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NATURAL
SCIENCE

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS

VOR. XE.
JULY—DECEMBER 1898

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NATURAL SCIENCE

A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress
No. 77—Vo.t. XITI—JULY 1898

SPECIFIC CHARACTERS IN BACTERIA

In the April number of the Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal
Dr Alexander Johnson records two cases of puerperal fever success-
fully treated by the antistreptococcus serum. There are many
similar cases recorded, and there are also many in which serum
treatment has been unavailing. The matter is not merely one of
medical importance, but involves a problem of no small interest to
the biologist—the question, namely, of specificity amongst bacteria.
Even among the higher plants and animals this question is not
rarely a matter of dispute, although as a rule, morphological charac-
ters are alone at issue. It is not surprising therefore, that amongst
bacteria,— where morphology alone is of little value as a means of
specific distinction, though it is useful enough in differentiating
genera—the difficulties which arise should be even more acute.
In distinguishing between allied species, bacteriologists employ,
besides morphological characters, staining reactions, cultural charac-
ters, chemical and physiological properties, and powers of pathogenesis.
To these aids to diagnosis there has been added, in the last few
years, an altogether novel one—the capacity for specific immunisa-
tion, together with the remarkable power possessed by the serum of
immunised animals, in the case of certain bacteria, of agglutinating
the bacteria against which they have been immunised. ‘Thus, to
take a concrete example, supposing that it be desired to distinguish
the bacillus of typhoid fever from one of its nearest allies, the
common colon bacillus, the bacteriologist can rely largely upon
morphological distinctions, and in particular upon the character and
number of the cilia demonstrable by the methods of Loffler, Pitfield,
or Van Ermengem. He can trust also to chemical tests—to the
powers possessed by the colon bacillus of coagulating milk in virtue
of its more active acid production, of its rich powers of gas forma-
tion, or of indol production—powers which the typhoid bacillus does
not possess. But he can now adopt a new method. He can
lmmunise an animal, by repeated injection of sub-fatal doses, against
the colon bacillus or the typhoid bacillus, and he can test the power
possessed by the serum of such immune animals of agglutinating the
bacillus which he wishes to test. Serum from an animal immunised
A

2 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

against the colon bacillus possesses no agglutinating power upon the
typhoid bacillus, and vice versd. This test is probably of more value
in distinguishing between the two species than any other one test,
except, perhaps, the number of cilia. Yet even here the distinction
is not absolute. Durham has shown that there is a bacillus, the
B. enteritidis of Gartner (intermediate in character between the
typhoid bacillus and B. coli communis, though probably to be
regarded as a variety of the latter), which is feebly agglutinated by
typhoid serum, although not in such high degrees of dilution as is
the typhoid bacillus itself.

There are some species of bacteria which are sharply marked
off: thus the tetanus bacillus is one which both morphologically
and in its pathogenic powers is a distinct and definite species. The
typhoid bacillus and B. coli communis are members of a group in
which the reverse is the case. The epidemiology of typhoid fever
can leave no doubt on the mind that B. typhosus is a distinct and
fixed species; yet apart from the disease it produces, its certain
recognition is, as above indicated, not always so easy a matter.
The colon bacillus occurs in countless varieties, and has been
described under many different names. Its specific characters are
ill-marked, and it is probably a rapidly varying dominant species,
the characters of which are not yet fixed.

The same may be said of the group of Streptococci. In the field
of pathogenesis they are as it were a ‘dominant’ group, with
varying and ill-defined specific characters, and with equally varying
and ill-defined pathogenic effects. Unlike B. typhosus, which causes
one distinct and definite disease, it seems probable that a single
species of Streptococcus may give rise to suppuration, erysipelas,
malignant endocarditis, puerperal fever, septic peritonitis, and half
a dozen other diseases which clinically are distinct enough. And
there are probably a number of different species of Streptococci, any
one of which may cause a number of different diseases according to
its grade of virulence and seat of infection, while clinically similar
diseases may be due at different times to different species of
Streptococcus. Specificity, if such there be, is here at its very
vaguest.

Compared with tetanus and diphtheria, two well-marked species
causing definite disease, streptococcus infection is a most complex
and ill-defined condition, and the task of the bacteriologist in pro-
viding an antistreptococcus serum is proportionately difficult. No
one can venture to affirm with confidence how many pathogenic
species of Streptococcus exist, nor whether a given case of disease is
due to one or other of the supposed species which are recognised,
Marmorek, in preparing his antistreptococcus serum, employed a
Streptococcus which he obtained from the fauces, and the virulence of

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 3

which he increased enormously by cultivating it in the peritoneal
cavities of a series of rabbits. Other seruins have been prepared
from other sources by different workers. But antitoxic action is
subject to the laws of specificity to the same extent as toxic action.
A given antitoxic serum will immunise against, or cure the disease
produced by, just that one species of micro-organism which was
employed in producing the serum. In the case of Streptococcus in-
fection, it is therefore not remarkable that while in some cases a
given serum will produce most striking curative results, in others it
is absolutely powerless. In the present state of knowledge it is not
possible to foresee which ease will benefit and which will not. But
the fact that such differences exist may serve as a warning against
the supposed unity of certain species of Streptococcus, maintained by
some observers.

THE EFFECTS OF TROPICAL CLIMATE

THE exploration and first attempts at the administration of Africa
have been attended with so serious a loss of life from disease, that
it is not surprising that those interested in Africa should sometimes
despair of its ultimate success. They throw the blame on that most
indefinite of factors, the climate, and attempts to discuss tropical
sanitation only too often degenerate into mere denunciation of that
scapegoat. The afternoon meeting of the Royal Geographical Society,
which assembled on April 27th to hear Dr Sambon’s paper on the
possibilities of the acclimatisation of the white races in tropical
regions, was no exception to the rule. Dr Sambon stoutly held that
there is no reason why whites should not live and thrive in the
tropical zone as well as they do in the temperate zones; but the
meeting, in spite of Dr Manson’s powerful support of Dr Sambon’s
propositions, would not be comforted. The discussion was interest-
ing, as it could not fail to be when such authorities as Dr Manson,
Sir John Kirk, Sir Harry Johnston, and Mr J. A. Baines took part
init. But the discussion was disappointing as well, for the pessimists
did not jom issue on the material point. They denounced the
climate, even in places where it is described as “appearing delight-
ful,’ and they pointed to past experience, as told by the mournful
death roll or the degeneration of European races, such as the
Spaniards in South America and the Portuguese in East Africa.
But no one denies either the deaths or the degeneration. The
question is whether they are due to unalterable factors of climate,
or to organic diseases which may be met and defeated. Dr Sambon
denied the climatic theory, and went through the climatic factors
one by one, and showed that they alone are not injurious to health.
He challenged those who hold that it is the climate which does the
mischief to tell him how it acted, through what elements, and what

4 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

organic injury it causes. But not a word of explanation on these
points was given by his opponents. Dr Sambon attributed the
mortality of the tropics to three diseases—dysentery, haematinuria,
and malaria. These are, undoubtedly, due to specific organisms
which are especially prevalent in the tropical zone, but are not
necessarily connected with the heat. If the existing white mor-
tality and the past degeneration of races long subjected to the
effects of these maladies are simply due to them, then there is good
hope for the future. Dr Manson cited the case of that most
repulsive of diseases, elephantiasis, which was once one of the
terrors of the tropics, and was then charged to the climate.
But Manson has shown that elephantiasis is due to the organism
known as Milaria ; he has worked out the life-history of the parasite,
and shown how it enters the human body. People being thus
warned have only themselves to thank if they now contract
elephantiasis. This case gives us good hope that, when the life-
histories of the haematozoa of malaria, dysentery, and haematinuria
have been similarly worked out, the diseases will be brought
similarly under control. That is the hope for the future, and what
is wanted is more knowledge of the biology of the parasites. Malaria
is now being admirably studied by the medical schools of Rome and
Vienna. Haematinuria is the most obscure and deadly of African
diseases, and it will continue to entail on England lamentable
sacrifices of life and money until it can be dismissed as Manson
has dismissed the fear of elephantiasis. Most of the doctors who
find their way to our African tropical protectorates are medical
sportsmen and not medical biologists. They probably could not
focus a high-power microscope if. they tried. An institute for the
study of tropical diseases is urgently needed, and would pay as a
policy of imperial insurance.

For THE LADY CYCLIST

In the June number of the Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal,
Dr J. W. Ballantyne gives a valuable digest of forty-five papers that
have been written on bicycling for women. On the whole it appears
that the advantages, from a physiological point of view, wholly
outweigh the disadvantages, if these be guarded against by proper
precautions. These latter are chiefly associated with the choice of a
machine, the essential point being that the seat should be suitably
placed and adapted to the anatomy of the female pelvis. “It should
be pretty well forward, and when the cyclist is erect in the saddle
her heels should touch the pedal when lowest, her feet being in the
horizontal position. The commonest faulty position is having the
saddle too low and too far back; on the other hand, the saddle too
high is also wrong, causing over-stretching of the knee and ankle,

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 5

which is very tiring; a perpendicular dropped from the hip should
pass through the centre of the pedal, and with the feet at the lowest
point the knee should be slightly bent. Most saddles have been
made too narrow, the cyclist thus being compelled to ride on the
perineum instead of the ischial tuberosities, and in many instances
the pommel or peak has been too high.” It is obvious to any
cyclist that all these points refer with equal force to the male sex.
So also does the advice that the cyclist should not ride to the point
of exhaustion, should not have the gearing too high or the machine
too heavy, and should ride in a suitable dress. With regard to the
last-mentioned point the only question is, what is suitable? Since
Dr Ballantyne is a man, it is unlikely that he has ever ridden “ ina
shortened skirt, with modified corset,” until he has attempted this,
especially in a wind, we cannot consider his advice on the matter of
the smallest value. Many of the points in the paper are of con-
siderable interest, but hardly to be dealt with in the pages of this
Review. We can, however, strongly recommend it to any who
may have thrown upon them the professional duty of advising lady
cyclists,
THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM

THE Report of this Museum for 1896, which we received a short
time ago, receives considerable interest from the out-spoken remarks
of the curator, Mr R. Etheridge, junior. For one thing, Mr
Etheridge complains justly and forcibly of the inadequate scale
of remuneration received by the staff individually in comparison
with that prevailing in some of the service departments ; although,
as he points out, the scientific assistants are, by educational status
and scientific attainments, entitled to rank as professional men.
What apples to the assistants applies also to the mechanics, whose
work is undoubtedly of a skilled and special character. Even the
attendants of a scientific museum are put off with less pay than
those of an art gallery. Not only is this the case, but the Museum
remains much undermanned. Of course all museums are under-
manned, just as in most countries museum assistants are underpaid ;
but certainly the Government of New South Wales asks a little too
much when it expects even a person of such energy as Mr Etheridge
to combine the functions of curator and those of sole palaeontologist.
Mr Etheridge says, and most people will agree with him, “I regard
the position of curator of such an institution as this as one carrying
with it the necessity of engaging in original research. As matters
are at present constituted this is an impossibility.”

Among the difficulties under which our Australian colleagues
labour, not the least is the destruction constantly effected by the
white ants. We have already alluded to the ravages committed by
them in the Australian Museum, but it appears that these were

6 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

even worse than was at first supposed. Not only had the roof to be
renewed, but the flooring and joists of the main hall were found
to be burrowed by the termites, which had also made their way
through the masonry joints into and under the floor of the Ethno-
logical Hall, and had as completely destroyed the woodwork of that
structure as of the roof. The remedying of all this naturally led to
great expense and to much waste of time in removing and again
replacing the whole of the collections. It is satisfactory to find
that, in spite of this, work has been begun on a new spirit-room and
workshops, although in connection with those as well as with many
other matters, Mr Etheridge finds it necessary to note “ much
unnecessary delay.”

To return to the brighter side of affairs. The presentations to
the Museum include several items of much interest. Chief is the
celebrated ‘ Dobroyde’ collection of Australian birds and eggs
brought together by the late curator, Dr E. P. Ramsay, and his
brothers at their home in Dobroyde, Ashfield, N.S.W. This collec-
tion contains a large number of type-specimens. It was purchased
from Mr J. S. Ramsay by the Government of New South Wales
and delivered by it to the trustees of the Museum. Mr W. A. Horn
has presented further collections from the results of his recent
expedition into the interior, and these include further type-speci-
mens. Another valuable donation is a piece of meteoric iron,
weighing over 44 lbs. It was found on the Nocoleche holding
near Wanaaring, N.S.W., and will be known as the Nocoleche
Meteorite. The donor was Mr G. J. Raffel. The meteorite has
been cut and polished by Mr H. A. Ward of Rochester, N.Y., and
a few slices are available for exchange. Mr C. W. Darley, engineer-
in-chief for harbours and rivers, presented the Museum with some
fossil remains of a dugong, discovered during the excavations for a
canal at Shea’s Creek, Alexandria, near Sydney. This is the first
instance of the discovery of dugong remains so far south. A note-
worthy addition to the collections is the skeleton of the Indian
elephant, which, under the name of Jumbo, was a familiar feature
of the Sydney Zoological Gardens. This has been satisfactorily set
up by Messrs H. Barnes and H. Barnes, junior, but space is not at
present available for the mounting the skin. It is most distinctly
to be noted that this Jumbo is not the same as the erstwhile
ornament of our own ‘ Zoo’ and of Mr Barnum’s show.

The whole impression made upon us by this Report is that the
staff of the Australian Museum, however undermanned and under-
paid it may be, has managed in spite of unprecedented difficulties
to accomplish some excellent work from both the scientific and the
museum point of view; and it is sincerely to be hoped that the
Government of New South Wales may with the return of pros-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 7

perity be able to appropriate larger sums, with greater promptness,
to the establishment which, in virtue of its importance, is rightly
known as the Australian Museum.

NOTES FROM SINGAPORE

Dr R. Hanirscu, Curator and Librarian of the Raffles Library and
Museum, Singapore, has succeeded in obtaining from his Committee
a sum of $500, for the purchase of zoological works, which we
hope will enable him to continue his zoological studies with greater
facility. He has done some collecting on the coral reefs at Blakang
Mati, where the most striking forms are numberless Antedonidae
(feather-stars). The sea-urchin Heterocentrotus mammiillatus, has
for the first time been obtained in perfect specimens, although
the thick spines of it are to be seen by sacks full in the native
shops; some say that they are used as the mouth-pieces of pipes,
others that they are medicine. It is interesting in this connection
to recall the fact that spines of fossil sea-urchins pounded up
and drunk with water were used in olden times in Europe as
a remedy for stone in the bladder. The Museum has also been
presented by Mr Maclear-Ladds with a perfect specimen of
Pentacrinus (so-called); it is the first ever received by it, and
came from the Jahal Bank, ninety miles south of Timor, depth
110 fathoms.

This Museum does not yet contain a typical collection of
Malayan fauna, since the majority of specimens collected in that
part of the world are sent to Europe and America, while the
Curator of the Raffles Museum has succeeded in getting five
days for collecting, for the first time for several years. Every
museum of importance should have a collector in its own pay,
er should give special facilities for collecting to the members
of its staff. This is the policy of the leading museums in all
countries, except of course our own. Under these circumstances
it is pleasant to read that Dr G. D. Haviland has presented
the Raffles Museum with a valuable series of ants, including
several type-specimens collected by himself in Singapore, Perak,
and Sarawak, and identified by Prof. A. Forel of Zurich. Several
specimens of reptiles and amphibians have been received in exchange
from Lieut. Stanley Flower of Bangkok Museum. The first of the
fossiliferous rocks ever obtained from the Peninsula has come
from a railway cutting near Kuala Lipis, Pahang, having been
presented by Mr H. F. Bellamy, but its age is not hinted at.
The skeleton of a large male orang-utan has been mounted, and
its dentition has been found to be abnormal, the lower jaw
having four well-developed molars on each side. This Museum
has now a rival to Aaron’s Rod, for a tree trunk against which

ES) NATURAL SCIENCE [July

one of the orang-utan skeletons is mounted, after having been
several months in the case, began suddenly to sprout, and bore
ereen twigs for several months, during which period it proved
the chief attraction in the Museum.

We never yet knew a Curator who did not require more room,
Needless to say Dr Hanitsch proves no exception.

LESSONS FROM CHICAGO

WE have received the Annual Report of F. J. V. Skiff, the Director of
the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, for 1896-7. The staff of this
Museum comprises: G, A. Dorsey, Acting Curator of Anthropology ;
C, F. Millspaugh, Curator of Botany; O. C. Farrington, Curator, and
H. W. Nicholls, Assistant Curator, Department of Geology ; D. G.
Elliot, Curator, and S. E. Meek, Assistant Curator, Department of
Zoology ; C. B. Cory, Curator of Ornithology. The Librarian is
J. Dieserud, and the Recorder, D. C. Davies. These and others
have given numerous lectures on subjects connected with the
Museum or with the explorations of its officials. The Museum
issued during the year eight publications, of which the most
important was “ Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities
of Mexico,” by W. H. Holmes. The library is making satisfactory
progress; but since the Museum only receives, by purchase or
exchange, ninety-two periodicals, it cannot be considered particu-
larly complete in that department. We notice, however, that a
list of all the periodicals in all the libraries of Chicago has been
prepared, and this no doubt will lead to the co-operation of the
numerous institutions in that city.

Among the accessions to this Museum are several hundred
Etruscan antiquities of earthenware and bronze, excavated under
the direction of Prof. Frothingham in 1895-6; Egyptian anti-
quities, presented by Prof. Flinders Petrie; ancient pottery from
(reorgia ; a meteorite from Mexico, and specimens from eighteen
other meteorites. Among the notable collections obtained by the
sotanical Department during the past year are Pringle’s Mexican
plants, Palmer’s Durango collection, Nash’s and Pollard’s Florida and
Mississippi plants, the Sandberg Idaho collection, Gaumer’s last Yucatan
species, Jenman’s British Guiana and Rusby’s Orinoco collections,
Schlechter’s South African species ; the complete lichen herbarium of
Calkins; and the important personal herbarium of the late Dr Schott,
the latter including plants from Yucatan, Panama, and Mexico.

We have not mentioned the numerous collections obtained by
D. G. Elliot and the members of his expedition to Somali Land. We
have received a special report on the fish they collected, containing
descriptions of some of the new and rare species. With reference
to this expedition Prof. Elliot writes: “It is the only proper

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 9

way to secure collections for a museum,’ a sentiment that we
heartily endorse. There is also contained in this report an account
of a collecting trip made by Mr Dorsey and Mr Allen, the photo-
grapher of the Museum, among the Indians of the far west. Asa
consequence of this, it is believed that the Museum now possesses
the most complete existing representation of the North-west coast
Indians. Our American cousins, advanced as they are in all
branches of museum work, naturally understand the importance to
a museum of having its own trained collectors, and the urgent need
at the present stage of the earth’s history of securing specimens of
those zoological and ethnological types which may be extinct before
many years have passed. Is it not better to invest money in this
way, than to waste it on the purchase of ancient collections and un-
authenticated dealers’ specimens ?

An exhibit illustrating the forestry of North America is being
prepared by Mr Millspaugh. Each section of the exhibit comprises
a glazed and framed tray, containing a branch, flowers and fruits,
and a block of wood from the same tree; a photograph of the tree
in summer and the same tree in winter, both from the same point
of view; a seven-foot trunk and transverse section; a commercial
plank; a two-foot map of North America, coloured to show the
distribution of the species; and a series of ornamental cabinet
specimens of the wood. A detailed account of these exhibits and
the method of preparing them is given, and will well repay
study by curators. We may also recommend to practical museum-
workers the account of the exhibit of metallurgical processes, which
is arranged on a somewhat novel plan, showing the various stages of
the process by means of lines connecting the specimens.

The report is illustrated by twelve plates, most of them in half-
tone. Some of them illustrate practical details, others show some
mounted groups. Among the latter we may draw attention to the
group of herons and that of the Lesser Koodoo. If our readers
inquire how it is that an institution which has none too much
money can afford to illustrate its reports in this lavish style, we may
explain that the Museum retains the services of a professional photo-
grapher, and keeps all the blocks illustrating the publications of the
Museum. Most leading museums now have photographers attached to
their staff, the exception, as usual, is furnished by our own country.

In conclusion we should like to ask why it is that reports which
come to us from American museums are always interesting to read,
in strong contrast to the reports which come from most similar
establishments in our own country and in Europe. It would seem
that the writing of these reports is a labour of love to the Ameri-
cans, while our own curators only do it as a piece of official routine.
The consequence is that, in the present Report, as an example, the

10 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

curator finds hints, suggestions, and actual information of value to
himself; whereas the Report of, say, the British Museum, contains
little but lists of donations and the numbers of specimens registered
during the year, with similar matter of no use to anybody in the
wide world.
WHALES AT THE British Museum

Ir is not as though our museums had nothing of general interest to
record, nothing of special interest to curators of other museums. At
the British Museum (Natural History), for instance, the enlightened
administration of Sir William Flower has introduced many novelties,
which may be casually alluded to as having occupied the time of
such and such assistants or artisans, but which are not explained in
the Annual Report. One such interesting and important addition
has been completed this very month. No museum has hitherto
solved the difficulty of exhibiting the outward form of the various
kinds of whales, which baffle the taxidermist’s art on account
of the oily nature of their skin. At last, however, Sir William
Flower has solved the problem in a most satisfactory manner, and
the result is a unique addition to the Department of Zoology in the
museum over which he presides. The new Gallery of Cetacea was
opened to the public for the first time during the Whitsuntide holi-
days, and the exhibition is no longer a forest of dry bones, but a
selection of the principal types of cetacean life displaying not only
the skeleton, but also the outward form. Each skeleton is mounted
in the ordinary manner on iron supports, and a second frame of more
elaborate construction is fixed on one side—the side from which the
visitor first sees the specimen. This frame reproduces the original
contour of the animal, and is covered with a peculiar composition
somewhat similar to papier maché; this represents the skin, and is
finally painted with a tint and gloss as nearly life-like as possible,
When the visitor stands on one side of the gallery, the animals thus
appear as if living, while from the other side he observes the skele-
ton and realises its relation to the soft parts. The four principal
specimens are a whalebone whale (Balaena biscayensis) from [ce-
land, 49 feet in length; a fin-whale (Balaenoptera musculus) from
the Moray Firth, 69 feet long; a smaller fin-whale (Balaenoptera
borealis) caught in the Thames near Tilbury ; and a gigantic sperm-
whale (Physeter macrocephalus) from Thurso, 54 feet in length. In
addition to these there are other specimens, notably the mandible
of a Balaena twice as large as the complete skeleton exhibited.
We congratulate not only the Director of the Museum who has
devised and superintended this important new departure in the
exposition of zoology, but also Mr Edward Gerrard, junr., and his
staff, who have so admirably carried out the technical part of the
work.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS pa

ANTHROPOLOGY IN MApRAS AND IN LONDON
Mr EpcGar THurston contributes to Mature of May 26 a remarkably
interesting account of the anthropological survey which he is carry-
ing out in the Madras Presidency. European influence is bringing
about a rapid change among the natives of Southern India, and there
is no time to lose in taking note of their characteristics. As it is
always interesting to see ourselves as others see us, we quote Mr
Thurston’s final paragraph. . . . “I gathered from observation when
in London (1) that man as a social and intellectual being is illus-
trated with the unavoidable want of proportion, when no systematic
scheme for the regular expansion of the collections is at work at the
British Museum, Bloomsbury; (2) that it is under contemplation to
illustrate man and the varieties of the human family from a purely
animal point of view at the British Museum (Natural History),
South Kensington; (3) that skulls must be sought for at the Royal
College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields; (4) that lectures and
anthropological literature are available to members at the Anthro-
pological Institute, Hanover Square. To this must be added (5) Mr
Galton’s laboratory. Surely a great want of centralisation, such as
might well be remedied, is indicated here. And as I wandered, both
in and out of the London season, through the deserted galleries of
the Imperial Institute, I could not refrain from speculating whether,
with a radical change of policy for good, this much-discussed build-
ing could not be converted into our great National Museum of
Ethnology, where man shall be represented fully and in every
aspect, and where those interested in ethnological research could
find under one roof a skilled staff to appeal to in their amateur
difficulties, collections, literature, lectures, and anthropological
laboratory.”
RECENT ANTHROPOLOGY

To LP Anthropologie for January and February 1898, Dr I. H. F.
Kohlbrugge contributes a paper upon the “ Anthropology of the
Tenggerois of Java,” in which a detailed description of the physical
characteristics of that people is given. They are referred to the
‘Indonesian’ race, with a slight admixture of Malayan blood. The
average cranial index of 130 measured natives was found to be
79°71, mesaticephalic. There are several interesting tables in
which comparative measurements are given for a number of races
in the Malayan region.

Dr Salomon Reinach gives a detailed description of an interest-
ing carving in steatite, representing a nude female figure, discovered
in 1884 in one of the caverns at Mentone (Barma Grande) by
Mr Julien. Two plates from photographs of this specimen are
given, and show it to be of very rude workmanship. A gross
exaggeration of the general form and an absence of detail

12 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

characterise this early attempt at representing the human form.
The figure is interesting when brought into comparison with other
early statuettes from Laugerie-Basse and Brassempouy. It is now
in the Musée de Saint-Germain, near Paris.

A paper by Cecil Torr aims at showing that the so-called ship-
designs upon certain ancient Egyptian pottery vases, are in reality
representations of ramparts with towers, etc. This certainly seems
a more plausible explanation than the ship-theory, but there is, un-
fortunately, no proof that even this interpretation is the right one.
It is well enough faute de micun.

Among the ‘ Miscellanea’ there is to be noted an account of
Anthropological work done in Spain and Portugal in 1897. There
is evidence of considerable activity in this science in its various
branches. In fact it appears to have been the most progressive of
all the sciences during the year.

THE CALAVERAS SKULL

In 1886 Mr Mattison, who was prospecting in Calaveras County,
California, sunk a shaft through four beds of lava down to the
auriferous gravels at a depth of 127 feet. History does not relate
how much gold he found, but all the world was soon aware that he
discovered at the bottom of his shaft a human skull along with small
human bones and other objects. In the same gravels, beneath the
lava beds, there have also been found a rude stone pestle and mortar,
and a dish of steatite. The skull is generally considered to be of an
ancient type of structure, but many authors have considered the
worked objects to be of somewhat advanced character. We have
repeated this story because the skull and other objects, which
belonged to the late Prof. J. D. Whitney, have recently been
presented by his sister, Miss Maria Whitney, to the Peabody
Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge,
Mass. At the time of its discovery the skull naturally caused
great commotion in the scientific world, and the echoes of the
discussion even reached literary men. At all events it is un-
necessary for us to repeat the well-known Address of Bret Harte
to the Pliocene Skull, in which the poet expressed his view by
making the Skull reply:
“ Which my name is Bowers, and my crust was busted
Falling down a shaft in Calaveras County :

But I'd take it kindly if youw’d send the pieces
Home to old Missouri !”

THE GEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY IN AUSTRIA

AUSTRIAN geologists have been for some time agitated by a dispute
between Dr Alexander Bittner and Professor E. von Mojsisovies

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 13

regarding the nomenclature of the subdivisions of the Trias. Bittner
accuses Mojsisovics of having renamed a stage that he himself had
already named, by altering the meaning of his own name of Norische.
Bittner holds that ‘ Norische’ should be retained for the stage to
which Mojsisovics originally applied it, and that Bittner’s name
‘Ladinische ’ should be accepted for the ‘ sub-norische’ stage. The
controversy has been carried on by Bittner with a vehemence which
his English friends have regretted. He has, for example, written
papers on Triassic nomenclature entitled ‘ Mojsisovics and Public
Morals.’ The question has now reached a more acute stage, and an
appeal has been sent to European geologists by forty-eight Austro-
Hungarian geologists, who state the case on behalf of Bittner, and
appeal that his system should be adopted. This memorial has
called forth several replies. Professor Rudolf Hoernes deplores that
Austrian geologists should waste their time in such a dispute ; anda
letter to Mojsisovics signed by Professors E. Suess, Diener, Hoernes,
Reyer, and Paul, refers to his brilliant zonal work on the Trias, and
gives general support to his views on the particular question at
issue. Professor Renevier points out that the term ‘ Noric’ is pre-
occupied in American geology, and therefore should be abandoned
from Triassic geology. But fortunately the principle of priority
has not yet been adopted in stratigraphy. Mr Renevier’s compro-
mise is open to the same objection that applies to Bittner’s criticism
on Mojsisovics. A mere appeal to priority is useless. The better
system ought to survive.

The question at issue may be illustrated by the following
table :—

MossIsovics, BITTNER.
| i — ae aN
Ist Scheme. 2nd Scheme,
Upper... Karnische. pee : . Karnische,
UPPER ae
; Juvavische. . . Norische.
TRIAS. ) Lower... Norische = ‘ a
Norische. : . Ladinische.

Bittner’s complaint is that Mojsisovics has changed the meaning
of the term ‘ Norische’ from the beds to which he first gave it, and
apphed it to those which Bittner had called ‘ Ladinische, and that
in order to do that he has proposed the new term of ‘ Juvavische.’

We express no opinion on the rights of the controversy, but we
cannot help regretting that Herr Bittner’s friends should have tried
to settle the question suddenly by a referendum to the general
body of geologists, whereas it is a question which experts on Triassic
stratigraphy would gradually decide by the adoption of the most
convenient and suitable classification. Like our Cambro-Silurian
controversy time should be allowed to settle the question by the
natural process of the survival of the fittest.

14 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

WESTRALIAN WATER-SUPPLY
ONE of the difficulties in the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie Goldfields is
the absence of water. ‘The success that has attended the sinking of
Artesian wells in the sister colonies, notably in Queensland, to
which we have often referred, suggested that similar action might
be taken with profit in Western Australia. Mr A. Gibb Maitland,
however, the Government Geologist, in a report that he has just
sent us, comes to most pessimistic conclusions. The Coolgardie
country consists for the most part of granitic rocks, which are
weathered on the surface so as to form a superficial water-bearing
layer of no great depth, but yielding enough water for ordinary
purposes in certain spots; this water, however, is usually brackish.
Below this weathered zone, however, none of the rocks are sutftici-
ently porous to allow of the absorption and transmission of water ;
and since they are likely to be still more compact at greater depths
there is small hope of obtaining a supply from that source. Very
much the same conditions obtain at Kalgoorlie, and Mr Maitland
does not recommend the continuance of any deep borings. There
is great demand for water at Cue to work the crushing plants, but
the nearest locality from which water can be obtained is Millie
Soak, about ten miles to the north-east. Here is a bed of magnesian
limestone, in which there have already been sunk wells that yield a
supply of 1000 gallons per diem. ‘The catchment area, however,
does not appear to be large, and the quantity of water depends
largely upon seasonal rains, so that the bed could not withstand a
constant daily drain upon it of a quarter of a million gallons, which
is the amount required. From My Maitland’s refusal to recommend
further deep borings we assume that the conditions which govern
deep-water-supply in Western Australia are not the same as those
that obtain in Sweden, where, as Baron Nordenskiold has shown,
fresh water can always be obtained at a depth of 30-40 metres
below sea-level.
CoRN-MIDGES AND THEIR ENEMIES

Or high scientific and practical interest is Dr P. Marchal’s recent
paper, “ Les Cécidomyies des Céréales et leurs Parasites ” (Ann. Soc.
Ent. France, 1897, pp. 1-105, pls. 1-8). The famous Hessian
Fly (Cecidomyia destructor) is naturally treated at greatest length,
the three forms of its larva and the formation of the puparium being
described and figured with many details. The parasites which are
of the greatest service in keeping the midges in check, are mostly
iminute hymenopterous grubs (Chaleids and Proctrotrupids). Among
the latter, Zrichacis remulus, Walker (parasitic on Cecidomyia
Avenae, Marchal) is described in detail. Its first larva is cyclops-
like. Three or four of these live on the nervous system of a
cecidomyid larva, and the nerves of the host degenerate with the

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS . 15

formation of ‘giant cells.” Later the 7 vichacis larva becomes
maggot-like. The grubs of another proctrotrupid Polygnotus minutus
live, in their early stage, grouped in the food-canal of the midge-
larva. They ultimately devour the whole body of their host except
the outer skin.

: Economic ENTOMOLOGY

WE have received several recent Bulletins of the Entomological
Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. No. 10 contains
a series of short miscellaneous papers. Of special interest are Dr
Zehnter’s on caterpillars which bore sugar-canes in Java, and Mr
Matsumura’s on two fruit-boring caterpillars of Japan, one of
which injures apples and the other pears, after the fashion of the
caterpillar of our own codlin moth. No. 12 contains the story by
Mr L. O. Howard, of the never-failing San José scale (Aspidiotus
pernesus) during 1896 and 1897, from which it appears that a
united effort on the part of fruit-growers to cope with this pest is
being made. In February of the present year, the German Govern-
ment issued an order to stop the importation of American produce
infected with the insect. No. 15 is a compilation of the recent laws,
both state and federal, against Injurious Insects in North America.

The San José scale also occupies much space in the Twentieth
Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois (Mr 8. A. Forbes).
A curious observation is given in this Report on the habits of a
species of solitary wasp (Odynerus foraminatus) which by making
its mud-nest in the air-opening of a railway automatic brake, has,
on several occasions, rendered the release of the brakes impossible
and caused delay and danger to the trains.

dritish farmers and tree-growers will welcome as usual Miss
Ormerod’s Twenty-first Report on Injurious Insects, recently issued.
Together with notes of value on more familiar insects, we notice (pp.
34-40) some specially interesting observations on the development
of vestigial wings in the female of the Deer Forest Fly—Lipoptena
cervi—one of the pupiparous Diptera, and the latest experiments
in lessening the damage done to fruit-bushes by the Currant Gall
Mite (Phytoptus ribis).

NortH AMERICAN LEAF-HOPPERS

Mr C. P. GILLetTe’s revision of the American Typhlocybinae (Proc.
U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. xx., pp. 709-773) contains—as might be
expected in so neglected a group—a large proportion of new species,
most of which are illustrated by clear structural figures. As several
forms are common to both sides of the Atlantic, Mr Gillette’s paper
will be useful to European workers. He unites several genera
which have hitherto been held distinct, not finding the differentiating
characters constant.

16 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 1898

NortH AMERICAN LAND SHELLS

“A CLASSIFIED catalogue with localities of the Land Shells of America
north of Mexico,” compiled by H. A. Pilsbry and C. W. Johnson, is
a small brochure of thirty-five pages, reprinted from The Nautilus.
The great advance in our knowledge of the true relationships of the
members of the great Helicoid group as brought about by Pilsbry’s
work has rendered the production of such a catalogue as this most
desirable, and one which will be greatly appreciated by all who are
interested in North American Land Mollusca ; whilst it further shows a
considerable increase in the known number of species from that region
since the last edition of Binney’s “ Manual,” which appeared in 1885.

Whether all these extra species, some seventy-five in number, will
ultimately prove valid, time alone can show ; but we confess to feeling
very sceptical about some. Certain species are acknowledged imports.

The grouping of the larger families does not strike one as alto-
gether happy or even natural. The insertion of the Agnatha between
the Holopoda and the Aulacopoda is especially unfortunate. We may
point out that Vitrea draparnaldi is a synonym of V. lucida (Drap.).

THE CONNOP COLLECTION OF BritisH BIRDS

East ANGLIA has long been famous for the richness of its ‘ Ornis,’
and the researches of the ornithologists who dwell within its borders
have contributed in no small degree to our knowledge of the birds
of Western Europe. Foremost among Norfolk naturalists of the
present day stand Mr J. H. Gurney and Mr T. Southwell; the
latter having completed the third volume of poor Stevenson’s
“Birds of Norfolk” in the most praiseworthy style. It is to the
zeal of these two gentlemen, and more especially to that of Mr
Southwell, that we are indebted for a precise history of the ornitho-
logical treasures to be studied at Rollesby Hall in the form of
a catalogue some sixty pages in length. Mr E. M. Connop of that
place is keenly interested in local zoology. During the last thirty
years he has used every opportunity of securing for his collection
the rarest birds procured by the Norfolk wildfowlers. How far his
efforts have been rewarded with success may be guessed from the
fact that he is the proud possessor of four local specimens of
the White-eyed Pochard (Vyroca ferruginea), two local examples of
the Gull-billed Tern (Sterna anglica); and three individuals of
Sabine’s Gull (Xema sabinii) obtained on the Norfolk coast. It is
satisfactory to know the exact whereabouts of such specimens as the
only examples of Pallas’ Warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus) and thé
Mediterranean Herring Gull (Larus cachinnans), that have been so
far detected within. the limits of the British Isles. Strange to say,
the Whooper Swan (Cygnus musicus) has not been included in this
fine series.

575 i
596

~I

A New Reading for the Annulate Ancestry of the
Vertebrata

HE question of the ancestry of the vertebrates being still
unanswered, anyone is at liberty to make suggestions. No
new facts seem to be forthcoming to enlighten us; we are driven
therefore to find new readings of the old. To those who scorn all
theorizing, and are content to wait until the new facts turn up, |
would suggest the following questions: Are we sure we have read
all that the old facts have to teach us? Have we arranged them
in every possible order, and are we competent to deny that they
ean yield us any clue to the solution of the problem ?

I ask these questions somewhat feelingly, because I have
recently lighted upon a new way of arranging the old facts, and
I propose to offer it to my fellow-zoologists for what it is worth.
This much, indeed, I claim for it, viz, that it shows a way of
escaping from at least some of the difficulties in the way of the
annulate origin of vertebrates. It provides us with another escape
from having to assume that the annulate ancestor, with its ventral
nerve-cord, turned over on to its back to become the vertebrate
with its dorsal nerve-cord; and it shows how the notochord and
neural plate, those most characteristic of all vertebrate structures,
might have been unsegmented from the beginning as secondary
developments within an originally seginented body. I propose, in
short, to show how the assumption of a primitive hirudinean as our
ancestral annulate enables us so to re-arrange the old facts as to bridge
over the gulf between the invertebrates and vertebrates with start-
ling ease. I do not affirm that our nearest invertebrate ancestor
was a hirudinean. I only wish to show how it is conceivable that
a primitive leech might have developed into a low vertebrate form
allied to the cy clostomes.

My attention was first directed to the hirudineans by the fact
that the embryonic muscles of cyclostomes and sharks are of the
same type as are the muscles of the leech. JI am well aware that
histological resemblances are in themselves of no value to morphology.
In this case the resemblance served to suggest the hirudineans as
the possible annulate ancestors of the cyclostomes. As_ is
well known, they, like the cyclostomes, have no appendages, no

B

18 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

setae, a rich secretion of slime by the epidermal cells, and a
somewhat similar method of feeding. It was this last fact which
definitely rivetted my attention. It is true that it appears trivial.
enough at first sight, but the longer it is considered, the more
weight does it seem to me to possess.

Described in general terms, both the leech and the cyclostomes
attack living prey by their mouths, and bite into it with buccal
teeth. I cannot recall a single other instance of this method of
feeding, the nearest approach to it being that of certain molluscs
which seize their prey with the radula. Elsewhere, we have limbs
modified into jaws in abundance, or pincers, or protrusible pro-
boscides shot out and drawn back with the prey adhering; or,
again, tentacles capture food, or simple cilia set up currents of
water and sweep particles of food into the mouth; but only in the
leeches and the lower vertebrates do we have, so far as I know, the
seizing of living prey in the manner described.

