josef  Land.  He  says  that  Cape 
Flora  is  really  ten  geographical  miles  east  of  the  post  assigned  on  Jackson's 
map.  The  map  of  Payer  was  riddled  by  Jackson,  who  complained  of  its 
inaccuracies,  but  he  has  himself  assigned  the  wrong  position  to  his  own  camp. 

On  the  Skeat  expedition  Mr.  Evans  found  several  species  of  Peripatus  in 
Kalantan.  As  the  distribution  of  this  animal  is  of  peculiar  interest  we  may  note 
also  that  in  1886  Mr.  R.  Hoi'st  recorded  its  occurrence  from  East  Sumatra  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Malaka  Strait.     See  Nature,  November  9,  1899,  p.  31. 

Science  reports  that  Mr.  R.  E.  Snodgrass,  assistant  in  entomology  in 
Stanford  University,  and  Mr.  A.  H.  Heller,  have  returned  from  a  successful  ten 
months'  collecting  trip  to  the  Galapagos  Islands.  The  collections  of  birds, 
fishes,  insects,  and  spiders,  are  said  to  be  large. 

In  the  judgment  of  Major  Ronald  Ross,  who  has  now  returned  from  Africa, 
the  future  of  the  west  coast  will  be  assured  as  soon  as  the  colonial  authorities 
take  steps  similar  to  those  now  in  operation  in  Sierra  Leone,  to  destroy  the 
virulent  mosquito. 

Geheimrath  Prof,  von  Zittel  of  Miinchen  is  arranging  to  send  a  scientific 
expedition  to  Patagonia. 

We  learn  from  Science  that  Mr.  O.  F.  Cook  of  the  Division  of  Botany, 
U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  has  been  sent  to  examine  the  plant  products 
of  Puerto  Rico  in  reference  to  the  possibility  of  introducing  new  and  useful 
tropical  plants  into  the  island.  He  is  accompanied  by  Mr.  G.  N.  Collins  as 
photographer,  and  Mr.  G.  P.  Gall  sent  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution  to  collect 
material  for  the  National  Herbarium. 

Nature  reports  that  another  British  exploring  expedition  to  Abyssinia  has 
been  arranged,  and  will  leave  England  at  once  for  nine  months.  The  objects 
are  science  and  sport. 

The  annual  conversazione  of  the  Geologists'  Association,  London,  was  held 
on  November  3,  and  was  fairly  well  attended  in  spite  of  the  inclement 
weather.  Among  the  more  striking  exhibits  were  a  fine  series  of  concretionary 
structures  brought  together  by  Dr.  G.  Abbott ;  the  skin  and  skull  of  Neomylodon 
listed  lent  by  the  La  Plata  Museum,  and  shown  by  A.  Smith  Woodward ;  a 
series  of  pebbles  from  Derbyshire  compared  with  a  corresponding  series  from 


1899]  NEWS  469 

the  London  basin,  and  taken  by  Mr.  A.  E.  Salter  as  evidence  for  a  former  river- 
connection  between  the  two  areas.  From  Derbyshire  also,  as  a  result  of  the 
long  excursion,  came  a  collection  of  Carboniferous  limestone  fossils  made  by 
Miss  M.  C.  Foley,  as  well  as  various  photographs.  The  Carboniferous  limestone 
of  the  Isle  of  Man  had  yielded  to  Miss  C.  Birley  a  good  set  of  Cephalopods. 
W.  H.  Chadwick  and  P.  Emary  showed  Graptolites  from  the  Wenlock  shales 
and  Llandeilo  beds  of  Builth  and  St.  David's.  English  and  Indian  Trigonias 
were  shown  by  Prof.  J.  F.  Blake,  and  other  fossil  collections  by  H.  W.  Burrows, 
W.  F.  Gwinnell,  and  F.  R,  B.  Williams.  The  last  mentioned  also  exhibited 
William  Smith's  Geological  Sections  from  London  to  Snowdon.  In  contrast  the 
latest  maps  of  the  Geological  Survey  were  shown  by  Sir  Archibald  Geikie. 
A.  S.  Foord  exhibited  photographs  of  the  striking  frescoes  in  the  Historical 
Museum  at  Moscow,  showing  scenes  of  Russian  life  in  the  Stone  Age  and  in 
the  tenth  century.  Wind-worn  pebbles  from  England,  Esthland,  New  Zealand, 
Bohemia,  and  Egypt  were  shown  by  F.  A.  Bather  and  Rev.  Prof.  T.  G. 
Bonney,  the  latter  also  sending  schistose  Jurassic  rocks  from  Nufenen  and 
Scopi  in  the  Alps,  and  Pre-triassic  Alpine  Schists  from  the  Yal  Piora.  These 
and  many  other  exhibitors  showed  that  the  activity  of  the  Association  was  in 
no  way  diminishing. 

Mr.  P.  L.  Sclater,  on  his  recent  visit  to  South  Africa,  gave  an  address  to 
the  South  African  Philosophical  Society,  in  which  he  pointed  out  the 
desirability  of  establishing  a  Zoological  Garden  in  Cape  Town.  It  was 
doubtless  towards  this  end  that  Mr.  Rhodes  sent  his  lion. 

The  lectures  to  be  delivered  before  the  Hull  Scientific  and  Field  Naturalists' 
Club  during  the  rest  of  the  Avinter  session,  1899-1900,  include  the  following  : — 
"Natural  History  Xotes  in  North  Wales,"  by  the  President,  R.  H.  Philip; 
"Symbiosis — A  study  in  Plant  Partnerships,"  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Robinson  ;  "  Cyclone 
and  Cloud— A  study  of  English  Weather,"  by  Mr.  C.  H.  Gore,  M.A.  ;  ''Solar 
Eclipses,  with  special  reference  to  that  of  May  28,  1900,"  by  Rev.  H.  P. 
Slade;  "Wild  Fowling  and  Decoying"  by  Mr.  T.  Audas,  L.D.S. ;  "Econo- 
mical Illumination,"  by  Dr.  J.  T.  Riley,  A.R.C.Sc.I.  ;  "What  is  a  Species?" 
by  Dr.  H.  H.  Corbett,  M.R.C.S.  (of  Doncaster).  In  January  the  club  will  hold 
an  exhibition  and  conversazione. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  "it  is  not  often  that  specimens  in 
museums  are  destroyed  by  reason  of  being  eaten,  but  it  seems  that  in  one  of 
the  Southern  States  a  negro  clay-eater  who  was  employed  as  a  scrubwoman 
devoured  some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  kaolin  on  exhibition  at  the  State 
Geological  Museum.  The  State  apologist  found  that  five  blocks  of  clav  which 
were  very  highly  valued  on  account  of  their  purity  were  missing,  and  upon 
examining  some  of  the  other  specimens  he  found  on  them  the  impression  of 
teeth.  Detectives  were  set  to  work  on  the  case,  and  the  negress  employed  to 
scrub  the  marble  floors  was  accused  of  taking  the  specimens.  The  woman 
appears  to  have  a  mania  for  eating  clay,  and  she  had  been  indulging  her  strange 
appetite  for  some  time." 