It may perhaps be remembered that I have already, on several
occasions, expressed my conviction that the profoundest morpho-
logical transformations leading to the rise of new groups of
animals can be traced to the adoption of new methods of
feeding. This appears to me such a self-evident proposition
that it ought to be almost unnecessary to repeat it, yet I am
not aware that it has ever been applied systematically except in
the two cases in which I have myself endeavoured to apply it.
My maiden zoological treatise? (apart from a small preliminary note)
was an endeavour to show that the primitive crustacean, whose
nearest existing relative is Apus, could be deduced from a chaetopod
annelid by its adoption of a browsing manner of life in such a way
that it could use its parapodia for pushing food towards and into its
mouth. I endeavoured to show that the new and richer food-supply
which this co-operation of limbs and mouth yielded gave rise to a
new race, which could be shown to include not only all the existing
Crustacea with their marvellous wealth of varied forms adapted to
almost every conceivable environment, but also the trilobites and
the Gigantostraca. The somewhat hostile reception accorded to
this little work (which, no doubt, for many subsidiary reasons, it
deserved), did not shake my conviction that the principle adopted
was sound, and that, in order to understand the essential morphology

1 One objection suggested to me is, that the proposition assumes the in-
heritance of acquired characters. On this point I have already stated my views
(Nature, vol. I., p. 546. 1894), but in the meantime it is worth asking whether it
really does assume anything of the kind. Say that new pastures call for a new method
of feeding, which, again, requires certain structural adaptations, can the rise of the
latter not be explained by a process of natural selection, the new requirements for
success in life weeding out all whose congenital variations were not in the required
direction? For my own part, I can see no difficulty in believing in inheritance. The

objection as to the absence of proof begs the question as to what is meant by proof.
The Apodidae. Nature Series. London: Macmillan & Co. 1892.

18998) ANNULATE ANCESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 19

of any group of animals, we must, if possible, discover the method
of feeding which caused the ancestral form to depart from its
congeners. Strong in this conviction, therefore, I made a special
comparative study of the Arachnida, extending over four years, and
ultimately endeavoured to show! that their peculiar morphology could
be explained in detail as an adaptation to their method of feeding.

It was therefore only natural that any suggestion, even the
faintest, as to what might have been the primitive method of feeding
of the ancestors of the vertebrates should lead me at once to see
whether the same principle could not be made to apply again.
Was it not possible to deduce the typical low vertebrate from a
hirudinean by a series of structural modifications resulting from a
further development of the leech-method of feeding? No one will
deny that such a possible solution was worthy of investigation,
even though he may not be so convinced as I am that morphology
is an aimless pursuit unless it go hand in hand with physiology.
Although most zoologists admit this latter as a pious opinion, in
practice it is too often ignored, as may be gathered from the fact
that every attempt to discover the ancestry of the Vertebrata,
with which I am acquainted, has been based solely on structural
similarities, while the functions of the structures themselves have
been treated in a most arbitrary fashion. For example: the
central nervous system of the Arachnida is said to have be-
come the central nervous system of the Vertebrata, with an
entirely different organism to be innervated. The intestine of the
king-crab is said to have been lost in the spinal cord of the
Vertebrata, and a new one has been provided; the sheath of a
protrusible proboscis is turned into the vertebrate notochord ; old
mouths may close and new ones open, and so on, Continuity of
function is apparently of very secondary importance, while similarity
of structure or of mere position relative to other organs is of prime
importance. I do not call this physiology and morphology going
hand in hand. It seems to me more like physiology being dragged
by the neck, while the morphologist demonstrates the perfection of
his structural resemblances. Hence, all the arguments to which we
have hitherto been accustomed have seemed to me from the first to
be hopeless. It is not alone to the discovery of similarities of
structure that we must look for clues to evolutionary progress, but
rather to the development of new functions in response to some
probably gradual change in the environment, these new functions
leading, whether by selection or inheritance, or both together, to
modifications of structure, subject always to the physical laws of
the environment.

1 “Comparative Morph. of the Galeodidae.”—Trans. Linnean Soc., vi., pp. 305-417,

189

lor)

20, NATURAL SCIENCE [July

In what follows, therefore, I propose to apply the last-named
method to the Hirudinea, and to enquire whether the structural
changes Which might be expected to follow from a further develop-
ment of their method of feeding would not transform them into Verte-
brata. [am quite aware that the argument itself may from first to last
be merely an academical discussion without direct value to Morpho-
logical science. But it has been suggested to me that merely as an
essay in Physiological adaptation, especially as it is here applied to
a ‘burning’ question, it may do good, by calling attention to this
method itself, and perhaps lead to useful discussion as to the sound-
ness of the principle and the extent of its applicability.

Let us then assume a race of hirudineans not yet so specialised
as our medicinal leech with its dorso-ventrally flattened body and
terminal sucker, probably a further specialisation of this flattening.
We will assume that they lived freely in the open sea, chasing their
prey with true serpentine motion, and attacking it with open mouths,
armed with buccal teeth. Let us assume that this method of
obtaining food was eminently successful, no very arbitrary assump-
tion, because we may, as a rule, assume that a new method of feed-
ing is adopted, because a rich and hitherto untapped food-supply
offers itself. Let us, then, consider how such animals as we have
pictured, viz., free-swimming rapacious leeches, might possibly de-
velop, given an abundant food-supply.

The first results would be growth in size, larger mouths and more
teeth These would lead to a very important change in the
character of the diet—viz., to the swallowing of a great deal of solid
food. Small animals would be gulped down whole, while lumps
would be torn out of larger ones too big to swallow. This change
would profoundly influence the alimentary system. Solid
food demands a slow passage down the alimentary canal while it is
being digested, and a full meal of such solid foods would entail a
great distension of the anterior section of the alimentary canal, the
ultimately differentiated stomach.

Now it seems to me that a swollen anterior portion of the
alimentary canal, heavy with solid food—and we have every reason
to believe that the full meal was a frequent occurrence—would
necessitate, besides the formation of a muscular stomach, other and
more profound changes in the organisation. In the paper above
referred to on the morphology of the Arachnida, I have endeavoured
to show that almost every detail of the organisation of that group of
animals has been profoundly modified by the necessity for adapta-
tion to the full-meal condition. Unlike our hypothetical hirudinean
ancestors, the Arachnida have never given up pure blood-sucking, and

1 The change from chitin to horn might be correlated with the change from the uni-
laminate to the multilaminate epidermis.

1898) ANNULATH ANCESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 21

to ensure the purity of the food have developed a beautiful variety
of sieves and strainers to prevent any solid matter from passing into
the alimentary canal. With this purely liquid food, they manage
to distend themselves almost to bursting, by a kind of force-pump
action of the oesophagus.. The effect of this distension of the
alimentary canal upon itself and upon the other organs of the body
can be made to explain all the more important structural pecu-
liarities and variations in the Arachnida. No single organ or
assemblage of organs has remained unaffected ; all have had to adapt
themselves or protect themselves. The whole form of the body has
been changed, limbs have aborted, and the respiratory and circulatory
systems have been profoundly modified. So obvious is this to any
one who studies the group from this point of view, that we are quite
justified in postulating modifications and adaptations of the organisa-
tion of our assumed hirudinean ancestor, not only to the full-meal
condition of its alimentary canal, but also to its more constant load
of solid lumps.

In the Arachnida, one necessary precaution was the protection
of the muscular and nervous apparatus against temporary incapacity
due to the distension of the alimentary system. This has been
brought about by a division of labour, one region of the body under-
taking the animal (locomotory and sensory) functions, the other the
vegetative and digestive functions. The arachnidan body accordingly
is divided transversely by a narrow waist or diaphragm ; the alimen-
tary canal in the posterior division can be distended to its utmost
limit without pressing at all on the anterior part. The question as
to which region should be the animal and which the vegetative was
naturally settled by the fact that the muscular apparatus of the
jaws and of the capturing limbs, and the ganglia of the great sen-
sory organs were already at the anterior end of the body.

Now I assume—and in this assumption lies my new reading of
the facts—that our supposed hirudinean had to undergo modifications
for precisely the same end, viz, the protection of the locomotor
functions from the alimentary. I again suggest that a division of
labour took place, the body dividing not transversely, as in the
Arachnida, but longitudinally, 7.c., into a dorsal and a ventral half ;
and then, that the dorsal half had to protect itself from the
ventral.

We will deal first of all with this assumed division of labour.
The weight of the distended abdomen pressing downwards upon the
primitive ventral nerve-cord and muscles would seriously affect
their working ; while, as some compensation for this loss of power,
the dorsal neuro-muscular system, on which at any rate the
pressure due to gravitation did not act, would be free to fulfil its
functions, and thus able to develop in order to meet the greater strains

22 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

put upon it, ze. 1f the assumed active life was to be maintained.
Such a division of the body is the only one which affords not only
direct continuity, but also the closest possible association, between
the dorsal neuro-muscular region and the great ganglia of the sensory
organs at the anterior end of the body. That such a division of
labour actually existed between the dorsal and ventral halves of the
primitive vertebrate body, the former being the muscular and
locomotor region while the latter was the vegetative region, is shown
by the transverse section through the middle of the body of a low
vertebrate.

This, then, is our fundamental hypothesis: that, as our annu-
late ancestors, rapacious hirudineans, grew in size, and developed
larger mouths and throats, a change of diet took place, in that small
animals and lumps of solid food were swallowed; further, that the
new burden thus thrown on to the system led to a division of labour
between the dorsal and ventral halves, the former tending to mono-
polise the neuro-inusecular functions, the latter the vegetative. When,
however, I refer to the transverse section through the trunk of a
vertebrate, and point to the fact that such a division of labour actu-
ally existed, I must not be thought to assert that this was brought
about in the manner described, only that it is conceivable that it
might have been so brought about. I assume that it has been so
brought about merely for the sake of showing that if this is granted
it would lead to further structural changes capable of transforming
our hirudinean into a vertebrate.

In all that follows, then, we have to keep before our minds our
soft-bodied vermiform ancestor with a longer or shorter anterior
section of his alimentary canal distended by lumps of solid food;
the weight of this food pressing downwards, the dorsal muscles would
be slightly easier than the ventral, which would be seriously incapaci-
tated; hence a possible cause for the gradual differentiation of the
two regions, the dorsal, as already stated, tending to take over the
animal, the ventral the vegetative functions.

Now it seems to me that the more highly differentiated the body
became in the direction suggested, the more necessary would it be
to protect the one division from the other. The primary division of
labour was supposed to be due to the constant weighting and periodi-
cal distension of the alimentary canal with solid food. The more
capacious the alimentary canal became — assuming its increased
development as it gradually acquired a region of its own— the
greater the possibility of distension. Thus the danger to the dorsal
region from being incapacitated by pressure from the ventral region
is not removed; it is rather increased, unless the two regions are
mutually protected from one another.

In the Arachnida, in which the distension is sometimes positively

1898) ANNULATE ANCESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 23

monstrous, the end is gained by a waist (or, as in Scorpio, a perforated
diaphragm, which is only a waist with the infolded external faces
fused together). From the arrangement of the muscles, it appears
that the narrow neck of this waist can be constricted when neces-
sary. No such method of protection, of course, is conceivable in the
case of the primitive vertebrates, in which a great part of the dorsal
region of the body had to be protected from the ventral half of the
same region. That protection was as necessary as it is in the case
of the arachnids, we may surely believe if the rotundity of the body
of the tadpole is any sort of repetition of the state of periodic dis-
tension of our early ancestors, although of course in the tadpoles
later modifications, such as the coiling of the intestine and the for-
ward movement of the vent, are already superposed.

The method of protection which actually was adopted—reading
now from the embryological record—seems to have been as follows.
A dorsal strip of the alimentary canal thickened and eventually
separated off as the functions of the canal demanded free play to
cope with the increasingly difficult digestive problems which the
developing mouth and teeth, in their quest of new things to devour,
continually sent down for solution. This thickening of a dorsal
strip of the alimentary canal may perhaps again be referred to the
downward pressure of the food at all times, whether the alimentary
canal was distended or not. The dorsal epithelium would only be
seriously pressed upon in the condition of actual distension, the
ventral would be subjected to pressure whenever there was any solid
food to rest upon it.

It is conceivable that this dorsal strip of endoderm might have
remained a protective plate if its sole function had been to screen
the neuro-muscular system from the distension and churning activity
of the alimentary canal. But, at the same time, it served another
and almost equally important purpose which led to its stiffening
longitudinally into an elastic rod. It is, indeed, horrible to con-
template the possible fate of our unfortunate ancestors if, while the
ventral half were fully distended with food, some sudden stimulus
compelled the dorsal half violently to contract, as we know the
modern leech can contract, to less than a quarter of its length. A
stiff rod along the back alone could avert such a catastrophe.
Hence I would suggest that the protective strip of endoderm
stiffened longitudinally as it was progressively differentiated from the
alimentary canal, and further, narrowed as it thickened, so as to
permit of free serpentine movements of the body. We may then
leave it as an elastic rod protecting on the one hand the spinal cord
—which, as we shall see, must have been concurrently developed—
from functional disturbance by the alimentary canal, and on the
other, the alimentary canal from possible mechanical injury due to

24 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

sudden contractions of the dorsal muscles. Its subsequent develop-
ment, as it became invested with cartilaginous and bony rings, is
already within the vertebrate domain.

The spinal cord.—Great muscular development is impossible
without corresponding nerve -development. Hence it seems to me,
if the division of labour here assumed is admitted, a nerve-strand
would develop down the middle between the muscular bands, not
necessarily as an altogether new structure but as a new condensation
of elements probably already present. I have always hitherto been
of the opinion that the embryological nerve-plate, which subsequently
forms the well-known groove and neurenteric canal, was the remains
of larval adaptations ; but from the point of view now suggested it
appears that the process might actually represent, in a very abbre-
viated form, the gathering together of the originally scattered nerves
which supplied the dorsal muscular region into a central strand for
more perfect co-ordination. Perhaps, also, since respiration in the
Hirudinea is effected solely by the skin, the neurenteric canal may
have been a temporary arrangement for aerating this important
nerve area as Sedgwick? and Van Wijhe? suggested long ago.
Be this as it may, the appearance of the spinal cord itself,
possibly as a new development of pre-existing elements, could be
considered as a natural consequence of the division of labour above
postulated. With regard to the great development of the anterior
portion of the spinal cord, the brain, we should not be far wrong if
we referred this to a great improvement in the organs of sense
required by the new race of swift, rapacious carnivores,

Concurrently with the development of this new nerve-cord, the
primitive ventral nerve-cord of the annulate would be slowly de-
generating, not only because of the transference of the chief muscular
activity to the dorsal region, but because the ganglionic chain itself
would be positively incapacitated from fulfilling its functions
not only by the periodical distension but by the more constant
pressure of the alimentary canal weighted with solid food. In
this comparatively simple manner, then, I suggest that the prob-
lem of the nerve-cords might be solved, and one of the difficulties
in the way of the annulate ancestry of the vertebrates be avoided.
Of course, it must remain a matter of opimion whether the
assumptions here made are really preferable to the (to my mind)
desperate hypothesis otherwise difficult to avoid, that our worm
ancestor turned over on to its back, that its ventral cord became our
dorsal cord, and- that its old mouth vanished and a new one
developed. |

Concurrently with these specialisations of the dorsal neuro-

1 Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc., iv., p. 825; 1883.
2 Zool. Anz., 1884, p. 683.

1898) ANNULATE ANUESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 25

muscular region, modifications would have been taking place in
the ventral vegetative region, always in adaptation to the new
functions of the alimentary canal. This canal, besides being greatly
distended periodically, would almost always be weighted with lumps
of solid food.

Within this ventral region we may suppose that, in addition to
the alimentary canal, we should have all the main trunks of the
circulatory system, the excretory organs (segmental nephridia) and
the genital bodies. Let us see how the new burdens which we
imagine to have been thrown on the alimentary canal might be
expected to affect not only these, but indirectly also the respiration,
which is always closely associated with the circulation.

The Circulatory System.—In the paper on the Arachnida
above quoted I have already given an outline sketch of the profound
changes which the method of feeding of the Arachnida has necessi-
tated in the circulation of the different arachnidan families. No
less striking should be the changes produced in the circulation of
the primitive vertebrate when a fully distended stomach pressed
against the developing notochord dorsally, while ventrally and
laterally it stretched the skin to its fullest extent. We are justified
in assuming that the principal blood-vessels of our hypothetical
hirudinean ancestor ran longitudinally. I suggest that the dis-
tended alimentary canal would seriously hinder the passage of blood
along these vessels, and we might expect a congestion both in front
of and behind the obstructing swelling of the alimentary canal. The
anterior congestion of the vessels is that which alone concerns us.
It would lead to their distension both transversely and longitudin-
ally, the latter distension being accompanied by some degree of coil-
ing. Itis further conceivable that at some portion of the congested
system a thickened muscular tunic would be developed to cope with
the difticulty, the thickening tunic perhaps involving the coils, so
that a specialised heart might be developed, capable of forcibly
pumping the blood past any such obstruction as the alimentary
canal could cause. That the anterior and not the posterior conges-
tion would give rise to the heart we may infer from its proximity to
the central nervous system, which would, doubtless, be in some way
connected with the muscles causing the pulsation of the primitive
vessels.

Respiration.——The intimate connection which exists between
the circulation and the respiration is so well established that it needs
no emphasis here. I call attention to it merely to show that, if the
mechanism of the circulation became localised, as suggested, at the
anterior end of the body, so the respiration would tend to be local-
ised near the heart. Here again the diffused cutaneous respiration
of the Hirudinea, with their capillaries even entering the epidermis,

26 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

might supply us with the possible conditions out of which the
breathing organs of the early vertebrates could have developed.
While the stretching of the ventral] and lateral skin by the dis-
tended stomach would hinder circulation in the areas thus affected,
the pulsing of the increasingly powerful heart would distend the
cutaneous vessels nearest to it, a¢., 1n the neck region. Hence a
possible origin of the external gills. At the same time, the rapid
swimming through the water with the mouth frequently, if not
always, open for the capture of prey, would keep an almost constant
supply of fresh water in the pharynx. Here, also, we should, on
account of its proximity to the heart, expect a subsidiary respiratory
surface to develop. The actual processes which would lead to the
union of the inner and outer respiratory surfaces by means of gill-
clefts, it is not easy now even to conjecture. The best suggestion
which occurs to me is, that they nay have been due to the well-
known principle of the increase of respiratory surface by plication,
which would inevitably bring the portions of the inner and outer
surfaces into increasingly close proximity. We can, however, readily
estimate some of the advantages of this development. The clefts
would insure a fresh stream of water through the pharynx, this
stream would aerate the posterior of the external gills, which, in
rapid swimming would be folded back against the body, and thus be
screened from the necessary contact with the medium by the anterior
gills. Lastly, the clefts afforded retreats into which all the external
gills ultimately withdrew, their presence on the exterior being a
hindrance to locomotion, and a source of danger in the event of
attack.

Excretion.—In the more primitive of the hirudineans, the
segmental organs (nephridia) are arranged laterally along each
side of the under surface of the body. It would of course be
imperative to protect these from all injurious pressure from the
distended alimentary canal. In order to escape this, their relative
position might have been changed, and changed in the following
way. The downward distension of the alimentary canal might be
expected to force the two rows of primitive nephridia apart until,
instead of lying laterally below the alimentary canal, they would
come to lie laterally above that organ. This, we might suppose,
would be the first change of position, brought about perhaps
mechanically and also perhaps partly physiologically, inasmuch as
the downwardly pressing intestine would permit a slightly freer
circulation above it than below it. A further change would take
place when the organs became concentrated behind the stomach ;
again, no doubt, in order still further to escape from pressure from
that organ.

The reproductive bodies.—There is no difficulty in under-

13983) ANNULATE ANCESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 27

standing how the same factors which concentrated the kidneys
behind the stomach would also assign the same place to the genital
bodies. In the Arachnida the genital bodies have to accommodate
themselves to the spaces left among the caeca of the alimentary
system.

The body-cavity.—There has hitherto been no satisfactory
reconciliation of the embryological facts that, while the neural plate
and notochord, the two most characteristic vertebrate structures, are
primitively unsegmented, apparently indicating an unsegmented
ancestral form, the body-cavity appears as a definite series of
coelomic cavities (e.g. in Amphioxus) apparently indicating equally
emphatically that the ancestral form was segmented. <A confusion
of types, if ever there was one! Now I make bold to suggest that
the assumed modifications here sketched supply us with a possible
solution. The series of archenteric cavities which, in our annulate
ancestors, encircled the body below the skin, were gradually pre-
vented, in the early vertebrates, from invading the dorsal region,
because that region in becoming secondarily specialised into a
neuro-muscular region, essential to the free life of the larva,
was developed as early as possible in the ontogeny. Hence, in the
embryo, the metamerism is confined to the vegetative region; its
invasion of the dorsal region is secondary, in that a gradual impress
is made upon the originally unsegmented notochord and on the
points of departure of the spinal nerves by the segmented muscles
and developing skeletal rings.

The moving forward of the anus and the coiling of the
alimentary canal—tThe periodic distension of the stomach, by
stretching the walls of the body, would tend to form a space into
which the rest of the alimentary canal would gradually withdraw,
simply from following the direction of least pressure. This process
might be furthered by the additional advantage to the animal of a
tail which could be used as a purely locomotory organ unhampered
by any other organs. For it is obvious, on the one hand, that a
rectum periodically charged with more or less solid faeces, the
residue of the solid matter swallowed, would seriously impede the
free movements of such a tail, while, on the other hand, the dis-
tension of the middle body, hindering the original serpentine motion
by which our annulate ancestors progressed through the water,
would lead to the necessity of gradually specialising the tail as the
chief organ of locomotion. The forward movement of the anus and
the coiling of the intestine would therefore be natural results of
this new differentiation of the body into a swollen anterior portion
and a flexible tail (cf the developing tadpole).

Before concluding, I wish again to emphasise the drift of this
article, which is simply to suggest a possible method by which the

28 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

eulf which separates the invertebrates from the lowest vertebrates,
the cyclostomes, can be bridged. I do not see how it is possible to
demonstrate either the strength or the weakness of the particular
bridge here sketched. It is enough if it is merely kept in mind as
a hypothesis, that is by those to whom it appeals. Beyond sug-
gesting this possible method of bringing about the more fundamental
morphological changes which transformed the invertebrate into the
vertebrate, the hypothesis does not profess to go; the subsequent
development of skeleton, limbs, jaws, teeth, &c., belongs to vertebrate
morphology as such.

One possible test, viz., that of direct transition forms, is entirely
lacking. If anything, however, this favours our argument. For
if there be any truth in our suggestion we could hardly expect to
find transition forms, at least certainly not fossilised, for such
hirudinean ancestors would naturally be soft-bodied, and, by the
time the notochord was developed in the manner sketched, they
would be no longer hirudineans but primitive cyclostomes.

One class of vertebrate, however, we do find, which is apparently
lower than the cyclostomes—Amphioxus and the Tunicata. Though
these have long been recognised as related to the vertebrates, their
position in the chain of evolution has been matter of endless con-
troversy, for the obvious reason that the order of the chain is not
known. It seems to me that the line of development from the in-
vertebrate hirudinean to the vertebrate cyclostome which is here
suggested would assign them a natural position. They are not true
links in the ascending chain, but forms which have branched off and
become differentiated, again, be it specially noted,in adaptation
to a new method of feeding. We postulated for our earliest
ancestors when they were just turning into vertebrates, an active
free-swimming life, catching and devouring food with gaping jaws,
and consequently with a stream of water flowing through the
pharynx and out at the gill-slits, kept up by rapid swimming
through the water. This constant stream of water through the
pharynx would carry along with it innumerable small particles of
food, which might with advantage be caught and turned down the
oesophagus. It seems probable that all the early vertebrates de-
veloped an organ for this purpose, the endostyle, the particles
perhaps attracted by and adhering to a slimy secretion which was
then worked by ciliary motion into the oesophagus. Now, either in
special regions where these small particles were unusually plentiful,
while larger prey requiring great exertions and the use of teeth was
scanty, or among very young forms not yet strong enough to attack
prey with mouth and teeth this passive method of feeding was
nearly sure to be adopted by a certain number of individuals as

1 The larval amphibian has acquired a browsing herbivorous diet.

1898) ANNULATE ANCESTRY OF THE VERTEBRATA 29

their normal method, and by becoming highly specialised may have
earried those who were otherwise on the upward path of vigour and
rapacity back into a quieter life. We may quite agree with Brooks
that the free-swimming tunicates show no sign of degeneration, that
is, judged by themselves, and we may admit their perfect adaptation
to their method of life; but, none the less, according to our areu-
ment, the line of their development leads to the sedentary tunicates.
Further, if there is any truth whatever in our sketch of the rise of
the notochord, we must believe that the ancestors of Appendicularia
once chased and seized prey with their buccal teeth, and swallowed
more or less solid food, leading to periodical distension of the
alimentary canal. All this has been lost; the seizing apparatus has
vanished, and the alimentary canal requires to put forth no further
serious digestive efforts, as the food-particles which dribble to it are
easily disposed of.

We should then perhaps have to regard Amphioxus and Appendi-
cularia as two distinct and separate offshoots from the advancing
army of the new race, in both cases enticed, as it were, on one side
to abandon the rapacious method of feeding for the easier and more
passive method above described.

I have already suggested that no fossil transition forms between
hirudineans and cyclostomes could be expected, and as a matter of
fact, on turning to palaeontology, we find that when the palaeozoic
vertebrates first appear they appear suddenly, as primitive fish without
jaws or paired limbs. Only one form, Palacospondylus of Traquair,
from the Old Red Sandstone, is claimed to have been a cyclostome
or lamprey. That only one such form is found, while the rest are
shark-like in shape with heavy armour, does not seriously affect our
argument. For we have no difficulty in assuming that the lamprey
with its unarmoured skin is more primitive than these shark-like
forms with their heavy defensive armour. Further, I should con-
clude that these armoured sharks implied the presence of un-
armoured forms, which for that reason have left no remains. I
should regard the armoured forms as having arisen as offshoots from
the active advancing race—offshoots which have retired to a more
peaceful life behind their secondarily acquired defences. I feel
obliged to assume that these armoured sharks were so far degen-
erate forms and were not the ancestors of the later unarmoured
true sharks, because I think that heavily-armoured creatures have
practically ceased to advance. According to the principles here
adopted, that the acquirements of new functions lead to structural
adaptations, we see that passivity, or even activity if limited to
narrow grooves, must be fatal to evolutionary progress. The
Gigantostraca which have died out, with the exception of the
stationary Limulus, are (pace Gaskell) examples of this. Further,

30 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 1898

when we picture to ourselves the nature of the altered character
in the struggle for existence which the new race introduced
with their swift movements, their gaping jaws and pointed teeth,
it is not astonishing that some forms should develop armour, even
at the risk of degeneration. On these points, however, we may
hope for further light from palaeontological research.

This, then, brings my argument to a close. J am aware that
many of the points might have been more elaborately treated, but
enough, I think, is contained in this sketch to serve all present
purposes. The argument is quite clear, and so far as I can see
consequential. What it is worth is another matter. I, for one,
suspend my judgment.

Henry M. BERNARD.

STREATHAM, S. W.

580.(42.23) aol

II
Botanical Work Wanting Workers

HE field for investigation in botanical work is so extensive and
increases so rapidly every year,as new discoveries open up new
vistas of possible knowledge, that it will, doubtless, have been taken
for granted that the title of this paper can refer only to those
branches of the subject in which this Association is especially inter-
ested, viz., the flora of the four South Eastern Counties. Of these
four counties I have limited myself to the County of Kent, as being
the one with which I am most familiar, and as best serving my pur-
pose, although the following remarks will probably apply with equal
force to the other counties.

An examination of the various county floras that have already been
published shows that the flowering plants have, as a rule, received uch
more attention than the cryptogams, and that in very few instances
have adequate county lists of Mosses, Lichens, Fungi, or Algae
been published. Such as have appeared are usually imperfect in
one or other of the groups, especially as regards dates and localities,
the Mosses and Fungi being generally those best represented. It
is therefore this branch of botanical work which specially needs
workers, and to which I wish to direct particular attention. A
Flora of Kent is, I understand, now going to press, but includes at
present only the flowering plants.

About twenty years ago an attempt was made to collate the
various cryptogamic lists existing in small local floras, or in pub-
lished reports of Kentish Natural History Societies, and to render
them as complete as possible by further personal investigations. The
results obtained were published by myself, so far as the mosses, scale-
mosses, and lichens were concerned, in the Journal of Botany for 1877
and 1878, and my friend Mr T. Howse kindly undertook to add to
and complete the manuscript list of Fungi, which I had in prepara-
tion. He subsequently published it in the same journal in
1879. But the marine and fresh-water Algae still remain to be
worked out. The object in publishing these lists, in their admittedly
incomplete state, was to induce isolated workers in different parts
of the county to contribute such information as they might have
accumulated. But except by those who were already working at

* A paper read before the S.E, Union of Scientific Societies, meeting at Croydon, on
June 4, 1898.

32 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

the subject, and who since 1879 have found many of the species
which were expected to occur, very few additional observations have
been published. But it is hoped that the impetus given of late
years to microscopic work will result in more naturalists directing
their attention to this undeveloped side of county floras.

It may perhaps serve a useful purpose to direct attention, under
the different groups of Cryptogams, to the work that still remains to
be done in Kent, and to mention under each, the districts that have
not yet been searched, so far as I am aware, and which are therefore
most likely to repay investigation.

1. Mosses.—Since 1879 twenty-seven species have been found
new to the county, but there still remain a number which have been
suggested as likely to occur in Kent, since most of them have been
found in the neighbouring counties of Surrey, Sussex, or Hamp-
shire. There are, however, some parts of the Weald of Kent,
especially those on the Sussex border, which have not been fully
explored, but which may yield some of the moorland species. This
is evident from the recent researches of Sir James Stirling, who has
added several species to the county flora from the neighbourhood of
Goudhurst. The mosses yet unrecorded are those likely to oceur on
hilly woods and moorlands, rocky shores, damp sand-rocks, and damp
sand-hills near the sea.

The shores of Kent, between Dover and Deal, and the sand
dunes on the east coast, as well as the marshes on the north coast
of the county, may be expected to yield several species. This part
of Kent, as well as the parks and woods about Canterbury, and
between Ashford and Appledore, and in the neighbourhood of Cran-
brook and Hawkhurst, and between Maidstone and Chatham and
Sittingbourne, and between Wye and Folkestone, have not, I believe,
been thoroughly explored, and would probably furnish other species.

The best time to search for.mosses is from September to May,
choosing as a rule damp days after showers, when the foliage is
expanded. (A list of the species likely to occur in Kent is appended
to this paper.)

2. Scalemosses.—tThe species unrecorded for the county are
chiefly those which grow on damp sand-rocks and in boggy woods,
and these also must be looked for near the Sussex boundary, or in
the neighbourhood of Ashford. The best time of the year to search
for them is from February to April. (A list of those that may
possibly be found in Kent is given below.)

3. FungitThe number of species of Fungi occurring in Kent
is comparatively large, but several parts of the county, particularly
the districts alluded to under mosses, still need exploration. The
groups which are still very badly represented are the Myxomycetes
and Gasteromycetes, and some groups of the Coniomycetes, Hypho-

1898] BOTANICAL WORK WANTING WORKERS 33

mycetes, and Ascomycetes, especially the Tuberacei. (A list of
these groups is appended.)

The best time of year to search for Fungi is undoubtedly from
July to November, although some may be found during the rest of
the year.

The Tuberacei are probably neglected because very little indi-
cation of their presence underground is to be observed except by the
eye of an expert. On digging up the mould under oak and fir trees
their presence may sometimes be detected when the dead leaves are
scraped away, by the appearance of a mycelium on the top of the
soil, but more easily perhaps by the fact that the mould when dug
up exhibits here and there firmer masses, due to its being com-
pacted together by the nearly invisible mycelium, and these lumps
when broken open show the more or less globular fungi inside.

4, Lichens.—tThe Lichen flora of the county is by no means
exhausted. The subalpine and alpine species are those in which the
county flora is naturally deficient, although singularly enough the
gravel beach at Lydd, which is only a few feet above the sea level,
furnishes a larger number of subalpine species than any other part
of the county. Species which in Devon and Cornwall occur on the
borders of Dartmoor are here scattered over small prostrate bushes
which, dwarfed by the rough winds that sweep over the level ground
of Romney Marsh, rarely reach more than a foot and a half in
height.

The other groups that are not well represented are those which
might be expected to occur on limestone walls and old ruins and on
aged trees in parks. The limestone district of the Lower Greensand
and the wooded districts alluded to under mosses, are those most
likely to furnish species new to the county.

As a rule wooded districts a few miles from the sea are the
richest for lichens, especially in damp valleys and on isolated trees
exposed to the light and air. Oak trees in particular are furnished
with a great number of species. Within a radius of about twenty
miles from London, lichens are, as a rule, imperfectly developed, the
smoke of towns being particularly detrimental to their growth.
Where lichens are abundant, as a rule, the 8.W. side of a tree is
the richest, and the S.W. side of the county is likely to yield more
than the eastern.

5. Marine Algae.—No list of the marine algae of the county
has been published so far as I am aware. Mr J. T. Neeve of Deal
has explored the neighbourhood of that town with remarkable
success, having detected a species new to science, Gonimophyllum
Buffhami,as yet found nowhere else, although the seaweed Weto-
phyllum laceratum, upon which it is a parasite, is quite a common
species on the English coast. The neighbourhood of Folkestone

c

S34 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

and Sandgate has been explored by Mr J. Cosmo Melvill and
myself, but the rest of the coast is, I believe, entirely unexplored.
Only about 110 species out of more than 750 British species have
as yet been found in the county, although at least 500 of the British
species might reasonably be expected to occur. The richest places
are, as a rule, muddy estuaries, the open sea where streamlets run
into it, Zostera beds, and rocks exposed at low water. Also places
where two tides meet, as at Whitstable. The shells dredged by
fishermen often have deep-water species attached to them.

The limit of the northern species on the east coast of England
still needs accurate determination, one of these, Monostroma Blyttii,
having been found as far south as Deal. On the western coast
several of these have been traced as far south as Anglesea, but on
the eastern coast, where the influence of the Gulf Stream is far less
felt, they might be expected to extend further south, and the coast
of Kent might furnish important data on this point.

That this group of plants affords an excellent field for work is,
I think, evident froin the fact that a small band of British algolo-
gists, less than half a dozen in number, have succeeded in nearly
doubling the number of British species known in 1851, raising
them from 400 to about 750 in 1898. This has been done, chiefly,
by searching for the species known on the adjacent shores of
Norway and France, but not in England. The majority of these
have been found in England and Scotland, but several deep-water
species yet remain to be discovered.

6. Fresh Water Algae.—A few local lists of fresh-water
algae, including diatoms and desmids, have been published, but
these only furnish a very small proportion of the possible number
of species that should occur in Kent. The best localities for search
are the brackish and fresh-water marsh ditches from Gravesend to
Pegwell Bay, and those around Minster near Canterbury, also the
ponds and ditches of the Weald and Gault, and the springs issuing
from the Chalk hills. The military canal near Hythe and the
ditches in Romney Marsh should afford many species. Spring and
autumn are, as a rule, the best time to collect them. In summer
the growth of aquatic plants is often so luxuriant that many species
are hidden. :

It is necessary also for the collector to remember that many
species, such as Spirogyra, which are not easily determined except
when in fruetification, often assume, when in that state, a yellowish
tint that would suggest decay and perhaps prevent their collection.

Hitherto I have spoken only of the work to be done in the
county of Kent, but much of the same kind of work requires to be
done in the other three counties.

I may perhaps take this opportunity to direct attention to

1898] BOTANICAL | WORK WANTING WORKERS 35

another class of work which badly needs careful workers. I allude
to the life-history of Algae, both marine and fresh-water, but
particularly the latter. We know but little of the changes that
take place between the time that they disappear and reappear again.
We do not even know whether some of the Algae are not merely
stages of growth of others. ‘This is especially true of those plants
in which only vegetative growth and reproduction are known, and in
which sexual reproduction is unknown. Anyone who would take
the trouble to cultivate such plants as Porphyridiwm, Chroococcus,
Oscillaria, Tetraspora, and Schizogonium, and reveal their life-history
throughout the year, would add very considerably to our knowledge.
This would not be a difficult task to those residing in the country
who could check results obtained under cultivation by observations
made in the localities where the plants flourish. Those who reside
near the sea might attempt to solve some of the problems that are
still attached to some of the commonest marine Algae. A micro-
scopical examination once a month or once a fortnight during the
year might result in finding the cystocarps of Rhodymenia palmata,
the unknown tetraspores of some of the species of Phyllophora, and
Ahnfeltia plicata, of Gigartina mamillosa, or of the rarer Bonne-
maisonia, and Sphaerococcus, also the fructification of Sphacelaria
scoparia, which, so far as is known, has never been found in this
country.

The cultivation of the common Laminariae from spores might
also throw some light on the life-history of these remarkable plants.

A list of the species of British Marine Algae in which certain
forms of the fructification are unknown, is given in the Annals of
Botany, vol. v., November 1891, No. xx.

Other branches of botanical work to which attention might be
directed are :—

(1) The relation of the distribution of plants to water-sheds,
geological formations, and chemical constituents of the
soil, drainage, land carriage, agricultural seeds, and other
causes.

(2) The special means by which different mosses rarely found
in fructification are propagated and distributed.

(3) The rate of growth of different species of lichens.

(4) The relation of Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes, and
other plants, to the roots of special trees or plants.

(5) The spread of parasitic fungi, injurious to plants, from wild
plants to cultivated species of the same genus.

The list of the species of mosses and scale-mosses which should
be looked for in Kent is here given. The list of the species of the
Lichens and Fungi is not given, but only the names of the groups
that are least represented, but plants of which are most likely to be

36 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

found, since it is impossible to state with any degree of certainty
the species that might occur.

E. MorELL HOLMES.
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY’s MUSEUM.

APPENDIX
MOSSES

Sphagnaceae—
Sphagnum subsecundum var. auri-

culatum,
S. squarrosum var.
S. molle var. Mulleri,
g > Bogs.
S. cuspidatum var. plumo-
sum, :
S, strictum, .
S. laricinum,

Polytrichaceae—

Polytrichum gracile, .

Buxbaumiaceae—

Diphyscium foliosum,

Dicranaceae—

*

Seligeria recurvata,
Brachyodus trichodes, .
Ceratodon conicus,
Dicranum spurium,
Ditrichum tortile, :
Campylopus brevipilus,
C. longipilus,
C. subulatus,

Fissidentaceae—

Fissidens rivularis,
he crasstpes,

Grimmiaceae—

Grimmia orbicularis, .
Campylostelium saxicola,

Tortulaceae—

Acaulon triquetruin,
Barbula spadicea,
Cinclidotus riparius, .
Pottia asperula, .

SP crinita,

lit viridifolia,

IZ Wilsoni, .
Tortula atrovirens,

Peaty heaths.

Shady sand rocks.

} Sandstone boulders in damp woods.

5

Walls or banks.
Boggy heaths.
Stone pits in the weald.

Boggy heaths.

Damp sandy roadsides.

Under overhanging rocks in stream.
Limestone wallsnear, oronstones in, streams.

Limestone walls.
Shaded sandstone boulders.

On the top of cliffs near the sea.
Caleareous stones in or near streams.
Sides of rivers on woodwork.

Ledges on sea-cliffs.

ee angustata, High exposed banks.

Le canescens, Ledges on sea-cliffs.

LAs ruraliforimis, . Sandy shores.

ape Vahliana, Damp chalky or calcareous banks.

Trichostomum tortwosum, Limestone banks and walls, in hilly districts,
Orthotrichaceae—

Orthotrichum obtusifolium, . Roots of trees.