Knowledge  notes  that  a  collection  illustrating  changes  due  to  domestication 
has  been  begun  at  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History).  A  number  of  inter- 
esting stuffed  specimens  and  skeletons  have  been  placed  on  exhibition  in  the 
gallery  of  British  Zoology. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  the  city  of  New  York  has  made  an 
appropriation  of  $10,000  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  great  relief  map  of  the 
whole  city.  The  map  will  be  about  50  feet  square,  and  will  show  all  the  im- 
portant buildings.  Buffalo  will  also  be  represented  in  probably  the  same 
manner,  with  a  relief  map  which  will  show  Niagara  Falls  and  its  power  plants. 

We  learn  from  the  Scientific  American  that  the  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture 
desires  an  ornithological  clerk  who  must  have  an  excellent  knowledge  of  orni- 


47°  NEWS  [DECEMBER  1899 

thology  and  mammalogy,  and  his  examination  will  include  a  practical  test  in  the 
identification  of  specimens  of  birds  and  mammals.  In  fact,  these  two  subjects 
count  70  per  cent  in  the  examination  to  be  held.  The  person  who  succeeds  in 
passing  will  be  placed  on  the  eligible  list,  and  if  selected  will  receive  the 
munificent  salary  of  $660  per  annum. 

The  American  Naturalist  notes  that  an  Entomological  Society  has  been 
founded,  with  Dr.  E.  F.  Felt,  State  Entomologist,  as  president. 

The  Scientific  American  notes  that  the  executors  of  the  late  Prof.  O.  C. 
Marsh  have  sold  his  valuable  collection  of  orchids,  but  the  prices  were  extremely 
low.  It  seems  a  pity  that  a  collection  of  this  size  and  importance  was  not  pro- 
cured intact  for  some  botanical  garden. 

Prof.  A.  L.  Herrera  has  been  kind  enough  to  send  us  a  small  sample  of 
calcareous  soap  mixed  with  albumen  and  peptone,  which  when  warmed  on  the 
slide  with  water  will  move  and  fill  with  vacuoles,  without,  however,  giving  off 
any  pseudopodia. 

We  learn  from  the  Scientific  American  that  for  several  years  attempts  have 
been  made  at  Omaha  and  Los  Angeles  to  hatch  the  eggs  of  the  ostrich  arti- 
ficially, but  so  far  we  believe  their  attempts  have  been  unsuccessful,  the  diffi- 
culty being  the  application  of  moisture.  Now,  however,  an  ostrich  farm  in 
Florida  can  boast  of  the  first  incubator-hatched  ostrich  in  the  United  States. 
The  incubation  required  forty-one  days  of  careful  watching,  the  thermometer 
was  kept  at  110°  and  the  moisture  was  applied  at  intervals. 

On  November  21  the  Edinburgh  Town  Council  gave  a  favourable  reception 
to  an  influential  deputation  who  appeared  in  order  to  urge  the  Corporation  to 
give  their  influence  towards  the  promotion  of  the  movement  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  zoological  garden  in  Edinburgh. 

The  Mortimer  Museum  of  Antiquities  at  Driffield,  Yorkshire,  contains  a  very 
good  local  collection.  Its  owner  has  offered  it  to  the  East  Riding  County 
Council  for  half  its  value,  the  value  to  be  decided  by  two  referees,  one  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Council  and  the  other  by  Mr.  Mortimer.  We  understand  that 
the  Council  has,  on  legal  grounds,  some  hesitation  in  accepting  this  generous 
offer  ;  but  we  hope  that  it  will  be  bold  enough  to  follow  the  example  of  other 
County  Councils,  as  otherwise,  on  Mr.  Mortimer's  death,  the  collections  will  be 
sold  and  scattered. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  A. ,  and  Arthur  Key, ' '  Progres- 
sive Lessons  in  Science  "  (Review),  365 
Abbreviations  Criticised,    ...  85 
Aclogue,  A.,  "  Faune  de  France-Mam- 

miferes "  (Review),           .         .         .  297 
African  Fauna,            .         .         .         .142 

Agricultural  Progress,        .         .         .  359 

Algae  new  to  Britain,          .          .          .  162 

Alien,  E.  J.,  on  the  Sea-floor,     .         .  164 

Allman  on  Symmetry,         ...  99 
Alpine  Characters  in  Plants,  Artificial 

Production  of,     ...  60 

,,      Climbing,        .    '     .         .         .  29S 

,,      Guide,  .         .         .         .146 

,,       Plants,  .  .  .  .109 

Alps,  The  Flora  of  the,  by  Alfred  W. 

Bennett, 109 

American  Mammals,  Notes  on,            .  311 
,,           Plant  Notes,       .         .         .  313 
,,           Species  of  Peripatus,           .  84 
Amphibians,  Thyroid  and  Thymus  of,  287 
Anal  Glands  of  Beetles,      .         .         .  141 
,,          ,,       Dytiscidae,         .         .  60 
Anderson,    R.    J.,    Some    Considera- 
tions concerning  Symmetry,             .  97 
Animal  Mind,  The,              ...  1 
Annelid  from  the  Devonian,       .         .  168 
Antarctic  in  the  Arctic,      .         .         .  319 
Anthropology,             .         .         .      219,  456 
Appendicularia,          ....  213 
Applied  Geology,        ....  64 
Aquatic  Plants,           ....  245 

Arctic  Birds, 366 

,,       Europe,  Devonian  Rocks  of,     .  141 

,,       Exploration,              .         .         .  318 

Ascaphus,           .....  89 

Asexual  Nuclear  Fusions,  .         .         .  239 

Assimilation  in  Plants,       .         .         .  251 

Asterionella, 386 

Amelia  aurita,            ....  356 
Australian   Flora,   Suggestions   upon 
the   Origin  of  the,  by 

Spencer  Moore,    .      198,  274 
,,           Museum,  The  Difficulties 

of  the,         .         .         .317 

Autogamy  in  Primulaceae,          .         .  441 

Badenoch,  L.  P.,  "True  Tales  of  the 

Insects "  (Revieiv),           ...  68 

Balance  of  Nature,     ....  309 
Ball,    John,    "Hints   and   Notes    for 

Travellers  in  the  Alps  "  (Review),   .  146 


Bard,  L. ,    "Specificite  cellulaire,   ses 
consef]uences  en  biologie  gthierale  " 

(Review), 291 

Barrett-Hamilton,    G.    E.    H.,   Notes 
on  the  Habits  of  the  Northern  Fur 

Seal, 17 

Bather,  F.  A.,  Fauna  of  the  Sound,   .     263 
,,  ,,        A     Zoologist    on    the 

Principles  of  Science,     423 
Baumhauer,  H., "  Classes  of  Crystals  " 

(Revieiv), 444 

Bedford,  F.  P.,  Stray  Impressions  of 
the  Marine  Invertebrates  of  Singa- 
pore and  neighbouring  Islets  .     130 
Beer,    Rudolf,    on    the  Multinuclear 

Cells  of  some  Grasses,     .         .         .     435 
Beeren  Eiland,  ....     316 

Beetles  in  Self-Defence,      .         .         .     141 
Bennett,  Alfred  W.,  The  Flora  of  the 
Alps,       ....  .109 