0. pallens, .

a pulchelluan, Trunks of trees.

, pumilum,

0. Schimpert,

Funariaceae—

Ephemerum cohaerens,

Moist banks.

E. sessile, Fallow fields.
Funaria calearea, Limestone banks.
EF. microstoma, . Damp depressions on heaths.

1898]

Bartramiaceae—
Bartramia stricta,

Bryaceae—
Orthodontiwm gracile,
Webera Tozeri, .
Bryum Warneum,
calophyllum, .
Marrattii,
lacustre,
inclinatumy
uliginoswiny
: obconicum,
Mniwmn riparium,
M.,. subglobosum, .

by By Sy by by bs

Hypnaceae—

Cylindrotheciwi concinnum,

Pylaisia polyantha, .

Brachytheciwm campestre,

B. salebrosum,
Eurhynchium speciosum,
Ainblystegium varium,

A. Kochii,
Hypnwin imponens, : j
giganteum, . 0 :

BOTANICAL WORK WANTING WORKERS 37

Upland hedge banks.

Rotten tree stumps and sand-rocks.
Damp clayey shady banks.

-Damp sandhills near the sea.

Walls.

Damp banks and bogs.

Heaths.

Tree-stumps often submerged by streams.
Bogs and marshes.

Chalk hills.
Tree trunks.

\Damp stony fields and tree-roots.

Damp shaded stones and tree roots. .
Damp trunks of trees.

Marshy meadows.

On bare places on damp heaths.
Bogs.

The names here given are those adopted in the Students’ Handbook of British

Mosses by Dixon and Jameson,

LICHENS

The following genera are those which are but slightly represented as yet in the
Kentish Flora, but what might be expected to afford new species for the county. At
present 181 species, exclusive of varieties, have been recorded.

Collemei—
Collema.
Collemopsis.
Leptogiwin.

Caliciei—
Sphinctrina.
Trachylia.

Cladodei—
Boeomyces.
Cladonia.

Parmeliei—
Parmelia.
Squamaria,
Placodium.

Lecanorei—
Lecanora.
Lecideinei—
Lecidea.
Graphidiei—
Lithographa.
Graphis.
Opegrapha.
Arthonia.
Pyrenocarpei—
Endocarpon.
Verrucaria.

The majority of the genera mentioned are likely to afford only one or two new
species for the county, but the genera Lecanora, Lecidea, Arthonia, and Verrucaria
might afford a considerable number to a careful observer.

SCALEMOSSES

Lejeunia Mackaii,

L. calyptrifolia, .
Porella pinnata, :
Ptilidium ciliare,. ;
Trichocolea tomentella, .
Cephalozia catenulata, .

C. multiflora,
C. curvifolia,
é. Francisci,
C. jluitans,
C. Sphagn,
C. denudata,
C. Turneri,

Scapania resupinata,
Aplozia gracillima,
As lanceolata,

Tree trunks.

Furze stems and rocks.

Trunks and stones occasionally submerged,
Heaths.

Damp woods.

Sand rocks.

Shady banks or woods.

Damp rotting prostrate trunks.
Damp heaths.

Bogs.

Or Sphagnum.

Damp sand-rocks.

Ditch banks or loamy or clayey sand.
Shaded rocks.

Damp loamy banks.

Dripping sand-rocks.

38

NATURAL SCIENCE

Aplozia riparia, .
Jungermannia 1 ‘yeopodioides, S
J.

Ne
J.

baibata . :
porphyroleuca,
bicrenata,

Saccogyna viticulosa,

Nardia adusta,
N. ~ Funck ii, ;
NN. hyalina,

Fossombronia caespitifor "mis,
Petalophyllum Ralfsii, .
Pallavicinia Lyellii,

Aneuria palmata,
Aneuria latifrons,

Dumortiera irrigua,
Targionia hypophylla,
Ricciocarpus natans,
Sphaerocarpus terrest is,

[July 1898

On the sides of subalpine streams.

- Clayey banks.

Shady banks.

On damp mossy banks.

On banks in woods.

On damp shady banks of cuttings.
Shaded sandstone rocks,

On heathy soil or stony woods.
Growing in sphagnum.

Damp ground in fields or woods.
In damp hollows of sand dunes.
Dripping sand rocks.

On dead trees in damp woods.

On naked ground near streams.
On shaded banks of streams.

On earthy ledges of rocky hedge banks.
Floating in marsh ditches.

In clover fields.

The names here given are those adopted in Cooke’s ‘‘ Handbook of British Hepa-
ticae.” Most of the species mentioned are likely to occur in the S.W. or central parts
of the county in wooded hilly districts, especially where Greensand rock or clayey sand

occurs.

Hymenomycetes:

Auricularini—
Cyphella.

Clavariei—
Typhula.
Pistillavia.

Gasteromycetes—

Octaviana.
Melanogaster.

Hymenogaster.
Myxogastres—

Diderma.
Didymium.
Physarum.
Badhania.
Stemonitis.
Trichia.
Licea.

Coniomycetes—

Phoma.

Leptothyrium.

Sphaeronenca.
Sphaeropsis.
Diplodia.
Hendersonia.

Vermicularia.

Septoria.
Excipula.
Asteroma.
Discella.
Corynewmn.
Myxosporiwin.
Gloeosporiunr.

Sporidesmiuwin.

Puccinia.

FuNGI

Podisoma.
Trichobasis.
Uromyces.
Lecythea.
Ustilago.
Hyphomycetes —
Isavia.
Pachnocybe.
Stilbum.
Tubercularia.
Fusariwn.
Dendryphium.
Helméinthosporium.
Cladosporium.
Dactyliun.
Sporotrichum.
Fusisporium.
Ascomycetes—
Pezizu.
Tympanis.
Cenangium.
Stictis.
Ascomyces.
Tuberacei, all the genera—
Lhytisma.
Hysterium.
Hypocrea.
Hypony!.
Valsa.
Dothidea.
Stigmatea.
Nectria.
Sphaeria.
Erysiphe.

The names here given are those adopted in Cooke’s ‘‘ Handbook of British Fungi.”

An excellent monograph of the British Gasteromycetes, by Mr Geo. Massee, has been
published in the Annals of Botany, vol. iv.,

pp- 1-103.

597.55(53.1) 39

Il
The Goldfish and. other Ornamental Fish of Japan

HE goldfish or Kingyo is supposed to have been introduced to

Japan from China; but the Japanese varieties, so far as I know,

differ greatly from those now found in China, so that the introduc-

tion of this pretty fish into Japan, if it really was introduced, must
have been effected in a very remote past.

The goldfish is a favourite ornamental fish throughout the empire
of Japan. There are many large culture ponds in the warmer part
of the empire. Famous places for the culture of goldfish are Tokyo,
Osaka, and Koriyama. The most beautiful fancy fish may be found
in Tokyo and Osaka, usually in the aquaria of amateurs. Great
pains is taken to select those which have beautiful colours, pretty or
singular forms, and graceful motion. Of course, differences of taste
govern the selection in different localities and in different times.
However the general principles of selection are fairly constant, and I
am inclined to believe that the taste of Osaka is always best. Now
I shall state the chief characters that qualify a fish to be regarded
as choice, and then shall give short descriptions of the principal
varieties of goldfish found in Japan.

A choice fish should possess the following characters :—the lips,
nostrils, circumference of the eyes, operculum, and fins ought to have
colours, 7.e., people wish to have fish the extreme parts of which are
all coloured, the remaining portions of the body may remain colour-
less; but when small colour-spots are evenly distributed over the
body, when the hinder portion of the body is coloured, or when the
head is coloured, the fish is thought to be much more beautiful. As
for the colour of the fins the deeper it is the better.

The fins ought to be large, delicate, but rather stiff, not falling
into folds like a withered flower. Moreover they ought not to pre-
vent the free locomotion of the fish.

The caudal fin should be three-pointed, 7.c., somewhat triangular
in shape or lozenge-shaped, not divided at the median line. It
should be well expanded and rather erect. The anal fin ought to
be laterally divided into two lateral equal portions.

The movement must be graceful. A fish which cannot keep its
longitudinal axis of the body horizontal is considered inferior. The
body should be plump and have an outline of beautiful curves. And
the fish must be healthy. The fish represented in Figs. 1 and 2 are
very fine, while those represented in Figs. 3 and 4 are common
and inferior.

The variety which is considered to be most graceful is known by

40 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

the name of Maruko, Chosen, or Ranchi (Fig. 1). The body is short,
yound, or sometimes ovoid. It is not compressed laterally, the
dorsal median part being flat. Scales few and irregular in number,
and large in size. The head is large, short and round, and some-
times has many warts on it, as in the following variety. The dorsal

fin is wanting, while the caudal fin is very large. The eyes are also
large. This variety does not attain a large size, seldom exceeding
six inches in the total length. It is very weak, so that great care
is required for its culture.

Next in beauty and fancy is the variety known by the name of
Shishigashira, Onaga, or Oranda (Fig. 2). This variety is char-
acterised by the short and ovoid body, the presence of many warts
on the head, and enormous development of the fins. The caudal
fin is especially well-developed, being longer than the body. It is

1898] THE GOLDFISH OF JAPAN 4]

said that this variety was produced about fifty years ago in Osaka
by crossing the preceding variety with the next variety. The fish
of this variety attains the length of about one foot. It is more
hardy than the preceding variety and is easy to keep. There is a
subvariety called Hiroshima, the peculiarity of which is the
presence of a large prominent wart on each side of the snout.

When special attention is not paid to the rearing of the fish, warts
do not come out at all.

Next comes the variety called Rakin or Nagasaki (Fig. 3). The
body is elongated and laterally compressed, the head pointed, the
caudal fin very large, the other fins normal in size, and the anal fin
generally paired. This variety does not attain a large size, only

about the size of Maruko (Variety 1). But it is very hardy. It is
not so much esteemed as the preceding two varieties, and con-
sequently small pains are taken in its selection.

The fourth variety is called Wakin. It is the common goldfish,

42 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 1898

the least specialized form (Fig. 4). The body is very much
elongated and compressed laterally, the scales are small and the
fins normal. The anal fin is sometimes paired, sometimes not.
The caudal fin sometimes is not divided laterally. This is the
most hardy variety, and attains a length of one foot or more.

The above-mentioned four varieties are the principal kinds
of goldfish in Japan. Of course there are many intermediate
forms and subvarieties. The colours of the fish are generally
crumson, red, vermilion, yellowish, and golden-yellow. Sometimes
we find fish with the colour and lustre of iron.

The so-called ‘ Telescope-fish’ is not a Japanese variety, but was
introduced from China, after the war with that country.

As the coloured markings in the goldfish are considered as the
most important element of beauty, some culturists Invented a way
of bleaching some parts of the coloured portion and so increasing
the beauty of the fish. This is done by the application of a fine
brush, soaked in a dilute solution of a chloride or chlorides, to those
surfaces of the body that they wish to bleach. This must be done
after completely absorbing the moisture from the spot. By this
method you may obtain fish with signs, letters, or characters bleached
out in the coloured portion of its. body.

To keep choice goldfish large aquaria or ponds are necessary.
Small aquaria, running water, and cold water are not good for
goldfish. To keep a pair of the adult ‘goldfish, an aquarium should
contain at least eight gallons of water.

Besides the goldfish, the goldcarp, the silver-cheeked carp, and
the golden Medaka are also reared as ornamental fish.

The goldearp or Higoi is generally kept in large ponds. It is
very hardy and attains a length of two or three feet. There are
different colours in this fish: brown, golden yellow, vermilion,
pinkish, white, or variegated with black and red spots. This is a
variety of the common carp, and in Japan it almost always forms a
proportion of the embryos hatched out from the spawn of the latter.
The flesh of the goldcarp is far inferior to that of the common carp
and is not good for food. Though the goldcarp prefers rather
muddy and still water, it thrives also in clear water.

The silver-cheeked carp or Hokin is also a variety of the
common carp. It is a very pretty fish, brown or greyish in colour,
and has the cheeks with silver-like lustre. It does not attain a
large size, being generally less than one foot in total length. This
variety is not common, and is found only in Koriyama.

The golden Medaka belongs to a variety of Fundulus sp., and is
only about one inch in total length. It is generally yellowish or
light vermilion in colour, and being hardy is suitable for keeping in
small aquaria as a children’s pet. K. KISHINOUYE.

IMPERIAL FISHERIES BurEAv, TOKYO.

595.18 43
591.16

IV

The Progress of Research on the Reproduction
of the Rotifera

F the numerous problems presented by the Rotifera, none are
more important than those connected with the complex
reproductive relations of these animals. The extreme degree of
sexual dimorphism, and the prevalence of parthenogenesis to the
probable exclusion, in some cases, of sexual reproduction, are striking
features which, while not without parallel in other groups, ‘ean
nowhere be more conveniently studied. In spite however of the
great amount of attention which has been directed to the group,
many points in their life-history are still obscure, while some of
the most fundamental facts have only recently been definitely
ascertained.

In Ehrenberg’s great work on the Infusoria (1), from which our
exact knowledge of the group may be said to date, the Rotifera are
described as hermaphrodite, the convoluted excretory tubules having
been mistaken for the testes and their ducts. While it was soon
recognised by other observers that these structures had nothing to
do with reproduction, the view that the rotifers were hermaphrodite
appeared to be confirmed by Kolliker’s (2) discovery of spermatozoa
within the body-cavity of Megalotrocha. Since the ovary and oviduct
are completely shut off from the body-cavity, it seemed obvious that
these spermatozoa must have originated where they were found, and
indeed Kolliker described them as developing from nucleated cells
in the body-cavity. The first known male rotifer was described in
1848 by Brightwell (8) in the species afterwards named in his
honour Asplanchna brightwelli. In the following year the same
species was made the subject of a careful monograph by Dalrymple
(4), who recognised the complete absence of the alimentary system
in the male. In 1857 P. H. Gosse, in a well-known paper (7),
described the males of ten species and indicated their probable
existence in several other forms belonging to distinct families of
the Rotifera. He affirmed the dioecious character of the group as
a whole, and compared the degraded anenterous males with those of
the Cirripedia which had then recently been described by Darwin.
In 1897 C. F. Rousselet (27) gave a list of nearly one hundred
species in which the male forms were known, and the number has
since been added to by Weber (29) and others.

dd NATURAL SCIENCE [July

While in the great majority of these cases the male differs from
the female not only by his much smaller size but also in the want
of an alimentary canal and of the characteristic rotiferan mastax,
four species are now known where this difference in structure
between the two sexes does not exist. In the very aberrant
genera Seison (9) and Paraseison (14), which live as ectoparasites
on Nebalia, the male differs from the female only in the reproductive
organs. To these have recently been added the cases of Rhinops
vitrea (Rousselet 27) and Notommata wernecki (Rothert 26,
Rousselet 28), the latter being also a parasitic form living in
curious gall-like excrescences on the alga Vaucheria. In the last-
named rotifer the males are only to be distinguished from young
females by very careful examination. While males are now known in
very many genera belonging to nearly all the families of the Rotifera,
a notable exception occurs in the case of the family Philodinidae,
of which, as yet, only females are known. Mr Rousselet (27)
suggests that possibly, as in the case of Notommata wernecki, the
males of this family may have been overlooked from their resem-
blance to the females. He notes that ‘ resting-eggs’ (the association
of which with the occurrence of males will be referred to below)
have been identified with more or less certainty by Janson (22) and
Bryce in one or two species of Callidina. It must be remembered
however that the Philodinidae have developed to the highest degree
a method of resisting drought alternative to that afforded by the
resting-eggs, namely, the encystment of the adult animals, and also
that exclusively parthenogenetic reproduction is not unknown in
other groups of animals (¢g., Ostracoda and Cladocera). It is,
therefore, by no means impossible that the male sex may really
be non-existent in many of the species composing this family. Of
the difficulty attending the search for male rotifers we have a
striking example in the case of Stephanoceros, where the recent
discovery of the male (25) followed at an interval of not less
than 130 years that of the familiar and conspicuous female.

The great activity of the male rotifers as compared with the
females is a characteristic feature, not only in those forms where the
females are sedentary (Rhizota), but even in the case of the most
powerful swimmers among the Ploima. In Brachionus, Hudson and
Gosse (18) describe the male as leading “a brief life of restless
energy, now darting from place to place so swiftly that the eye can
scarcely follow it, and now whirling round as if anchored by its
curved foot and penis. It often circles round the female, attaching
itself now here, now there, and forcing its companion to waltz round
and round with it, from the top of the phial to the bottom.” In
these circumstances it is a matter of great difficulty to observe the
actual process of coition. Brightwell only speaks of seeing the

1898] REPRODUCTION OF THE ROTIFERA 45

male Asplanchna “ attached to the side of the female,” and though
Dalrymple refers to the “intromission of the male organ into the
vaginal canal,” it would appear that this was rather an inference
than an observation. Gosse however observed and described the
process of impregnation by the cloaca in Brachionus. Cohn (6)
observed in Hydatina the males adhering to any part of the body of
the females. He found spermatozoa in the body-cavity of the latter,
and recognizing the improbability of their having reached that
position by way of the cloaca, he was led to suspect the existence of
a special copulatory pore in the region of the neck. He was unable,
however, to demonstrate any such aperture. In 1885, Plate (12),
investigating the same species, stated that impregnation took place
by the penis of the male perforating at any point the body-wall of
the female and injecting the spermatozoa into the body-cavity. <A
similar process had previously been described by Lang (11) in
certain Polyclad Turbellarians ; and it is now known to occur in
several other groups of ‘ worms,’ notably in certain Hirudinea where
it has been investigated by Whitman (20). The last-named writer
names the phenomenon “ hypodermic impregnation,” and gives a full
summary of previous observations on its occurrence in other groups.’
M‘Murrich has since adduced evidence to show that it occurs even
in certain Isopod Crustacea. Plate’s account, though doubted by so
great an authority on the Rotifera as Dr Hudson, has been confirmed
by Maupas, whose important researches will be referred to below.
It is not yet clear, however, in what way the unarmed penis of the
male can perforate the tolerably resistant cuticle of the female; nor
can it be doubted that hypodermic impregnation is by no means
universal among the Rotifera, for cloacal coition has been seen by
many observers, and has been figured by Weber (15) in Daglena
catellina.

In several species, Ehrenberg described, besides the more usual
thin-shelled ‘ summer’ eggs, thick-shelled ‘ winter’ eggs, which only
hatched after a long resting-period. Huxley, studying these in
Lacinularia (5), applied to them the name ‘ephippial’ eggs
on the analogy of the similar structures so named among the
Cladocera. He, however, fell into the error of regarding them
as multicellular buds like the ‘ gemmules’ of sponges or the ‘ stato-
blasts’ of Polyzoa. Cohn was the first to offer what has since been
the generally accepted interpretation of these two kinds of eggs.
He observed that the production of ‘ winter-’ or, as he preferred to
call them, ‘ resting-eggs,’ was always associated with the appearance

1 Although Prof. Whitman’s paper is entitled ‘‘Spermatophores as a means of
hypodermic impregnation,” it does not appear that spermatophores are formed in
Hydatina, the only rotifer in which the process has been observed with certainty. So

far as we know, such structures have only been observed in Paraseison (Plate, 14) and
in Asplanchna helvetica (Masius, 18).

46 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

of males, and he therefore concluded that the ‘resting-eggs’ were
produced after fertilisation, while the ‘summer-eggs’ (distinguish-
able by a difference in size into male and female eggs) were partheno-
genetic. Partly from the fact that very similar phenomena were
known in other groups, especially in the Cladocera, these views
obtained general acceptance, despite the fact that in his later papers
(8) their author found it necessary to point out some difficulties.
It had already been observed that each individual female produced
only one variety of eggs, male, female, or ‘resting, during her life-
time, and Cohn found spermatozoa in the bodies of females which
were laying male or female ‘summer’ eggs, as well as in those lay-
ing ‘resting’ eggs. Joliet, in his monograph on JMelicerta (10),
corroborated these observations, and after giving a careful summary
of the evidence, suggested that the facts might be explained by sup-
posing that the sexually produced eggs hatched into females which laid
‘resting’ egos. In 1885, Plate (12), in connection with his discovery
of ‘ hypodermic impregnation, arrived at the strange conclusion that
impregnation was always abortive and without influence on the eggs.
He contradicted Cohn’s statement that the spermatozoa in the body-
cavity of the female were attracted to the neighbourhood of the
ovary, but found, on the contrary, that they disintegrated within a
few hours after being introduced, without making any progress
towards reaching the ovary. By observing isolated specimens he
claimed to show that impregnation was without effect, male, female,
and resting-eggs being laid indifferently by impregnated and virgin
females. His explicit statement that he obtained resting-eggs from
a female isolated from birth is in direct conflict with the results of
later investigations. Plate concluded that uninterrupted partheno-
genesis prevailed among the Rotifera, that the males were a vestigial
and superfluous sex, and that the abortive attempts at impregnation
were an atavistic phenomenon without present significance in the
life-history of the species. In 1890, Maupas (16, 17, 19), attacked
the subject by applying to the rotifers the methods of culture used
by him in his classical researches on the reproduction of the Infu-
soria. Unfortunately only very brief accounts of his laborious
experiments have been published, and many details of his procedure
are not explained. He found in the species chiefly studied by him
(Hydatina senta) two varieties of females, distinguished only by the
eggs which they produced, one kind laying eggs which gave rise to
females, the other laying only male eggs The females of the latter
variety alone were capable of being successfully fertilised, and that

' It would be difficult to find an exact parallel to the curious ‘sub-sexual’ difference
between these two classes of females. That it is not accompanied by any conspicuous
difference of size or structure is certain, but it would be interesting to know whether

careful measurements would not reveal a physical dimorphism correlated with the
physiological one.

1898] REPRODUCTION OF THE ROTIFERA 47

only if fertilisation took place at a very early age before they had
begun to lay eggs. On older females or on those capable of pro-
ducing female eggs, impregnation, if it took place, was without
result. When fertilisation was successfully accomplished, however,
the individual produced only resting-eges throughout life. This
delimitation of the conditions necessary for successful fertilisation
explained the older observations of spermatozoa within females
laying other than.resting-eggs, as well as Plate’s failure to trace the
history of the spermatozoa within the body of the female. The
evidence as to the fertilisation of the resting-eggs has been completed
by the observations of Sadones (31), who observed the passage of
spermatozoa through the ovarian wall in Hydatina, and of Lauterborn
and v. Erlanger (32), who have traced the fusion of the male and
female pronuclei in the resting-eges of Asplanchna. Nussbaum (30)
was unable to satisfy himself of the correctness of Maupas’ view
that fertilisation only affected eggs which would otherwise have
given rise to males, but confirmatory evidence on this point is
afforded by Lauterborn’s observations on <Asplanchna. In this
viviparous form, Masius (18) had already noted the occurrence of a
resting-egg in the oviduct along with ordinary parthenogenetic eggs
or embryos, and Lauterborn, confirming this, finds the latter to be
always males. The fact that in Asplanchna the same individual
may produce both ‘ resting’ and parthenogenetic eggs (as is perhaps
also the case with Synchaeta [Apstein] and Notommata wernecki
[Rothert]), indicates that in this respect Maupas’ results as to
Hydatina are not to be extended without qualification to other
forms. The rule that male and female eggs are produced by different
individuals may also be not without exceptions, especially in the
genus Brachionus, where Daday (fide Weber, 15) and Wesenberg-
Lund (83) have observed both kinds of eggs carried on the carapace
of the same individual. In this connection it may be remarked that
the difference in size between the two sexes, and therefore between
the eggs producing them, is not nearly so marked in Hydatina, for
instance, as in such forms as Brachionus ; and that in the former genus
Nussbaum and others have observed a continuous gradation of sizes
between the two, so that in some cases it was inpossible to determine
the sex of an egg without observing the development of the contained
embryo. It is possible that want of sufficient attention to this point
may have led to some of the discrepant results mentioned above.
Of course, when the embryos have reached a certain stage, the
presence or absence of the mastax at once indicates their sex.

The question of the causes which lead to the appearance of
males and the consequent production of resting-eggs is one of great
interest, and has received several answers, none of which can yet
be regarded as quite satisfactory. It has long been known that the

48 NATURAL SCIENCE (July

occurrence of resting-eggs is not confined to any one season of the
year, though the misleading term ‘ winter-eggs, or even explicit
statements of the erroneous view implied by it, are still current in
text-books. Joliet (10) observed that the males and resting-eggs of
Melwcerta were much more plentiful in dry than in wet seasons,
Maupas (19) reached the conclusion that temperature was the deter-
mining factor in the case of Hydatina, and that the sex of the off-
spring was determined two generations in advance. He states with
great confidence the view that it is at the moment when the ovum
is differentiated in the ovary that the temperature influence deter-
mines whether it shall develop into a male-producing or a female-
producing individual. His experiments showed that while the
proportion of male-producing females hatched from eggs laid at
a temperature of 14°-15°C. varied from 5-24% of the total, it
rose to 81-100% when the temperature was increased to 26-28°C.
Against this, Bergendal (21) and Wesenberg-Lund (33) have recorded
the occurrence in Greenland and Denmark respectively of different
species of male rotifers in water at a temperature little above zero,
while Lauterborn points out that the males of most species are con-
spicuously absent during the warmest months of the year. Nuss-
baum (30) has recently subjected Maupas’ results to a detailed
criticism and considers them inconclusive. Working by similar
culture-methods, he claims to have shown that nutrition is the
determining factor. He found that females of Hydatina insuticiently
fed during the early part of their life afterwards laid only male
eggs, while well-nourished individuals produced female eggs. This
is obviously in harmony with other well-established instances of the
influence of nutrition in the determination of sex.

Lauterborn (32), studying the seasonal variations of pelagic
Rotifera in the lakes and ponds of the Upper Rhine district, comes
to a conclusion on this point differing both from those of Maupas
and of Nussbaum. He believes that the appearance of males and
the consequent production of resting-eges, in a word, the sexual
period, is normally recurrent in the life-cycle of each species, after
a certain definite number of parthenogenetic generations, and is only
secondarily modified by external conditions, especially in the case of
those species which have left the relatively stable environment of
the large lakes for a precarious existence in pools and puddles. In
this connection he makes an ingenious suggestion which tends to
reconcile the conflicting results of Maupas and Nussbaum, while
depriving them of their universal application. Both these observers
studied Hydatina senta, a species which has supplied the corpus vile
for very many investigations since the days of Ehrenberg. Now
Hydatina is characteristically an inhabitant of small accumulations of
water, wayside puddles and the like, where it feeds on the Huglenae

1898] REPRODUCTION OF THE ROTIFERA 49

and similar organisms which swarm in such situations. It is thus
very liable to be killed by drought, since it does not possess the
power of withstanding drying exhibited to a marked degree by
certain rotifers, But the rise of temperature preceding and causing
the drying up of the water may not only act directly on the
Hydatina as Maupas believes, determining the appearance of males
and of resting-eggs, but it also brings into play the factor emphasised
by Nussbaum by diminishing the supply of food, for the Luglenae
encyst themselves and become aggregated into masses, in which
state they cannot be ingested by the rotifers. Lauterborn considers
that in Hydatina, and probably also in other species of similar
habits, the power of ready response to changes in these two factors
of its environment is a special adaptation ensuring the production
of resting-eges when the colony is threatened with extermination by
the drying up of its habitat. It has already been pointed out that
in the Philodinidae, some of which live in a minimal quantity of
water among damp moss or earth, the same end has been reached in
another way, the adult animals becoming encysted in an envelope of
hardened mucus, and in this state exhibiting an almost incredible
power of resistance to prolonged drying.

Lauterborn finds that the pelagic Rotifera may be divided into
three categories :—

(1) Perennial forms, which occur in greater or less abun-
dance all the year round.

(2) Summer forms, which are found only in the summer
months.

(3) Winter forms, including a few species whose occurrence
is limited to the colder months of the year.

The species belonging to the last two classes he finds to be
strictly ‘monocyclic,’ in the sense in which Weismann has applied
that term among the Cladocera; that is to say, the sexual period
occurs only once a year, in autumn in the case of summer forms, in
spring in the winter forms, when resting-eggs are produced to tide
over the unfavourable seasons of winter and summer respectively.
The ‘perennial’ species, on the other hand, are di- or poly- cyclic, the
sexual period occurring at least twice in the year, in spring and in
autumn, but without any interruption of the process of partheno-
genetic reproduction, which goes on all the year round, so that the
species never disappears from the gatherings. It is pointed out
that those species which, in the pelagic fauna of lakes, show this
perennial character, are for the most part forms known to occur also
in smaller ponds and pools, while the monocyclic summer and winter
forms are largely truly pelagic (limnetic) species inhabiting the open
waters of larger ponds and lakes. These results show considerable
agreement with those obtained by Weismann among the Cladocera.

D

50 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

The observations of Wesenberg-Lund (33) on the Rotifera of
Denmark, lead him to adopt Nussbaum’s view that nutrition is the
determining factor in the production of males. The chief result of
his researches is to show that, immediately before the normal period
of sexual reproduction, a period of very rapid parthenogenetic multipli-
cation sets in, and it is when this has reached its height that males
appear. Whenever it was seen that any one species was becoming
predominant in the gatherings from one particular source, the ap-
proach of the sexual period for that species could be predicted. He
finds, however, that, with the same species of rotifer, the sexual
period may occur at different times even in neighbouring ponds.
Lauterborn, on the other hand, states that the appearance of males
of the same species in very different localities, from lakes to puddles,
was often striking in its simultaneity.

Though only indirectly connected with the present subject, we
may call attention in closing to some of the unexplained anomalies
in the distribution of the Rotifera. While the great majority are
notoriously sporadic and uncertain in their occurrence in any one
locality, yet Lauterborn and others have recorded cases where the
same species has appeared year after year in the same pool while
absent from all the surrounding localities. Very many species seem
to have a literally world-wide distribution, and their number is con-
stantly being increased; yet there are instances of curiously re-
stricted range, and this in cases where insufficient search cannot be
adduced to explain their absence from certain areas. Thus Lacinuwlaria
is common in many localities in England ; it swarms in every lough
in certain districts in the west of Ireland, appearing in July, as Mr
Hood (24) says, “as precisely to its season as the lapwing or the
swallow,” and yet we are assured by the same excellent authority
that it is entirely absent from Scotland. Until 1883 the same
appeared to be the case with Stephanoceros; since then, Mr Hood tells
us, he has traced the gradual extension of its range until it has
become by no means rare in the lochs of Forfarshire and Perthshire.

. W. T. CALMAN.

University CoLtLece, DUNDEE.

LITERATURE REFERRED TO

. Ehrenberg, C. G.—‘‘ Die Infusionsthierchen, u.s.w.” Fol. Leipzig, 1838.

. K6élliker, A.—‘‘ Furchungen und Saamenfiden bei einem Riderthiere.” Froriep’s
Neue Notizen, xxviii., 16-20. October 1843.

3. Brightwell, T.—*‘ Some account of a dioecious Rotifer allied to the genus Notommata
of Ehrenberg.” Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) ii., 153-158, pl. vi. Sept. 1848.

4. Dalrymple, J.—‘‘ Description of an Infusory animalcule allied to the genus Notom-
mata of Ehrenberg, hitherto undescribed.”” Phil. Trans., exxxix. (1), pp. 381-
348, pls. xxxill. and xxxiv. 1849.

5. Huxley, T. H.—‘‘ Lacinularia socialis. A contribution to the Anatomy and
Physiology of the Rotifera.” Zrans. Mier. Soc. London, (N.S.), i., 1-19, pls.
1.-ili, 1858.

6. Cohn, F.—‘‘ Ueber die Fortpflanzung der Riderthiere.” Zeztschr. Wiss. Zool., vii.,

431-486, pls. xxiii., xxiv. Dec. 31, 1855.

Ne

1898] REPRODUCTION OF THE ROTIFERA 51

(€

Gosse, P. H.—“‘ On the dioecious character of the Rotifera.” Phil. Trans., exlvii.,
313-326, pl. xv. 1857.

. Cohn, F.—‘‘ Bemerkungen iiber Riiderthiere.” Zeitschr. Wiss. Zool., xii., 197-217,

pls. xx.-xxii. 1862.

. Claus, C.—‘‘ Ueber die Organisation und die systematische Stellung der Gattung

Seison Gr.” Festschrift Zool.-bot. Gesellschaft, Wien. 14 pp., 2 pl. 1876.
Joliet, L.—‘‘ Monographie des Mélicertes.” Arch. Zool. exp. et gén. (2) i. 131-224,
pls xi.-xiii. 1883.

. Lang, A.—‘‘ Die Polycladen u.s.w.” Fauna u. Flora d. Golfes von Neapel, xi.,

see pp. 636-638. 1884.

. Plate, L.—‘‘ Beitriige zur Naturgeschichte der Rotatorien.” Jena. Zeitschr., xix.,

1-120, pls. i.-iii, 1885.

. Hudson, C. T. and Gosse, P. H.—‘‘ The Rotifera, &c.” 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1886.
. Plate, L.—‘‘ Ueber einige ectoparasitische Rotatorien des Golfes von Neapel.”

Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii., 234-263, pl. viii. April 1887.

. Weber, E. F.—‘‘ Notes sur quelques Rotateurs des environs de Genéve.” Arch. Biol.

Vili., 647-722, pls. xxvi.-xxxvi. 1888.

. Maupas, E.—‘‘ Sur la multiplication et la fécondation chez ? Hydatina senta Ehr.”’

Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, exi., 310-312. 1890.

. Maupas, E.—‘‘Sur la fécondation de lHydatina senta Ehr.” Tom. cit., p. 505.

1890.

. Masius, J.—‘‘ Contribution a l'étude des Rotateurs.” Arch. Biol., x., 651-682., pls.

xxv.-xxvi. March 31, 1891.

- Maupas, E.—‘‘ Sur le déterminisme de la sexualité chez l’Hydatina senta.” Comptes

Rendus Acad, Sci. Paris, exiii., 388-390. 1891.

. Whitman, C. 0.—‘‘ Spermatophores as a means of hypodermic impregnation.” Jowr.

Morph., iv., 361-406, pl. xiv. Jan. 1891,

. Bergendal, D.—‘‘ Beitrige zur Fauna Gronlands, &. I. Zur Rotatorienfauna

Gronlands.” Acta Univ. Lund, xxviii. (2) Handl. iv., 180 pp., 6 pls. 1892.

. Janson, 0.—‘‘ Versuch einer Uebersicht ueber die Rotatorien-Familie der Philo-

dinaeen.” Abh. Naturwiss. Ver. Bremen, xii. Beilage. 81 pp., 5 pls. 1893.

. M‘Murrich, J. P.—‘‘ Embryology of the Isopod Crustacea.” Jowrn. Morph., xi.,

63-154, pls. v.-ix. _ 1895.

. Hood, J.—‘‘On the Rotifera of the County Mayo.” Proc. R. Irish Acad., (8) iii.,

664-706, pls. xxi.-xxil. 1895.

. Dixon-Nuttall, F. R.—‘‘ On the male of Stephanoceros Eichhorni.” Journ. Rk. Mier.

Soc. 1896, p. 166, pl. v.

. Rothert, W.—‘‘ Zur Kenntniss der in Vaucheria-Arten parasitierenden Rotatorie

Notommata Wernecki Ehr.” Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Syst., ix., 673-713 (4 figg.).
1896.

. Rousselet, C. F.—‘‘On the male of Rhinops vitrea.” Journ. R. Micr. Soc., 1897,

pp. 4-9, pl. i.

. Rousselet, C. F.—‘‘ On the male of Proales Wernecki.” Journ. Quekett Micr. Club,

(2) vi., 415-418, pl. xix. Nov. 1897.

. Weber, E. F.—‘‘ Note sur quelques males de Rotateurs.” Rev. Suisse de Zool., v.,

91-99, pl. iv. 1897.

. Nussbaum, M.—‘‘ Die Entstehung des Geschlechts bei Hydatina senta.” Arch.

J. mikr. Anat., xlix. pp. 227-308. 1897.

. Sadones.—‘‘ Zur Biologie (Befruchtung) der Hydatina senta.” Zool. Anz., Xx.,

515-517. Dec. 27, 1897.

. Lauterborn, R.—‘‘ Ueber die zyklische Fortpflanzung limnetischer Rotatorien.”

Biol. Centralblatt, xviii., 173-183. March 1, 1898.

3. Wesenberg-Lund, C.—‘‘ Ueber diinische Rotiferen und iiber die Fortpflanzungsver-

hiltnisse der Rotiferen (Vorl. Mitt.).” Zool. Anz., xxi., 200-211. March7, 1898.

52 [July

SOME NEW BOOKS

HUXLEY AS STUDENT

Tue SctenTiFIc Memorrs oF THoMAS HENRY Huxtey. Edited by Prof. Michael Foster
and by Prof. E. Ray Lankester. Vol. i.. 8vo, pp. xvi+606, with frontispiece and

32 plates. London: Macmillan & Co, New York: Appleton & Co., 1898. Price,

25s. net.

Ir is always an interesting, though perhaps not a very important
question, what is the true position of any one scientific worker.
Some there are who attain a wide popularity, but whose names are
almost unknown to, or passed over with a sneer by, the professional
student of science. There are others whose names, though held in
honour by their fellow-workers, are absolutely unknown, not merely
to the general public, but to those circles of it that claim the
epithet ‘cultured.’ It is rarely that a man of science receives
adequate honour from both his fellow-workers and the great pub-
lic; and in the one case or the other the honour, even if it comes, is
pretty sure to be based on something else than true appreciation.
Darwin, to mention the only name that will not be considered
invidious,—Darwin was estimated by his fellow-workers at something
approaching his true value, but to-the outer public he was the man
who said we were descended from monkeys, and little more. As
such, his fame was enormous, but hardly desirable.

Of what nature is the reputation of Huxley? That he had a
popular reputation is undeniable. Whether as the militant critic of
orthodoxy, the writer of widely used text-books and professor in an
important school, or as the lucid and polished exponent of a new
scientific philosophy, he had his following both in this country and on
the continents of Europe and America. But a reputation based on
these forms of intellectual activity would hardly last were it not sup-
ported by a bulk of more solid scientific work, capable of winning
the admiration of competent critics. A wide popularity is often looked
at askance by scientific men, who regard it as imcompatible with
serious work. Often they are right, especially when meaner intellects
are concerned ; and even in the case of Huxley there might be some
danger lest his brilliant essays should eclipse, even in the eyes of
scientific workers, the sober background of original research. From
this point of view, therefore, the point of view of memorial, to keep
the example of Huxley before future generations, it was a wise
thought to republish in collected form his more technical papers.
Many of these were, in fact, issued in publications not easy of access by
the general zoologist of to-day, such as The British and Foreign Medico-
Chirurgical Review, Todd’s Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, and
The London Medical Gazette, so that their republication in convenient
form were in any case something to be grateful for.

We are not among those, if any there be, who need to be con-
vinced of Huxley’s greatness as a biologist. But just because we
admit this so fully we are glad to have his articles thus collected ina
strict chronological order, without addition or alteration, so that we
may trace through them the modifications of view and the gradual

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 53

fructification of ideas. To take but a single example, it is of interest
to read Huxley’s expression of his views in 1855 as to the progressive
development of animal life in time, and to contrast it with the views
expressed by him thirty or forty years later, after he had been brought
into almost daily contact with the concrete facts of palaeontology.
Over and over again throughout the present volume, the first in a set
of four, we see the agnostic spirit in which Huxley approached every
problem and every statement by authority, such, for instance, as the
teleological view of anatomical correlation enunciated by Cuvier.