Berthelot's  Experiments,   .         .         .     384 
Binet,   Alfred,    "The   Psychology  of 
Reasoning,  based  on  Experimental  . 
Researches     in    Hypnotism"    (Re- 
view),    ......     225 

Bipolarity  and  Bryozoa,     ...         6 

,,  more  about,       ...         7 

"  Bird  Life  in  an  Arctic  Spring."  The 

Diaries  of  Dan  Meinertzaghen  and 

R.  P.  Hornby  (Review),  .         .     366 

Birds,  Cries  and  Call-Notes,       .         .     148 

Smell  in,  .  .  .  .140 

Bivalves,  Cephalic  Eyes  of,        .         .       61 
Blatchford,  T.,  "  Geology  of  the  Cool- 

gardie  Goldiield"  (Review),     .         .     229 
Blue  Coral,  Colouring  Matter  of,         .         S 
Bolton,  ' '  Report  of  Proceedings,  at  the 
Tenth  Annual  Meeting  of  Museums' 
Association  "  (Revieiv),   ...       65 
Bonney,  J.  G.,  The  Original  Rock  of 

the  South  African  Diamond,  .  173 
Bordage  on  Regeneration,  .  .  .  320 
Botanical  Biography,  .  .  .11 
Brain,  Comparative  Anatomy,  .  .  143 
Branchial  Respiration  in  Millipedes,  355 
Breise,  B.  B.,  "On  Inhibition"  (Re- 
vieiv),       360 

Brightwen,  E.,  "  Rambles  with  Nature 

Students "  (Revieiv),        .         .         .     145 

British  Botany,  ....     162 

,,       Mammals,       ....     388 

,,       Museum,  Trustees  of  the,        .         3 


471 


472 


INDEX 


"Britten   and   Boulger   Biographical 
Index  of  British  and  Irish  Botanists  " 
(Review),         .         .         .         .         .11 
Brown,  H.  T. ,  on  Elaboration  in  Plants,     251 
Bryozoa  and  Bipolarity,      ...         6 
Burdon  -  Sanderson  on  Movement  of 

Plants  and  Animals,        .         .         .14 
Butterflies'  Wings,     .         .         .         .294 

Carbon,  Fixation  of,  by  Plants  .         .     251 
Carpenter,    G.    H.,    "Insects:    their 
Structure  and  Life.     A   Primer  of 
Entomology "  (Review),  .         .     297 

Cell  as  a  Unit  of  Organisation,  .  .  395 
Cellular  Immunity,  Eel  Poison  and,  .  323 
Cephalic  Eyes  of  Bivalves,  .         .       61 

Cereal    Rust     Problem,    The, — Does 
Eriksson's     mycoplasma     exist    in 
Nature  ?  by  George  Massee,     .         .337 
Chelonia,  Variation  in,       .         .         .     224 
Chemistry,  History  of,        .         .         .     147 
,,  Modern,  .         .         .         .     364 

Child- study, 227 

Chlorophyll,  ....  252,  288 
Clamps  in  Animals,  ....  355 
Clans,  Obituary  of,     ....     232 

Coccidology, 295 

Cold,  Influence  of,  on  Development,       286 
Colombian  ore,  ....     294 

Comparative  Chemistry  of  our  Forest 

Trees,  The,  by  P.  Q, 

Keegan,      ...       53 

,,  Psychology,  ...         1 

Complementary  Males,       .  .         14,  163 

Coolgardie,  Geology  of,       .         .         .     229 

Copepods,  how  they  swim,  .  .     356 

Coppinia,    .         .         .         .         .         .249 

Correns,  C,    "  Untersuchungen  u.  d. 
Vermehrung  der  Laubmoose  durch 
Brutorgane  und  Stecklinge "    (Re- 
vieiv),      ...... 

Correspondence,  .         .       236,  371, 

Cossmann,  P.  N.,  "  Elemente  der  em- 

pirischen  Teleologie  "  (Rcviciv), 
Crystallography,         .  .  .      443, 

Cytology,  Course  of, 


Duncker,   G,  Variation-Statistics   in 

Zoology,  .         .         .  325 
,,           ,,     Die  Methode  der  Araria- 

tions-Statistik          .  455 

Dunes,     .            .....  10 

Dytiscidae,  Anal  Glands  of,        .         .  60 


Darmstadt  Museum,  . 

Darnel,  The  Poison  of, 

Darwinism,         .... 

Darwin's  Doggedness, 

Dawson,    C,   and  Woodhead,   S.   A. 

Problem  of  Honeycomb, 
De  Vries  on  Inheritance,    . 
Delage    and    Herouard,    "Traite   de 

Zoologie  Concrete"  (Rcviciv), 
Dendy  on  the  Parietal  Eye, 
Devonian,  An  Annelid  from  the, 

,,  Rocks  of  Arctic  Europe, 

Diamonds,  .... 

Diaphragm,        .... 
Diastataxy,         .... 
Dicyema,   ..... 
DifHugia,  experiments  on, 
Digestion  in  Fishes,   . 
Diplospondyly, 
Diseases  of  Plants, 
Dispersal  of  Seeds, 
Driesch  on  Morphogenesis, 
Duckmoles,  how  the  Young  get  Milk 


451 
462 

291 

444 
228 

167 

249 

361 

93 

347 
240 

445 
87 
168 
141 
173 
288 
321 
140 
213 
356 
215 
289 
94 
243 
140 


Echinoderms  at  the  British  Museum, 

Edible  Medusae,         .... 

Eel  Poison  and  Cellular  Immunity,    . 

Egg  within  Egg,         .... 

Elaboration  in  Plants, 

Elsden,  J.  V.,  "Applied  Geology," 
Part  II.  (Revieiv),   .... 

Embryology,  Contribution  to  Experi- 
mental, ...... 

Euterochlorophyll,     .... 

Enteropneusta,  ..... 

Entomological  Exhibition, 

Entomology,       ....      222, 
,,  Popular, 

Equilibration,  The  Problem  of,  . 

Eriksson's  Mycoplasma,  Does  it  exist 
in  Nature,  the  Cereal  Rust  Problem, 
by  Geo.  Massee,      .... 

Errera  on  Inheritance, 

Ethics  and  Meteorology,    . 

Evolution,  F.  W.  Headley  on,  by  R. 
F.  Licorish,     ..... 

Evolution,  Discussion  of,  . 
,,         Doctrine  denied, 
,,         Influence        of       Nervous 
System  in,     . 

Excavations  on  Puffin  Island,  by 
Philip  J.  White,     .... 

Excretion  in  Molluscs, 

Physiology  of,   . 

Fauna  of  Europe,  History  of, 

, ,     of  Frog  Spawn, 

,,     of  the  Sound,  hj  F.  A.  Bather, 

,,     of  Wells,  .         .         .      140, 

Ferment,  a  Reducing  (in  Animals),    . 
Fermentation,    ..... 

Fertility  inherited,  Is,        . 
Fish,  concerning  an  ancient, 
Fisheries,  ...... 