Further, as one turns over these handsome pages, one cannot but
remark on the diversity of subjects therein discussed. We find
articles dealing with Amphioxus, Mollusca, Hydrozoa, Tunicata,
echinoderms, Rotifera, parasitic and other worms, Brachiopoda, Pro-
tozoa, Crustacea, Bryozoa, human anatomy, fossil fish, fossil reptiles,
and, incidentally, other groups of animals; or, taking the subject-
matter from another stand-point, we find articles on histology, on
general anatomy, on classification, on palaeontology, on embryology, on
the cell theory, on types of structure, on glacier ice, on the problem
of individuality, descriptions of new species, a cyclopaedia article on
tegumentary organs, and a Croonian lecture on the vertebrate skull.
All this was written before Huxley had reached the age of thirty-five.
Is there any biologist now living who, when he was thirty-five, had
produced work so considerable in bulk, so varied in its scope, and
withal so searching and profound ?

The editors and publishers have done their work well. The
original place of publication, with sufficiently full bibliographical
details, is quoted for each of the fifty articles herein contained. The
reprinting, so far as we have tested it, appears to be exact, even down
to the absurdly small type which happened to be used for certain
catalogue numbers in a paper originally published by the Geological
Society. The plates appear to have been re-lithographed, since they
are not perfectly absolute facsimiles. They bear consecutive numbers,
placed within square brackets, and each also has the number which it
bore when originally published. The name of the original artist has
been reproduced, as a rule, but has been accidentally omitted in one
or two cases. In a few cases also, the reference number to the page
which the plate is intended to face is incorrect. The name of the
artist, engraver, or lithographer, who has reproduced the plates, does
not appear to be mentioned. We note, however, that it is to Messrs
Walker and Boutall that we are indebted for an excellent photogravure
of the same photograph of Huxley as that reproduced in Natural Science
for August 1895 (vol. vii., plate xviii.). The volume has been excellently
printed by Messrs Richard Clay & Sons. We note that the publishers
have undertaken all the financial responsibilities of this republication,
and we hardly think they will have any occasion to regret their generosity.
To them and the editors we offer our congratulations and thanks.

SEDGWICK’s TEXT-BooK OF ZOOLOGY

A SrupEnt’s Text-Boox or ZooLocy. By Adam Sedgwick. Vol. i. 8vo, pp. xii+620.
London: S. Sonnenschein & Co. 1898. Price, 18s.

OF late years the English student has had to rely for his guidance in
the study of zoology almost entirely on translations of foreign works,

54 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

the supply of which has always been abundant. But a growing need
was felt for a general and elementary ‘Zoology’ written more par-
ticularly so as to express the views of the majority of teachers in this
country. The differences between the teaching and current doctrines
in one country and those in another are not great, and perhaps not
very important, yet they are distinctly appreciable. Mr Sedgwick
has now brought out the text-book of general and systematic zoology
of which the first volume is before us. In his preface the author
tells us that it was his original intention to issue a revised edition of
Claus’ well-known ‘Lehrbuch’; but that he changed his plan, and
has written a book which is a new work although following the same
lines as the older one.

The present text-book is intended to help the student who has
already acquired a preliminary knowledge of certain types of animal
life, and wishes to proceed to a more thorough study of zoology.
The whole work will probably be completed in two volumes. The first,
with which we are now concerned, deals with the Phyla Protozoa,
Porifera, Coelentera, Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, Nematelminthes,
Rotifera, Mollusca, Annelida, Sipunculoidea, Priapuloidea, Phoronidea,
Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, and Chaetognatha. The second volume will
include the Arthropoda, Echinoderma, and Vertebrata, with general
discussions of “the facts and principles of Zoology.”

The work is distinguished by the clear and straightforward manner
in which it is written ; whether we agree with the author or not, we
never have any doubt as to his meaning. Superfluities are ngidly
excluded, and by the judicious use of small type the bulk of the
volume is kept within reasonable bounds. Throughout, the facts are
treated in strictly systematic order, as many families are mentioned
as possible, and a large number of genera are named. The book will,
therefore, prove a very useful work of reference, in which both facts
and names can be readily found—a task rendered easy by the help of
an excellent index at the end of the volume.

As we should expect from the pen of an author whose researches
have extended over such a wide field, and whose experience in teach-
ing is so great, this volume is well up to date, and singularly free from
those blunders which so frequently disfigure text-books. This is no
doubt partly due to the fact that Mr Sedgwick has often secured the
help of specialists in reading over and correcting the proofs.

Mr Sedgewick, as is well known, is an opponent of the ‘ cell-theory’
—accordingly in his general definitions he endeavours to avoid the
use of its ‘language.’ For him, the Metazoa are merely multinuclear
animals, “in which the nuclei are for the most part arranged regularly
and with a definite relation to the functional tissues.” We must con-
fess that this attempt to boycott the ‘cell-theory, which after all is
merely a descriptive statement of perfectly obvious facts, tends to
become somewhat pedantic, and moreover is futile, since again and
again the writer is obliged to return to “the language of the cell-
theory,” without which no description of Metazoan tissues can be
intelligible or correct. If certain authors have erroneously taught
that the cells of a tissue or embryo are entirely independent organisms,
surely this is no reason why we should abandon the use of the term
cell, any more than we should give up the words ‘segment’ or ‘meta-

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 55

mere, because some authorities have considered these parts to repre-
sent distinct individuals in an animal colony.

This volume contains a vast amount of information, yet it is
inevitable that the various groups should be treated somewhat un-
equally. The parts on the Porifera and Coelentera, for instance, are
rather dry. Opportunities are lost for interesting comparisons. With
regard to the sponges, no discussion of affinities is given, the import-
ance of the collar-cells and of the development is not sufficiently
brought out; within the group itself, the significance of the Olynthus
stage of development as representing a possible ancestral condition is
not appreciated. Similarly, the relationships of the various Coelen-
terate groups are not discussed, and the resemblances between the
Acalephae and Actinozoa (Anthozoa) seem to us scarcely enough
insisted upon. No adequate discussion of the affinities of the Cteno-
phora can be found, they are placed in the Phylum Coelentera, and a
reader of this book might never suspect that many authorities separate
them entirely from the Coelenterates. Coeloplana and Ctenoplana are
merely mentioned.

The Platyhelminths, Nemertines, Nematelminths, and Rotifers are
placed outside the true Coelomata. A full discussion of the homology
of the coelom is promised in the general part of the next volume; for
the present we are given the dogmatic statement that “the coelom is
derived from the enteron,” a statement which cannot fail to confuse,
if not mislead, the student, since in the two phyla (Mollusca and
Annelida) next described this is not the case.

In matters of theory there will always be divergence of opinion,
and we cannot help thinking that the student would have gained a
notion of the nature of the coelom far clearer and nearer the truth, if
Mr Sedgewick, in this volume at all events, had merely, without theo-
retical bias, stated the plain matter of fact: that from the Platyhel-
minths upwards we find a cavity in the mesoblast into which the
genital cells are shed, and from which they are led to the exterior by
special ducts, that in the lower forms this cavity is small, whilst in
the higher it becomes large, and forms what we call the coelom.

In the succeeding chapters, the relations of the coelom to the
haemocoele, and its division in the Mollusca into pericardial, renal,
and genital regions, are all explained with admirable clearness.

As usual in text-books, the terminology of the excretory organs
is somewhat confused. The term nephridium is not applied to the
excretory ducts of the Platyhelminths, but to the renal coelom of the
Mollusca, and the segmental excretory organs of the earthworm. We
are further told that “the renal organs, called nephridia, are part of
the coelom,” 7.¢., according to the author’s theory, of the enteron. Now,
is there a particle of evidence to show that the nephridia of the earth-
worm have ever formed a part of the enteron, or even of the coelom ?

In the excellent chapter on the Annelida two things may be
noticed. Discussing the homology of the prostomium, Mr Sedgwick
argues that it probably corresponds to a real segment, since mesoblastic
somites are found in front of the mouth in Peripatus. Surely we
should not argue from the Arthropod to the Annelid, but from the
Annelid to the Arthropod. The evidence, when taken in its proper
order, leads us to an entirely opposite conclusion. It is strange, also,

56 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

to meet with the statement on page 467 that there are no special
genital ducts in the Polychaeta. Such organs have long been known
to exist in the Capitellidae, and are indeed mentioned on page 486 by
the author himself.

Mr Sedgewick very wisely rejects the group Gephyrea, placing the
Echiuridae with the Annelida, and the Sipunculidae and Priapulidae
by themselves. On the other hand the Entoprocta are still retained
inthe Phylum Polyzoa with the Ectoprocta. This treatment in-
evitably leads to inconsistencies such as the following: the Polyzoa
are defined as animals “ with coelom” ; turning to the definition of the
Entoproctous group, we find it stated that “there is no body-cavity.”

Good accounts are given of Phoronis, Sagitta, and the Brachiopoda,
together with very interesting discussions of their affinities. The one
on the Brachiopoda seems to us a model of what such a discussion
should be in a text-book of this kind—clear and definite without
being biassed, interesting and suggestive without being controversial.

We have perhaps already indulged too much in adverse criticism ;
it is so easy to find fault. There is, however, just one more point to
be mentioned. Mr Sedgwick considers that the resemblance between
Phoronis and the Polyzoa Phylactolaemata is not real, that the line
between the mouth and the anus in the first case is dorsal, and in the
second ventral. We must confess that the arguments brought for-
ward to support this view seem to us quite inadequate, and we
believe few zoologists will agree with the author in this matter.

The volume is well got up, excellently printed, and illustrated by a
large number—nearly 500—of well executed, clear, useful figures. The
majority of these are quite familiar, being chiefly drawn from Claus’
‘Lehrbuch’; but there are some 50 new illustrations, generally well
selected, except fig. 898 of Arenicola, which is both ugly and inaccurate.

We hope the second volume will soon be published. If it is as
good as the first, this work, when completed, will form one of the
most useful and rehable Text-books of Zoology yet written.

KE; 8G,

For Musrum CURATORS
MusEuMS ASSOCIATION : Report of Proceedings, with the Papers read at the Eighth

Annual Meeting held in Oxford, July 6 to 9, 1897. Edited by James Paton. 8vo,

124 pp. London: Dulau & Co., 1897 [?!]. Price, 5s.

THE Superintendent of Corporation Museums and Art Galleries at
Glasgow succeeds the secretaries as editor of this publication, and
succeeds them also in their curious habit of publishing on the very
title-page a statement hardly consistent with strict accuracy. We do
not know how the most casuistical of Scotchmen could reconcile the
imprint “ London, 1897,” with the review of various publications that
certainly were not issued before 1898. Our copy was received on
April 22.

Last year the Association visited Oxford, and the president was
Prof. Ray Lankester. His address is chiefly remarkable for a much
needed attack on “that enemy of the human race, the eminent
architect... who deliberately and habitually perverts the funds
entrusted to his discretion, so as to produce a showy and expensive
building, whilst ignorantly and shamelessly neglecting the essential
purpose for which the building is required.” Following up this idea,

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 57

the President suggests that a committee should be appointed to report
upon two questions: (1) “ What is the best form and arrangement of
rooms in a building intended to serve as a museum? (2) What is
the best way of exhibiting specimens, according to their various kinds,
inamuseum?” The rest of the address is taken up with an account
of the state of museums at Oxford, and of Prof. Lankester’s own
attempt to follow the principles of Flower and Brown Goode in the
face of considerable difficulties.

Entomologists will welcome Prof. Poulton’s account of the
methods of setting and labelling Lepidoptera for museums. Prof.
Miers’ description of the arrangement of the mineral collection in the
University Museum will also be of much service to those in charge of
similar collections, although the philosophical scheme adopted by him
is, as Mr Rudler said, hardly suitable for collections intended for the
use of miners and such practical folk. A paper of somewhat novel
character is that by Mr Harlan J. Smith, of the American Museum of
Natural History, on Popular Museum Exhibits. Everyone knows
that there are a number of people of various ages who use museums
as promenades, doss-houses, or playgrounds. If the attention of some
of these can be arrested by a sensational exhibit they may perhaps be
led to look at something more, and thus the museum may be brought
into contact with an entirely fresh class.

The recognition of museums by the Council of Education has set
fresh problems before the museum curator, and gives rise to an in-
teresting discussion opened by Mrs Tubbs, former member of the
Hastings School Board. Another discussion of much importance was
that of Dr Flinders Petrie’s scheme of a federal staff for museums,
that is to say, a band of peripatetic specialists who should visit
museum after museum, naming specimens, lecturing, and supervising
the exhibits in his own particular department. Mr Goodrich’s
valuable notes on museum preparations have already found publica-
tion 1n our pages.

The report of the meeting is followed by various “ General Notes”
by the secretary, Mr E. Howarth. Among these are short abstracts
based on “reports and handbooks received from various museums
belonging to the Association.” We should have thought that it would
have been of more value to members of the Association to have given
them an account of museums that had not yet entered the select
circle; but Mr Howarth, we are glad to see, considers that full
information upon these matters can always be obtained from Natur al
Science, “an indispensable monthly journal in all museums,” so that
we are not inclined to insist upon our criticism. We are glad, too,
to notice that the Association has now opened its membership to
museums outside the limits of the United Kingdom, and that advan-
tage of this has been taken by the museums of Baroda, Colombo,
Jamaica, Western Australia, Salt Lake City, and the ‘Australian
Museum. We are, however, somewhat surprised to see how com-
paratively few museums of the United Kingdom have availed them-
selves of the advantages offered by this Association. Does this point
to indifference on the “part of their curators, or to some fault of which
we are not aware in the working of the Association? Or is it merely
due to want of advertisement ?

58 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

BorTANY FROM THE GERMAN

A Trxt-Boox oF Borany. By Drs E. Strasburger, F. Noll, H. Schenck and A. F. W.
Schimper. Translated from the German by H. C. Porter, Ph.D. 8vo, pp. x + 632,
math ops illustrations, in part coloured. London: Macmillan & Co., 1898. Price,

Leurnvcn per Boranrk rir Hocuscavnen. Von Drs 2, Strasburger, F. Noll,
H. Schenck und A. F. W. Schimper. Dritte verbesserte Auflage. 8vo, pp. viii+
570, with 617 illustrations, in part coloured. Jena: Fischer, 1898. Price, 7 M.

_ 50 Pf. in paper covers ; 8 M. 50 Pf. bound.

WHEN we reviewed the original German edition of this book shortly
after its appearance in 1894 (Natural Science, vol. vi., p. 423) we
congratulated the publisher (Fischer of Jena) on the issue of a text-
book of the first order for the small sum of seven shillings, and at the
same time hinted that a translation into English had been arranged.
The translator, Dr Porter, assistant instructor in Botany at Penn-
sylvania University, has taken more than three years over his work,
and in the meantime the ‘ Lehrbuch,’ which has apparently met with
a well-deserved success, has run into a third, much improved, edition.
So the book as it is put into the hands of our students is two editions
behind, which, considering certain advances in knowledge and modi-
fications of views which were accepted four years ago, places its
readers at some disadvantage. Apart from this defect the edition
now before us is a good reproduction of the original text, for which
we believe some thanks are due to Mr A. C. Seward, who revised the
proofs. It is, however, unlikely that the translation will meet with
the success that has attended the ‘Lehrbuch.’ This might have been
the case had the publishers seen their way to issuing it at half-a-guinea,
but at its present price it is the most expensive text-book of its kind,
and has, moreover, to compete with one which, though in some respects
inferior, is three shillings cheaper, and has already become established
in many of the English botany schools. It is matter of special regret
that only a small number of students should have the advantage of
reading Prof. Strasburger’s excellent imtroduction to Morphology,
which is by far the best of the four sections. Dr Noll’s contribution
on Physiology is unequal, though fair on the whole, but the section
dealing with the Cryptogams, by Dr Schenck, is perhaps the least
satisfactory, the chapters on the Bryophyta and Pteridophyta are
scarcely full enough. Prof. Schimper’s account of the families of
seed-plants is useful and well-arranged.

The foregoing criticisms as to the relative value of the different
sections of the book apply also to the third edition of the ‘ Lehrbuch.’
Prof. Strasburger remains facile princeps with his introduction to
Morphology and Anatomy. In this part also we find the most
evidence of revision and bringing up to date. The intimate structure
of the cell, its nucleus, and other contents is at present one of the
most favourite objects of study, and the modification of former views
or the birth of new ones find expression in the text-book in the altera-
tion of old figures and the introduction of new. We regret to find in the
section on Physiology that the antiquated explanation of the formation
of starch as the first product of assimilation by direct union of carbon
dioxide and water still finds a place. The equation is an absurd one
from the purely chemical as well as from the physiological point of view.

The small increase in size of this third edition (the original con-

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 59

tained 558 pages and 577 plates) is in part accounted for by the
introduction of a bibliography at the end of the book. This is a
useful addition, and one which saves space in the text, as references
are now given merely to a number to which the corresponding
citation can be found in the list. Part of the increase in bulk is
due to the extra figures, forty in number, a large proportion of which
are coloured, including some officinal as well as poisonous plants.
The new coloured blocks are better than the old, but though they
certainly enliven the pages and often give a better idea of the plant
than the average black and white figure, we question whether the
advantages gained are sufficient to justify the increased cost of pro-
duction. Certainly this is not the case in the English edition, where
the colour-printing shows to far less advantage.

THE Birps oF INDIA

Tue FAUNA OF BririsH INDIA, INCLUDING CEYLON AND Burma. Edited by W. T.

Blanford. Birds, Vol. IV., by W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. 8vo, pp. i-xxi+1-500.

London: Taylor & Francis. Price, 15s.
Ir is with unfeigned satisfaction that we hail the completion of this
important series, which is calculated to further in no unimportant
degree our knowledge of the zoology of the Indian Empire. When
noticing the appearance of the third volume of the “ Birds” (Watural
Science, VILI., p. 46, Jan. 1896), we deprecated any undue haste in the
completion of the fourth volume, which was then under weigh. Little
more than two years have since elapsed, and yet Mr Blanford has
contrived to deal exhaustively with no fewer than twelve important
Orders, a task entailing enormous labour both in the museum and the
library. No doubt the undertaking has been considerably facilitated
by the volumes of the British Museum Catalogue which have recently
been drawn up by Messrs Ogilvie-Grant, Howard Saunders, Dr Sharpe,
and Count Salvadori; but Mr Blanford has expended an immense
amount of thought and trouble upon his new book. We notice, by
the way, that he is unable to recognise the validity of Merganser coma-
tus of Salvadori. This Himalayan form of the Goosander (. castor)
is usually just recognisable by its slightly shorter bill, and rather nar-
rower black borders of the tertiary quills in the male; but we think
that Mr Blanford has acted wisely in ignoring these fine distinctions.
Mr Finn’s re-discovery of the Eastern White-eyed Pochard as an Indian
bird shows how much good work remains to be accomplished by up-to-
date workers in that country. A good figure of Wyroca baert may, of
course, be consulted, by referring to the work of its original discoverer,
Radde (“ Reisen im Siiden von Ost-Siberien,” Taf. xv.). We ques-
tion whether Mr Blanford was justified in including Anser brachyryn-
chus in the Indian ‘ Ornis,’ in the absence of any authenticated speci-
mens. It is at least as likely that the Pink-footed Geese recorded by
Blyth, Irby, and others may have belonged to the recently described
Anser neglectus of P. Sushkin (¢f. /bis. 1897, pp. 5-8). H. A. M.

A NEw ORNITHOLOGICAL SERIAL

AvicuLA, Giornale Ornitologico Italiano per lo studio dell’ Avifanna Italica, e per tutto
quanto ha relazione con gli uccelli in generale. Direttore Cav. 8. Brogi, Siena.
Nos. 1-8, 1897, 1898. Annual subser., 4 francs 50, post-free.

THE pursuit of ornithology finds so many enthusiastic devotees on the
Continent, that the establishment of an organ intended to deal speci-

60 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

ally with the birds of the Kingdom of Italy was a particularly happy
thought. It must be gratifying to Cav. Brogi to find himself so well
backed up by his countrymen. The eight numbers of Avicula which
have now made their appearance contain many fugitive notes upon
rare birds, such, for example, as Chetusia gregaria and Charadrius
fulvus, which rarely journey sufficiently far west to offer sport to
Roman wildfowlers. But the mainstay of Avicula is to be sought for
in-the admirable series of papers contributed by able observers upon
the birds of their own districts. Sacerdote Antonio Tait is penning a
noteworthy report upon the Avifauna of Trent; while Armando
Lucifero has recently commenced a dissertation upon the ornithology
of Calabria, a region which has hitherto received less attention from
naturalists than the provinces of Northern Italy. We wish continued
prosperity to this plucky venture of our colleagues.

NEW SERIALS

WE have received the lengthy announcement of a forthcoming
periodical, entitled Za Industria Agricola, which is to be published at
Caracas in Venezuela. Each number will consist of 32 octavo pages,
and will appear monthly.

We learn from Science that a handsomely illustrated periodical, en-
titled Monumental Records, and edited by the Rev. H. M. Baum, is
published at Box 1839, New York City, at a price of $1.50 per annum.
It is concerned with the discovery of ancient monuments in both the
Old and New Worlds.

We learn from the Scottish Geographical Magazine that the
Geographical Society of La Paz, Bolivia, founded in 1889, has begun
the publication of a journal. The first number contains a monograph
of the Province of Munecas, an account of the Province of the Mojos,
written two centuries ago by a Jesuit missionary, and a statement of
the boundary dispute with Peru.

The Oxford University Junior Scientific Club has recently exchanged
the publication of a more or less contemporary Journal for T'’ransac-
tions, appearing at rarer intervals, and containing only the papers
read. The first two parts were published in 1897, a more exact date
not being given. The first contains a criticism by Mr Garstang of Dr
Gaskell’s Theory of Vertebrate Ancestry, with a restatement of Mr
Garstang’s own views as to the Echinoderm relations of the vertebrate
ancestor. The next paper is by Mr E. C. Atkinson, and it is an
abstract of one which we shall publish in our next number. This is
followed by an abstract of A. E. Boycott’s paper, “Shell Coloration
(he calls it ‘colouration ’) in British extra-marine Mollusca.” No. 2
contains some stray notes on the birds of Oxford by A. W. S. Fisher.
His paper is the only one honoured with a report of the discussion.
Nos. 5 and 4 were issued together in May 1898, and contain the
abstract of a paper on Athletic Training, a subject always popular
at Oxford, by G. W. 8S. Farmer. Although outside our scope, we
can hardly pass without notice the excellent and enthusiastic account
of the life and work of the illustrious chemist, Victor Meyer, by
F. Soddy.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 61

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

THE Catalogue of the United States Public Documents, which is
issued monthly by the Superintendent of Documents at the Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington, gives in its January issue (No. 37)
a partial list of United States Government publications on Alaska.
This should be of value to many besides those who are making their
way to Klondike.

The Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa, vol. ii1.,
in its complete form, is just to hand, bearing date Ist February 1898.
It is made up, as usual, of various parts, which were issued separately
at the dates borne upon their several title-pages. The volume contains
a great deal of important information on the geology of South Africa,
and gives a map of the Klerksdorp goldfields, to accompany Mr
Bawden’s paper thereon. We note from the President’s address that
the Society has been so fortunate as to secure Prof. Rupert Jones’
unique and valuable collection of books, pamphlets, maps, etc., on the
geology of the Colony, and thus is enabled to found a library under
conditions which few colonies have enjoyed. A commendable addition
to the present volumes is the “Complete Index to all Papers pub-
lished from Ist February 1895 to Ist February 1898,” and we hope
that librarians will not tear it up and throw it away because it is part
of a wrapper. ‘The wrapper has often proved to be the most essential
part of a serial publication, and should never be destroyed, but left
absolutely intact and in place as issued, when the volume is bound.

We have received from Messrs Dulau & Co. sections 50-52 of their
“Catalogue of Zoological and Palaeontological works.” These sections
consist of 48 pages, dealing with the literature of Diptera, Hemiptera,
and Hymenoptera.

FurrHer LITERATURE RECEIVED

CATALOGUE of Welwitsch Collection, Part II., Hiern: British Museum. Pruning-
book Bailey ; Text-book of Entomology, Packard: Macmillan Co., N.Y. Die Zelle
und die Gewebe, O. Hertwig; Grundriss d. vergleichende Anatomie d. Wirbelthiere,
Wiedersheim: Fischer, Jena. Practical Plant-Physiology, Detmer transl. Moor; The
Wonderful Century, Wallace: Sonnenschein. Types of Scenery, Romanes Lecture,
A. Geikie: Macmillan, London. Medical Missions, Acland: Frowde, London. ‘Text-
book of Zoology, Wells & Davis: Univ. Tutorial Series, Clive, London.

A propos de l’Eglise et de la Science, Erréra. Ratzel’s History of Mankind, Part 26.
Cotgreave’s Subject-Index, 11-14. Le protoplasma radio-conducteur, Morin: L’opinion
médicale. La pisciculture pratique, Baudouin: Bull. Soc. Péche France. Jamaica
Fisheries, Duerden: Daily Gleaner. Root-tubercules, Otis: Jndustrialist. Obsidian
“‘buttons” in Tasmania, Twelvetrees & Petterd: Proc. R. Soc. Tasmania. The Cubo-
Medusae, Conant: Mem. Biol. lab. Johns Hopkins. Birds from St Marta, Bangs ;
Squirrels from Mexico, Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington. Simple Ascidians from
Puget Sound, Herdman: Zvrans. L’pool Biol. Soc, Crustacea of Norway, vol. ii., parts
9, 10, G. O. Sars; Bergen Museum, Catal. de la Bibliotheque, Fasc. xxiv. : Fewille
jeunes Nats.

Scot. Geogr. Mag., June; Amer. Journ. Sci., June; Amer. Nat., April ; Victorian
Nat., April, May ; L’Anthropologie, March and April; Botan. Gazette, May ; Feuille
des jeunes Nat., June; Irish Nat., June ; Westminster Rev., June ; Knowledge, June ;
Literary Digest, May 21, 28, June 4; Naturae Novit., March, Nos. 5, 6, April, Nos. 7, 8,
May, Nos. 9, 10; Naturalist, June; Nature, May 19, 26, June 2, 16, and Supplement ;
Nature Notes, June; Naturen, May; New Age, April; Oxford Univ. Jr. Sci. Club
Trans., May 4, 1896, No. 37, June 1897, N.s. 1897-98, Nos. 1, 2, 8, 4; Photogram, June ;
Plant World, May, June; Psychol. Rev., Monogr. Supplement, May, June ; Review of
Reviews, May, June ; Revue Scient., May 21, 28, June 4, 11; Science, May 13, 20, 27,
June 3; Riv. Psichologia, May 15, 31; Scientific Amer., May 14, 21, 28, June 4;
Scot. Med. and Surg. Journ., June.

OBITUARIES

CHARLES HERBERT HURST

BorN SEPTEMBER 1855. DiED May 1898

Dr C. H. Hurst was an alumnus of the Manchester Grammar School,
where he gave an indication of his future bent by attaining a high
position on the science side. After an interval spent in business he
entered the Royal College of Science under Professor Huxley, and in
1881 was bracketed equal with his friend Dr John Beard at the head
of the list in biology. In the same year he entered the Owens
College as a student, and in 1883 was appointed demonstrator
and assistant lecturer in this institution under the late Prof. Milnes
Marshall.

He filled this position for more than eleven years, and earned the
gratitude of the students by his clear and vigorous teaching and by
his constant readiness to assist all who were in earnest in their
studies. In 1895 he left the Owens College, much to the regret
of his colleagues, in order to fill a similar post in the Royal College
of Science, Dublin.

Hurst’s published writings are not numerous. II] health prevented
him from doing much more than the engrossing nature of his college
duties demanded. His most important work was probably his share
in the production of the “Junior Course of Practical Zoology,” which
has made the names of “Marshall and Hurst” household words
wherever biology is studied. Many of the drawings are from his
pencil, for he was an excellent draughtsman ; and almost the whole
work was done by both authors, very few paragraphs being written
by either alone.

In 1889 he took advantage of a prolonged leave of absence to
study in Leipsic under Leuckart, where he made an interesting
addition to our knowledge of the developmental history of Culex, for
which he was awarded the degree of Ph.D. In 1891 he undertook
a new line of zoological work, in the shape of a systematic criticism
of Biological Theory. The result of this was a series of papers
published in Natural Science, in which many popular and orthodox
views were attacked in a trenchant and unsparing manner, which,
though it could cause no offence to those who knew the man and his
honesty of purpose, was undoubtedly misunderstood by some who
were not personally acquainted with him. Space forbids entering
in detail into these papers individually ; it must suffice to mention
as examples “The Nature of Heredity” (Nat. Scz., vol. 1.), “The
Function of Tentaculocysts” (Wat. Sci., vol. ii.), “The Recapitulation
Theory,” and the series of papers on Archaeopteryx, and to say that
they contain many observations of force and justice, though some of

July 1898] OBITUARIES 63

the conclusions are by no means accepted by those who have worked
over the same ground. Dr Hurst was a man of wide reading, a keen
controversialist, and a staunch friend of those few who knew him
intimately. Wee Ee

OSBERT SALVIN
Born 1835. Diep Ist JuNE 1898

WE deeply regret to record the death of this amiable and kindly man,
this accomplished ornithologist and entomologist, who has done so
much for zoological science. Mr Salvin passed away peacefully in
his sleep. He had known for years that his heart was in so weak a
state that life was extremely uncertain; but this in no way dis-
couraged or dismayed him.

Mr Salvin was the second son of the architect Anthony Salvin,
and was born in 1835. He was a Westminster boy, passing to
Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 1857. On taking his degree
he went to Tunis and Eastern Algeria on a natural history expedition
in company with Mr W. H. Simpson (afterwards Hudleston) and Mr
(now Canon) Tristram. They were away five months, and on the
return of the party, in the autumn of the same year, Salvin pro-
ceeded to Guatemala where, chiefly in company with the late G. U.
Skinner, the orchid hunter, he stayed until the middle of 1858,
returning again to Central America about twelve months later. In
186], Salvin again went to Central America, accompanied by F. Du
Cane Godman, to continue his explorations, but returned home in
1863. Marrying in 1865, he, with his wife, undertook a fourth trip
to Central America. In 1874 he accepted the first Strickland curator-
ship in the university of Cambridge, and filled the office until 1885,
when on the death of his father, he succeeded to Hawksfold, near
Haslemere. About this time he threw all his energies into the
“ Biologia Centrali-Americana,” a work conceived by his friend and
colleague Du Cane Godman and himself, and now having reached
many volumes. This “Biologia” was schemed to be a complete
natural history of all the countries between Mexico and the Isthmus
of Panama, and is remarkable not only for the wealth of material it
places at the disposal of the zoologists, but for the regularity of issue,
and the care with which details of publication and other matters are
considered. Salvin edited the third series of The Ibis, of which he
was one of the founders, brought out a “Catalogue of the Strickland
Collection” in the Cambridge Museum, and contributed the sections
on the Trochilidae and the Procellariidae to the British Museum
Catalogue of Birds, while his latest work was the completion of the
late Lord Lilford’s “Coloured Figures of British Birds.” He was the
author of some 150 papers in scientific publications, many jointly
with Mr Godman, or with Mr Sclater.

Mr Osbert Salvin was one of the most kindly, amiable, and
unassuming of men, who had endeared himself to a large circle, not
the least part of which was the younger generation; and his loss,
though severe enough to zoological science generally, will be still
more keenly felt by those whom he had encouraged and befriended.

We are indebted to a sympathetic notice in The Times for much
of the above information.

64 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

EDWARD WILSON
Born 1848. Drep May 21, 1898

BriTisH geologists are mourning the death of one of their most
respected and energetic colleagues, Mr Edward Wilson of Bristol.
Born at Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, fifty years ago, his attention
was early directed to geological subjects, and when only fifteen years
of age he wrote an essay on “The Coalfields of Derbyshire,” which
won for him a special prize at the Nottingham High School. For
fourteen years he was a teacher of the science classes in the Notting-
ham Mechanics’ Institute, and during this period he devoted all his
leisure to the study of the geology of south Derbyshire and Notting-
hamshire. He published several important papers embodying his
results, and in 1881 he received the Darwin Medal of the Midland
Union of Natural History Societies in recognition of the value of his
work. Among more general subjects, Mr Wilson’s discussion of the
age of the Pennine Chain in the Geological Magazine will be specially
remembered. In 1884 he was appointed Curator of the Bristol
Museum, in succession to the late Mr E. B. Tawney, and amid the
trying vicissitudes of that institution he continued to fulfil the duties
of the curatorship with enthusiasm until the time of his premature
death. While in Nottinghamshire, Mr Wilson had paid special atten-
tion to the Triassic and Rhaetic formations, and when removed to
Bristol he was able to extend his researches to the same strata in a
new field. One of his most important stratigraphical papers, indeed,
referred to the Rhaetic rocks of Pylle Hill, Bristol (Quart. Journ. Geol.
Soc., 1891). This was followed in 1896 bya still more valuable paper
on the Lower Oolites of Dundry Hill, written in co-operation with Mr
5.5. Buckman. Facilities at Bristol also enabled Mr Wilson to devote
much attention to Palaeontology, and he studied with success the
Gasteropoda of the British Jurassic formations. With Mr Hudleston
he published a valuable Catalogue of the British Jurassic Gasteropoda
in 1892; and at the time of his death he was occupied with a memoir
on the Gasteropoda of the Lias for the Palaeontographical Society. In
1888 the Geological Society of London awarded to Mr Wilson the
balance of the Murchison Fund in token of appreciation of his
researches. He was an unobtrusive worker whom to know was to
admire; and his untimely death leaves a sad gap in the ranks of
those geologists who combine painstaking field-work with still more
laborious study in the museum.

MAURICE JEAN ALEXANDRE HOVELACQUE

Born 1858. Diep at Passy, May 17, 1898

Dr HOVELACQUE was a good representative of a School of French
botanists ; he worked for some time under Prof. Bertrand of Lille, and
his researches have been chiefly conducted on the lines adopted by
Bertrand and other French anatomists. He contributed several
papers on the minute structure of the vegetative organs of flowering
plants, and eventually published a comprehensive treatise on the
anatomy of certain families of Dicotyledons.1_ This work is the result

1 “ Recherches sur l'appareil végétatif des Bignoniacées, Rhinanthacées, Orobanchées
et Utriculariées.” S8vo, 765 pp. Paris, 1888.

1898] OBITUARIES 65

of much careful and detailed investigation in a branch of plant
anatomy which has received considerable attention in recent years at
the hands of French and German botanists. Dr Hovelacque’s death
has deprived palaeobotanical science of a keen and able worker ; his
monograph on Lepidodendron selaginoides, published in the Mémoires
of the Linnean Society of Normandy in 1892, is a work of consider-
able merit, and is recognised as one of the best recent memoirs on the
anatomy of Lepidodendron. In recent years municipal duties occupied
much of Hovelacque’s time; and he always regretted that circumstances
prevented him devoting himself entirely to scientific research. He was
in strong sympathy with English science, and with his confréres on
this side the Channel.

We regret also to record the following deaths:—Aucust AssMANN of Breslau,
student of Lepidoptera ; on April 25, at Berkeley, Cal., U.S.A., aged 86, MELVILLE
Atwoop, F.G.S., noted for his metallurgical discoveries in the first half of the century ;
on February 10, at Oudenbosch, Holland, Vicror Brcxer, the anthropologist; J.
GALLOIS, entomologist and anthropologist at Déville lés Rouen ; on April 29, aged 82,
SamvueEL Gorpon, M.D., President of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland from 1893
till the end of 1897 ; the Rev. WALTER GREGOR, a zoologist, at Pitsligo, Aberdeen ; on
March 30, aged 58, James T’ANSON, mineralogist and director of the Technical College
at Darlington ; JosEF JEMILLER, a student of Hymenoptera at Munich ; Dr 8S. KEttr-
corT, Professor of Zoology at Ohio State University, and general secretary of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science ; on April 12, at Meran, aged 49,
FERDINAND Krauss, geographer and anthropologist ; on April 5, at Gross Lichterfelde,
near Berlin, Prof. LEopotp Krue, noted for his studies on the West Indian flora,
aged 63 ; on May 11th, aged 75, W. C. Lucy, F.G.S., sometime president of the Cots-
wold Naturalists’ Field Club, to the proceedings of which he contributed several papers
on geological subjects ; on April 10, in London, aged 82, General E. H. Man, noted for
his anthropological studies in the Andaman Islands ; W. M. MAsKeEtt, Registrar of the
University of New Zealand, and well known for his researches on the Coccidae ; on April
29, at Celle, Hanover, aged 83, Dr K. NOLDEKE, palaeontologist ; on April 7, at Arca-
chon, aged 37, Martian JEAN Maurice Novatuier, a student of the Hemiptera,
specially interested in the fauna of the Canary Islands ; MARIANO DE LA Paz GRAELLS,
professor of Comparative Anatomy at Madrid University, on February 13, at Madrid,
aged 80; at Yalta, Crimea, LEonID PAVLOVITSCH SSABANEJEV, zoologist and editor of
the Russian Nature and Sport ; on March 27, at St Petersburg, Dr Gustav SIEVERS, an
entomologist and explorer of Upper Armenia and the Trans-Caspian provinces ; on
April 2, aged 64, the well-known histologist, SALOMON STRIcKER, professor of Pathology
at Vienna University ; on May 5, the student of Diatoms, EucmEN WEISSFLOG, aged 75,
at Dresden; on February 20, at Munich, aged 75, ConRAD WILL, the former director
of the zoological collections there,

66

NEWS

Tur following appointments have been announced :—Mr H. C. Chadwick, to
be curator of the biological station at Port Erin, Isle of Man; Prof. John
Vinezielt, to be director of the bacteriological laboratory and assistant professor of
biology at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, having F. S. Maltby of
Johns Hopkins University as assistant in the bacteriological laboratory, and E. G.
Coghill of Brown University, as assistant in the biological laboratory ; Prof. G.
Pruvot of Grenoble, to be chief of work in practical and applied zoology at the
University of Paris; Dr C. J. Cori, to be professor extraordinarius of zoology at
the German University, Prague ; Dr B. Wandolleck of Berlin, to succeed L. W.
Wiglesworth as assistant in the Zoological Museum at Dresden ; Dr Gertrude
Haley, to be demonstrator in anatomy at Melbourne University ; Dr G. Ruge of
Amsterdam, to be professor of anatomy at Zurich University ; Dr Ph. Stohr of
Zurich, to be professor of anatomy at Wiirzburg ; Dr W. T. Porter, to be associate
professor of physiology at Harvard.

Mr J. H. Holland, assistant curator of the Botanic Gardens, Old Calabar, in the
Niger Coast Protectorate, to be curator in succession to Mr Billington ; Dr F.
Noll of Bonn, to be professor of botany and director of botanical instruction at
the Agricultural Academy of Poppelsdorf, Bonn, in place of Prof. Friedrich
Kérnicke resigned ; Dr Joh. Behrens, to be professor of botany at the Technical
High School, Karlsruhe ; Dr Z. Kamerling of Berlin, to be assistant in the
Botanical Institute of Munich University ; Paul A. Genty, to be director of the
Botanical Gardens of Dijon ; Prof. L. Celakovsky, to be director of the newly
opened botanical garden of the Bohemian University at Prague ; Mr Demoussy,
to be assistant in plant physiology at the Natural History Museum, Paris ; Dr R.
A. Harper of Lake Forest University, to be professor of botany at the University
of Wisconsin ; Cornelius L. Shear of the University of Nebraska, to be assistant
agrostologist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dr Max Blanckenhorn of Erlangen, to be temporarily on the staff of the
Egyptian Geological Survey ; Prof. A. E. Tornebohm, to be director of the Geo-
logical Survey of Sweden in succession to Dr Otto M. Torell, resigned ; Mining
Engineer N. Th. Pogrebov, to be secretary and librarian of the Geological Com-
mittee, St Petersburg; A. Lawrski, to be privat-docent in mineralogy and
geognosy at Kazan University ; N. Andrussow, to be associate-professor of geology
and palaeontology at Dorpat (Jurjew) University ; Dr Heinrich Ries of Columbia
University, to be instructor in economic geology in Cornell University.

Str Wixiu1AmM FLower has received from the German Emperor the Royal
Prussian order “ Pour le Mérite” for science and art.

Dr JoHN Murray of the ‘Challenger’ has been made K.C.B., and we beg to
offer him our warm congratulations.

THE Queen has nominated Mr Charles Sissmore Tomes, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., L.D.S.,
to be for five years a member of the General Council of Medical Education and
Registration of the United Kingdom.

THE proposal to establish a Final Honour School of Agricultural Science at
Oxford University has been rejected by Congregation. We may contrast with

July 1898] NEWS 67

this the statement that the preparation for the extension of agricultural teaching
under the auspices of the Cornell University has this year been increased from
$25,000 to $35,000.

Tue Rolleston Prize of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge has been
awarded to Richard Evans, of Jesus College, Oxford, for his memoir on “The
Development of Spongilla.” The examiners consider the memoirs “On the
Coagulation of the Proteids of White of Egg,” sent in by W. Ramsden, of Pem-
broke College, Oxford, to be of great merit, and worthy of honourable mention.

Miss CRUICKSHANK has presented the Aberdeen University with £5,000 for the
formation of a botanic garden, to be named in memory of her late brother,
Dr Alexander Cruickshank.

A Cuair of Agricultural Zoology has just been created at the Faculty of
Sciences of Marseilles, and Dr A. Vayssi¢re has been appointed to the Chair.
Publications will be issued from the laboratory, and foreign publications of
similar nature are solicited in exchange.

THE University of Chicago proposes to establish Doctorate Fellowships, or,
as we should call them, Research Fellowships, with an annual income of $750.
Candidates must have received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of
Chicago, and their appointments must be approved by the officers of the depart-
ment or departments in which their proposed research falls’ They will be ex-
pected to work for nine months of each year at the University, and to prepare
the results of their researches for publication. Appointments are to be made
annually, but may be confirmed for a period not exceeding five years.

Tue Trustees of the British Museum have recently purchased the large
collection of marine animals formed by Canon A. M. Norman, and containing
type-specimens of many species which he has established. Part of the collection
is already in the Museum, the rest will go there eventually.

THE Bentham Trustees have recently presented a portrait in oils of Robert
Brown to Kew Gardens.

Tuer Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art has recently acquired the valuable
collection of fossils from the Upper Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills, made
by the late David Hardie, of Bavelaw. It is specially rich in specimens from
the Eurypterid beds of Gutterford Burn near Carlops, Peeblesshire ; there are also
specimens, chiefly sponges, from North Esk.

In the Museum of the Scarborough Philosophical and Archaeological Society,
Mr C. D. Head has been replacing the old and ruinous collection of birds by
cases displaying them, so far as possible, in their natural habitat, along with their
nests and eggs, when these can be obtained. An improvement has also been
made in the cases for the fossils. The Society records the capture of two
badgers—one at Cloughton, the other near Folkton. The record of local birds
has been placed upon a more satisfactory basis, every item contained in the list
being thoroughly authenticated. We are glad to see that the fish, both sea and
fresh-water, also are being studied; Mr F. Grant records the occurrence of
various species not hitherto observed. Considerable attention is also paid by
members of the Society to the Invertebrata of various Classes, though naturally
the land and fresh-water Mollusca and the Lepidoptera come in for the giant’s
share. The geologists have paid attention to the exposures during the making
of the Marine Drive, but not many fossils have yet been found. Other items
of much interest to local naturalists are contained in the Report for 1897, which
shows that the Society is in a more satisfactory condition scientifically than it is
financially,

68 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

Tue Museum Committee of the Council of the City and County of Bristol
have just been obliged, through the lamented death of Mr E. Wilson, to advertise
for a curator. They want “a Gentleman,” a scientific man “competent to
catalogue the collections in and to advise as to the acquisition of specimens for
the Museum ;” he will have to act also “as Secretary to the Committee” and
“to devote the whole of his time to the duties.” In return for the absolute
service of this highly educated gentleman, the Museum Committee of this
wealthy city offers a salary of £200 per annum. It is about time for the
British Association to meet in Bristol again, if only to arouse in the minds of
these economical councillors more intelligent appreciation of modern science
than their advertisement betokens.

Tue Nottingham Natural History Museum has recently acquired a collection
of eggs and skins of British birds, formed by Mr F. B. Whitlock.

THERE are now exhibited in the zoological galleries of the Paris Museum of
Natural History the collections made by Count de la Vaulx in Patagonia.
Among these, says L’ Anthropologie, are more than a hundred skulls or skeletons,
and other ethnographic objects of great importance. During the months of April,
May and June there has been delivered in these galleries a series of lectures on
natural history and scientific observation for travellers, with practical demonstra-
tions. The lecturers included many of the leading naturalists of Paris.

At the Musée Guimet, Paris, are now exhibited many archaeological and
ethnographic objects, collected by Baron J. de Baye during his recent journey
in Siberia,

THE Camarasaurus from South Wyoming has now been mounted and set up
in the American Museum by Prof. Osborn and his assistants. It is 62 feet
long.

Tue Government Museum of the South African Republic at Pretoria, under
the direction of Dr J. W. B. Gunning, favours us monthly with a list of its
accessions, This appears to evidence a praiseworthy activity on the part of the
Museum, but we note that the greater number of the specimens come from other
parts of the world than South Africa, so that it does not throw very much light
upon the collections that may be made in that country,

THE meeting of the Museums’ Association at Sheffield, under the presidency
of Alderman Brittain, begins on Monday, July 4, with a visit to the Ruskin
Museum. Papers and discussions will occupy the mornings, and visits to
museums, steel-works, and water-works, the afternoons of the three following
days. On Friday the members will visit Castleton. There is a strong Reception
Committee, including the Lord Mayor, the Master Cutler, and the Duke of
Norfolk. Papers will be read by Dr H. C. Sorby, Prof. W. C. F. Anderson,
Prof. Denny, Mr 8. Sinclair of the Australian Museum, Messrs F. A. Bather,
H. Bolton, E. Howarth, and others.

THE Conversazione of the Royal Society, held on May 11th, was from the
point of view of natural science one of the most disappointing that we remember.
There was a sentimental sort of interest in seeing the borings from Funafuti, but
it was hardly to be expected that they should convey any information. Prof.
Poulton’s exhibit of insects captured in North America. showed that he was an
energetic collector who made good use of his holiday. But Prof. Poulton’s energy
was already well known to us. Models of vertebrae by Dr Gadow and Mr W. F.
Blandford were of educational value, but chiefly striking for the gruesomeness of
their colouring. The Marine Biological Association was represented by Mr
Garstang, who showed crabs of different orders in their natural habitats in an
attempt to prove that their ordinal characters are of an adaptive nature. This

1898] NEWS 69

thesis, however true, is not easily illustrated by such an exhibit. The perennial
green oysters were brought wp again by Profs. Herdman and Boyce, while even
Dr Sorby’s charming preparations of marine animals, as lantern slides, were
somewhat lacking in novelty. A little more topical was the series illustrating the
bacteriology of calf-vaccine lymph exhibited by Sir R. T. Thorne and Dr Cope-
man. Dr C. A. MacMunn is working on the digestive glands of Mollusca and
Crustacea, and exhibited some microscopic sections of the same. Prof. Sherring-
ton had some admirable microscopic preparations of the sensorial endings of
nerve-fibres stained by gold chloride. Naturally the photographs of, and appa-
ratus connected with, the recent solar eclipse cast everything else in the shade,
while most people were attracted by Prof. Hele Shaw’s experiments on the flow
of water, and Prof. Oliver Lodge’s magnetic space telegraphy. But the chief ex-
citement of the evening was afforded by the efforts of various gentlemen, con-
nected with the Science and Art Department, to induce eminent Fellows of the

Royal Society to sign a petition to the Government with reference to the great
South Kensington question.

Pror. MicHart Foster is to be president of the British Association at its
Dover meeting in 1899.

THE Geological Society of London has elected as Foreign Correspondents,
Marcellin Boule of Paris, W. H. Dall of Washington, and A. Karpinsky of
St Petersburgh.

Tue Oxford University Junior Scientific Club held a successful conversazione
at the University Museum on May 24. Lectures were delivered by Prof. H. B.
Dixon on “Climbing in the Rocky Mountains”; by Dr Gustav Mann on
“ Microphotography” ; and Mr G, J. Burch on “ Artificial Colour-Blindness.”

Tuer Preston Scientific Society, started some five years ago, appears to be
doing useful work in propagating a knowledge of science in that neighbourhood.
It numbers 520 members and has recently had granted to it by the Town Council
of Preston the use of a Lecture Hall and other rooms in Cross Street. This
Society does not confine itself to listening to lectures, but we read in the Annual
Report that the members of the Botanical Section have studied the flora of the
district within a radius of ten miles from Preston, with the object of forming a
complete catalogue as well asa herbarium. The Geological Section proposes to
study the geology of the neighbourhood. At Whitsuntide the Society organised
an eight-day excursion to Oban ; other summer excursions are to Owen’s College,
Trough of Bowland, Grange, Stonyhurst, Brock Bottoms, and Ingleton. The
President is Dr Collinson ; and the Secretary, W. H. Heathcote, 47 Frenchwood
Street.

THE Report of the Rugby School Natural History Society for 1897 shows a
continuance of useful work, but there still appears to be a wide field of research
open, Mr S. T. Dunn, who contributes some new botanical occurrences, writes :
“Scarcely anything is known of the range and frequency of our water buttercups,
brambles, roses, or pondweeds.” The mosses and hepatics also require workers.
The Entomological Section seems to confine itself, as is usually the case, to the
study of Lepidoptera, while it is only natural that the report of the Zoological
Section should deal chiefly with birds. It is always a difficult matter to attract
the attention of schoolboys to the smaller and less popular plants and animals.
The editors draw attention to the fact that one of the most important duties of a
secretary of a section in such a society as this is to educate a successor ; in this
the secretaries who have recently left seem to have been quite successful.

Tue Report of the Cheltenham Natural History Society also shows that a
good deal of active work is being carried on. We are glad to see that this
Society, as well as that of Rugby, encourages phenological observations, and

70 NATURAL SCIENCE [July

publishes a list of the first flowerings for the year. In this Society the people
of importance appear to be the presidents of the sections, who are all masters,
but in the Rugby Society more is made of the secretaries of sections, who are,
as they should be, boys in the school.

Tue S.E. Union of Scientific Societies met in Croydon on June 2, under the
presidency of Prof. G. 8. Boulger, who, in his address, contrasted the state of
natural science sixty years ago with its present condition. A discussion on dene-
holes was started by Mr C. Dawson, who regarded them as mines of chalk for
agricultural purposes. Mr J. W. Tutt explained the difference between entomo-
logy as a scientific pursuit and the entomology of mere collectors, Mr C.
Dawson read a paper, which will appear in our pages, on natural gas in Sussex.
In our present number we publish the valuable and suggestive paper of Mr E.
M. Holmes. Other papers were: by J. Logan Lobley on the place of geology in
education ; H. Franklin Parsons on the soil in connection with the distribution
of plants and animals; E. Lovett on amulets and charms; J. H. Baldock on
photography in relation to science. More germane to the object of the Congress
were the papers by J. M. Hobson and E. A. Pankhurst on ideals for Natural
History Societies and how to attain them. Dr Rowe demonstrated the method
of preparing fossils described by him in Natural Science.

THE eighty-first annual meeting of the Société helvétique des sciences
naturelles is to be held at Berne on August 1-3. T. Studer is president of the
zoological and anthropological section; A. Baltzer of the geological section ;
E, Briickner of that of physical geography ; and Drs Strasser and Kronecker of
anatomy and physiology,

Pror. Epwarp Suzss, Vienna, Prof. H. de Lacaze Duthiers,, Paris, and Prof.
K. A. von Zittel, Munich, have been elected Foreign Associates of the American
National Academy of Sciences.

Tue Grand Honorary Walker Prize of $1,000, awarded for five years by the
Boston Society of Natural History, has just been awarded to 8. H. Scudder, of
Cambridge, Mass., for his work in entomology.

Tue coral-boring expedition to Funafuti will this summer resume work at
the old bore at a depth of 698 feet. Lining pipes, which were on the former
occasion lowered to a depth of 650 feet, will be reinserted and extended to the
full depth. Boring can then be begun on the unproved rock, which is expected
to be similar to that met with during the previous 30 feet of the old bore,
namely, a white calcareous rock of about the consistency of hard chalk. Prof.
David expects that the bed-rock will be reached within a depth of 200-300 feet
from the bottom of the old bore. Early in August it is hoped that H.M.S.
‘Porpoise’ will bring from Samoa apparatus for putting down a bore in the
bottom of the Funafuti lagoon. Commander F. C. D. Sturdee intends to moor
his ship taut at low tide at a spot in the lagoon, which will be about a mile and
a half westward from the main village. A boring platform will be fixed at the
bows, whence pipes will be let down to the bottom of the lagoon, which at the
spot selected is about 100 ft. deep. As soon as the pipes strike the bottom of the
lagoon a powerful stream of water will be forced down them by means of a
flexible hose connected with a large Worthington steam pump. It is hoped
that then, if the bottom of the lagoon consists, as is thought probable, of soft
and loose sedimentary material, a fair depth may be attained in the few days
available for the use of the warship for this purpose. Work will be carried on
at the lagoon day and night. It should be possible from time to time, by
shutting off the water jet, and lowering a sand pump inside the pipes, to obtain
small samples of the formation which is being penetrated. If this -bore in the

1898] NEWS ia

lagoon is successful, it will much enhance the value of the main bore put down
with the diamond drill.

The reason why it is proposed that the bore in the lagoon shall be situated
only a mile and a half from the shore, instead of near the centre, is that one of
the chief difficulties will be the danger of the ship dragging at her moorings.
This would be intensified near the centre of the lagoon, where the full force of
the squalls, trade winds, and strong currents would be experienced. At the spot
contemplated, however, the warship should be not only out of the main current,
but also somewhat sheltered on the coast by the thick belt of cocoanut palms and
other trees with which the main island is densely wooded. After finishing the
boring experiment in the lagoon, the ‘ Porpoise’ will proceed to the Gilbert
Islands, and on her return, early in September, she will be ready to pick up the
diamond drill party, and convey them to Suva. Should, however, the main
diamond drill bore not have been bottomed up to the date of the return of the
warship to Funafuti, arrangements have been made by the London Missionary
Society which will admit of their steamer the ‘John Williams,’ due at Funafuti
in November, carrying the party either to Suva or New Guinea, whence they
would return to Sydney. Our information is gained from an article in the Daily
Telegraph (Sydney) for April 27.

Av the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society it was
announced that the Government had replied in a sympathetic manner to the
appeal for an Antarctic expedition. Meanwhile, as Mr Borchgrevink’s ship, the
‘Southern Cross,’ which leaves London in July, will fly the British flag,
England will not be left wholly in the lurch by the numerous expeditions now
being made to Antarctic regions.

To the numerous expeditions in the Arctic regions this year must be added
a German one under the leadership of Mr Theodor Lerner, who is accompanied
by Drs Briihl, Romer, and Schaudien. They started for the North Pole at the
end of May on the ss. ‘Helgoland.’ Mr Walter Wellman, who is attacking the
Pole from Franz Josef Land, is accompanied by Prof. J. H. Gore of Columbia
University, who will make gravity determinations in Franz Josef Land ; Lieut.
E. B. Baldwin, of the U.S. Weather Bureau ; Dr E. Hofma, of the University of
Michigan as naturalists and medical officer; and Mr Q. Harlan, of the U.S,
Coast and Geodetic Survey.

TueE French Ministry of Public Instruction has sent Surgeon-Major Huguet
to M’zab in Algeria, to continue his researches on the history of the country, and
on the characters, commerce, industry, and medical customs of its inhabitants.

Pror. Ropert Kocw returned to Berlin on Thursday after an absence of
a year and a half, spent in foreign travel for purposes of scientific research,

THe Committee for the Huxley Memorial has issued a third donation
list amounting to £1,058, 14s. 5d., the total amount now received being
£3,346, 4s. 2d. Mr Onslow Ford is now engaged upon the statue, which is
to be a seated one in marble, 8 feet high, and is to be placed in the central
hall of the Natural History Museum. Dies for the Royal College of Science
medal have been completed after the excellent design of Mr F. Bowcher.
Copies in silver or bronze of the obverse of this medal bearing a profile portrait
of Huxley, as well as replicas of the original model, can be purchased by sub-
seribers to the memorial fund. Specimens of these are on exhibition in the
architectural court of the South Kensington Museum till the end of September.
After paying for the statue, the medal, and other expenses, about £1,300
remains, and, to quote the elegant phrasing of the Committee, “The nature of
the contemplated third form of Memorial must largely depend upon the amount
which may yet be subscribed.”

72 [July 1898

CORRESPONDENCE

CORRIGENDA

May I ask those who have copies of my paper ‘‘ Pentacrinus: a name and its
history,” either in vol. xii. of Natural Science or in its separate form, to correct the
following misprints ?

On p. 248, throughout the second paragraph, for C and D read B and C respectively.
Through this misprint I appear to maintain the very proposition that the paper was
written to disprove. Iam indebted to the Rev. G. F. Whidborne for its discovery.

On page 253, second line from bottom, for 1897 read 1877,

7th June 1898, F, A, BATHER.

THE STUDY OF VARIATIONS

I po not wish to trouble your readers with a prolonged and unedifying controversy, but
I would only say that there is no question of rival theories, as Mr Tayler states, for
when one sees plants rapidly changing their forms under one’s very eyes, it is no more a
theory to describe the process than to say trees put on their leaves in spring.

Mr Tayler’s article is headed asabove. Had Mr Baker of Kew writtenan article upon
this subject, one would expect a treatise on roses or some such variable genus, for a
scientific man would at first procure his variations in nature, and then study them. Mr
Tayler reverses this process. He proposes a new system of classification, and when
asked for examples, makes the astounding reply :—‘‘I believe none are to be found in
the present state of our knowledge on this question”! After such a confession it would
be quite unprofitable to discuss his d priori assumptions, which he thus confesses have
no bases in facts. GEORGE HENSLOW,

FOREIGN MONEY ORDERS

In the business relations of the Concilium Bibliographicum with its English sub-
scribers we have had frequent occasion to note a very widespread misapprehension in
regard to the foreign money order service which must seriously hamper those desirous of
purchasing books or specimens abroad. It is really astounding how many letters we
have received with the query, ‘‘ But how can we remit such small sums?” To such we
have replied by a simple statement of the procedure necessary, and, judging from the
surprise manifested, I fancy such a statement may interest many of your readers. All
that is necessary is to fill out an international money order-blank, to be had at any
money order post-office, at a commission of 6d. for sums under £2. Such blanks call
for the name and address of the sender and of the person to whom the money is to
be paid, the amount, and the date. No further steps are necessary, the money being
delivered by the letter carriers, who at the same time leave a statement showing the
sum sent, the date, and the name and address of the sender, The issuing office gives
a receipt to the sender showing to whom the money is payable. Thus, without even
writing to the person to whom the money is to be paid, a foreign account may be paid
and a receipt for payment received. HERBERT HAVILAND FIELD.

[We must believe Dr Field’s statement as to the ignorance of the British scientific
public ; but we agree with him that it is astounding.—Ep. Nat. Sci.]

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NATURAL SCIENCE

A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress

No. 78—Vo.t. XIIJI—AUGUST 1898

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Sir WILLIAM FLOWER

In consequence of failing health, Sir William Flower has found it
necessary to resign his position as Director of the Natural History
Branch of the British Museum. Both the cause of the resignation
and the resignation itself will be deeply regretted by all naturalists
in this country and abroad. In the charming volume of Essays,
reviewed on another page of this number, Sir William tells us how
he has been, from childhood upwards, a museum man. With the
great expansion that followed on the removal of the natural history
collections from Bloomsbury to South Kensington, Sir William found
his opportunity, and he has availed himself of it to the full. To
his staff he has been an inspiration and an example. Not one, not
even the youngest, of his energetic and enthusiastic helpers can be
said to have shown a more open mind, more desirous of proving all
things and holding fast to that which was best for the display and
arrangement of those wonderful collections. But there are other
ways in which the head of an important institution of the State can
make his influence felt, and Sir William’s zeal for his Museum was
never at rest. To urge the claims of the establishment on an un-
willing Treasury, or (yet harder task) to extract sympathy from the
ranks of power, wealth, and fashion, these formed the employment
of what might have been his leisure hours. The high standing of
our Natural History Museum, as well as the improvement. in the
character and position of its staff, are largely due to his personal
exertions. This, we rejoice to see, has been heartily recognised by
the Trustees, and the “sincere good wishes” which they have otfered
through Lord Dillon, as chairman of the Standing Committee, will
be shared by the many who have, in one way or another, come into
contact with Sir William Flower.

THE DIRECTORSHIP OF’ THE NATURAL History MUSEUM

THE question of Sir William Flower’s successor has for some time

past exercised the minds of British naturalists, and the names of

many more or less eminent men have been mentioned in that con-
F

74 NATURAL SCIENCE birises

nection. Sir William’s retirement, we may remind our readers,
creates two vacancies, namely, the Directorship of the Natural
History Section of the British Museum, and the Keepership of the
Zoological Department, the duties of the latter post having been
taken over by Sir William on the retirement of Dr Giinther. For
the present Dr Henry Woodward is acting as Deputy-director,
while the work of the Zoological Department is presumably in the
hands of the Assistant-keepers. Yet a third question suggested
itself to many, owing to the adoption by the Principal Librarian,
under a recent Treasury scheme, of the title Director. This was
supposed to show that the Trustees wished to bring the whole of the
British Museum more immediately under one head than had been
the case since the removal of the natural history collections from
Bloomsbury. These fears were confirmed by a prompt official déments.

Against any action that might lessen the independence of the
Natural History Museum an energetic protest was soon raised,
and a memorial signed by many leading men in various branches
of science, and by others, was stated by the public press to have
been addressed to the Trustees. The memorialists considered that the
principal official in charge of the natural history collections should
not be subordinate to any other officer of the Museum; he should
meet the Trustees and represent them before Her Majesty’s Treasury
as the responsible head of a department and not as a subordinate.
It is clear, the memorialists pointed out, and their contention was
emphasised by a leading article in the Zimes, that the interests
of the Departments at Bloomsbury are totally different from those
of the Natural History Museum, and that the special knowledge
and sympathies and individual museum experience that fit a man
for the post of Principal Librarian militate against his caring
adequately for the wants of natural history. The Times further
observed that the proposed action would deprive naturalists of one
of those very few posts “to which they might reasonably look
forward as a reward for study and research; and we all know
that . . . the prospect of reward may serve to keep an able man
steadfast to a pursuit which he might otherwise be tempted to
forsake for some other and more promising mode of activity.” The
inducements to enter the service of the Natural History Museum
are, it has been stated, none too high from a pecuniary point of
view, and the suggestion appears to be that the Trustees are far
more likely to obtain a good class of assistants in future if they
let it be seen that the highest posts are not excluded from those who
have gained knowledge and experience in a long and devoted service.

Other opinions of interest and originality were elicited by the
newspaper discussion: such as, that a botanist is not a naturalist,
that Mr Du Cane Godman is merely a collector of insects, that a

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS vias;

voyage to Bering Straits does not necessarily fit a man for the
administrative work of a large government department, that the
Primate cannot tell a Painted Lady from a Camberwell Beauty, that
a man who cannot teach the Trustees how to suck eggs is not fit to
direct a Museum of Natural History. However these things may be,
the recommendations of the Standing Committee have been laid
before the three Principal Trustees, the three have adjourned the
discussion, and criticism of their action must therefore be reserved
for our next number.

THE Museum OF ‘ PRACTICAL’ GEOLOGY
WE learn from Nature that 500 Fellows of the Geological Society
signed a memorial to their president and council protesting against
the transference of the Museum of Practical Geology to South Ken-
sington, since “removal of the collections would seriously impede
the progress of science, especially on its economic side.” The
Council did not see its way to comply with the request of the
memorialists, that it should address the Government on the subject ;
indeed, it expressed the opinion that the question of the removal
required more consideration than it appeared to have received.
Certainly this laying stress upon the ‘ economic side’ of the ques-
tion is a trifle ridiculous. As a well-informed article in the Builder
of June 25th points outs, economic geology is the one thing that
is lacking at the Museum of Practical Geology. The collection of
building-stones is very incomplete, and even that is unaccompanied
by the necessary particulars. ‘‘ The clay-working industry,” says
our contemporary, “is not much advanced by the miserable show at
present arranged in the Museum.” Agriculture, and even mining are
but indifferently attended to. Ifa museum “ with the special object
of illustrating the applications of geology to the useful purposes of
life” is a desideratum, and we do not for one moment deny that it
is, then let us have one, and let it be in the place that is most con-
venient to engineers, architects, well-sinkers, medical officers, and
such practical men. But all this has mighty little to do with the
fine, stratigraphical series of British fossils, of which only a small
portion is named and exhibited at Jermyn Street, and that in a
manner to reflect credit on the palaeontologists of a past generation.

FRENCH ‘ PROTECTION’ OF FOSSILS IN MADAGASCAR

WE learn from the July Geographical Journal that the Politique
Coloniale of May 25, 1898, publishes a circular issued by the
French Governor of Madagascar, ordering the local officials in this
colony to prevent any but Frenchmen from collecting fossils in the
island. No one is to be allowed to collect fossils unless he be pro-
vided with a special licence from the Governor; and this will only

76 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

be granted to his fellow-countrymen. Further than this, complaint
is actually made that foreign scientific men have already secured too
many of the fossil treasures of the island. We wonder whether the
naturalists of France, official and otherwise, have been consulted on
this subject, or whether it is merely the order of a politician ignorant
of the methods of scientific men. It will, indeed, be strange if the
enlightened Government of France, which does so much for the pro-
motion of research in foreign lands, should allow this policy to be
pursued in its latest dependency. Natural science has hitherto
known no division into nationalities. On the contrary scientific
work confers a free-masonry on those who pursue it, and is
the strongest force towards the federation of the world. It should
not be turned into a cause of division. It is not long since the
Colonial Government of Mauritius paid for excavations in that
island to exhume the fossil remains of birds. These were investi-
gated and described by our own ornithologists in the University of
Cambridge, and were faithfully returned by them to the President
of the Excavation Committee for preservation in the Museum of the
Colony. Among other treasures then obtained was the finest known
skeleton of the Dodo. This, however, along with other specimens,
was eventually removed from Mauritius to the Museum of Natural
History in Paris, where it is now one of the greatest ornaments.
Surely a nation which can accept foreign courtesy in such a manner
can ill afford to countenance such petty spite as that displayed in
the manifesto of the Governor of Madagascar. We trust it is
enough to draw the attention of French naturalists to the subject,
that they may use their influence in a matter which ought to be
beyond all -political considerations.

AN AMERICAN PIRATE

In our June number we published a specially written article,
entitled “A Geographical Commemoration: Vespucci, Deschnev,
and Vasco da Gama.” This article has been reprinted in the
Scientific American for July 2, 1898 (vol. xxix. p. 8). <A few
verbal alterations have been made, causing the article to appear
as though prepared by the staff of the Scientific American. Five
lines in the article are, it is true, placed between quote-marks, and
ascribed to Natural Science; but no one would imagine from this
that the whole article was lifted bodily from our pages. What
makes this treatment worse is, that we acknowledged quite fairly
and frankly that some of our statements concerning Vespucci were
taken from an account in our contemporary. This is not the first
time we have had to complain of similar piracy on the part of the
Scientific American.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS iW

SCENERY AND THE POETS

THE Romanes Lecture for 1898 was delivered in the Sheldonian
Theatre at Oxford on June 1, by Sir Archibald Geikie, who took for
his subject “Types of Scenery and their influence on Literature.”
This has now been published, at the price of two shillings, by
Messrs Macmillan & Co. The subject of the lecture is less than its
title. Scenery is limited to Great Britain; its types are defined as
Lowlands, Uplands, and Highlands; and by ‘literature’ we are for
the nonce to understand ‘poetry.’ Even within these somewhat
narrow bounds, we are not sure that Sir Archibald has made the
most of his theme. It was a delightful lecture, full of pretty word-
painting and apt quotation, with a geological flavour deftly introduced
so as to make the listener think that there was a foundation of
abstruse science, and that this particular branch of science was
perfectly charming. But as an essay, as a contribution to. serious
thought on the subject, its tenuity approaches transparency. <A
poet, we gather from the lecture, describes what he sees, and draws
his images from his surroundings. Cowper depicts the valley of the
Ouse; Thomson turns from “the living stream, the airy mountain,
and the hanging rock” of his native Border to Hagley Park and the
“ sleep-soothing groves” of the south of England; Burns sings the
“banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon” and “the bonnie banks of Ayr”;
Wordsworth, fortunately for English literature, lived in the high-
lands of the Lake District, and introduced to us mountains and
lakes and sounding cataracts, “clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks
and emerald turf.” But all this, though we may not have heard it
expressed in such felicitous language, we knew before.

The most striking and original passage in the essay is that
which applies the scenic method of criticism to Macpherson’s
“Ossian.” “The landscape,’ we are told, “belongs unmistakably
to Western Argyleshire. Its union of mountain, glen, and sea
removes it at once from the interior to the coast. Even if it had
been more or less inaccurately drawn, its prominence and consist-
ency all through the poems would have been remarkable in the
productions of a lad of four-and-twenty, who had spent his youth
in the inland region of Badenoch, where the scenery is of another
kind.” “It is not that in Ossian, highland landscape was deliberately
described, but it formed a continually visible and changing back-
ground. The prevalent character of the whole range of scenery in
the region, and the general impression made by it on the eye and
mind, were so vividly conveyed that no one familiar with the
country can fail to recognise how faithfully the innermost spirit of
the West Highlands is rendered.” This is strong as well as new
evidence in favour of the authenticity of at least a large proportion

78 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

of the Ossianic poems. Moreover, as to the question whether the
English or Gaelic is the original, Sir Archibald says, “There can be
no doubt that on the whole the Gaelic is more vivid and accurate in
the description of landscape than the more vague and bombastic
English of Macpherson.”

In Ossian we are dealing with true nature-poetry; equally
unsophisticated are the Border ballads, and it is in the essential
character of such folk-poems rather than in the allusions, descrip-
tions, and similes of more cultured and artificial poets, that search
should first be made for the influence of scenery and topography
upon literature. If scenery have any influence upon the subject-
matter, the form, or the niceties of style, that influence will be dis-
covered more readily by comparing groups of writers from different
regions (such as the Lake School, the Attic Dramatists, the Norwegian
Novelists) and estimating their common characters, rather than by
contrasting individual writers. There are more important subjects
that call for investigation, and yet we should not be sorry if Sir
Archibald Geikie’s eloquent lecture led to further essays on these
lines. Literature to-day has so largely become a matter of “ words,
words, words,” that the mere suggestion of a possible connection
with external nature cannot fail to do good. And if our stylists
can be brought to look at the larger conception of nature resulting
from modern science, or if our scientific students can be led to look
on literary form with less contempt, then it is possible that the
literature of the future may share in the remarkable progress that
has already fallen to the lot of modern science.

Mopets oF MULTIPOLAR CELLS

Proressor A. L. HERRERA, to whose curious experiments on the pro-
duction of artificial simulations of organic structures we referred in
February last (vol. xii, p. 74), has sent to us from the National
Museum at Mexico an account of a new result he has obtained. He
noticed accidentally that when a greasy solid is lightly dabbed with
a brush dipped in a viscous liquid, the liquid rapidly assumes the
form of a network of multipolar ganglion cells. He sent us along
with the letter a shallow tin box, the bottom of which, on its inner
surface had been greased with butter and then had received an
application of some coloured viscous fluid. This fluid had assumed
the configuration of a group of multipolar cells, and when it reached
us, still retained that appearance. Dr Herrera wishes to correlate
this observation with the older experiments upon the artificial pro-
duction of nervous simulacra out of myelin, as described in Robin’s
treatise on the microscope (Paris, 1871, p. 569). We are not pre-
pared to go so far as the Professor in believing that such experiments
throw light upon histogenesis, but they are interesting and ingenious.

1398] NOTES AND COMMENTS 79

SYNTHETIC PROTOPLASM

Proressor HERRERA also sent us a letter containing an account of
some experiments he has made on what he calls a ‘synthetic proto-
plasm’ made by him by mixing pepsine, peptone, acetic fibrine, oleic
acid, soap, sugar, extract of bile, carbonate of soda, lime, and of
ammonia, lactate of lime, phosphates of lime and magnesium, sulphates
of lime and iron, and chloride of sodium. When this compound is
placed in water and examined under the microscope, violent diffusion
currents are set up, and streaming movements of a very active kind
last for a few minutes. When this is over, the addition of a trace
of liquid ammonia renews the activity, which lasts for several hours.
These movements he rightly attributes to the liberation of gases by
the particles of the compound, and he compares with this the
liberation of carbonic oxide by living protoplasm, suggesting that in
the discharge of that gas lies the secret of the streaming movements
of protoplasm. Professor. Herrera was good enough to send us a
small quantity of his compound, and on this we have successfully
repeated some of the experiments he describes. The little mass was
particularly active in water with a trace of ammonia: diffusion
currents, movements of the whole mass, and the protrusion of
pseudopodia-like processes occurred. We found, however, that the
resemblance to protoplasm was destroyed from the fact that the
mass did not retain its coherence; small masses were constantly
discharged from its surface, and it seemed to melt away in a com-
paratively short time. In this respect it compared unfavourably
with Biitschli’s foams, and we imagine that, although Dr Herrera
has imitated with considerable success the very complicated chemical
composition and consequent instability of protoplasm, he has not
been so successful with its structure. On the other hand, it is
possible that the substance, in its postal journey from Mexico,
has deteriorated. We think that he has begun a most ingenious line
of experiment, and wish him all success in his further attempts.

THE PHYTO-PLANKTON OF THE ATLANTIC

On May 12, Mr George Murray and Mr V. H. Blackman presented
to the Royal Society their observations on a year’s work in collect-
ing phyto-plankton along a track from the Channel to Panama,
carried out by Captains Milner and Rudge, and also during one
voyage to Brazil by Captain Tindall. They also gave the results
of their own observations on living material at sea. The material
was obtained by the pumping method described in our June number
(vol. xii:, p. 367).

One of the objects of the authors’ work was to determine, if
possible, the nature of the microscopic and little understood objects
known as coccospheres and rhabdospheres. In the present paper

80 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

they describe the minute structure of the calcareous plates or
coccoliths and rhabdoliths, and record the existence in the cocco-
spheres of a single central green chromatophore, separating into two
on the division of the cell. They regard Coccosphaeraceae as a group
of Unicellular Algae, and they define the group with the limits of its
genera and species. The coccospheres and rhabdospheres from the
surface are compared with those of the deep-sea deposits and their
identity established. They are also compared with geological
coccoliths and rhabdoliths from various beds, and many objects re-
garded by geologists as true coccoliths and rhabdoliths are rejected.

A large number of new Peridiniaceae were discovered and are
formally described and figured. No specific diagnoses of marine
Peridiniaceae have previously been published, authors of species
having depended on figures, and, at most, a few words of description.
No doubt the present systematic treatment of the subject will
conduce to greater order in the group. The authors record the
occurrence of all the forms in seven tabular statements, one for each
collecting voyage.

A study was also made of the species of Pyrocystis, of which
a new one is described. The facts here recorded tend, in the
opinion of the authors, to confirm the view originally expressed by
Sir John Murray, its describer, that it is an unicellular alga,
though doubts had been entertained of the accuracy of this opinion
by several biologists.

THE MISSOURI GARDEN

THE ninth annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden, issued by
the director, Professor Trelease, has just reached us. As in the case
of previous issues, it contains the garden reports, embellished with
photographic reproductions of features of interest, and a number of
scientific papers, several of which deal with those dry-loving tropical
plants for the growth of which the garden is eminently suited. One
of these papers, a revision of the genus Capsicwm (which includes the
Chili and Cayenne peppers), with special reference to garden varieties,
by H. C. Irish, studies an interesting example of the assumption of
numerous forms by plants which have been long cultivated. The
genus, which is an ally of Solanwm, the potato and tomato genus,
evidently originated in the tropics of America, whence it was
probably first brought to Europe by Columbus, and is now widely
spread in the Old World tropics. Linnaeus made four species, and
the number of specific names has since so increased as to reach
at the present time nearly one hundred, of which the Index
Kewensis recognises over fifty as good. Asa Gray, however,
suggested that these might perhaps all be reduced to two, and Dr
Sturtevant, who made a special study of the genus, collecting and

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 81

cultivating a great many kinds, also came to the conclusion that a
majority of the published species were merely varietal forms, and
that the number which botanists would hold as good species would
be very small. Dr Sturtevant recently gave the whole of his material,
including herbarium-specimens, drawings, and notes to the Missouri
Garden on condition of the ultimate publication of the results of
further study in the form of a monograph. This has now been done
by Mr Ivish, who has confirmed Dr Gray’s suggestion as to the
existence of but two species. One, Capsicum annuum, is herbaceous
or shghtly shrubby, and of annual or biennial duration ; the other, C
Srutescens, is ashrubby perennial. The former is responsible for the
great majority of the cultivated forms, which are distinguished by
characters based mainly on the shape, size, and erect or pendent
position of this fruit, and in the form of the calyx. Many of the
forms are depicted in the twenty-one plates which accompany the
monograph.

Among the other papers are a revision of the American duck-
weeds (Lemnaceae) by C. H. Thompson, and notes on a willow, Salix
longipes, from the South-Eastern States, by Dr Glatfelter, both of
which have been previously issued. There are also notes on species .
of Agave, Cactus and Yucca by various authors, and a list of Crypto-
gams collected by Mr A. 8. Hitchcock in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and
Grand Cayman. Among the last mentioned plants Mr J. B, Ellis finds
fourteen species of fungi belonging to the group Pyrenomycetes, of
which nine arenew. A fungoid disease which had attacked the leaves
of certain palms belonging to the same genus as the date (Phoenix) is
described by Professor Saccardo as caused by a new species.

In addition to the five plates which refer to the Garden, there
are fifty to illustrate the various scientific papers.

WASTED WEALTH

It is often the case, even in these days of technical education, that
for want of a little elementary knowledge the wealth which lies at
our feet is entirely overlooked. A remarkable instance of this is
furnished by the chemical manure factories of Lincoln. These supply
a large proportion of the artificial manures used in the kingdom, yet
the whole of these commodities are manufactured out of imported
material. A well-informed writer in the Lincolnshire Chronicle has
lately pointed out that all the expenses of importation might be saved.

“Tn view of the great stores of mineral phosphates that lie in
the rocks on which Lincoln city is built, it is,” he says, “ inexplicable
that our factors should go to the trouble and expense of bringing in
all this foreign material. For those interested in this subject a visit
to Handley’s Brickyard, just below Swan’s Pit, will prove a valuable
object lesson. Interstratified with what are known as the Marlstone

82 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

and the Shale, lie several seams of so-called coprolites or nodules of
phosphates of lime. The seams vary in thickness from three inches
to eighteen inches, and all are formed of these nodules closely com-
pacted. We have had an opportunity of assisting at an analysis of
these nodules, from which it was demonstrated that not only are
they remarkably free from iron, but that they are ten per cent.
richer than are the imported Belgian samples. It must not be sup-
posed that these seams are peculiar to Handley’s Pit only—they
extend uniformly throughout the middle hills of Lincolnshire, and
are exposed in most of the pits from Lincoln to Grantham. If
properly exploited the phosphate industry in Lincolnshire might be
made second only to that of its great iron mines and foundries.”