Fishes,  Digestion  in, 

,,       Linne's  Types,  Specimens  of, 
,,       Memory  in,   . 
Flatau,  E.,  andS.  Jacobsohn,  "  Hand- 

buch  der  Anatomie  und  vergleich- 

enden  Anatomie  der  Centralnerven- 

systems  der  Siiugethiere  (Review),  . 
Flora  of  Africa,  .... 

,,     of    the    Alps,    by   Alfred    W. 
Bennett,         .... 

,,     of  Australia,      .... 

,,     of  Britain, 

,,     of  Sand  Dunes, 
Flower,  Sir  W.  H.,     .... 
Fluted  Scale,      ..... 
Forest  Trees,  Comparative  Chemistry 

of  our,  by  P.  Q 
Fossil,  A  false,   . 
Foster,  Sir  Michael,  on  integration  in 
Science,     . 
,,  ,,  on  the  Scientific 

Spirit,    . 
Freezing  Eggs  without  killing  them  . 


Keegan, 


4 
60 

323 
61 

251 

64 

440 
288 
224 

90 
297 

68 
356 


337 
90 
49 

46 
227 

81 

253 

42 

61 

367 

357 
355 
263 

288 
355 
290 
15 
440 
228 
356 
396 
440 


143 
364 

109 
198 
226 
10 
151 
310 

53 
215 

161 

237 
61 


INDEX 


473 


Frenkel,      Prof.,      "  Les 

Renales  "  {Review), 
Frog  Spawn,  Fauna  of, 
Fungi,  Ferments  in,   . 
new  to  Britain, 


Fonctions 


Pigments, 


Hag,  alleged  Parietal  Eye  of, 


367 
355 
391 

162 


Galway  Natural  History  Museum,  .  11 
Gases,  liquefaction  of,  147 

Gelle",    M.    E.,    "L' Audition    et    ses 

organes "  {Review),  ...       63 

Geology,  Experimental,  .  .  .  288 
Gerland  and  Traumuller,  "Geschichte 

der   Physikalisehe    Experimentier- 

Kunst  "  {Review),  ....  68 
Goeldi  on  a  Dawn-spider,  .  .  .13 
Grasses,  on  the  Multinuclear  Cells  of 

some,  by  Rudolf  Beer,  .  .  .  434 
Green  Amoebae,  .         .         .         .85 


2SS 


Green,  E.  E.,  "The  Coecidae  of  Cey- 
lon "  {Review),        ....     295 
Green,  J.  R.,  "The  Soluble  Ferments 

and  Fermentation  "  {Review),  .     290 

Groom  on  Nuclear  Fusions,  .  .  239 
Groos,    Karl,    "Die  Spiele  der   Men- 

schen "  {Review),    .         .         .         .  '   450 
Grote,  A.  R.,  "Specialisations  of  the 
Lepidopterous  wing  :  The  Parnassi- 
Papilionidae,"    Parts    I.     and    II. 

{Revieiv), 294 

Ground-Sloth  of  Patagonia,  The  sup- 
posed existing,  by  A.  Smith  Wood- 
ward,     .         .         .         .         .         .351 

Gruber  on  Green  Amoebae,  .  .  85 
Gruvel  on  Complementary  Males,  .  14 
Gypsy  Moths, 310 

Habeiiandt,  G.,  "  Briefwechsel 
zwischen  Franz  Unger  und  Stephan 
Endlicher  herausgegeben  und 
erlauert "  {Revieiv),  .         .         .     455 

Hacker,  V.,  "Praxis  and  Theorie  der 
Zellen-  und  Befruchtungslehre " 
{Revieiv), 228 


2S7 


Headley,  Mr.  F.  W.,  on  Evolution,  by 

R.  F.  Licorish,        .         .         .         .       46 
Hearing,  Sense  of,      .         .         .         .62 

Heredity, 90,  92 

,,         Nucleolus  in,      .         .         .     240 
,,         Proper  and  Improper  View 

of, 92 

Herrera.  A.  L.,  A  Theory  of  Sleep,     .     134 
,,  and  Vergara  Lope  on 

Plateau  Life,  .         .     169 
,,  on  Nomenclature,      .       94 

Herrmann,  O. ,  "  Steinbruchindustrie 


und  Steinbruchgeologie  "  {Review) 


63 


Hertwig,  O.,  "Die  Elemente  der  Ent- 
wickelungslehre  des  Menschen  und 
der  Wirbelthiere "  {Revieiv),   .         .     445 

Hibernating  Swallows,        .         .         .     213 

Hillyer,  H.  W.,  "Laboratory  Manual  " 
{Review),         .....     453 

History  of  Chemistry,         .         .         .     147 
,,      of  Experimental  Physics,       .       68 

Hoernes,  R.,  "  Palaontologie "  {Re- 
vieiv),     ......     447 

Honeycomb,  Problem  of,  by  C.  Daw- 
son and  S.  A.  Woodhead,        .         .     347 


PAGE 

Hopkins  Seaside  Laboratory,      .         .247 

Hoyle,  W.  E.,  "The  Manchester 
Museum,  Owens  College.  General 
Guide  to  the  Natural  History  Col- 
lections "  {Review),         .         .         .     148 

Hrdlicka,  A.,  "Anthropological  In- 
vestigations on  One  Thousand 
White  and  Coloured  Children  of 
both  Sexes "  {Review),     .         .         .     227 

Hutton,  F.  W.,  "Darwinism  and 
Lamarckism,  Old  and  New "  {Re- 
view),    .         .         .         .         .         .361 

Hymenoptera,  Morphology  of  the 
Sting  in, 244 

Hypoderma  bovis,      ....     2SS 

Ichthyosaurus  at  Home,     .         .      •    .     171 
Immunity  acquired  before  Birth,        .     322 
,,          Cellular,    ....     323 
Influence  of  Cold  on  Development,     .       61 
Inheritance,  a  note  on,       .         .         .     393 
,,            Facts  of,          .         .      214,  286 
,,            in  Parthenogenetic  Mul- 
tiplication,          .         .287 
,,            of  Acquired  Characters,         90 
of  Fertility,    .         .         .15 
,,            of  Longevity,           .         .     241 
,,            of  Malformations,  .         .     240 
,,            of  Variations,          .         .     214 
Insects  and  Tobacco,  ....     170 
Instincts  of  Voung  Chicks,          .         .         2 
Integration  in  Science,       .         .         .     161 
Isopoda, 292 

Jackson,  C.  L.,  "The  Lancashire  Sea 
Fisheries "       {Re- 
view), .         .         .     22S 
,,               on  Recapitulation,      .       82 
Jellyfish,  Variations  in,      .         .         .     356 
Judd  on  Protective  Adaptation,          .       89 
Jurassic  Nautili,  Sexual  Dimorphism 
in, 215 

Kainogenesis      .....         9 
Keane,    A.    H.,      "  Man      Past     and 

Present"  {Review),  .         .         .     219 

Keegan,  P.  Q.,  The  Comparative 
Chemistry  of  our 
Forest  Trees,      .       52 

,,  ,,  Trees  in  Winter,  .     399 

Kirby,   F.,    "Sport  in   East   Central 

Africa "  {Review),   .      '    .         .         .     142 
Kiikenthal,  W.,    "  Leitfaden  far  das 

Zoologische  Prakticum  "  {Review),  .     144 
Kyle,    H.   M.,   An  Extension  of  the 

Method  of  treating  Variations,  with 

Examples  and  certain  Conclusions  .     410 

Lacepede,    "Tableaux    des    Mammi- 

feres  et  des  Oiseaux,  1799,"  .  .  406 
Lake  and  Pond,  What  is  the  differ- 
ence between,  ....  60 
Lamarckism,  .  .  .  .  .361 
Land-winning  by  Plants,  .  .  .  245 
Leech,  Impregnation  in,  ...  61 
Leport  on  Evolution,  ...  81 
Lewis,  W.  J.,  "Crystallography" 
{Review), 443 


474 


INDEX 


Licorish. 