HumBer Mup

THERE is mud in the Humber estuary, mud and sand, and a great
deal of it. Where does it come from ?

This is the question that the Hull Scientific and Field Natu-
ralists’ Club set itself to discuss on April 13th, the discussion being
opened by its energetic secretary, Mr T. Sheppard. The usual
reply that the mud comes from the tributary rivers, Ouse, Trent,
and Hull, is soon found to be inadequate. The mud is accumu-
lating so rapidly that the material brought down by the rivers is
insufficient to account for it. Not only sand and mud banks but
dry land is continually being formed. Reed’s Island, between
North and South Ferriby, was, some twenty-five years ago, com-
paratively small, with a plot of grass on which a few cattle were
reared. Now it is hundreds of acres in extent, has an enormous
number of cattle grazing upon it, and is still growing. As for the
accused rivers, their waters are comparatively clear and hold but few
particles in suspension. Such detritus as they do transport is for
the most part redeposited on their own banks, or in the alluvial
flats so characteristic of the Ouse and Trent. It is, however,
noticed that the water near the mouths of these rivers is far more
muddy when the tide is flowing up them; and this suggests that
the mud may be brought into the Humber from the sea.

The waters of the North Sea are continually washing particles
of rock, sand, and mud in a southerly direction, and slowly but
surely the material on the Yorkshire coast is travelling southward.
It never travels in a northerly direction. As is well known, the
beach around Flambro Headland is strewn with masses of chalk of
all sizes, which have been dislodged from the cliffs. These can be
seen in plenty in Bridlington Bay and further south, though natu-
rally getting less plentiful as they get Humber-wards. Hardly any
chalk boulders are found north of the headland. This proves that
the beach-material travels southward. Now the cliffs of the Holder-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 83.

ness coast are made up of soft glacial clays, capped in one or two
places by lacustrine deposits of small extent. They vary in height
from 10 to 50 feet, and at Dimlington reach over 100 feet. Mr
J. R. Boyle has shown on historical evidence, and the Rev. E. M.
Cole and others have proved by direct observation, that the whole of
the cliffs from Bridlington to Spurn are being eroded at an average
rate of about 7 feet perannum. The whole of the eroded material
must be gradually, or in some cases quickly, converted into gravel,
sand, and mud, and earried southwards. A large quantity of this
material is carried past the Humber mouth and is gradually silting
up in the Wash and off the Lincolnshire coast. At the same time a
deal of it must be brought into the Humber at each tide; and when
the winds are the strongest, and the erosion most severe, the inrush
of water into the Humber is likewise the greatest. This water brings
with it the cliffs in a modified form. It would appear, therefore,
that it is from the coast that the bulk of the material suspended in
Humber waters is derived.

It does not follow that the mud now in suspension in the
Humber is the result of one or two tides. The particles may have
been accumulating during several months, and undoubtedly pass
and repass a particular point several times a week. Consequently,
when the rivers flowing into the Humber are swollen with flood
waters, and are swift, the muddiness observed near their entrances
to the estuary is not necessarily due entirely to the additional
material which they have brought down, but is more likely to be
owing to the sediment in the Humber being stirred up.

Absolute confirmation of this theory as to the origin of the
Humber mud, such as might under other circumstances be afforded
by microscopic examination of the mud-particles, is not to be
obtained, since the particles brought down by the rivers are
precisely similar to those found in the cliffs of the east coast.
Not only are the boulders in those cliffs formed of rocks similar
to those eroded by the rivers near their sources ; but in their lower
reaches the rivers traverse boulder-clay areas.

SLUGS

THERE are before us some papers dealing with slugs, and written by
Mr Walter E. Collinge, one of the few British workers who have
turned their attention, with any persistency, to this branch of
malacology,

The forms included among slugs are not of necessity near
relations, nor are they, as some might imagine, sharply separated
off from types with well-developed shells. Nevertheless, slugs as a
whole present the same difficulties, and require to be approached
from the same point of view.

84 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

The student of slugs obviously cannot be a mere conchologist,
but one of two temptations may beset him according as he is or is
not an anatomist. In the latter case, he may be led to attach
undue importance in descriptive work to colour variations, occasion-
ally making one species out of two, but more often splitting up one
into several, and possibly naming ‘varieties, which may be based
merely upon such phases of coloration as succeed one another
during the life-history of a single individual, The anatomist, on
the other hand, may be inclined to consider as diagnostic of species
points of internal difference so small as to suggest that the describer’s
wish was father to his thought. And this is especially the case
when little or no outward differentiation is obvious. Of course, in
these days when ‘physiological species’ are recognised, there is
nothing inherently improbable in the assumption that there are
forms alike without yet not within, provided that some additional
evidence is forthcoming as to varying habits or development. It
seems reasonable, however, to expect something of the latter sort to
be brought forward before we are asked to recognise ‘anatomical
species’ as good ones.

Mr Collinge is an anatomist, and in his paper “On some
European Slugs of the genus Avion” (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1897,
pp. 439-450, pls. xxix.-xxxi.) he brings forward evidence as to
“the constancy of anatomical characters” so far as the genital
organs are concerned, these being the parts in which specific differ-
ences are mainly sought. The testimony is based upon the small
number of variations found in a large series of specimens dissected,
and belonging to the same two species of Arion. That the form of
generative organs in the particular genus considered presents but
little modification throughout the species is a well-known fact, and,
even if this were not so, a comparison between fig. 3 of A. swbfuscus
and fig. 12 of A. hortensis would suffice to show it. To bring
forward this ‘constancy’ in Avion as militating against Cockerell
and Larkin’s belief in the specific identity of several forms of Veroni-
cella, which differ anatomically, is but lost labour, So far as Avion
itself is concerned, the small number of slight variations noted by
Mr Collinge (i¢, 26 out of 1223) may serve as an excuse for
increasing the number of species when more marked differences are
from time to time detected. ,

Mr Collinge, indeed, in the paper under discussion, reserves his
Arion hortensis, var. cacruleus, which differs more markedly from
the typical hortensis, and raises it to specific rank. We note that
A, hortensis is figured with but one vestibule, while caeruleus has
two: two, however, are shown in an unpublished drawing of the
former by the late Charles Ashford now before us, while Mr
Collinge’s fig. 12 contradicts his own statement, that in no species of

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 85

the A. hortensis group is the lower portion of the free oviduct much
larger and more globose than the upper. Again, in the paper, the
validity of A. fuscus, externally very much like A. subfuscus, is
admitted by Mr Collinge who previously rejected it. This is not
to be wondered at since, in another paper on four species of the
same genus, published about the same time in the Journal of
Malacology (vol. vi., pp. 7-10, pl. ii.), almost the only evidence of
external difference between A. empiricorum, A, ater, and A. lusi-
tanicus given by Mr Collinge is a short series of measurements
pointing to the fact that the second species is larger than the first.

Of course it is probable that our islands contain more species
of Arion than many of us used to imagine, and Mr Collinge has done
much to arouse us to the truth about them; but, before all the
species which he and his continental friends would give us are
recognised by thinking malacologists, still more careful and detailed
work must be done upon the genus. We have been so. busily
criticising the weak points in the paper that we have only hinted,
by quoting a few figures, at the prodigious amount of work which it
must have entailed. There only remains for us to express the hope
that other workers will come forward and supplement what is a
valuable contribution, from an anatomical point of view, to our
knowledge of the genus Avion. it

In the other paper we have “the description of two new species
of slugs of the genus Parmarin from Borneo” (Proc. Zool. Soc.,
1897, pp. 778-781, pl. xliv.). One of these the author considers
intermediate between the genus in which he places it, and Micro-
parmarion ; in fact it leads Mr Collinge to the conclusion that no
line can rightly be drawn between the two genera.

AMERICAN ISOPODS

Mr J. E. BeNepicr on March 24 published a paper on ‘“ The
Arcturidae in the U.S. National Museuin” (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash-
ington, vol. xii., pp. 41-51), in which there are several interesting
features. He describes eight new species, and of each of them
gives a good and intelligible ‘ habitus-figure,’ an adjunct without
which the most lucid description of a new form is usually difficult
and wearisome reading. Within the last twelve years the number
of species in the genus Arcturus has been raised from five to
twenty-five. Mr Benedict has therefore rendered a kindly service
by supplying a key to this rapidly increasing group. As often
happens, when new species appear, some of the old generic dis-
tinctions have to disappear. Mr Benedict finds, for example, that
in some species of Arctwrus the fingers are not simple, but bi-
ungulate as they are in Astacilla. It appears, too, from his de-
scriptions that Arcturus cannot invariably be distinguished from

86 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

Astacula by having the flagellum of the second antennae more than
four-jointed. Nature lures us on by showing species after species in
which the joints are more than four, and, when we are purely
satisfied with our generic character, brings to view Arcturus
multispinis, in which the flagellum in question is single-jointed.
When Astacilla has established a character for preferring shallow
water, Mr Jules Bonnier describes the remarkable Astacilla giardi
from a depth of more than 500 fathoms, and now from 1825 fathoms
comes Mr Benedict's A. caeca, Mr Beddard has pointed out
that the genera Arcturus and Astacilla “form almost the only
exception to the general statement that the deep sea Isopoda are
blind,’ and now Mr Benedict’s last-mentioned species comes as an
exception to this exception, being a blind Isopod from the deep
sea.

In a second paper, simultaneously published in the same
Proceedings (vol. xi., pp. 53-55), Mr Benedict describes two new
Californian species, both of which he assigns to the genus Jdotea,
relying for the limits of that genus on the monograph of the
Idoteidae by E. J. Miers, published in 1883, It is rather surprising
that he takes no notice of the far more recent discussion of this
family by Mr Adrien Dollfus in the Fewille des Jeunes Natur-
alistes, November 1894, and February 1895. Few students who
have read the papers by Mr Dollfus will be ready to retain Mr
Benedict's two new species in one and the same genus.

Miss Harriet Richardson, also in the same publication (xi1.,
pp. 39-40) describes and figures a new species of ga, closely
related to Aga tridens, Leach. The discriminating characters do
not seem to be all of them quite convincing. One of these
depends on the number of joints in the flagella of the antennae,
the new Aga ecarimata having on the second pair ten joints,
while Leach’s species has nineteen. It is true that the number
nineteen is assigned to it by Schiddte and Meinert, but Bate and
Westwood say that the number is about twelve, and it may be taken
for granted that there is no fixity in this respect to depend on
among specimens of different ages and different sizes. The relative
length and breadth of the body is likely to prove an equally unstable
character. The new species is said to be more than thrice as long
as broad, and the figure given agrees with this measurement, but so
does the figure of 4ya tridens given by Schiodte and Meinert,
though that drawn by Bate and Westwood is of a more portly
habit.

Under present conditions of human existence the scattering of
scientific information remains unavoidable, so that one can merely
note, without astonishment or disapproval, that one new species of
ga obtained by the U.S. Fish Commission steamer ‘ Albatross’

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 87

is described by Miss Richardson in the Proceedings of the Biological
Society of Washington, and that four new species of the same genus
obtained by the same vessel are described almost at the same time
by Dr H. J. Hansen in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative
Zoology at Harvard College. Of the high merit of all Dr Hansen’s
zoological work mention has been too recently made to need further
comment on this occasion. In regard to Miss Richardson’s excellent
contributions to our knowledge ef the Isopoda, the suggestion may
be diffidently hazarded that researches reported in a collected and
connected form are now-a-days more acceptable than isolated
descriptions,

SoME MEXICAN BIRDS

Iv a short paper published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society
of Washington (vol. xii., pp. 57-68; March 24, 1898) Mr E, W.
Nelson includes a critical examination of the long-nailed partridges,
for which Mr Ogilvie-Grant established the genus Dactylortyx
in 1893 (cf. Cat. Brit. Mus. xxi. p. 429). Mr Ogilvie Grant was
only able to include a single species, D. thoracicus, under this
genus; but Mr Nelson decides that Mr Ogilvie Grant united two
distinct species, of which he supplies the distinguishing characters.
He also describes two new species of long-nailed partridges, both
obtained in Mexico. Mr Nelson has discovered several other species
and sub-species of birds in Mexico. Of these, perhaps the most
surprising novelty is the Sinaloa Martin (Progne sinaloae), procured
upon the western slope of the Sierra Madre, between 2500 and
4000 feet altitude. Oddly enough, this new species from North-
west Mexico is closely related to the pretty Caribbean Martin
(Progne dominicensis) which is peculiar to the West Indian Isles.
A good figure of the latter will be found in Sharpe and Wyatt’s
“ Monograph of the Hirundinidae,” vol. u, plate 91.

THE Buack KITE

CounT ARRIGONI DEGLI ODDI is one of the most enthusiastic of the
younger generation of Italian ornithologists, and has recently pub-
lished several excellent papers on the birds of his country. An
essay just issued by him, at Venice purports to be a notice of the
nesting of Milvus migrans in the province of Verona, but it is, in
point of fact, almost a life-history of the Black Kite. The author
supplies dates for the arrival and departure of this hawk in and
from Verona for a term of fifteen years, from which we learn that
it reaches its summer quarters in March, and leaves for Africa
again in August, or at the commencement of September. The
duties of incubation are performed by the female bird, and occupy
from eighteen to twenty days. The old kites are devoted to their

88 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

young ones, which, we learn with regret, are fed largely upon small
chickens. But, lest it be supposed that this kite should be banned
as vermin, we hasten to observe that its diet is very varied,
including worms, small crustaceans, dragon-flies, grasshoppers and
other insects, frogs, toads and water-newts, lizards, snakes of two
species, and five species of fish; not to mention small mammals,
such as moles, shrews, mice, and (last, but not least) land-voles,
which are the bane of agriculturists.

AN ALGA PARASITIC ON OPHIURIDS

THE occurrence of Algae in intimate connection with the bodies of
living animals is well known. Such are the yellow cells (Zooxan-
thella) of radiolarians, the green alga, Zoochlorella, found in many
infusorians, in Spongilla, Hydra, in various rhabdocoele turbellarian
worms, and so forth. But in all these cases the relation is one of
symbiosis, on the give and take principle. Lately, however, Dr Th.
Mortensen has described in Videnskabelige Meddelelser (1897, pp.
322-324) a species (probably a new one) of the green alga
Dactylococcus infesting the brittle-stars Ophioglypha texturata and
QO. albida, It forms dark-green patches on both disc and arms,
on both upper and under side, sometimes in small excavations in
the calcareous plates. Its peculiarity is that it eats away the
skeletal substance and, apparently, does not pay for it. It is a
true parasite.

PAPER

SINCE every scientific man should believe that his work is of per-
manent value, and should avoid publishing anything in which he
does not so believe, it becomes of some interest to him to see that
the paper upon which his articles are printed is of a quality
warranted to last. Therefore we recommend our readers to consider
with care the valuable report printed in the Journal of the Society
of Arts for May 20, in which a Committee appointed for the special
purpose, give the results of their investigation into numerous
printing papers. The disintegration of the fibre of papers is, as a
rule, referable to acidity in the case of rag papers: while, in
those made from wood-pulp it is due to oxidation, and is accom-
panied by an alkaline reaction. The discoloration of papers is pro-
portional to the amount of rosin which they contain. The Com-
mittee, therefore, advocates the following specification as that of a
reliable paper :—“ Fibres : not less than 70 per cent. of fibres of the
cotton, flax, and hemp class. Sizing: not more than 2 per cent.
rosin, and finished with the normal acidity of pure alum. Loading:
not more than 10 per cent. total mineral matter (ash).”

591.1 89

ii
Some More Rowing Experiments

N the autumn of 1895 the author designed an indicator for
recording the work done in a stroke of rowing.’ The apparatus
replaced the front thowl of the rowlock, and consisted of a plate
turning with the oar, which pressed against it, about an axle to
which it was connected by means of another plate pivoted to the
first,

The pressure of the oar tended to move the front plate back
towards the axle, this motion being resisted by a spring. The
movements of the plate, and consequently of the oar, were recorded
as a diagram on a horizontal card by a pencil connected with the
plate. This diagram afforded the information given by the familiar
steam-engine indicator diagram, and gave measures of the horse-
power of oarsmen, as well as interesting information with regard to
the way in which the work was done, showing the great differences
that existed between the style and stroke-forms of different oarsmen.

The successful working of this simple instrument encouraged
the author in 1896 to attempt another, obviating the shortcomings
of the first. This latter, in addition to various mechanical imperfec-
tions, had the disadvantage of giving the diagram in curvilinear
co-ordinates, necessitating Jaborious measurement and _ reduction
before stroke form and work done could be estimated.

Further, in testing a steam-engine it is customary to take
several diagrams during a run, by changing the card on which
the figures are being drawn. In a boat this is impracticable
without stopping the rowing. It will be seen that an important
part of the later machine is the automatic winding apparatus, where-
by the card changes itself. The author was recently interested in
having his attention called to a similar device which was being
introduced for the steam engine.

The general principle of the former indicator, that of recording
the movements of a plate turning with the oar and pressed forward
by a spring, has been adhered to, In the photographs (Plate I.)
and diagram illustrating the action of the pencil and spring (Fig. 1)
the face A moves with the oar, and is connected with the axle B

1 For a description of the instrument and results obtained, see Natural Science, vol.
Vili., pp. 178-185, March 1896.
G

90 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

(which screws on to the rowlock in place of the thowl) by means
of the link C, This junction piece, which is strongly braced to
avoid flexure, rotates round the axle in an adjustable bearing, and
is pivoted to the face at D in dead centres. The spring is placed
between # on the back part of the front plate, and a nut at F on
a core, fixed at f to the link.

The part of the instrument in which it differs essentially from
the earlier one is the recording mechanism, in which the diagram
is obtained practically in rectangular co-ordinates, and every fifth
stroke is automatically indicated for a period up to 500 strokes.

The diagram is
recorded on a drum
(#) having its axis
Oak BERGE along the axle. The
strip of ‘metallic
paper’ on which the
diagram is drawn
winds off the cylinder
S, over the drum on
to the cylinder 7’, and
is held in position by
an elastic thread which
winds off a pulley on
T on to a similar
pulley on 8.

The pencil attachment (HG'Z) moves as a whole about a vertical
axis G fixed to the face, while the arm GH can move about a
horizontal axis fixed to the main attachment, which keeps it in
a vertical plane with the pulley Z. G is so placed that (Fig. 1)
BDGH is a parallelogram (assuming for the moment that H has no
vertical movement), and, consequently, if H remains on the drum
while the face moves parallel to itself towards the axle, it will
stop in the same position. The pencil (#) (a brass point) is pressed
upwards by a spring, and is held down by a chain which passes over
the pulley Z and is fixed to the face at I.

If the front face moves backwards parallel to itself, G and I
participate in the movement, while # rests on the drum owing to
the spring, which, keeping the chain tight, pulls Z towards M.
Consequently JZ approaches Z, and some of the chain passes to the
vertical part, and allows the pencil to move upwards. In this way
a pressure line is drawn, which is a circle about G as centre. The
maximum error introduced into the position of the oar by regarding
this as a straight line is about 0°5°,! while the line of no pressure

Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating action of Pencil and Spring.

3

1 eel E ebes 360
= (1-60 sin 12) * on we

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS 91

produced by simply turning the oar, is a horizontal circle, which
becomes a straight line when the diagram strip is unwrapped.

At the conclusion of a stroke, when the pencil has reached its
extreme position to the right, the oar leaves the face and rests
against the opposite thowl, only touching the instrument at the
rounded end of the face to carry it into position for the next stroke.
During this movement the pencil travels over the base line, and a
lever V engages a spoked wheel 0, which gears into the right hand
cylinder and winds the strip into a new position, As the winding
ceases, a cam-wheel P is rotated; this drives a plate attached to
the bottom of the drum outwards, and thus lifts the pe! off the
strip and the winding lever out of gear.

During the stroke the wheels are not engaged, since the levers
share the backward movement of the face when the spring is com-
pressed and pass clear of the wheels. While the cam holds the
plate out no diagrams are drawn and no winding goes on.. Each
forward swing carries the cam wheel forward one tooth, until at the
fifth stroke the pencil again reaches the paper, another diagram is
drawn and the strip is once more wound. Two cords place the
starting and stopping of the record under the control of the
coxswain. The upper part of the instrument is protected from
splashing or rain by a cover.

Knowing the diameter of the drum, and the strength of the
spring, the diagram gives a result in pounds pressure per
degree of turn of the oar. In order to express the result in
foot-pounds of work, the ratio of the pull on the handle of the oar
to the corresponding pressure on the rowlock must be known, and
the distance through which the handle moves per degree of turn.
These two constants are found from the in and outboard dimensions
of the oar, and the position of the centre of pressure of the water
on the blade.t The spring was calibrated in the Millard Laboratory,
Oxford, by kind permission of Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith. With the oay
and spring used in the experiments, a height on the diagram of 1”
represents a pull of 220 pounds, and 1 sq. inch represents 377
foot-pounds.?

When the indicator is fully open it is usually convenient to
have the spring under some initial compression. This is estimated
by noting the turns given to the nut F after it has just touched the
spring, and allowed for by measuring heights from a new base-line
0”06 per turn below the actual one. Experiments in calibrating
the spring showed that one end did not completely ‘bed’ itself
until some pressure was exerted. The error due to this is practi-
cally eliminated by raising the base line 0”-03.

1 Neglecting the moment of inertia of the oar about its button. See Appendix I.
2 See Appendix I.

92 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

In order to prevent the necessary length of the strip being
excessive, the diagrams are made to overlap (Fig. 2). If the strokes
are flat at the top it is frequently not easy to determine at sight
which is the ‘ finish’ corresponding to a particular ‘ beginning.’ This
is, however, discovered at once by measuring the length of the first
or last stroke, from which the approximate distance of the ‘finish’
from any ‘beginning’ is known. A stroke thus individualised can
then be measured up. The measurements taken are :—

(1) Length of stroke in degrees: which is afterwards reduced
to distance moved through by the handle of the oar.

(2) Greatest height of diagram.

(3) Area, measured with an Amsler planimeter.

(4) The shape of the curve gives the style of stroke.

Fig. 2. Part of an Indicator Card (two-thirds actual size).

To determine the style of an oarsman under any particular
circumstances, the idiosyncrasies of the strokes are eliminated by
superposing several
diagrams (Fig. 3),
and then drawing a
mean line through
the result. In this
way the ‘Charac-
teristic Diagram’
is obtained. Simi-
larly, in finding
an oarsman’s power,

Fig. 3. Deduction of Characteristic Diagram (actual size).

the mean of several stroke measures is taken.

Having now described the indicator, the diagram, and the
method of treating it, some account will be given of the results
obtained from twenty-seven experiments involving some 2000
strokes of rowing. ‘The principal oarsmen experimented on are
denoted by A, B, C, D, #, F, G, H, I.

Fig. 6 represents a series of characteristic diagrams of rowing
on sliding seats. AK was obtained with the earlier indicator, but
is introduced here as the stroke-form differs from any others in no
small degree. This stroke although very short is nevertheless very
powerful.

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS 93

The horizontal dotted line corresponds to a pull of 100 pounds
and the vertical one to a stroke length of 80°.

Fig. 4. Some Characteristics—Sliding Seats.

Four fixed-seat characteristics are shown in Fig. 5. The
results given in the table are generally deduced from a larger
number of measures than the diagrams, and in some cases additional
experiments have been introduced, so that the correspondence
between the figures and table is not necessarily exact.

An inspection of the characteristics reveals the great individual-
ity in stroke-form that exists even among men who have rowed
together and undergone the same course of instruction, and using
the same boat and oar. Two diagrams could scarcely be more
different than Band #. The author has found that the form B is
rather typical of the heavy man’s stroke—a powerful stroke, but
with a sluggish beginning, while / typifies the light man who has
a smart beginning, and quickly reaches his highest pressure, which
he lacks strength to continue through the stroke.

A comparison of the sliding seat with fixed seat strokes, shows
that the latter generally have a much weaker finish, suggesting that
the chance of good leg-work at the finish is diminished on a fixed

seat. As is to be expected, the strokes are some 8 inches shorter.
This shows—as an oarsman well knows—that a 14” slide does
not add its full length to the stroke, since the ‘swing’ in sliding
seat rowing is rather shorter than on a fixed seat.

94 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

In the table, results are shown of the experiments relating to
work done in a gig pair, both on sliding and fixed seats. The
author regrets that the stroke rate was not taken in more cases, it
having been measured in only seven of the experiments. It is,
however, not far from the truth to assume that the estimated rates
in other cases are not in error more than one stroke a minute.}

‘The trials involved in the table have all been short, ranging from
one to ten minutes, and speaking generally a similar rate a oe
with a gradual fall in power, could have been continued for some
twenty minutes, while, at high pressure, exhaustion would ensue
under similar conditions in less than ten minutes.

ROWING IN GIG-PAIR
Average time between easies—3 min.

Average stroke-rate—2 2.

1 2 3 4 | 5) 6 vey fas
Stroke Pull. Mean. |
Oarsman |length in | Ft.-lbs. | |) EOS

feet. per str. Max. | Mean. Max. power.

I. Shidinjg Seat. | |
A 4-9 38i))_ Oi Aine 78 (0-254
B 4:9).\\) 4180/5 115 ple 86 ‘74 266
6 52 hie den 28 oye 86 1101380
D AOL | DEV it «80 54 GOP })e78
E
F
[K

|
Prilcen| w89 Olek 10d: ap 47 ‘TA 272
4:6 240 hot Ml alaare 66 196
At) SAGs) (GIG | Ai9 79 331]

Mean 4:9 396 AOS it xO 13 "259

IL. Fixeld Seat. |
4:5 370 12, 2 65 “DAT

G
H dQ: "| S386S3 198 | 85 65 224
I 49 | $4351) 122 82 67 O97
F 5 So 5 70 56 208
Mean | 43 | 340 | 126 | 80 63 S/226n,

The table indicates that Man Power in rowing is about 4 H.P.
and varies with individuals and effort between -2 and ‘4 H.P.

1 With reference to stroke rate, it is worthy of note that the usual custom of counting
strokes, in which the number of strokes in the water is taken, makes an error of more
than half a stroke, by omitting one swing forward. Thus if strokes are counted for
4 min. the deduced rate is too high by 2 per minute.

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS 95

The author regrets that up to the present the only experiment in a
racing eight was on an Oxford ‘ Torpid’ in its early days of practice.
He suspects that during a race of eight to ten minutes’ duration the
power would vary between °3 and ‘7 H.P.

The figure given in the sixth column of the table is of some
importance, since it roughly indicates the form of the stroke. This
coefficient, found by dividing the mean pull during the stroke by
the greatest pull, gives a measure of the uniformity of the pull.
If the usual coaching maxim of “getting the full work on at once
and carrying it out to the finish,’ were literally carried out, the
stroke diagram would become a rectangle, and the coefficient unity.

It is, however, probable that the best results would not be
obtained with a high coefficient, since the extra work done does not
compensate for the additional fatigue, physical and nervous, involved
in setting the muscles suddenly at their fullest tension. In addition
to this physiological point there is the mechanical one that the
efficiency of propulsion is greatest—other things being equal—
when the oar is at right angles to the boat, since it is here that the
smallest proportion of the work is devoted to generating kinetic
energy in the water.

This question of efficiency of propulsion by oars has been made
the subject of experiment by the author. To determine this it is
necessary to know, in addition to the information afforded by the
indicator diagram, the point about which the oar is turning at
every part of the stroke. Since the rowlock is moving forwards,
and the tip of the blade backwards, some point between these is
neither moving backwards nor forwards. This point may be called
the Turning Point.!. A moment’s consideration will show that this
point changes its position during the stroke, since the blade first
encounters ‘dead’ water, so that the blade tip at first moves
slowly, and the turning point is lower down the oar than a moment
afterwards when the water has been set in motion.

By attaching a float to different parts of the oar by a string, so
that the float was immersed during the stroke, it was possible to
estimate fairly accurately the mean position of the turning point,
for which a position 36 inches above the tip of the blade was found,
1e., a point only 3 inches above the top of the blade. This shows
how comparatively slight is the motion given to the water, a point
which will be more clearly brought out below.

In August of last year the author made an attempt to arrive at
more exact results on this point by taking a rapid series of photo-
graphs of an oar in motion on the same plate, from a point vertically
above the boat. Unfortunately, the only time available, about 3.30
P.M, on a cloudy afternoon, was not an ideal one for exposures lasting

1 Tt is clearly the projection of the ‘ Instantaneous Centre Locus’ on the oar.
y; proj

96 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

330 of a second. However, a photograph was taken from which it
has been possible to determine some twenty positions, plotting out a
whole stroke, with parts of the forward swing on each side (Fig. 6).

Rough scale of fest ,

ce) ie 2 5 6 Pgs

Fig. 6. Motion of an Oar during a Stroke. (Boat is moving towards the right{hand. )

The camera was fixed about 23 feet above the River Cam when
there was practically no stream to vitiate the results. The exposures
were made by a revolving shutter, having three slits, each with an
angular width of 5° rotating before a slit of about double that
width. The rotation was maintained by such a weight that the
speed was fairly uniform during 120 exposures at about 14
exposures per second. As only 26 of the 120 were used, no
serious error is introduced by considering the successive photographs
taken at equal intervals of time.

Fig. 7. Curves described by points on the Oars. (A), Button; (C), 36’ above
tip of blade ; (DP), Tip of blade.
Points were marked on the oar at the button, at 36” above the
tip of the blade, and at the tip. The motion of these points is re-
presented by the lines 4, Cand D in Fig. 7. A projecting part of

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS 97

the bridge from which the photograph was taken necessitated
the camera being tilted slightly out of the vertical, so that
there is a corresponding change in the scale of the picture
in different parts, but as the important part is the loop of
the line C, this error is comparatively unimportant.

In Fig. 8, A repre-
sents the locus in space
of the turning point

| determined as the ‘ en-
|
1
'

velope’ of the various
oar positions shown on
the photograph, show-
ing that this point
moves outwards from
the boat in a convex
curve facing the bow
of the boat.

The curve & repre-
sents the Instantaneous
Centre Locus or point
in space about which
the oar turns bodily.

Fig. 9 represents the motion of the Turning Point along the
oar. From this it will be seen that, starting from a point some
37 inches above the tip, it moves upwards during the first part of the
stroke as suggested above, but before the middle of the stroke a
curious reaction sets in, and during the rest of the stroke the turn-
ing point steadily approaches the tip of the blade, indicating that
the blade is coming more and more to rest.1

This seems to show that at the be-
ginning of the stroke the blade, which
is increasing its distance (see curve D,
Fig. 7) from the boat’s side owing to a
diminished obliquity, sets up a _ swirl
which moves backwards in the path of
the blade, but forwards between that
and the boat.

During the second half of the stroke
the blade enters this forward moving
water and has its motion retarded, taking Fig. 9. Position of ‘Turning
up thereby some of the energy previously Pot’ 0 Oar during the Stroke.
imparted to the water. This point requires further experiment.

Fig. 8. Motion in space of Instantaneous Centre (6)
and ‘ Turning Point’ (A).

1 The mean position is found to be 36 inches above the tip, a result coinciding with
the rough determination with the float eighteen months previously.

98 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

In order to determine the efficiency of propulsion it is only
necessary to find what proportion of the whole work done is
developed as kinetic energy in the water. If the whole pressure
of the blade against the water be P, while the centre of pressure
moves through a distance a perpendicular to the blade, the kinetic
energy delivered to the water is Pa. For every small angle @ through
which the blade turns while the turning point is at a distance
from the centre of pressure, the above product = Px.

Without entering into details the angles between successive
positions of the oar, given in Fig. 6, were measured and corrected
by interpolation from a curve, while corresponding values of x and
P were found from Fig. 9 and C of Fig. 4 respectively.”

In this way it was found that almost exactly 4 (33°4 per cent.)
of the work was left behind in the water as kinetic energy set up
by the oar, giving an efficiency of 66°6 per cent. This efficiency
coefficient is concerned, of course, only with the rowing mechanism,
and takes no account of physiological waste of energy.

Fig. 10. Fatigue Effect. .4, Work ; 2, Greatest Pull; C, Change in Form.

The mechanical efficiency is increased by increasing the size of
the blade, so that it can react on a larger body of water, and by in-
creasing the length of the oar, both inboard and outboard, in order
to diminish the obliquity at the ends of the stroke. This theoretical
possibility is hampered by practical considerations until boatbuilders

1 See Appendix II.
2 C unfortunately was not the oarsman who was rowing in the oar experiment, but,
for a general result, this is of no very great moment,

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS 99

condescend to turn their attention to making an improvement on
present wooden oars and solid outriggers.

In experiments so far described, the only advances made by the
new Indicator over the first one have been the greater facility in
reducing the results and the possibility of obtaining a mean result
from several strokes. Experiments will now be considered for
which the continuous record was necessary. These have reference
to the effect of fatigue on rowing. Fig. 10 indicates in various
ways the growth of fatigue during a continuous piece of rowing. In
A, ordinates represent the work done during a stroke, whose number
from the start is represented by the abscissa. As is to be expected,
the strokes vary irregularly, but the steady decrease during the 150
strokes represented is quite clear. #B represents in the same way
the falling off in the maximum pull, and gives a curve almost
identical with A. C shows the change in stroke form during the
interval of some 130 strokes, or six minutes’ rowing.

It will be noticed that the falling off is most marked during the
latter half of the stroke, when the legs and arms take a large share
in the work. This suggests that while the powerful system of
muscles in the shoulders and back does not easily tire, the legs and
arms are comparatively weak.

Fig. 11 represents the change in stroke-form in a four during an
interval of 80 strokes. The fatigue-curves in this case are steeper
than in the last case, but less regular.

Fig. 11. Fatigue in Four—80 Strokes.

_ Fig. 12 relates to a journey in a Torpid Eight. This was
broken up into about 4 pieces by easies, but again the gradual
diminution of power is clear, C is an analysis on a larger scale of
strokes 210 to 310 during this journey showing the effect of an
‘easy. The diagram shows the maximum pull, and between the
two black lines there is clearly a break in which the oarsman has
partly recovered his vigour.

With regard to the magnitude of the fatigue effect, in the first
case the fall was 18 per cent. in 6 minutes’ continuous rowing,
150 strokes; second, 13 per cent. in 100 strokes; third, 22 per
cent. in 350 strokes @ntermittent). These and other results show
that, even in cases where no extreme exertion is called for, fatigue
manifests itself, not only as a sensation; but also in diminished

100 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

output, and it can easily be imagined how much larger must be
the fall in a hard race.

A rough experiment was made to test the use of the indicator
for determining the relation between horse power and the resulting
velocity of the boat. A pair was rowed between two points, both
up and down stream, in order to eliminate the stream velocity.
The time and number of strokes was carefully noted. This was

A

Fig. 12. Fatigue in Torpid Eight. 4 and B 350 Strokes, C’ 100 Strokes.

carried out once with very little exertion and again working hard.
The measurement of the diagrams, combined with the other observa-
tions gave the H.P. corresponding to a certain relative velocity.
Assuming H.P.<(Vel.)”, « was found by this experiment to be
25a result probably too low.! For the experiment to have a
scientific value it would be necessary to indicate both rowers.

The experiment is alluded to as suggesting the possibility of an
investigation that might lead to useful results, and although the
author has given a description of some experiments which he hopes
may be of some interest to the rowing man and also to the physio-
logist, yet he feels that at every point, more extended, and often more
careful experiments, for which he has now no longer the opportunity,
would be of interest and importance to science,

EK. CUTHBERT ATKINSON.

TEMPLE OBSERVATORY,
Ruepy.

1 See Appendix III.

1898] SOME MORE ROWING EXPERIMENTS LOL

APPENDIX I

THE OAR USED AND CONSTANTS OF INDICATOR

The axle of the Indicator is 1” below the button. Midway between the hands
is 41°5” above this point, and the tip of the blade is 102” belowit. The centre of
pressure of the blade was calculated on the rough assumption that the pressure at a
point varied as the velocity, and it was further assumed that the turning point occupied
its mean position 36” above the tip.

The centre of pressure thus calculated is 9°6’ above the tip.

Hence (see Fig. 13) 33184267"

The instrument was calibrated against a spring balance, using a lever with a
mechanical advantage of 3°07, and a series of experiments with the spring used
throughout, showed 1’’ on diagram =319 Ibs. pressure or a pull of 220 lbs.

The radius of the drum is 2’’02, so that 1’’ of base line on the diagram represents

motion of /=1°71 feet.
84

Finally, 1 square inch of diagram represents 319 x a7 x 1°71 or 377 ft. lbs.

APPENDIX II

EFFICIENCY OF A STROKE IN ROWING

Let 4 be ‘turning

R point’ while oar turns

D 1 B through an angle 0,

B centre of pressure

n _ A t of the blade, C the

button, D centre of

F P pull on handle of the
Fic. 13.—Dimensions of Oar. oar.

Work delivered to water=P x ABd@= ROA B do.
Work done by man=#"CD d0= REF -CD dé.

So assuming B a fixed point,

[PAB me | __ 2RAB-A0
= oe Spa BAG
[RE de :

Aé between successive positions of the oar was measured for all pairs of positions, and
a curve drawn, from which corrected values were deduced.

ft was measured in an arbitrary scale for corresponding values of @ on C, Fig. 7, and
ABon Fig. .

A table was then constructed as under :—

Efficiency = 1 — practically.

No. 6. | Ad. | 4B. | KR. | R-AB-AO.| RAO.

x x x Oe. ill see) x x
7 | 42°8 | 8-76 | 36-6 | 14:3 | 4580 | 125
x x x ee et al x x

Then by summation :—
2 RAG=1049°7, BC=92
LRA BAG = 32570
eet 32570,
eS) rues

102 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

APPENDIX III

RESISTANCE AND Horsk Powkr AS A FuNCTION OF VELOCITY

In the experiment referred to in the article, the H.P.’s in the two cases were ‘294 and
151 respectively, while the velocities were in ratio 421 to 321.
fF ce 009 294—log 151,
Comparing this with examples of towing vessels this would appear rather low.

There is, however, a difference between towing, and propelling with internal
mechanism.
In former case if Resistance=kV* where V = velocity,
Horse-power=kV2% x V=kVe+,

In the latter case, in which the vessel is propelled, for example, with a screw or oar,
the force of propulsion is obtained by generating momentum in the water. Making the
apparently legitimate assumption that the mass of water encountered by the propeller
varies as the velocity of the vessel (probably more correct in the case of the screw than
with an oar), since the rate at which the propeller is passing the main body of water
is V.

If Resistance=kV~, again

H.P. =/V2+1+4+mV22-1 where 7 and m are constants.
So that unless 7=2, the H.P. required no longer varies as V7+1.

I have nowhere seen this pointed out, and should be glad of any information on the
subject.