R.  F.,  The 

Nervous 


ganic  Evolution, 
Mr.     F.    W. 


Influence  of  the 
System   in    Or- 


Headley    on 
Evolution, 
Linnaean  Names,        .... 
Liime's  Type  Specimens  of  Fishes, 
Liversidge  on  Blue  Coral,  . 
Locard,  M.,    "Lee  coquilles  marines 

des  cotes  de  France  "  (Review), 
Longevity,  Inheritance  of, 
Lonnberg,  Einar,  see  Bather, 
Luminous  Organs,      .... 
Lygodactylus  picturatus,  . 

Mackintosh,  R.,  "From  Comte  to 
Benjamin  Kidd  "  (Eeview),     . 

Malformations,  Inheritance  of,  . 

Mammalian    Red    Blood    Corpuscles,  , 
Nuclei  of,        ....         . 

Mammals  of  France    .... 

Manx  Slates,  Age  of  the,    . 

Marine  Invertebrates  of  Singapore 
and  neighbouring  Islets,  Stray  Im- 
pressions of  the,  by  J.  F.  Bedford, 

Massee,    G.,     "Text-book    of    Plant 
Diseases  caused  by 
Cryptogamic    Para- 
sites "  (Eevieiv), 
, ,  The  Cereal  Rust  Problem 

— Does  Eriksson's 
Mycoplasma  exist  in 
Nature  "  (Eevieiv), 

Matschie,  P.,  "Die  Fledermause  der 
Berliner  Museums  fur  Naturkunde  " 
(Eevieiv),         ..... 

Mauna  Loa,  Eruption  of,    . 

Meek  on  Growth  of  Muscle, 

Memory,     ...... 

Mesenchytracus  solifugus, 

Mesozoa     ...... 

Meteorology  and  Ethics,     . 

Meunier,  S.,  "  Geologie  Experimen- 
tale"  (Eevieiv),        .... 

Mexican  and  Central  American 
Squirrels,        ..... 

Mice,  Alleged  New,  from  St.  Kilda,   . 

Microscopic  Vivisection,     . 

Microscopy,         ..... 

Milk,  How  Young  Duckmoles  get, 

Mill,  H.  R.,  "  The  International  Geo- 
graphy "  (Ecview), 

Millipedes,  Respiration  in, 

Mills,  Wesley,  reviewed,    . 

"Missouri  Botanical  Garden  Report" 
(Eevieiv),         ..... 

Mitchell,  P.  C,  on  Diastataxy,  . 

Molluscan  Liver  so-called, 

Molluscs,  Excretion  in, 

Mongoose  in  Jamaica, 

Monocotyledons,  .... 

Moore,  S.,  Suggestions  upon  the  Origin 
of  the  Australian  Flora,  .      199, 

Moore  on  Tanganyika, 


Morgan,   C. 

(Eevieiv), 
Morphogenesis, 
Morphology    of 

menoptera, 
Mosses 


Animal   Biology" 


253 

46 
229 
396 


453 

241 
263 

288 


449 
240 

144 
297 
214 


130 


2S9 


337 


450 
248 
245 
146 
287 
445 
49 

298 


13 

387 
213 

227 
240 


the 


Sting 


in 


Hy- 


446 

355 

1 

447 
321 
397 

61 
310 

92 

274 
16 

454 
243 

244 

451 


7 


Moxly,  J.  H.  S.,  "The  Tides  simply 
explained,  with  Practical  Hints  to 

Mariners "  (Ecview),        .         .         .  443 
Multinuclear  Cells  of  some  Grasses,  by 

Rudolf  Beer,  .         .         .         .         .  434 
Miinsterberg    on   Science    and    Con- 
duct,          ...  95 
,,            "  Psychology  and  Life  " 

(Ecview),    ...  95 

Muscle,  Factors  in  the  Growth  of,       .  245 

Museum  of  Australia,          .         .         .  317 

,,        of  Darmstadt,       .         .         .  167 

,,        Dundee,       ....  171 

,,        of  Manchester,     .         .         .  148 

,,        Stuttgart,    .         .         .         .171 

Museums  Association,         ...  65 

Myxine, 287 

Myzostoma,        .....  163 

Natural  History  Museum,  Accessions,  5 
»              ,,               ,,              Biologi- 
cal Cor- 
ner of  a,  396 
,,        Science  in  Australia,  .         .  7 
,,        Selection,  The  Scope  of,  by 

J.  L.  Tayler,   .         .      114,  183 

Nature,  Disturbing  the  Balance  of,    .  309 
,,       Studies,          .         .         .         .381 
Nemertean,  new  Pelagic,    .         .         .441 

Neomylodon  listai,     ....  351 

Neomylodon,  more  Traces  of,      .         .  440 

Nephrite, 83 

Neptuneopsis,     .         .         .         .         .393 
Nervous  system,         ....  253 
, ,               in  Organic  Evolution, 
The  Influence  of  the, 
by  R.  F.  Licorish,  .  253 
Nest  of  a  Tree-swift,  ....  9 
Newman,  G.,  "Bacteria"  (Eeview),   .  452 
News,     .         .     72,  154,  233,  302,  373,  404 
Nichols,  H.  W.,  "The  Ores  of  Colom- 
bia,   from  Mines   in   Operation   in 
1892 "  (Ecview),      .         .         .         .294 
Nomenclature,  Reformed,  ...  94 
Northern    Fur   Seal,    Notes    on    the 
Habits  of  the,  by  G.  E.  H.  Barrett- 
Hamilton,       .....  17 
Northern  Monocotyledons,  Colours  of,  92 
Notes  of  Birds,  .         .         .         .         .  148 
Notochordal  Canal  in  Man,         .         .  213 
Nuclear  Fusions,        ....  239 
Nuclei  of  Mammalian  Red  Blood  Cor- 
puscles,    141 

Nucleolus  in  Heredity,       .         .         .  240 

Nucleus,  Role  of  the,          .         .         .  440 


Obituaries,       .         .         .70,  151,  232, 
Rudolf    Leuckart,     Sir    W.     H. 
Flower,      Carl      Claus,      John 
Cordeaux,  George  Dowker. 
Onychoteuthis,  ..... 
Ordeal  by  Fire,  ..... 
Organic  Evolution,   Influence  of  the 
Nervous  System  on,  by  R,  F.  Licorish, 
Organisation,  The  Cell  as  a  Unit  of,  . 
Orthoptera,  Regeneration  in, 
Orton  on  Progress  of  Science, 
Ostwald,  W.,  "Grundriss  der  Allge- 
meinen  Chemie  "  (Eeview), 


301 


4 
84 

253 
395 
320 
247 

364 


INDEX 


475 


Outlines  of  Zoology,  . 