160. 103
850.1

Il
Scientific Proofs versus ‘A Priori’ Assumptions

NTIL the great impetus had been given by Darwin to the
acceptance of the Doctrine of Evolution, by the publication
of his “ Origin of Species,” natural science mainly consisted of the
observation of facts. Thus, old text-books of botany contained the
names and descriptions of the various organs of plants with little
or no attempt to deal with their physiological uses, much less with
their origins. The old idea, that ‘species’ were fixed entities,
created as we now see them, with all their organs complete, led
men tacitly to assume that such descriptions were all that was
necessary. Botany mostly consisted of the accumulation of morpho-
logical facts to aid the systematist. If any suggestions were pro-
posed as to the purpose of this or that organ, the use of which was
not very obvious, ‘ teleological guesses,’ as they might be called, were
thought to be amply sufficient to account for them. The Bridge-
water treatises may be taken as the type of that old method of
interpretation of ‘uses, which was, in fact, simply that of a prior:
assumptions without any strictly scientific bases to go upon; by
which I mean neither any accurate observations nor experiments,
wherewith to verify the supposed uses.

Like that of teleology, it has now come to be generally recog-
nised that the inherent fallacy underlying metaphysics is due to the
want of external observations and experimental proofs; so that no
worker in natural science can well be a metaphysician at the same
time, for the methods of proof—if any such term can be applicable
to metaphysics at all—lie in opposite directions. The scientific
student should be satisfied only with objective facts; the meta-
physician is contented with subjective imaginations.

Darwin published “The Origin of Species” in 1859. This
work at once broke down the old ideas of the fixity of species,
as having been created such, and having unalterable forms; but
the question immediately arose: How are new forms worked out by
evolution in nature ?

Darwin and Dr Wallace simultaneously propounded the theory
of Natural Selection. Though differing in some important points,
both based their conclusions on the following statements :—

(1) That more offspring are born than can ever live to maturity
and so leave fresh offspring.

(2) That no two individuals of the same kind are ever abso-

104 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

lutely alike, in consequence of their ‘individual differences’; and
these supply material for natural selection to act upon.

(3) That when a being migrates into a new environment, this
somehow induces variations to arise in the offspring, which then, it
is supposed, vary ‘indefinitely, 7@.¢, in all sorts of directions; but
only those best suited to the new surroundings live, all the rest
die, Professor Huxley described this process of natural selection
of the fittest to survive, as a system of ‘ trial and error.’

(4) That the rule is that plants of which there is a numerous
population are best suited for giving rise to new varieties when
some geological catastrophe alters the conditions of their existence,
2.¢., Without migration.

(5) So that those individual plants which possess new varia-
tions of structure which render them the best fitted to survive, will
do so under those new conditions of existence.

Now the statement No, 1 can be abundantly and easily proved
to be true. No. 2 is also quite true.. No, 3 is not true so far as
varying ‘indefinitely’ is concerned. This was an @ priori assump-
tion, which has never been verified, no facts having ever been brought
forward to sustain it. No. 4 is also unsupported by any facts ; on
the contrary, gregarious plants as a rule supply no varieties. No. 5
is a reasonable deduction or & priori assumption, had there been any
facts to start with. This not being the case the assumption falls to
the ground.

On the other hand, observations and experiments prove that all
variations which arise in plants are the result directly or indirectly
of responses or adaptations to external influences. Such are always
‘ definite, to use Darwin’s expression, in every case; and whenever
this is so, as he himself admits, “a new variety would arise without
the aid of Natural Selection.” Instead of this being the exception
and indefinite variations the rule, as he supposed, the truth is, that
definite variation is a natural law admitting of no exceptions at all.
Indefinite variations in nature were a pure assumption.

Where, then, is there any opportunity for natural selection to
act 2? It is the universal process in the struggle for life in nature.
A neglected lawn, now existing, affords the writer an excellent object
lesson. Daisies hold their own over large areas where about four
years ago there were none; but among them are sharply defined
places in which Poa annua or other grasses utterly refuse admis-
sion to anything else. Another district is invaded by Alchemilla
arvensis ; yet another consists of large plants of dwarf Dutch clover,
while Achillea millefolium, with its insidiously creeping stem, con-
stitutes a compact carpet; so does Galiwm verum in many places,'

1JTn a lawn made on the side of a heath Galiwm savatile formed the ‘turf’ to an
almost entire exclusion of everything else.

1898] SCIENTIFIC PROOF v. ‘A PRIORI’ ASSUMPTION 105

On the other hand, where vrass is allowed to grow to 2 or 3
feet high, all such dwarf plants rapidly disappear. The former con-
querors over mown grass cease to be victorious and disappear where
their own victims previously had a hard time of it.

Similarly in a neglected kitchen garden a row of peas, unstaked,
have succumbed to chicken-weed, Urtica wrens, Solanum nigrum,
oroundsel, &e.; but a row supplied with sticks have grown up in
defiance of their enemies.

Thus natural selection soon decides what shall be smothered and
which shall proclaim itself the fittest to survive. It thus brings
about the distribution of plants, but no one has ever shown that
its sphere of action in any way concerns the origination of specific
characters.

The three principal & priori assumptions upon which Darwin’s
theory was based, then, are as follows :-—

(1) The first assumption was that individual variations are the
source of varietal variations (“ Origin of Species,” 6th Ed., p. 54).

(2) The assumption that plants vary indefinitely under changed
conditions of life.

(3) The assumption that natural selection eliminates the unfit
and retains the fittest to survive among indefinite variations, 7.e., of
numerous offspring of any one and the same species.

Darwin based his theory mainly upon these assumptions, and
more than one of his followers seem to rest satisfied when they say
that there is no evidence in the present state of our knowledge, and
think that is an all-sufficient answer to the demand for scientific
proof. This self-satisfied attitude of professing ignorance of any
facts, wherewith to support the theory, seems to me to be the
most remarkable, and I would add, deplorable position possible,
for any one professing to be a scientific man, to take. I can
only regard it as an alarming evidence of the evil growth of a
belief in & priori assumptions, as if they were scientific methods
of proof.

What is the cause of this eager pursuit of subjective will-o’-the-
wisps, instead of the study of objective facts? Is it that it is so
much easier to sit still and imagine how things may go on in nature
than patiently to investigate and accumulate storehouses of facts as
Darwin did? Unfortunately he attributed to natural selection a
role to play which it could not undertake. The result was inevi-
table. The facts of variation under changed conditions of life are so
obvious that his books teem with instances, and then natural selec-
tion drops out of sight. When, however, he is arguing on behalf of
natural selection, then definite variations seem to be allowed to drop
into the background. Hence his “ Origin of Species” and “ Animals
and Plants under Domestication ” are full of these two opposite drifts.

H

106 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

We must not forget that the main result of Darwin’s writings
was to substantiate not natural selection, but the doctrine of
evolution. It is this for which our thanks to him cannot be too
great; natural selection was but an hypothesis wherewith to
account for it, though as we have seen it was based not on facts, but
on assumptions, so far as it was supposed to be connected with the
origin of species.

Darwin’s methods have, unfortunately, led others to follow
them. Thus the late Mr Romanes wrote a long and elaborate
paper on “ Physiological Selection.”1 It was really based on an @
priori assumption; for he proposed testing his theory or getting
others to do it after he wrote and published it. As might be
foreseen no subsequent proofs were forthcoming. It still remains
what it was at first.

I would venture to beg of writers when advancing a theory,
to try and avoid ever using the words ‘may be,’ ‘might be,’
‘would be, or ‘must be, phrases so freely used by Dr Wallace and
Dr Weismann. Let them stick to what ‘is, collect innumerable
facts in support of any contention, and they will then find little
or no thinking or reasoning out will be required at all. For facts
soon tell their own tale and quickly make havoc of @ priori,
gratuitous and baseless assumptions.

Indeed, it seems to me that we are rapidly falling back into a
position like to, if not the same, as that of the teleologists of the last
century. Thus it is frequently asserted by Darwinists that holly
has prickly leaves up to a certain height, in order to prevent cattle
browsing upon them, and that when the trees grow out of reach,
the leaves are non-spinescent. What is this but pure teleology ?
Only, instead of saying the Creator made them so, as our forefathers
would have done, they attribute this supposed result to natural
selection. Instead of studying the natural condition of lfe in
which spiny plants grow, they make the above easy but unwarrant-
able & priori assumption, forgetting, or not taking the trouble to
observe, whether the holly actually does keep off cattle—which it
does not, for cows are particularly fond of eating holly boughs, as
I know to my cost, some well-trimmed bushes having been spoilt
by them. Moreover, in early summer when new holly leaves
appear, just when they might tempt a cow, they are entirely un-
protected, for you may put a bunch of leaves in your mouth and
you would not know that they were going to be spiny at all.
Lastly, hollies often grow to twelve or more feet high, and retain
spiny leaves throughout. So, too, is the same teleological argument
held with regard to nettles and their stings, but (alas for the
Theory of Protection) numerous species of caterpillars live on

1 Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool., vol. xix.; 1886.

1s98) SCIENTIFIC PROOF v. ‘ A PRIORI’ ASSUMPTION 107

stinging nettles. Cows often eat them, and man makes ‘ soup’ and
‘spinach’ of them.

Natural selection, being a purely imaginary agent, is as easy
to manipulate as is the Creator’s name to account for phenomena,
where no proof can be given. As soon as one asks for some
grounds for such inferences, the retort comes, “‘In the present state
of our knowledge, it is admitted that there are none!”

It may be now desirable to state what scientific proofs consist of.

There are two lines of evidence possible in support of some
deduction arrived at for the interpretation of some natural pheno-
menon.

The first and best is experimental verification. If you find
the result comes as you expected when you have supplied the
conditions which, according to your deduction, you supposed to be
capable of producing it, then that is all-sufficient and proves your
theory to be fact.

Take the case of spinous plants. One first observes as a
matter of fact that spiny processes are particularly common in
plants growing in arid soils and a dry atmosphere, whereas they do
not appear among marsh or aquatic plants. It is always coincidences
that one first looks for. Then the question arises, Is the spiny
structure in any way due to these external conditions of the environ-
ment? Now the test is to grow normally spiny plants in a good soil
with plenty of moisture and in a moist atmosphere. Then follows
the anticipated result that spines are no longer produced. If they
be branch-spines, then the branches grow out into leafy shoots. If
they be reduced and spinescent leaves, as in barberry, they at once
develop into true leaves. To be quite sure you test it with other
plants, and the same result follows. Your theory, therefore, is a
proved fact, which henceforth is recognisable as an _ established
natural law.

A different line of proof is required when a deduction cannot be
verified by experiment. It must then be established by induction,
or the accumulation of probabilities in its favour, until the converse
is practically unthinkable. This is the chief line of evidence
for establishing evolution as set against the old form of natural
theology and teleology.

That I may not lay myself open to the charge of propounding
what I have not done myself, I will take my deduction from an
observation made in 1870, that irregular flowers are the result
of the mechanical action of insects visiting them for honey or
pollen. This conception cannot be proved experimentally, as it
is impossible to make a regular flower become an irregular one.
Another deduction has been drawn by others, namely, that gravity
has been the cause of the enlarged lower petal or lip. The

108 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

question is, which can bring forward the greater number of correlated
facts in support of these two deductions, respectively, 7.¢.,so that they
may be supported by inductive evidence? Now gravity is claimed
as acting on one petal, but it cannot account for the erect stamens
and style in the dead-nettle, and all the rest of the features of the
flower. My suggestion is that the irregularity seen in all the organs
of the flower are brought about by one and the same cause,—the
mechanical action of the insects which visit it.

Assuming the deduction as a working hypothesis, I bring forward
(1) abundant evidence to show that protoplasm responds to mechan-
ical forces and builds up structures to meet the strains to which it
is subjected ; (2) the ribs of the calyx and its form corresponds pre-
cisely with the distribution of forces, as seen in Salvias. The form
of the corolla is just what would result if it be supposed to be plastic
and moulded to the form of an insect, as in Anhatoda. The stamens
are erect or declinate, in correspondence with a flower having a
landing-place on the corolla or not. The honey-gland is situated,
and the ‘ guides’ directing to it, precisely in adaptation to the insect
visitor. In fact, the entire flower is simply a vast accumulation of
innumerable coincidences, all conspiring to one and the same end.
It is this which constitutes inductive evidence: while all the correla-
tions are based on the well-known properties of protoplasm, the
accumulation of coincidences affords a probability of so high an
order as to amount to a ‘moral conviction,’ and such—all logicians.
admit—is equivalent to a ‘ demonstration.’

Similarly, I maintain by inductive evidence that Monocotyledons:
have descended from aquatic Dicotyledons.

These two lines of proof are amply sufficient, as scientific
evidences, to establish the truth of any theory, and convert it into.
a natural law.

I think I have now said enough to show the utter incompetency
of & priori assumptions to prove anything at all, of themselves. They
are simply deductions, without verifications, and as such remain
utterly valueless, and instead of advancing any branch of science,
do but retard it, as long as they are accepted without verification.
Their danger, however, is subjective not objective. A deduction
or @ priori assumption is useful only as the first step. It must be
verified. It is the fatal facility of guessing inherent in mere think-
ing, irrespective of facts—to collect which is a laborious process, in
which Darwin set so grand an example, and upon which evolution
was based. This is the imperishable result of his labour, while the
theory of Natural Selection, as having anything to do with the Origin
of Species, was a quite subordinate matter, and has turned out to be:
a broken reed to rely upon. GEORGE HENSLOW.

Drayron Houssr, EALInG, W.

553.28 109

III

Natural Gas in Sussex !

N introducing my subject, I do not think it necessary to make

any elaborate references to instances of discoveries of Natural

Gas in England and abroad. Suffice it to say, that manifestations

of natural inflammable gas have occurred in almost every country

and geological formation throughout the world, and have frequently
been put to practical use.

I will, however, mention what seems to have been one instance
of its appearance in London, quaintly recorded by one, Mathew
Paris, about the year 1256. Under the head of ‘A Sudden
Subterranean Explosion, the chronicler says, “About this time,
as some workmen were digging out the bed of an aqueduct in
London, to -clear the bed of mud (for the water had ceased to
flow) a sudden explosion burst forth from the ground accompanied
by a flame similar to the fire of hell, which, in the twinkling of
an eye suffocated several of the workmen, killing one of them
on the spot, and so burning, maiming and disfiguring others that
they were entirely useless to themselves ever afterwards. There
were some who said that this explosion occurred as by a miracle,
because those men were engaged in servile work at an improper
hour in the evening.” (It quite sounds as if the Factory Acts had
been anticipated in these days.)

This interesting record has a somewhat similar parallel in the
County of Sussex, and I may quote it for the benefit of well-sinkers
personally, and master well-sinkers who may come within the pro-
visions of the Employers’ Liability Acts.

I am indebted for the account to Mr Henry Nicholls of Deal, an
owner of property at Hawkhurst in West Sussex. He states that
between the years 1836 and 1840 a well was sunk at Hawkhurst
to a depth of 98 feet. After passing through a certain amount of
heavy sand, a blue clay of a very oily flaky nature was met with,
mixed with yellow and red streaky clay. This continued to the
bottom of the 98 feet. An artesian boring was then commenced,
the workmen working by candle-light. Having bored some 50 feet
more, or 148 feet from the surface, the augur struck a rock and fell

1 A paper read at the Conference of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies,
Town Hall, Croydon, June 3, 1898.

110 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

into a cavity. An inflammable gas immediately ascended, which got
ignited by the lights of the workmen. Two men were immediately
killed, and as an eye-witness says, the gas burned slowly up the
well till it came near the top, when coming in contact with the
outer air, it burst out into a sheet of flame, some 20 feet high. It
then slowly burned itself out. |The water in the well was useless,
and Mr Nicholls had the well filled up.

This seems to have been an instance of an inflammable gas
occurring in association with strata containing a rock-oil, the
gas itself accumulating in a cavity, or what is called by the
Americans a ‘pocket. It serves to show that it is unwise for
well-sinkers to use artificial lights at the bottom of a well when
boring for water, except perhaps in properly constructed mining-
lamps.

Another somewhat interesting occurrence took place near Tice-
hurst Road, Sussex, about six or seven years ago. There is a certain
low-lying field, called the ‘ Bogs Brook,’ close to the Ticehurst Road
Station of the South-Eastern Railway. It is a marshy spot, and
sometimes large bubbles of inflammable gas continuously rise and
break on the surface of the pools. One Sunday in a particularly
dry summer when the bog was dried up, some boys were about to
enjoy a clandestine smoke of tobacco, when a match thrown down
suddenly ignited something believed to be inflammable gas. The
boys ran away, and the whole field was soon a mass of flame; the
peat of the bog also took fire. - I am told that the spot, which is in
view of the railway, was visited by thousands of people at the time;
it burned for a week or more, when some heavy rains soaked the
land and put ont the fire.

These subjects, although interesting, have but slight interest as
compared with the more important occurrences of inflammable gas
coming from artesian borings, with a continuous flow during months
and years, and existing under a high degree of pressure. Inflam-
mable gas is mentioned by Mr Henry Willett, F.G.S., in his account
of the famous Sub-Wealden boring at Netherfield in 1875, as occur-
ring in the Purbeck Strata, and at a short distance above certain
strata in the upper Kimmeridge Clays, recorded to be very rich
in petroleum. This seems to be the first record we have of a class
of gas which has now again been -met with in East Sussex. Of
course I do not now speak of gases emanating from petroleum at
high temperatures, but of certain gases usually found in a free state
in association with petroleum, and perhaps, therefore, owing their
origin to some common causes and conditions.

An inflammable gas was met with in a boring made by Messrs
Le Grand & Sutcliffe (the celebrated hydraulic engineers) at the
Heathfield Hotel, Waldron, Sussex, in rocks at a horizon very little

1898] NATURAL GAS IN SUSSEX 14a

higher than that at which it was discovered by Mr Willett. The
foreman of the works made some experiments in piping off the gas.
No water was discovered, so the boring was closed up and no more
was thought of it until the same firm of engineers, by order of the
London and Brighton Railway Company, again made another boring,
about 100 yards to the south, commencing in the railway cutting
about 43 feet in depth below the level of the top of the former
boring. In this boring, but at a greater relative depth, gas was
first noticed. I say first ‘ noticed,’ because it is now certain that
gas first began to come into the boring at a higher level, perhaps
at the same relative level as in the former boring. The rush of gas
became greater as the depth increased, and when tested at the top
of the bore-tube with a light by Mr E. Head, the station-master at
Heathfield, a column of flame sprang up to the height of about 16
feet, and was with great difficulty extinguished. A certain amount
of water was discovered, but not sufficient for the Railway Com-
pany’s purpose, and the boring was abandoned, nearly all the lning
tubes being withdrawn. Notwithstanding the partial blocks due to
the falling-in of the sides of the bore-hole and the pressure of a great
column of accumulated water in the bore-hole, the gas still continues
to flow from the bore-tube in considerable quantity. It has been
calculated that the pressure of the gas at its source at the bottom of
the tube cannot be less than 135 lbs. to the square inch.

It is perhaps somewhat providential that some obstruction has
happened to prevent the enormous loss of gas that would have taken
place had the tube been left entirely open during a period of, now
nearly two years. The Railway Company have screwed a cap on to
the end of the tube, with a small half-inch outlet, from which the
gas has been allowed to flow continuously.

With the kind permission of the Railway Company, whose officials
are giving every kind assistance and facility, my friend Mr Lewis,
C.E., F.S.A., and myself have conducted various interesting experi-
ments with the gas; and permission was obtained from the Company
for a demonstration of the gas when used in various burners on the
occasion of the visit to Heathfield of the Brighton and Sussex Natural
History and Philosophical Society on June 11.

Respecting the origin of the gas, we look in vain to the rock-
details of the boring for information. It is true that certain small
beds of lignite occurred in the section, but one cannot account for
the enormous supply and pressure of gas on any theory that the gas
emanates from these beds. A portion of the lignite in one of the
beds occurred at the depth of 347 feet (at the junction between
the Fairlight Clays and the Purbeck Beds), consisting of blue
sandy marl-rock with bands of lignite, and has been analysed by Dr
J. T. Hewitt (Professor of Chemistry at the Technical College, East

112 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

London) on behalf of the Railway Company. He reported to the
Company that the lignite contained :—

Moisture . ; ‘ . . , 4°90
Volatile matter : . : 4 . 15°55
Fixed carbon 5 A F : ‘ 1°74
Ash. é . : = ; 3 77°81

100°00

This record I take it is about the usual result of the analysis of
lignite, and I fear throws very little light on the subject.

The greater probability seems to be that the gas is derived from
either the Purbeck Beds or the Kimmeridge Clays by percolation
through the comparatively porous strata above. The Purbeck beds
are known to contain a certain amount of petroleum and bituminous
matter, one bed being particularly rich; but far richer deposits are
in the deeper lying Kimmeridge Clays, immediately above which Mr
Henry Willett discovered the gas.

This matter, however, as also the subsidiary one of the associa-
tion of petroleum, is one which can only be determined satisfactorily
by means of a deeper boring. The Heathfield borings are much
shallower than the bulk of those in North American gas wells, which
not uncommonly exceed 1000 feet. The gas which occurs in so
many of these American wells is usually the forerunner of a spring
of petroleum, and it is possible that the occurrence of gas in large
quantities at Heathfield may indicate that there is a larger supply of
oil in the petroleum-bearing strata beneath than has been before
known to occur at the same horizon in other places.

Dr Hewitt has also reported to the Railway Company on the
gas, which, he states, is composed of three constituents :—

Marsh Gas . : : . ; 91-90

Hydrogen . ; é . . 7°20

Nitrogen . : : : : , “90
100°0

The first two of the above gases, it may be remarked, are in-
flammable, but burn only with a blue non-luminous or comparatively
non-luminous flame. Nitrogen is not an inflammable gas. It is
clear, therefore, that there is nothing in the analysis which can
account for the illuminating power of the natural gas at Heathfield,
for it burns with a brilliant yellow flame. The gas when burnt in
an ordinary ‘ batswing’ or ‘ flat flame’ burner is so luminous that
the casual observer would not remark the difference between it and
ordinary household gas (although the difference does actually exist).
Therefore we must suppose either that some luminous property in
the gas did not present itself in the sample taken away by Dr
Hewitt, or else that some variation has occurred in the constituents

1898] NATURAL GAS IN SUSSEX 113

of the gas (a feature which appears to be not uncommon in the
Natural Gas of the United States, though I believe not quite to the
same extent). I myself and others have seen the gas burning at
many times and at different periods, but this non-luminous phase
has not presented itself to me or to anyone with whom I have yet
met.

I will therefore confine my remarks to the gas in what, out of
respect for Dr Hewitt, I will call its normal or luminous phase.

Under these conditions the gas has been carefully analysed by
Mr 8. A. Woodhead, B.Sc. (Public Analyst for Sussex and Professor
of Chemistry at the Agricultural College, Uckfield), and I here beg
to record my thanks to him for the time and trouble he has taken
to secure the accuracy of his determinations. He constructed his
laboratory on the spot at Heathfield, an unlimited supply of gas
being supplied to him direct from the bore-hole by means of tubes,
and he has taken care to check his results.

The analysis, which is shortly to be published in the Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society, speaking roughly, agrees fairly well
with that of Dr Hewitt, so far as the presence of Methane (or Marsh
gas) is concerned, but Mr Woodhead’s analysis reveals the presence
of certain hydro-carbons which may make all the difference in ac-
counting for the undoubted illuminating power of the gas. Other
important differences between the analyses are outside of the scope
of the present paper.

I may remark in general that the Natural Gas, in common with
the American Natural Gas, so frequently discovered in association
with petroleum springs, is chiefly remarkable for its great heating
power when mixed with a large proportion of air. Its main useful-
ness may thus be said to lie in the direction of lighting by
incandescent burners, fuel in manufacturing-engines, and general
household purposes.

Tested by Messrs Thorpe & Tasker’s photometer, the illuminating
power approximates 94 standard candles. Mr C. E. Masterman,
secretary of the Denayrouze Light Syndicate, has kindly tested the
gas (forwarded to him in an india-rubber bag). He says (report 3rd,
June 1898), he obtained very fine results, and that with a special
burner on the Bandsept principle and a C.X. Welsbach mantle, he
has obtained 72 candles with a consumption of 24 cubic feet of gas,
at a pressure of 24 inches, which thus works out to 29°6 candles per
cubic foot. This is 15 to 20 per cent. better than London coal-gas.

In using Bunsen burners for heating purposes, it is found best
to use about 8 to 10 parts of air to one of Natural Gas. These gases
only reach their maximum heating power when a due amount of air
is mixed with them, to insure complete combustion.

The Waldron gases are exceptionally fortunate in containing no

114 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

impurities of any kind. The chief and main object of the develop-
ment of a Natural Gas field, is to be found in the use of the gas for
fuel in the generation of motive power for various manufactories.
In North America there are at least sixteen States using Natural Gas.
In the State of Indiana, U.S.A., alone there exist about three hun-
dred Natural Gas companies. The question of the maintenance of
the supply is an all-important one. In the American States laws
have been passed with a view to economise the use of the gas, which,
as now at Heathfield Station, is allowed to rush or burn to waste.
Experience abroad shows that even the most abundant fields of gas
are capable of exhaustion. Thus in Indiana in 1889, the average
initial rock-pressure of the entire field was 325 lbs. to the square
inch; in 1896 it had fallen to 230 Ibs. to the square inch. On
the other hand, such gas has been used for ages in China for the
boiling down of brine for making salt. It seems a pity that the two
borings at Heathfield should be allowed to seal themselves up with-
out some effort to test the practical utility of this field of Natural
Gas. If the tubes were again cleared and relined with perforated
tubing, and the water in the tube was pumped out, the important
question of the value of the field, which promises so well, might very
soon be arrived at without much expense.

Whatever results may accrue from these lighting and heating
properties, or whatever the discovery may point to in a commercial
direction, the fact nevertheless remains that the discovery is a
subject both interesting and instructive, and, I think, worthy of
consideration at this conference.

CHARLES DAWSON.
UCKFIELD, SUSSEX.

591.81 115

LV

‘Nuclear Reduction’ and the Function of
Chromatin

VERY student of biology who remembers the quickening effect
-4 of the “ Principles of Biology” on his own youthful thought
will have greeted Mr Spencer’s announcement that a second edition
of this great work is in progress, and welcomed the return of the
master to his old pursuits and studies. None the less is it a
duty to point out that one section of the instalment which we read
with so much interest in the May number of Natural Science (vol.
xu. p. 307) presents a view of the occurrence of ‘ nuclear reduc-
tion’ as being an antecedent of fertilisation, which is inconsistent
with clearly ascertained facts, and a physiological explanation that
is inapplicable to some of the cases where it takes place.

if

The following remarks should have found their correct place in
a paper on “ The fundamental Principles of Heredity,’ published in
Natural Science for October and November last, but were omitted not
to overweight it with details of a somewhat abstruse character, and as
lying apart from the main object of the study—the tracing out of
the cellular pedigree of the organism, with insistence on the point
that ‘collateral cellular transmission’ was operative in all higher
organisms. And I would ask the reader to refer to my previous
paper in connection with the present one.

‘Nuclear reduction’ is an easy process to define. When a
nucleus is about to divide, its formed matter resolves itself into
a definite number of segments; these split each into two, one
of which is destined to either of the daughter nuclei resulting
from the division. These segments have received the name of
‘chromatomeres’ or ‘chromosomes’; we shall use the shorter, as
the more generally received one, though the longer does not carry
with it the numerous hypothetical implications, mostly wrong, of
the other. Usually, a nucleus on the approach of division reveals
the formation of as many segments as entered into it at its forma-
tion; and thus the number of segments remains constant from
(cell-) generation to generation in the same species; but at a certain
point in the life-cycle the number of segments appearing on division
is smaller than at the previous divisions of the cells of the parent-
cycle ; and this is called ‘ nuclear reduction.’

116 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

Three modes of nuclear reduction have been described :—

Case J.—In Elasmobranchs, some Amphibia, and Mammals; in
Flowering Plants, some Archegoniates, and Fucaceae. The nuclear
network resolves itself at once into half the previous number of
segments; certain modifications occur which do not alter the
principle of the matter. Here there is clearly no true ‘ reduction,
any more than if a man received ten shillings from his father and
left five florins to each of his two sons.

Case II.—In Sagitta and Ascaris, in some Gasteropods, and
in Liverworts, a modification of this process has been made out,
which was first noted by Boveri and Hertwig in 1890; while
its relation to Case I. was dwelt on by me in 1891. Here the
reduced number of segments appears in a certain cell; but after
the first splitting for the coming division a second splitting of each
occurs, so that at the first division of the nucleus each daughter
nucleus receives the reduced number of segments ready split for the
second division; and at the second division the again new daughter-
nuclei receive each its own set. This is merely a displacement in
time of the two successive splittings for two successive divisions of
the nucleus. Similarly, often when a cell is going to undergo two
or more successive divisions, the nucleus undergoes the consecutive
divisions before the cytoplasm divides once. The reduction is
essentially of the same character as in Case I.

Case III.—The nucleus about to divide reveals a number of
tetrads or groups each of four segments; the number of groups is
only half the previous number of segments, and consequently the
total number of segments is twice the original number: the nucleus
divides twice, and at each division the several groups are halved
between the resulting nuclei; hence it is clear that at the second
division each nucleus contains one segment from each group—ze.,
a number equal to the number of groups, and half the original
number of segments in previous cells of the cycle.

Concerning the details of Case III. there are many conflicting
observations, many inconsistent explanations, many vain hypo-
theses based on the assumption that this is the typical mode of
nuclear reduction to which all others are to be forced to conform
by some Procrustean process. But we shall not go into these; the
explanations that cover Cases I. and II. will cover Case III. also,
even if in the last there be something additional left over; but the
explanation of this something can well wait until the facts them-
selves are better made out.

Where does nuclear reduction occur? In Metazoa, usually at
the first of the two cell-divisions that give rise to a brood of four
spermatozoa, or to the oosphere and the three polar bodies (abortive
oospheres) respectively: that is to say, at the inception of the forma-

1898] ‘NUCLEAR REDUCTION’ ia

tion of the sexual pairing cells. The extension of this by zoologists
to all cases was tempting; and the demands of the Weismannism of
the ’80’s made this extension appear imperative: reduction or ex-
cretion processes in gametogeny were diligently sought for, and of
course found everywhere; and in’91 (pp. 62-3) I enumerated and
discussed as many as fifteen which had been accumulated in defiance
of morphological homology or physiological equivalence. In the same
paper, I discussed the question of nuclear reduction from the then
state of our knowledge ; and pointed out that in Flowering Plants
reduction occurs in the pollen-mother-cell, and that this is the
equivalent of the asexual spore-mother- cell of Archegoniate
Cryptogams (Ferns, Mosses, &c.). “We must remember that the
reduction takes place in the pollen-mother-cells of Flowering
Plants, which are themselves homologous with the mother-cells
that form tetrads of asexual spores in Archegoniate Cryptogams ;
hence we may be allowed to conjecture that reduction also takes
place in the latter group; and by parity that it is not confined to
gametogonia | =the mother-cells of a brood of gametes |.”

At the time there was only one case, that of a liverwort, that
had been at all fully worked out, but since then, we have learned
that in the ovule of Flowering Plants reduction takes place at the
first division of the primitive nucleus of the embryo-sac ; and that
in the Archegoniatae without exception, reduction takes place at the
inception of the formation of the tetrads of spores, not at that of sper-
matozoa and oospheres, the equivalents of the sexual cells of Metazoa.
Moreover the spore of Mosses gives rise to the leafy plant, capable of
indefinite vegetative growth and propagation ; that of the Fern to the
Fern-seale, which in Gymnogramme, for instance, is perennial also.
Thus nuclear reduction is not a process that finds its explanation in
the formation of cells specially adapted for ‘sexual’ (sit venia
verbo ”) fusion or gamogenesis.

I may be permitted to refer to my recent paper (97) for the
exposition of the existence in Metazoa of a long cycle of colonial
cell-divisions, alternating with a short one of protistoid brood-

1°91, p. 57-8. The sentence closes thus: ‘‘but will be found in all mother-cells de-
stined by multiple fission to give birth to a brood of reproductive cells.” Of course the
latter part of the conjecture has not held good, but the former part has maintained
itself : namely that reduction takes place in Cryptogams at spore-, not gamete-formation.
The anticipation thus formulated by me in 1891 was repeated by Overton in 1893, and its
enunciation has been ascribed to him by Strasburger ('94a, p. 291 ; ’94b, p. 825), while
later the error has been continued by Wilson (’96, p. 196). I did not think such a
question of priority worth noting by itself, but take this opportunity of correcting the
mistake.

? The word ‘ sexual’ has two distinct meanings ; the one relating to the fusion of two
cells, &c., into one, the other the differentiation of such pairing-cells into two unlike
categories such that cells of the one will only pair with cells of the other. ‘ Sex,’ ‘ sexual
differentiation,’ ‘sexual processes,’ are terms as often used in the one sense as in the
other ; and we may easily avoid the confusion by describing the former as ‘ pairing pro-
cesses,’ or ‘ fusion processes,’ and the like, and using the additional adjective ‘ binary ’
with ‘sex,’ ‘sexual,’ to distinguish the latter meanings of the terms.

118 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

divisions producing the sexual-cells. In Metaphyta, there are two
such alternating cycles of colonial and protistoid growth, the Moss-
Plant or Fern-Scale producing the sexual cells, and the Moss-Urn or
Fern-Plant producing the asexual spores. In 1891, I wrote of nuclear
reduction :—‘“ We may perhaps regard it as an adaptation to prevent
the undue multiplication of chromatomeres in the zygote, and the
cells produced therefrom.’ This view has been elaborated by Stras-
burger; but it will be better, as we shall see, to explain it in another
form than his. As, normally, each nucleus exhibits on its division
the same number of segments that it had on its formation; the
fertilised ege, oosperm, zygote, or whatever we please to call a cell
formed by the fusion of two, on its division will present twice the
number that were present in either of its two original constituents.
If, then, at each sexual fusion this doubling continued, the number of
nuclear segments in each cell would increase indefinitely in geometric
progression, which is, of course, out of the question: a reduction must
take place somewhere. This'necessary reduction takes place at the
first resumption of protistoid multiplication. In Metaphyta,
where there are two such resumptions, this is obvious; in Metozoa
there is only one such resumption, which coincides with the forma-
tion of the (protistoid) sex-cells, and it is this mere coincidence
that gave rise to the idea that reduction was a preparation for
cell-fusion, instead of being the necessary consequence of
cell-fusion.

A very curious case is that of Fucus, the Bladder-Wrack, which,
like an animal, has only one colonial form—the familiar plant, and
one protistoid reproduction, that producing the sexual cells; here,
as we should anticipate, reduction occurs as in Metazoa at the incep-
tion of the latter process. Had this case been worked out before
that of the Vascular Cryptogams, it would have afforded great support
to the physiological hypothesis.

Again, the little fresh-water Algae, the Conjugatae, have their
cells isolated, or at most in simple colonies of filaments, where the
cells, placed end to end in a single row, divide each on its own
account, so that they are really rather protistoid than comparable
with the differentiated colonial cells of higher plants. In these
plants nuclear reduction occurs at yet another point of the cycle,
namely, at the very first cell-divisions of the zygospore, which is, as
we see, the resumption of protistoid cell division after conjugation.

Strasburger’s statement of this explanation is somewhat dif-
ferent. He writes: “The morphological cause of the reduction in
number of the chromosomes ... is in my opinion phylogenetic.
I look upon these facts as indicating a return to the original

1 I pass by exceptional cases where the reduction occurs at a very early period in
the cells of the ovary.

1898] ‘NUCLEAR REDUCTION’ LLY

generation from which, after it had attained sexual differentiation,
offspring was developed having a double number of chromosomes. . .
it is the re-appearance of the primitive number of chromo-
somes as it existed in the nuclei of the generation in which
sexual differentiation [rather eell-fusion, for whether it be
sexual or isogamous makes no difference to the point] first took
place.” If we are to take literally the phrases that I have spaced,
we shall have to assume that two such plants as the onion and
the turban-lily have independently developed a pairing process; for
the number of the nuclear segments is 8 and 16 in the former, 12
and 24 in the latter; the same would apply to the two forms of the
roundworm of the horse, with 2 (4) and 1 (2) segments respec-
tively—which is absurd. Yet so much of the essay is taken up in
proving that asexual reproduction is the older mode, not only in
primitive organisms, but in individual Orders of higher organisms
that one wonders if Strasburger has not really missed the incon-
ceivability of his statement as it stands; and hence I cannot accord
to the explanation above-given the full weight of his distinguished
authority, as I should wish to do. |

Now we have seen that the process of ‘nuclear reduction, despite
its name, involves no necessary reduction in the quantity of nuclear
matter, but only in the number of the segments into which it is
distributed. Hence the process cannot have the physiological
function ascribed to it as a ‘preparation for gamogenesis’; and,
since we have noted its occurrence at the inception of a long
series of cell-multiplications, this physiological function would be
absolutely useless.

II

A word about the functions of the chromatin or nuclein in
nuclear division. The amount of chromatin in a nucleus is
constantly changing; very often after a cell is formed the nuclein
is much reduced in amount, and with this reduced amount the
cell does all its individual life-work. At the approach, how-
ever, of cell-division, the nuclein grows, and reaches a maximum
at the commencement of the nuclear division that precedes that
of the cell as a whole; the nucleus of the daughter-cell repeats
the conduct of its parent. Whatever be the function of the
chromatin in the ‘working’ cell, as we may term it, it is
evidently less important than its function in the dividing
cell. The achromatic substance of the nucleus (linin) forms
the basis, as it were, of the nuclear segments, the strands on
which the chromatin is imbedded in the form of granules, like
the string of a necklace, or better, the braid in beaded passe-
menterie; these granules first split, and then the threads on which

120 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

they are strung. An explanation far removed from current theories
has forced itself on me—perhaps after all it is the achromatic
plasma (‘linin’) of the nucleus whose fair and equal division is the
important matter, the final cause of karyokinesis. But the splitting
of a viscid thread is one of the most difficult mechanical feats to
accomplish. Suppose, then, that there is a certain polarity about
the granules of chromatin, through which, after their division, they
tend to recede from their fellows as far as possible; through this
they will determine a splitting of the filament on which they are
strung. The close of nuclear division sees their task accomplished ;
and, as we should expect, the chromatic granules having fulfilled
this appointed task, now atrophy, and remain in this state till the
approach of a new cell-division determines a fresh growth of their
substance. According to this view the linin is the transmitter of
inherited properties, and the chromatin has a purely mechanical
function in karyokinesis. I may venture to predict that this
hypothesis will be shortly incorporated into the newest edition
of the germ-plasm theories; for it avoids the many difficulties
due to the ascription of hereditary constancy to a substance so
subject to periodic atrophy and growth as the chromatin of the
nucleus. Marcus Harroa.
QUEEN’S COLLEGE, CORK.

LITERATURE REFERRED TO.

Hartog, Marcus, ’91.—‘‘Some Problems of Reproduction: a Comparative Study of
Gametogeny, and Protoplasmic Senescence and Rejuvenescence.” Quart.
Journ. Mier. Sci., n.s., vol. Xxxiil., pp. 1-79. (Dec.)

’97.—‘*The Fundamental Principles of Heredity.” Nat. Sci., vol.
xi., pp. 233-239 and 305-316. (Oct. and Nov.)

Hertwig, Oscar, ’90.—‘‘ Vergleich der Ei- und Samenbildung bei Nematoden. Eine
Grundlage fiir cellulire Streitfragen.” Arch. Mikr. Anat., vol. xxxvi., pp.
1-138, pts. i.-iv.

Strasburger, E , 94a.—‘‘ The Periodic Reduction of the number of the Chromosomes in
the Life-history of many Organisms” [translation of a paper read at the Oxford
Meeting of the British Association]. Ann. Botany, vol. vill., pp. 281-316.
(Sept. )

’94b.—Ueber periodische Reduction der Chromosomenzahl im Entwick-
lungsgang der Organismen [the original paper from which the former was
translated, but revised and extended after the discussion thereon in Section D.
at Oxford]. Biol. Centrailbl., vol. xiv. pp. 817-838 and 849-866.