Ovum  in  Ovo,    .... 

Palaeolithic  Man  in  Scotland,     . 

Palaetrochis        .... 

Parietal  Eye,      .... 
,,  ,,     has  the  Hag  a, 

Parnassi-Papilionidae, 

Parthenogenesis  in  a  Sea-Urchin,  the 
Production  of, 

Pathological  Pigeon, 

Peach,  B.    N.,  and  Home,  J.,  "Me 
moirs  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
United     Kingdom  :     The    Silurian 
Rocks  of  Britain"  {Review),   . 

Pearson,  K. ,  "  Mathematical  Con 
tributions  to  the  Theory  of  Evolu 
tion"  (Revieiu), 

Pearson  on  Inheritance  of  Fertility, 
,,        on  Longevity, 

Penaeus,  Statocysts  of, 

Peripatus,  American  Species  of, 

Phisalix  on  Viper's  Venom, 

Phyllomedusa  hypochondrialis, 

Phylogenetic  Senescence,  . 

Phylogeny  of  the  Rodents, 

Phylogeny  of  Rust,    . 

Physiology  of  Movement,  . 

Pigeon,  Abnormality  in,     . 

Plant  Morphology,  Studies  in,   . 

Plants  protected  against  Snails, 

Plateau  Life,       .... 

Play, 

Pleurococcus,      .... 

Poison  of  Viper, 

Polemics  and  a  Parasite,     . 

Pond,  What  is  the  difference  between 

a  Lake  and  a, 
Pontifical  Plant, 
Potome,   H.,    "  Eine  Landschaft   der 

Stemkohlen-Zeit "  {Review),  . 
Poynting  on  Scientific  Explanations, 
Practical  Cytology,    . 

Zoology 
"  Praktische  Anleitung  zur  Analys 

Silicatgesteine  "  (Review), 

Primulaceae,  Autogamy  in, 

Problem,  An  unsolved, 

"Proceedings   of  the  Fourth   Inter 

national  Congress  o 

Zoology  "  (Review), 

,,  of  the    United  States 

National    Museum " 

(Revieiv),  .         .249 

Progress  of  Science,    ....     247 

,,         of  a  Great  Work,  .         .     246 

Protective  Adaptation,       ...       89 

Protoplasm,        ....      166,  183 

Protoplasmic  Currents,       .         .         .     138 

Puffin  Island, 42 

, ,  Excavations  on,  by  Philip 

J.  White,  ...       42 

Pump  Benthos 140 

Pycraft  on  Diastataxy,       .         .         .     321 

Quarrying, 63 

Reasoning,  Psychology  of,  .         .     225 

Recapitulation  Doctrine,    ...       82 
Record  of  a  Great  Work,    .         .         .     384 


PAGE 

144 
61 

169 
215 

87 
286 
294 

382 
214 


216 


15 

15 
241 
356 

84 
324 
355 
397 
383 
389 

14 
214 
398 
3 
160 
450 
238 
324 
163 

60 
392 

456 
250 
228 
145 

444 
441 
251 


221 


PAGE 

.      141 
.     314 
.     320 
British 

94,  226 
the 
Dr. 


of 

by 


Red  Blood  Corpuscles, 
Reduction  of  Nucleus  in  Plants 
Regeneration  in  Orthoptera, 
Reid,    C,    "Origin    of    the 

Flora  "  (Review),    . 
Rendle,    A.    B.,    "Catalogue 

African    Plants    collected 

Welwitsch  "  (Review),     . 
Ribbed     Toads,     Expansion    of    the 

Empire  of,      ....         . 
River  Flow,        ..... 
Rock  out  of  Place,      .... 
Rodents,  Phylogeny  of  the, 
Rotifer,  A  Rare,  .... 

Rust,  Phylogeny  of,   . 

St.  Kilda,  New  Mice  from, 
Salamander,  A  new,  .... 


"The    Logic   of 
Essays  and  Dialogues  " 


Vege- 


364 

88 
146 
315 
383 

82 
389 

387 

288 


365 

10 

292 

14 

4 

440 

357 
95 

423 
247 
161 
365 
247 
250 
363 
17 
145 

382 

94 

3 

140 

Serials,  Reviews  of,  69, 149, 230, 299, 367,  456 
Sexual  Dimorphism  in  Beetles,  .     214 

,,  ,,  Jurassic  Nautili,     215 

,,  Peculiarity,  .  .  .  .61 
Sharks'  Tails,  .  '  .  .  .  .215 
Sharp,  D.,  "  Insects  "  (Review),  .     222 

Shelley,    H.    C,    "Chats   about   the 

Microscope "  (Revieiu)     .         .         .     227 
Sherborn,   C.  D.,    "An  Index  to  the 
Names  of  Animals 
described  by  Lin- 
naeus "  (Review),     229 
,,  ,,         Lacepede's       "  Ta- 

bleaux des  Mam- 
miferes     et     des 
Oiseaux,  1799,"  .     406 
Silurian  Rocks,  .         .         .         .         .216 
Singapore  Fauna,        ....     130 
Sipunculus         .....     141 
Sleep,  Theory  of,  A.  L.  Herrera,         .     314 
Sloane,  T.  O'C,  "  Liquid  Air  and  the 
Liquefaction  of  Gases  "  (Review),    .     147 

Smell  in  Birds 140 

Smith,    D.    T.,   "The  Philosophy  of 
Memory "  (Revieio),         .         .         .     146 


Salt,    H.    S. 
tarianism 
(Review), 
Sand  Dunes,  Flora  of, 
Sars,    G.    O.,    "An   Account   of  the 
Crustacea  of  Norway  "  (Review),     . 
Scalpellum  vulgare,   .... 

Scaly  Squid,       ..... 

Scapanorhynchus,       .... 

Scharff,  R.  F.,  "The  History  of  the 

European  Fauna  "  (Review),   . 
Science  and  Conduct, 

,,       a  Zoologist  on  the  Principles 

of,  by  F.  A.  Bather,   . 
,,       History  of,     . 
,,       Integration  in,        . 
,,       Lessons  in,     . 
,,       The  morning  of, 
Scientific  Explanations, 

,,        Spirit,  .         .         .      237; 

Seals,  ...... 

Seasonal  Nature-study, 
Sea-urchin,    the    Production  of    Par- 
thenogenesis in  a,  . 
Seeds,  Dispersal  of,     . 
Self-defence  in  Plants, 
Sense  of  Smell,  ..... 


476 


INDEX 


Snail,  ..... 

Snails  and  Plants, 
Snow-worm,        .... 
South  African  Diamond,  the  Origina 

Rock  of  the,  by  T.  G.  Bonney, 
Sparrows,  Elimination  in,  . 

,,  in  America, 
Specificity  of  Cells,  . 
Spengel,  J.AV,  "  Ueber  einige  Aberra 

tionem  von  Papilio  machaon  "  (Re 

view), 
Sphenodon, 
Spider,  Early  Rising 
Spinax  niger, 
Spinning  at  Dawn, 
Sponges,     . 
Sports,  More, 
Squirrels,  . 
Statistical  Method,     . 
Stick-insect,        .... 
Sting  of  Hymenoptera, 
Strange  Dish,  a, 
Sutherland,  A.,  "  Origin  and  Growtl 

of  the  Moral  Instinct"  (Review), 
Swallows,  ..... 
Symbiosis,  .... 

Symmetry,  some  Considerations  con 

cerning,  by  R.  J.  Anderson,    . 

Tail, 

Tanganyika,  a  Jurassic  Sea, 

Tayler,  J.  L.,  The  Scope  of  Natural 

Selection,        ....      114, 
Teleology,  ..... 

Teratologia,        ..... 
Teratology, 
Termites,   . 
Thomson,   J.   A 

logy  "  (Review),  .... 
Thorndike  reviewed,  .... 
Thyroid  and  Thymus  of  Amphibians, 

Tides, 

Tierreich,  Progress  of  Das, 

Tilden,  W.  A.,  "  Short  History  of  the 

Progress  of  Scientific   Chemistry" 

(Review),         .... 
Tobacco  and  Insects, 
Tree-frog,  breeding  in, 

Cry,  .... 
Trees  in  Winter,  by  P.  Q.  Keegan, 
Triassic  Cuttlefish, 
Trilobite  from  Newfoundland,    . 
Tyndall,   J.,    "Hours  of  Exercise 

the  Alps  "  (Revieiu), 
Typhlomolge  Rathbuni,     . 


:  Outlines   of  Zoo- 


page 

213 

3 

286 

173 
441 
309 
291 


366 

87 

13 

288 

13 

445 

392 

13 

325 

441 

244 

60 

442 
213 

85 

97 

355 

16 

183 
291 
215 
240 
366 

144 
1 
2S7 
443 
246 


147 
170 
355 

60 
399 
440 

12 

298 
288 


PAGE 

Urns  of  Sipunculus,   ....  141 

Variation,           .....  325 

,,         in  Butterflies,    .         .         .  366 

,,         in  Chelonia,        .         .         .  224 
,,         Statistics    in    Zoology    by 

Georg  Duncker,      .         .  325 
Variations,     An     Extension    of    the 
Method  of  treating,  with  Examples 
and  certain  Conclusions,  by  H.  M. 

Kyle, 410 

Vine,  Cultivation  of  the,  in  Essex,     .  169 

Vipers,  Venom  of,      ....  324 

Vitalism, 242 

Wagner,  A.  D.,  "  StudienundSkizzen 
aus  Naturwissenschaft  und  Philo- 
sophic "  (Review),  ....  363 
"Walker,  J.,  "Views  on  some  of  the 
Phenomena  of  Nature  "  (Review),    .  67 

Warbles, 288 

Warren,  J.  B.  L.,  "The  Flora  of  Che- 
shire "  (Revieiv),      .         .         .         .290 

Water  Hyacinths,      ....  311 

Water-plants  as  Land-winners,            .  245 

Weather  and  Conduct,       ...  49 

Welwitsch's  Collection,      .         .         .  364 
White,    J.,     Excavations    on    Puffin 

Island, 42 

Willey,     A.,     "Zoological     Results" 

(Review), 224 

Wilson,  E.  B.,  on  Protoplasm,  .  .  166 
Wings  of  Birds,  .  .  .  .321 
Witchell,  C.  A.,  "The  Cries  and  Call- 
notes  of  Wild  Birds  "  (Review),  .  148 
Women  and  the  Learned  Societies,  .  162 
Woodhead,  S.  A.,  sec  Dawson,  .  .  347 
Wood's  Holl  Biological  Lectures,  .  385 
Woodward,  A.  Smith.  The  Supposed 
Existing  Ground -Sloth  of  Patagonia  351 

Year -Book  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  "  (Re- 
vie  tc),      ......  359 

Zander  on  the  Sting  of  Hymenoptera,  244 
Zehnder,    L. ,    "Die    Enstehung   des 
Lebens  aus   Mechanischen  Grund- 

lagen  entwickelt "  (Review),  .         .  227 

Zoo  at  Stuttgart,        ....  172 

Zoological  Congress,            .         .         .  221 

Zoology  in  Brazil,       ....  8 
,,       Variation-Statistics  in,  by  G. 

Duncker     .         .         .         .325 

Zoos,  A  Note  on,         ....  172 


NATURAL    SCIENCE 


NUNQUAM  ALIUD   NATURA,    ALIUD   SAPIENTIA  DIGIT. 


VOL.  XV.,  No.  89. 


JULY  1899. 


\AJ  I    w' 


NATURAL 


*> 


I* 


SCIENCE 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


PAGE 
1 


CONTENTS 

Notes  and  Comments  ....... 

The  Animal  Mind — The  Art  of  Self- Defence — Trustees  of  the  British 
Museum — The  Scaly  Squid — Echinoderms  at  the  British  Museum — Acces- 
sions to  the  Natural  History  Museum — Bryozoa  and  Bipolarity — More 
about  "Bipolarity" — Natural  Science  in  Australia — The  Colouring  Matter 
of  Blue  Coral — Zoology  in  Brazil — According  to  the  Fancy  of  the  Speller — 
Flora  of  Sand  Dunes — Galway  Natural  History  Museum — Botanical  Bio- 
graphy— A  new  found  Trilobite  from  Newfoundland — Mexican  and  Central 
American  Squirrels — Spinning  at  Dawn — E  pur  si  muove  !- 
mentary  Male — Is  Fertility  Inherited  ? — Living  Fossils. 

Notes  on  the  Habits  op  the  Northern  Fur  Seal 
By  G.  E.  H.  Barrett-Hamilton. 

Excavations  on  Puffin  Island 
By  Philip  J.  White,  M.B. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Headley  on  Evolution 
By  R.  F.  Licorish,  M.D. 

Meteorology  and  Ethics 

The  Comparative  Chemistry  op  our  Forest  Trees 
By  P.  Q.  Keegan,  LL.D. 

Fresh  Facts    ..... 

Some  New  Books         .... 

Obituary  ..... 

Rudolf  Leuckart. 

News    ...... 


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A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Notes  and  Comments  .  .  .  .  .  .  .81 

Against  the  Tide— A  Rare  Rotifer — Does  the  Organism  Repeat  Itself? — 
Nephrite — The  Ordeal  hy  Fire — American  Species  of  Peripatus — Wearing  of 
the  Green — Brevis  esse  laboro,  obscuris  fio — The  Parietal  Eye — The  Expan- 
sion of  the  Empire  of  Ribbed  Toads — Degrees  of  Protective  Adaptation — An 
Entomological  Exhibition — At  Last  ? — Colours  of  Northern  Monocotyledons 
— The  Proper  and  Improper  View  of  Heredity  —  Darwin's  Doggedness — 
Dispersal  of  Seeds — Reformed  Nomenclature  ! — Science  and  Conduct. 

Some  Considerations  Concerning  Symmetry  .  .  .  .97 

By  Professor  R.  J.  Anderson. 

The  Flora  op  the  Alps  .  .  .  .  ...        109 

By  Professor  Alfred  W.  Bennett,  M.A.,  B.Sc,  V.P.R.M.S. 

The  Scope  of  Natural  Selection       .  .  .  .  .114 

By  J.  Lionel  Tayler. 

Stray  Impressions  op  the  Marine  Invertebrates  of  Singapore  and 

Neighbouring  Islets  .  .  .  .  .130 

By  F.  P.  Bedford,  M.A. 

A  Theory  op  Sleep     .  .  .  .  .  .  .134 

By  Professor  A.  L.  Herrera. 

Fresh  Facts     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .140 

Some  New  Books  .  .  .  .  .  .  .142 

Obituary  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .151 

SirW.  H.  Flower,  K.O.B. 

News    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .154 


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NUNQUAM   ALIUD   NATUKA,   ALIUD   SAPIENTIA   IHCIT. 


VOL.  XV.,  No.  91. 


SEPTEMBER  1899. 


NATURAL 


V   ft    I'M' 


• 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


CONTENTS 

Notes  and  Comments  ....... 

Integration  in  Science  —  Women  and  the  Learned  Societies  —  British 
Botany — Polemics  and  a  Parasite — Life  High  and  Low — As  regards  Proto- 
plasm— The  Darmstadt  Museum — An  Annelid  from  the  Devonian — Cultiva- 
tion of  the  Vine  for  Wine  in  Essex — Did  Palaeolithic  Man  inhabit  Scotland  ? 
— Insects  and  Tobacco — Ichthyosaurus  at  Home — A  Note  on  Zoos. 

The  Original  Eock  of  the  South  African  Diamond 
By  Professor  T.  G.  Bonney,  D.Sc,  LL.D.,  V.P.R.S. 

The  Scope  of  Natural  Selection  (continued)  .... 
By  J.  Lionel  Tayler. 

Suggestions  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Australian  Flora 
By  Spencer  Moore,  B.Sc,  F.L.S. 

Fresh  Facts     ........ 

Some  New  Books  ....... 

Obituaries        ........ 

Carl  Claus. 

News    .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

Correspondence  ....... 


PAGE 

161 


173 

183 

198 

213 
216 
232 

233 
236 


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NUNQUAM   ALIUD  NATUUA,   ALIUD   SAPIENTIA   DIGIT. 


VOL.   XV.,  No.  92. 


NATURAL 


OCTOBER  189%-^ 


r*^ 


lu(  L  I  B  R  A  R  y  |? 


SCIENC 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


The  Influence  of  the  Nervous  System  in  Organic  Evolution 
By  R.  F.  Licorish,  M.D. 

The  Fauna  of  the  Sound       ..... 

Abstracted  by  F.  A.  Bather  from  the  Swedish  of  Dr.  Einar  Lonnberg 

Suggestions  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Australian  Flora  {continued) 
By  Spencer  Moore,  B.Sc,  F.L.S. 

Fresh  Facts     ....... 

Some  New  Books  ...... 

Obituaries        ....... 

John  Cordeaux. 

News    ........ 


PAGE 

237 


CONTENTS 

Notes  and  Comments  ....... 

The  Scientific  Spirit — More  Pleurococcus — Asexual  Nuclear  Fusions — In- 
heritance of  Malformations — The  Nucleolus  in  Heredity — Inheritance  of 
Longevity — A  Verbose  Vitalist — Morphology  of  the  Sting  in  Hymenoptera 
— Factors  in  the  Growth  of  Muscle — Water- Plants  as  Land-Winners — The 
Progress  of  a  Great  Work — The  Hopkins  Seaside  Laboratory — The  Morning 
of  Science — Eruption  of  Mauna  Loa — The  Poison  of  Darnel — Coppinia — 
Scientific  Explanations — An  Unsolved  Problem. 


253 

263 

274 

287 
289 
301 

302 


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NUNQUAM   ALIUB   NATURA,   AHUD   SAPIKNTIA   DICIT. 


VOL.  XV.,  No.  93. 


NOVEMBER  1899. 


NATURAL 


SCIEN 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS 


<^1: 


CONTENTS 

Notes  and  Comments  ....... 

Disturbing  the  Balance  of  Nature — Notes  on  American  Mammals — American 
Plant-Notes — A  Rock  out  of  Place — Beeren  Eiland — The  Difficulties  of  the 
Australian  Museum — The  Antarctic  in  the  Arctic — Regeneration  in  Orthop- 
tera  —  Diastataxy  —  Immunity  Acquired  before  Birth  —  Eel  Poison  and 
Cellular  Immunity— Venom  of  Vipers. 

Variation-Statistics  in  Zoology  ..... 

By  Dr.  Georg  Duncker. 

The  Cereal  Rust  Problem      ...... 

By  George  Massee,  F.L.S. 

Problem  ok  Honeycomb  ...... 

By  Charles  Dawson,  F.G.S.,  and  S.  A.  Woodhead,  B.Sc,  F.C.S. 

The  Supposed  Existing  Ground -Sloth  of  Patagonia 
By  A.  Smith  Woodward. 

Fresh  Facts     . 


Some  New  Books 

Obituaries 

George  Dowker. 

Correspondence 

News  . 


PAGE 

309 


325 

337 

347 

351 

355 
357 
370 

371 
373 


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NUNQUAM   ALIUD   NATURA,    ALIUD   SAPIENTIA   DICIT. 


VOL.  XV.,  No.  94. 


DECEMBER  1899. 


NATURAL 


A  MONTHLY  REVIEW  OF 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRE: 


PAGE 

381 


CONTENTS 

Notes  and  Comments  .  .  .  ... 

Eliminated — Nature  Studies — The  Production  of  Parthenogenesis  in  a  Sea- 
Urchin — The  Record  of  a  Great  Work — Floreat  Wood's  Holl — Asterionella— 
New  Mice  fro'm  St.  Kilda  —  Alleged  New  Mice  —  British  Mammals — 
Phylogeny  of  the  Rodents — Phylogeny  of  Rust — Ferments  in  Fungi — More 
Sports — A  Pontifical  Plant — Neptuneopsis — A  Note  on  Inheritance — The 
Cell  as  a  Unit  of  Organisation — The  Biological  Comer  of  a  Natural  History 
Museum — Linne's  Type  Specimens  of  Fishes — The  Molluscan  "Liver "so- 
called — Phylogenetic  Senescence — Studies  in  Plant  Morphology. 

Trees  in  Winter         ....... 

By  P.  Q.  Keegan,  LL.D. 

Lacepede's  "Tableaux  .  .  .  des  Mammiferes  et  des  Oiseaux" 
By  C.  Davies  Sherborn. 

An    Extension    op    the    Method    of    Treating    Variations,   with 
Examples  and  certain  Conclusions  . 
ByH.  M.  Kyle,  M.A.,  B.Sc. 

A  Zoologist  on  the  Principles  op  Science    . 
ByF.  A.  Bather,  M.A. 

On  the  Multinuclear  Cells  op  some  Grasses 
By  Rudolf  Beer. 

Fresh  Facts    . 

Some  New  Books 

Obituaries 

Correspondence 

News  . 

Index  . 


399 
406 

410 

423 

434 

440 
442 
461 
462 
464 
471 


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