Lt

SOME NEW BOOKS

Str WILLIAM FLOWER’s ESSAYS

Essays oN MusrUMS AND OTHER SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH NATURAL HISTORY,
By Sir William Flower, K.C.B., D.C.L., ete. 8vo, xv+394 pp. London: Macs
millan & Co., 1898. Price, 12s. net.

Ty this volume are collected together a number of selected essays upon
a variety of subjects of biological interest, extending over a period of
years between 1870-1897, and, although all or nearly all have been pub-
lished previously elsewhere and so rendered accessible to students and
others, everyone will welcome this new issue, under one cover, of an im-
portant series of essays. Sir William Flower has, in these pleasantly
written chapters, clearly aimed at interesting and instructing the
general reader as well as the man of science, and his happy knack of
putting his facts before his readers in a very clear and simple manner
should ensure the volume being widely read. Few people have taken
more pains to promote in the public at large a healthy interest in bio-
logical science, whether in his writings or in his administration of the
national Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. The essays in
this volume are not arranged chronologically but, more conveniently,
according to subject, under four main headings.

Under the first heading are a series of essays upon Museums. In
some respects this may be regarded as the most valuable portion of
the volume. When we think of the extremely important part which
museums play, and still more might play, in the advancement and
dissemination of scientific knowledge, suggestions as to their proper
administration from so distinguished an authority, cannot but carry
sreat weight, and it is to be hoped that the valuable hints which
abound in these essays may strike home, and be the means of
improving the museums, not only of this country but also abroad. It
is only within recent years that museum administrators have
awakened to a sense of their responsibilities, and the awakening has
even now not been general. In these chapters are many eminently
practical suggestions as to the proper aims of museums and the methods
which should be adopted. The suggested design of a one-storied
building for a national natural history museum is at once simple and
practical, though it entails as a sine qué non a liberal allowance of
ground space. The author’s remarks relating to local museums and
school museums should be seriously considered by the authorities at
the head of such institutions. Were his advice followed the minor
museums would become what so few are now, highly instructive—
little educational centres, in fact. Each county museum might, by
special attention to the systematic collection of objects of local
interest, become of real value to specialists as well as to the casual

I

122 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

visitor. Progress, continuity, and a definite system or scheme of
arrangement, should be ensured to every museum. Arrested growth
or stagnation is fatal to any such institution.

The second division of the volume is entitled “ General Biology,”
and under it are included eight essays upon a variety of subjects of
biological interest. The doctrine of evolution supphes the main text
of most of the lectures and addresses, and the theory and facts are
dealt with in a simple, straightforward manner which will commend
itself to the general reader, although the subject as discussed has now
lost the charm of novelty which it possessed at the time when the
essays were written. The history and progressive work of the
Zoological Society affords one theme, and the account of one of our
most successful societies, which has managed i in the happiest manner
to combine valuable scientific investigation with popular instruction,
is very acceptable from the pen of the president of the Society. In
some respects the two chapters which complete the biological section
may claim to be the most interesting. In them the natural history
of the Cetacea is discussed in some detail. This group of Mammalha
has always been a favourite one with the author. One would have
welcomed a more detailed comparative account of the various methods
of pursuit and capture adopted in the different ‘fisheries, but the
limits of time imposed on a lecture have not permitted this. These
two essays, while giving an excellent résumé of the subject, point also
to the serious incompleteness of our knowledge of this most interesting
and specialised mammalian group. The habits alone of these animals
offer a grand field of investigation to naturalists who have time and
means at their disposal, our information relating to them being
singularly defective. A vigorous research into the foetal development
of some of the apparently more primitive species would be a work of
great importance. The new gallery at the Natural History Museum,
devoted to the Cetacea, and due to Sir William’s own energy, should
supply a stimulus to further active research.

Under “ Anthropology” we find five essays, three being in the
form of presidential addresses. The study of Man is dealt with from
a general standpoint, and the history and present position of the
science are gone into. The author lays much stress upon the import-
ance of the comparative study of the various races of Man, and it is
quite clear that long and laborious research will yet be necessary
before we are in any position to lay down an even approximately satis-
factory classification of the human species. The investigation is beset
with difficulties, and even the terminology will require frequent revision.
The classification is discussed on a primary basis of three main groups
—the black, yellow, and white races-—which have hitherto proved the
most reliable wide divisions. Much of importance could be added to
the scheme of classification as suggested in 1885, but the main points
would be left unaltered. An interesting lecture on pygmy races deals
with a number of, for the most part at any rate, very primitive peoples,
more or less sharply marked off from the races among which they are
situated, and from whom they keep aloof. Pygmy races enjoy a wide
geographical distribution, though homologies can be traced in even
widely separated groups, particularly amongst those referable to the
‘black’ primary race-division. The essay on “ Fashion in Deformity,”

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 133

dealing with the many and varied instances of artificial deformation
of the person for purposes of fashion, was published in book form
(“ Nature Series”) in 1881, and has probably been very widely read.
The customs of this nature are of even greater interest than might
appear from a perusal of this article, since there is much to study in
the motives which have led to the curious practice, the initiation and
other ceremonies associated with many modes of deformation, the test
of endurance for which some of them serve, and so forth. Interesting
as is Sir William Flower’s account as an introduction to the subject,
it is high time that a comprehensive general work were compiled from
the large mass of information which has now accumulated.

The volume concludes with short biographical memoirs on four
great biologists—Rolleston, Owen, Huxley, and Darwin.

H, BALFOUR.

PACKARD’S ENTOMOLOGY

A Text-Book oF ENromoLoey, including the Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology, and
Metamorphoses of Insects ; for use in agricultural and technical schools and col-
leges, as well as by the working entomologist. By Alpheus 8S. Packard, M.D.,
Ph.D., Professor of Zoology and Geology, Brown University. Pp. xviii. and 730.
1 plate and 654 figures in text. New York: The Macmillan Co, London: Mac-
millan & Co., 1898. Price, 18s. net.

TuE title “ Text-Book of Entomology” too often denotes a work compris-
ing a meagre outline of the external morphology of insects, and a bare
recognition that they possess some internal organs, followed by well-
nigh interminable summaries of the characters of orders and families
and catalogues of genera. The ‘ working entomologist’ is too easily
tempted to devote his whole attention to those outer structures of
insects which enable him to classify their multitudinous species, and
to neglect those vital organs whose form and development throw so
much light on the most interesting problems of insect-life. Hence
the ‘ text-book’ is apt to be as dry as the specimens whereof it treats.

Prof. Packard’s previous writings would lead us to expect from him
a text-book of a very different kind, and.students will not be dis-
appointed with the present work. It is divided into three parts. The
first deals with morphology and physiology; a short discussion on the
place of insects in the animal kingdom, and their relation to other
arthropods, is followed by nearly 200 pages devoted to external and
300 to internal anatomy and functions. The second part, consisting
of 80 pages, contains a summary of our knowledge of insect embry-
ology. The concluding 130 pages are occupied with an account of
insect metamorphosis followed by some speculations as to the origin
of the larval and pupal stages. There is no scheme of the classifica-
tion of insects. A summary of the orders recognised by Prof. Packard
would have been desirable, as there is, necessarily, frequent reference
to ordinal names ; but these will be understood by most who are likely
to use the book, which is by no means an elementary treatise. The
author does express the opinion that the Collembola and Thysanura
are worthy to be separated from other insects as a distinct sub-class,
a view hardly tenable when we consider the close similarity of such a
springtail as Japyx to the wingless earwigs.

The introductory chapter on the relationship of insects to other
arthropods is valuable, but it might have come better at the end of the

124 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

volume, when the student would have been in a position to attack the
problems raised with fuller knowledge of the facts. Prof. Packard goes
with the majority of those zoologists “who discussed the arthropods some
time ago in the pages of Tatural Science, considering them a group of
multiple origin which “may eventually be dismembered into, at least,
three or four branches.” In the “ provisional genealogical tree,” which
“may serve to show in a tentative way the relations of the classes,”
the. Trilobita are separated from the Crustacea and placed near the
common ancestors of the Merostomata (including Limulus) and the
Arachnida. Prof. Packard therefore rejects the division of arthropods
into branchiates and tracheates, considering that the air-tubes of
spiders and mites show no necessary relationship between those
animals and the insects. Periputus and Scolopendrella appear in the
direct line of the ancestry of insects, the myriapod stem branching off
below Scolopendrella. The Diplopoda and Chilopoda are given as
separate classes in the tree, though in the text the author seems
inchned to defend the old Myriapoda as a natural class against the
views of Kingsley and Pocock. Most zoologists will be surprised to
see that the millipedes are placed nearer to the insects than are the
centipedes ; Prof. Packard still attaches considerable importance to
the six-legged larvae of Julus and Pawropus. There is a short
account of the anatomy of Peripatus ; in the points which separate it
from the worms it is surprising to find no mention of its reduced
coelome and secondarily-formed body-cavity. The description of
Scolopendrella is fuller—a valuable summary for English readers of
the recent researches of Haase, Grassi, and Schmidt on this very
interesting creature with an original figure of its internal anatomy.
But the statement that Sc colopendr ella “seems to be, like other archaic
types, cosmopolitan in its distribution,” is puzzling, since a restricted
or discontinuous distribution is certainly characteristic of most archaic
forms of life.

A synopsis of the characters of insects generally introduces
the section of the book devoted to anatomy. The statement here
that the labium is formed of the two laciniae of the second maxillae
fused together seems a curious slip, and the saw-fly grubs are not
mentioned among the larvae with functional abdominal limbs. In
the detailed account of the external structure of insects, advantage is
taken of the latest researches on the mouth-organs, attention being
specially directed to the mandibles and first maxillae in the primitive
Lepidoptera. A fuller treatment of the piercing and sucking mouth-
organs of the Diptera and Hemiptera would have been desirable ; the
statement is made that functional mandibles are lacking in the latter
order, but Prof. Packard does not say if he agrees with Lowne in
regarding the lancets usually identified with those appendages as
belonging to the maxillae. The epipharynx and hypopharynx
are treated at considerable length—a valuable feature in the work,
as these organs usually receive much less attention from entomologists
than the paired jaws. The author states that Miall and Denny
are mistaken in denying the presence of an epipharynx in the
Orthoptera. He believes that the insect head consists of at least
six segments, including the primitively pre-oral lobe which carries
the eyes and ocelli, and the intercalary or tritocerebral lobe between

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 125

the antennae and mandibles. The outer skeleton of the thorax is
deseribed in detail, and the account of the structure and modifications
of the legs and feet is specially full and suggestive, being aceompanied
by an excellent summary of the mechanics of insect limbs as « sed for
walking, climbing, and swimming. This is mainly derived from
Graber’s work, supplemented by later researches. Like most
American zoologists, Prof. Packard is inclined to allow much weight
to the effect of use, disuse, and mechanical pressure in bringing about
modifications in limbs. There is even reference to the strange
opinion that the absence of tarsal segments from the front legs ‘of
certain digging-beetles is a character acquired by frequent mutilation
and now become hereditary. In the account of the wings, there is no
comparative view of the venation in various orders of insects. There
is, however, a good summary of what is known of wing-development
both in the lower and higher (metabolous) insects. ‘Prof. Packard
rejects the once fashionable theory that insect-wings are modified
tracheal gills, believing that they originated in some purely terrestrial
form ; but he considers it likely that the folds of skin whence they
were derived had originally a breathing-function. He agrees with the
orthodox view that the elytra of beetles are modified front wings,
rejecting their identification with the tegulae of Hymenoptera as
suggested by Meinert and Hoffbauer. Not only the cerci and stylets,
but also the paired external genital organs are regarded as true
appendages of the abdomen. The section on the outer form of insects
concludes with an account of such outgrowths of the skin as tubercles,
hairs, spines, and scales, and a chapter on insect coloration, the
latter dealing rather with the physical and chemical than with the
bionomic aspects of that wide subject.

The portion of the book on the internal anatomy and physiology
of insects commences with an account of the muscles, followed by a
chapter on the nervous system, in which the author accepts Viallanes’
threefold division of the insect brain, copying many of his figures,
while a well-selected series of figures from Brandt illustrates stages in
the fusion of the ganglia of the ventral chain. The histology of the
nervous system is dismissed somewhat briefly. On the other hand
the sense organs are fully dealt with, and a clear summary of the
conflicting views of various naturalists on the method of insect vision,
and the functions of dubious antennal structures is valuable; but there
is only a mere mention of the ear in the basal antennal segment, de-
scribed by Hurst and Child. The comparative anatomy of the digestive
tract is full and well illustrated, and is followed by a short account of
digestion and secretion. Then the salivary and spinning glands,
urinary tubes, wax-glands, repugnatorial scent, and poison-glands are
dealt with. The author is not inclined to follow Brauer in attaching
importance to the number of urinary tubes as showing the relationships
of the insect orders. The accounts of the circulatory, respiratory and
reproductive systems are excellent ; especial care is given to the minute
structure of the breathing-tubes, the comparative morphology of the
genital ducts, and the formation of the germ-cells.

The section on embryology is mainly drawn from the work of
Korschelt and Heider, and is illustrated by copies of their figures,
so that it forms a valuable introduction for English students to the

126 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

development of insects within the egg. But it is surprising to find
no reference whatever to parthenogenesis; the fact that reproduction
by virgin females is common in certain insects is now widely known,
and some discussion of the subject might be expected even in a much
more elementary work than this. Nor is there any mention (except
incidentally on the last page of the book) of the fact—most suggestive
in its bearing on the possible origin of degenerate groups—that some
insects become sexually mature in the larval stage. It is hard to
understand what considerations can have led to such omissions as
these.

The concluding part of the book deals with metamorphosis, and
contains a short summary of the external forms assumed by larvae
and pupae, and of the development of the imago from the earlier
stages. The structure of the typical larvae in the great orders is by
no means fully described ; but there is a more detailed description of
those interesting forms which pass through what is called a “hyper-
metamorphosis.” The formation of the adult organs in Lepidoptera
and Hymenoptera from the imaginal discs is described in detail,
while a special section is devoted to the corresponding phenomena in
the Diptera which have been studied better than any other order in
this connection. Prof. Packard considers the campodiform larva to be
more primitive than the eruciform, and figures a series of beetle grubs
which show the transition from the one to the other. In a final
chapter the fascinating question of the origin of metamorphosis 1s
discussed ; and the author comes to the conclusion that the trans-
formations which now characterise all the higher insects have been
acquired since the group obtained the power of flight.

A very valuable feature of the book is the full bibliography
appended to each section; by means of this the student will be
enabled to follow up any subject on which he desires further informa-
tion. The figures are numerous, and as a whole good. Though the
execution is, in some cases, rough, comparing unfavourably with the
beautiful drawings in the Cambridge Natural History, for instance,
only a few, such as the larva of Hristalis on p. 430, can be considered
unworthy of the book. Altogether the work supplies a long felt
want, and all serious students of insects should be grateful to Prof.
Packard for having given them in a single volume so full a summary
of what is known about insect structure and life-history.

Gro. H. CARPENTER.

EssEX VERTEBRATES

Tue MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FisHEes oF Essex: a contribution to the Natural
History of the County (Essex Field Club Special Memoirs, Vol. III.). By Henry
Laver, M.R.C.S., &c. 8vo, pp. 1-138, with 8 full-page illustrations. Chelmsford :
E. Durrant & Co. ; London : Simpkin, Marshall & Co.

For many years the attention of those fortunate naturalists who live
in the-country and have opportunity to observe nature at home has
been largely devoted to birds, as is indeed natural from the readiness
with which those creatures are seen and studied, and their own extreme
attractiveness. It thus happens that while nearly every county in
the British Isles possesses a popular work on its birds, the other
vertebrates have been very largely neglected.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 27

This is the more to be regretted, seeing that while the occurrence
of birds in particular areas must, in many cases, be a mere matter
of chance, the presence of other non-volant vertebrates, depending
as it does on quality of soil or water, temperature, dampness or dry-
ness, open country or forest, flatness or hilliness, will often illustrate
genuine differences in the natural characters of the areas treated of.
Therefore, working up from county faunas, we may hope to see in
time a scientific classification of British faunal areas, a work which
can only be done satisfactorily when the terrestrial vertebrates have
been very much more studied than is now the case.

The book before us deals with the vertebrates, other than birds, of
the county of Essex ; and we may congratulate the Field Club of the
county on the charming little work its vice-president, Mr Laver, has
produced under its auspices, and may hope that so attractive a book
may influence other Essex naturalists to take up the study of the
groups it treats of.

According to the author’s present knowledge Essex possesses 38
terrestrial and 10 marine mammals, 4 reptiles, 6 amphibians, and 113
fishes, but he expects this number to be considerably increased so far
as the marme mammals and fish are concerned.

More than half the book is devoted to the mammals, and Mr
Laver has given us a number of interesting notes on the habits and
local distribution of the smaller members of the class, as yet so
insufficiently studied from the field-naturalist’s point of view. This
seems to be the most original part of the work, not depending, as so
much of the remainder necessarily does, on ‘records, but on the
author’s personal observations, and the qualities here shown lead us
to hope that we may see further contributions from his pen in this
direction.

In his nomenclature Mr Laver has wisely followed Mr Boulenger
for the lower vertebrates ; but in the mammals, with a certain per-
versity, he tells us that he has accepted the rather out of date Bell
and Southwell for the seals and cetaceans, while he has consulted
our greatest authority on those very groups, Sir W. Flower, for the
Carnivora, Rodentia, and ungulates, with whose nomenclature Sir
William has seldom had need to trouble himself. It is not Mr
Laver’s fault that his book was written just before Mr Miller's:
researches caused such a bouleversement in the nomenclature of our
bats, but we may hope that in any future contributions from him a
more modern system of nomenclature may be followed.

A last word of commendation must be said for the printing, get-up,
and arrangement of the book; while many of Mr Henry A. Cole’s
illustrations—notably the “ Badger Earth, Epping Forest” (p. 42)
—are quite charming. One.

WIEDERSHEIM’S ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES

GRUNDRISS DER VERGLEICHENDEN ANATOMIE DER WIRBELTHIERE. By Dr Robert
Wiedersheim. Fourth Revised Edition. Jena: G. Fischer, 1898. 8vo, pp. xxiv,
560. Price, unbound, 14 Marks; bound, 16 Marks.

Born students and teachers of the anatomy of vertebrates will

welcome the fourth edition of Prof. Wiedersheim’s well-known

“Grundriss.” Although the present volume is smaller than that

128 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

of the preceding edition (1893), it is still somewhat unwieldy for a
“Grundriss.” The original “ Grundriss” (1884) was a small octavo
volume of 272 pages, and represented an abridged edition of the
“Lehrbuch,” but it has now increased so greatly in size as practi-
cally to have replaced the “ Lehrbuch ” altogether, for no new edition
of the latter work has appeared since 1886.

One of the special features of the last two editions of the “Grun-
driss”»—a feature which primarily distinguished the “ Lehrbuch ”—is
the extensive and valuable bibliography, occupying more than a
hundred pages. This commends itself strongly to the advanced
student, and, the titles being classified according to the organs or
systems of organs dealt with in the memoirs, reference to previous
literature is greatly facilitated. One of the disadvantages of the
method, however, arises from the fact that many papers treating of
several organs demand quotation under a number of headings, and
this in the book under consideration has, probably to economise space,
not always been accorded. Thus, while Huxley’s well-known paper
on Ceratodus is quoted, as it should be, under the heading “ Freie
Gliedmassen,” it does not find a place under “Schiidel der Fische,”
although it contains most valuable information upon the skulls of
Ceratodus, Cestracion, and Notidanus. Numerous other instances
might be given, but as it is not possible to suggest a remedy without
adding too much to the bulk of the book (except, perhaps, by some
system of cross-references) we must be grateful for having our
attention directed to even a few papers which in the ordinary course
of work might be overlooked.

The profusion of illustrations which invariably characterises the
works of Prof. Wiedersheim, and the subordination of the taxonomic
to the physiological classification in the arrangement of the chapters,
are features which render the book attractive and interesting even to
the beginner. It does not follow, however, that a ready sale will be
found for the book among English students, for in scope and bulk the
present work is almost identical with Prof. W. N. Parker’s second
English edition, 1897, founded on the third edition of the “ Grundriss.”

There is abundant evidence of careful editing in the volume under
consideration, but entire freedom from mistakes cannot be admitted.
Caudalvenen appears for Cardinalvenen (p. 368, last line but two),
and Metapterygoid for Metapterygium (fig. 96, p. 106), while in fig. 232,
p. 275, the letters A and B are transposed. The ductus endolym-
phaticus (fig. 214, p. 252) appears, as in the earlier editions, on the
external instead of the mesial surface of the labyrinth, and the side
view of the skull of the greyhound (fig. 88 B, p. 96) exhibits four
upper incisor teeth ; but such blemishes as these are happily few, and
the new figures are, on the whole, very good. WG Re

THE HISTOLOGY OF VERTEBRATES

LEHRBUCH DER VERGLEICHENDEN MIKROSKOPISCHEN ANATOMIE DER WIRBELTIERE. II.
ScHLUND UND Darm. By Prof. Dr Med. Albert Oppel. 8vo, pp. viii+682,
4 plates and 343 text-figures. Jena: G. Fischer. 1897. Price, 20 marks.

THE second part of Dr Oppel’s laborious task carries out the promise
of the first. There is the same wealth of detail culled laboriously
from multifarious sources and expanded by original matter, and the
same careful citation of .authorities. The author begins with an

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 129

account of the main features of the macroscopic structure of the
alimentary canal in the various groups of vertebrates and theh enters
upon a detailed account of the oesophagus. This occupies the first
160 pages of the volume, and is perhaps remarkable chiefly on account
of the close similarity of the structures to be found in different verte-
brates. With the exception of the peculiar elaborations forming the
crop of birds, there is not any marked difference to be found in the
various orders.

In the treatment of the gut the greater variety of structure demands
a fuller sub-division of the matter. The systematic treatinent has to
be repeated for a whole series of structures such as the epithelium,
the musculature, the various forms of glands, the lymph-tissues,
blood-vessels, and nerves. This occupies the volume up to page 537,
and the remaining portion treats of the development and of special
structures such as the caecal diverticula and of all such remains.
There are copious indices of matter, authorities, and animals. We
welcome a scholarly and careful contribution to anatomy.

ORNITHOLOGISTS AT DRESDEN
Aus der 22. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Ornithologischen Gesellschaft in Dresden,
vom 28-30 Mai1897, herausgegeben von A. B. Meyer. Abh. K. Zool. Anthrop. Mus.

Dresden, vii. (2). Berlin: R. Friedlinder & Sohn, 1898. 4to, pp. vii. 83, pls. i.-ii1.
Dr A. B. Meyer has rendered useful service in editing the papers
read at the Dresden meeting of German ornithologists. He is him-
self responsible for a treatise upon the Paradiseidae, extending over
some thirty-five pages, in which he refers to several of the recent
discoveries in this important family, which has of late yielded so
many unexpected novelties to collectors. Dr Sharpe and Mr Hartert
have already shown a special knowledge of the subject; but it is
satisfactory to find our continental colleagues assisting in elucidating
the difficult questions which these birds present to the student. It
is also pleasant to learn that the Dresden Museum possesses speci-
mens of a good many Birds of Paradise, including several of the original
types. The first appendix to this paper supplies a useful list of
recent publications dealing with the Paradiseidac. Many naturalists
will be surprised to Jearn that we are now acquainted with the eggs
of no less than twelve species of Birds of Paradise.

Of more general interest than the foregoing is the charming
sketch of bird-life upon the Nile contributed by Dr Koenig of Bonn.
Englishmen have of course long since worked out the general
features of the ornithology of Egypt; but while our countrymen
continue to supplement our local knowledge—witness Mr Cavendish’s
recent recognition of Gyps rueppelli in the Cairo Zoological Gardens,
and the capture of the fourth known example of Saaxicola xantho-
prymna by the same veteran ‘Ibis,—there is plenty of scope for
other workers, and Dr Koenig’s industry is acceptable. His present
paper only covers about thirteen pages, but it is brimful of facts and
very pleasant reading. Dr Koenig paid special attention to the
species of Hirundinidae to be met with in Egypt, including Hirundo
savignyt, Which he naturally considers to be a local and resident form
of the more widely distributed Hirundo rustica.

An excellent coloured plate reproduces no fewer than three
recently discovered sketches of the lost Dodo, or ‘Dronte, as the

130 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

Germans elect to style it. Two of these small sketches exist in the
Dresden picture gallery. It should also be remarked, that Von
Biedermann gives a list of the known representations of the Dodo,
numbering fourteen altogether.

Dr Meyer pens a short note upon remains of Alcea impennis from
Swedish deposits, including a left coracoid bone obtained at Greby in
the province of Bohuslin, among fragments of pottery and bones of
the ox, pig, and sheep.

F inally, we must draw attention to the essay of Mr Voigt upon
the love-notes of the Capercailzie or ‘Auerhahn’ (7Zetrao urogallus),
and the Blackeock or ‘Birkhahn’ (Lyrurus tetrix), which he has
taken the pains to set to musical notation; and to a remarkable
variety of the common European Kinefisher (Alcedo ispida), which
is admirably figured. The curious point about this specimen, which
was procured upon the Rhine between Mainz and Worms, is that the
plumage of the upper surface is half green and half deep blue, the
two colours being equally distributed. H. A.M.

SPONGE SPICULES

MATERIALS FOR A MONOGRAPH OF THE Ascons. I, ON THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF
THE Tain AND QUADRIRADI ATE SPICULES IN THE FAMILY CLATHRINIDAE.
By E. A. Minchin, M. A, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Reprinted from the
Guirioty Journal of Microscopical Science, n.s. vol. xl., pp. 469-587, pls. xxxviil.-
xlii., January 1898.
Mr MINcuIN is almost a social phenomenon. He was appointed
nearly five years ago to an Oxford fellowship, after competitive
examination in natural science. The formal theory of such fellow-
ships is that they should fill, so to speak, the yolk-sac of an embryonic
scholar in some branch of human knowledge, and provide him with
the metabolic material known as gold. These haleyon years the
fellow (theoretically) devotes to the. pursuit of his particular branch
of knowledge; he has the oppor tunity to develop into a fully equipped
investigator, and may be supposed in this process to have issued a
considerable body of actual research. At the end of that period, on
the aboriginal hypothesis as to the place of fellows in the universe, a
patron should present the fellow to a fat country living, where, dwell-
ing in the fear of God and the friendship of the squire, the endowed
scholar should continue his studies. In the modern world, however,
a fat country living is not the natural reward of successful investiga-
tion. For this reason it happens, at least in Oxford, that the research
fellow seldom does research. Sometimes he goes to the bar ; some-
times to medicine; sometimes to commerce; sometimes he enters with
ardour into the boarding-school industry, and becomes a useful man
to his college. In any event it is almost an anachronism for him to
devote the major part of his endowed time to research. How Mr
Minchin can reconcile it with his own interests that he has fulfilled
the plain purpose of a fellowship by giving up his time to research we
cannot pretend to say, but the first part of the monograph now before
us, and a series of earlier memoirs, are ample evidence as to the fact.
The present memoir deals with points incidentally obtained in the
course of Mr Minchin’s attempt to get materials for a complete mono-
graph of the Ascons. For all sponge histolog gy he found it of import-
ance to carry with him, when seeking for specimens, tubes containing

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 131

the necessary reagents, and so to secure preparations killed in an
absolutely fresh condition. For study of the spicules he used a one
per cent. osmic solution diluted with an equal volume of sea-water.
After five or ten minutes in this, the specimens were rinsed in water
and placed in picrocarmine, in which they were allowed to remain for
one or two hours, and were then transferred to glycerine or to alcohol,
according as surface-views or sections were required. For spicules he
found this method more useful than nuclear stains, as these, from their
acidity, corroded the crystals. Certainly the exactness of the results
gained, as shown in the description and Mr Minchin’s exquisitely
beautiful drawings, is proof of the excellence of the method.

After exact description of the spicules and their mode of formation
in a series of types, the author passes to a general review of the nature
and condition of the spicule systems. He lays considerable stress on
the presence of the spicule sheath between the spicules and their
secreting cells, and cannot follow the view that spicules are formed in
protoplasmic nodes, and owe part of their structure to resulting ten-
sions. He regards the sheath as the remnant of a vacuole secreted by
the cell, in the interior of which the spicule itself appeared as a
concretion. The primordial form of spicule he takes to be a simple
monaxon: the triradiate type he regards as being formed of three
monaxons fused at a point. Probably the original monaxons were
arranged as the sides of hexagon figures surrounding the pores. It
has been objected to a composite origin of the triradiate spicules, that
these behave optically as single crystals; yet Mr Minchin shows that
in actual ontogeny they arise from the very early fusion of these. The
quadriradiate crystals he supports Haeckel in supposing to be derived
from triradiate forms by the addition of a gastral ray.

In the case of a memoir like this, which depends in every way
upon the exposition of elaborate details, it is impossible to do justice
in a short notice. We can only commend it to our readers as a strik-
ing and elaborate piece of work, and to the University of Oxford as a
singular result of the activity of that supposed rudimentary organ—
the endowment of research by fellowships.

THE Lire Stupy oF BUCHANAN WHITE

Tur Frora or Perrusuire. By Francis Buchanan W. White, M.D. Edited, with

life of Author, by James W. H. Traill. 8vo, pp. Ix+408, portrait and_ map.

Edinburgh : Printed for the Perthshire Society of Natural Science by W. Black-

wood & Sons. 1898. Price, 7s. 6d.
TuIs handsome and well-printed volume has a melancholy interest to
all lovers of British Botany. Dr Buchanan White died in 1894.
How much Perthshire Botany owes to his continued labours in the
cause of science can only be gathered from the study of this volume.
He founded the lecal Society. He had a large share in raising the
Perth Museum to its present position of supremacy amongst those in
county towns. The catalogue of his printed works in this volume
contains about 227 headings. Moreover although the editor has been
obliged to obtain the assistance of others in some of the larger more
critical genera such as Hieraciwm (and curiously enough Salva),
which were not written up by Dr White, still the work is to all
intents and purposes his work, and its details and accuracy are exactly
what one would have expected from him.

132 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

The book contains a portrait of the author, a map of Perthshire,
and Prof. Traill has also contributed a memoir, a list of scientific
papers, and an introduction. Obviously Dr White’s own introduction
(43 pp.) is incomplete.. Apparently it has been thought best to
publish it, so far as possible, without alteration, though some minor
changes have been introduced. Hence when the heading “Geology
of Perthshire more especially in its relation to the distribution of
the Flora” arouses pleasant anticipations of an account of a sorely
neglected part of field-botany by one well qualified to judge, we
must not be disappointed to find nothing whatever about the Flora,
only geological information and a few notes as to the fertility of the
soils.

The subdivisions of the county are based on the river-valleys.
Fortunately we have a Highland and a Lowland Isla as well as
similar divisions for Perth, Earn, and Forth. Most unfortunately the
vicious system of Watsonian vicecounties has not been entirely
thrown away and this is the solitary fault to be found with this
handsome volume. There is in this Flora, as indeed in most county
Floras, nothing to show that Darwin or Drude or Engler or Warming
or the numerous tribe of German, Scandinavian, and Russian botanists
ever existed. The ideas of distribution in this country have stopped
with Mr H.C. Watson. If the distribution alone has to be made
clear, one might have thought that Mr C. B. Clarke’s paper on
Tabulation Sub-areas had proved clearly enough that the only satis-
factory plan is to make subdivisions based on degrees of latitude and
longitude. If these are drawn small enough, any required degree of
accuracy in the range of a species can be obtained, and its distribution
on a railway line, in a valley or along a mountain chain stands out
clearly. For the study of plant-associations or plant distribution on
modern lines, this book affords no help whatever. Fortunately the
absurd West Perth, East Perth, and Mid Perth have been disregarded.
Dr White has gone so far as to separate the Old Red Sandstone
districts from the Pre-Cambrian or “Silurian” (p. 4) and this is the
line of division followed between the Highland and Lowland Earn,
&e. Presumably, like many others, he was afraid to disturb the
faith of the average British botanist in the late Mr H. C. Watson.

The actual treatment is best seen by a typical example.

OrpER XXXIX.—ERICACEAE.
TRIBE I.—-ARBUTEAE,

1, ARCTOSTAPHYLOS Adans,
A. Uva-ursi Spreng. (87, 88, 89.)
L. O Earn, ) O oO
H. O Earn, Perth, Isla, oO Breadalbane, Rannoch, Atholl.
HAB. Dry rocky places on the mountains. Local.
ALT. Ascends to 2350 ft. in Rannoch and 2000 in H. Earn and

Atholl. ;
Loch Rannoch (Professor Hope, 1762).
Almost confined to the Highland area; but near Crieff it occurs on conglomerate
rocks of the Old Red Sandstone.

L. stands for the Lowland Districts on Old Red Sandstone. H.
for the Highland on older rocks. ‘‘O” means that the plant does not

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 133

occur in the district which comes in this position, 7.c., in the above
case, the plant is absent in lowland Perth, Isla, and Forth, as well as
in Gowrie.

But in some cases there is also a short and much needed account
of the less known varieties, eg., Trifolium dubiwm, Sibth. vay.
pygmacum Soy.-Will. is described as follows, “ Dwarfer; petiole of
middle leaflet not longer than the lateral ones.” These occasional
deviations from the plan are probably the most valuable part of the
book, and we wish there had been more of them.

Mr F. J. Hanbury has edited the Hieracia, Mr H. Groves has
worked through the Characeae, and Messrs W. Barclay and H. Coates
have afforded Prof. Traill much assistance with those genera (Salix
Festuca, ete.), which were not finished in the MS. Prof. Traill’s
portion of the work must have been exceedingly difficult ; he has
however succeeded in presenting Dr Buchanan White’s work in the
best form possible under the circumstances, and deserves congratula-
tion on the accomplishment. The map (by Bartholomew) is ver
good, coloured according to altitudes of 500, 1000, 2000, and 3000
feet ; but is on far too small a scale for detailed work in the field.

THE FERNS OF THE EARTH

Die FARNKRAUTER DER ErpDE. Beschreibende Darstellung der Geschlechter und

wichtigeren Arten der Farnpflanzen mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der exoti-

schen. Von Dr H. Christ (Basel). 8vo, pp. xii+388, with 292 figures. Jena:

Fischer, 1897. Price, 12 Marks.
In this work Mr Fischer has added another useful book to his long
list of botanical publications. Apart from their general life-history
the modern botanist knows next to nothing about ferns, and is often
fain to admit his ignorance of the names of the most commonly culti-
‘vated species. He knows Péeris aquilina, the bracken fern, but is sur-
prised to find that a fern which is used for decorative purposes, along
with one or more equally unknown palms, in most of the London
dairies, or in smaller editions as an ornament for the dinner table,
is congeneric. He will find Dr Christ’s book very useful. It is not
a complete monograph, for such a work would require several volumes
of equal size to the one now before us, and it is therefore not intended
primarily for the specialist, but notwithstanding includes descriptions
of 1154 species belonging to 99 genera. If further information is
required, it can be found in one or other of the systematic works
of which the author gives a list at the beginning of his book, or of
the floras which follow arranged in geographical sequence. Under
the title ‘Ferns’ Dr Christ includes the so-called true Ferns or
Filicinae of Prantl which fall into two groups, namely, the Lepto-
sporangiatae, in which the spore-cases are derived from a single
(epidermal) layer of cells, and the smaller or Eusporangiatae where
several cell-layers are concerned. The first group contains the
Hymenophyllaceae, Polypodiaceae, Davalliaceae, Osmundaceae, Cyath-
eaceae (tree-ferns) and others, the second the two small families
Marattiaceae and Ophioglossaceae. The first part of the book (15
pages) is a brief systematic outline of the characters of the groups
and genera. The remainder, forming Part IL. is a more exhaustive
account of these and of the principal species, including all well-estab-
lished species, “which are in any way remarkable on account of

134 NATURAL SCIENCE [aneae

structure, biological peculharities, phylogenetic relations, and wide or
peculiar distribution.” The descriptions are all in German, and
those of individual species are remarkably non-technical and lucid.
In each case the native habitat is given. The illustrations, which
are numbered to correspond with the species depicted, if not of a
very high order, are at any rate good enough to be an efficient
help in elucidating the text, and assisting in the determination of the
specific name. The book concludes with a good index.

THE REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS

BEITRAGE zUR LEHRE VON DER FORTPFLANZUNG DER GEWACHSE. By Prof. Dr M.
Mobius. 8vo, pp. viii., 212, with 36 figures in the text. Jena: Fischer, 1897.
Price, 4 Marks 50 pf.

Pror. Mosius has here brought together the matter contained in
several essays previously published in the Biologische Centralblatt (1891,
1892, and 1896), which, with some additional chapters, make up a
useful and suggestive discussion of the methods of reproduction in
plants, both vegetative and sexual, the conditions on which they
depend, and the relations between the two kinds. There are five
chapters, namely:—1. Introduction. 2, On the consequences of con-
tinued vegetative multiplication of plants. 3. On the conditions that
govern the flowering of plants. 4. On the relation between spore and
bud formation in the reproduction of plants. 5. On the origin and
significance of sexual reproduction in the plant-world. In his introduc-
tion the author emphasises the contrast between the life of the indi-
vidual and the life of the species, as the key to the relation between
vegetative and spore reproduction, and indicates how the sexual process
may have arisen as a secondary result in the latter case. In the
second chapter a number of instances are adduced in support of the
contention that senile decay, as a result of continued asexual repro-
duction, exists “only in the imagination of certain authors and
breeders.” Many cultivated plants, like the sugar-cane, have been
propagated from time immemorial only by the vegetative method ;
many, in fact, can be multiplied in no other way, and there is no
evidence to show that these are weaker or less healthy than the off-
spring of a sexual process. They have no predisposition to disease.
Epidemics are not peculiar to vegetatively propagated plants, but appear
even among wild plants, both annuals and perennials. An important
feature of the book as a whole is the great number of examples which
the author adduces in support of his contentions, rendering it useful
to the student quite apart from the intrinsic value of the conclusions
based thereon.

THE MAKERS OF ANDREE’S BALLOON

ANDREE AND HIS BALLooN. By Henri Lachambre and Alexis Machuron. 8vo, viii+
306 pp., coloured frontispiece, and 44 full-page illustrations. London: Constable
& Co., 1898. Price, 6s.

THE main interest of this work arises from its detailed description

of Andrée’s balloon. Whatever geographical results we may learn

from Andrée when he returns in the autumn, as there are still good

erounds for hoping that he will, his expedition has already done

valuable service by its contributions to aeronautics. Andrée, as an

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 135

expert mechanician, has introduced many novelties into ballooning
equipment. The senior author of the work is Mr Henri Lachambre,
the well-known French balloon-maker, who made Andrée’s balloon
and went to Spitsbergen in 1896 to superintend its installation and
inflation. This work was successfully achieved, but the weather was
unfavourable and no start could be attempted that year. Few things
show better Andrée’s courage and good judgment than his determina-
tion not to risk an ascent after the first few days of August. Even if
he could then have relied on a strong, steady, south wind to carry
him to the pole, and a continuation of it on the other side to blow him
on either in Siberia or North America, he would have landed too Iate
to make adequate preparations for the winter. Andrée accordingly
faced .a certain amount of scoffing by returning to Europe in 1896,
ready for an earlier start in the following season. Mr Lachambre did
not offer to go north again. One summer’s exile on the ice-bound
shores of Dane’s Gat was enough for him. So it fell to the lot of his
nephew, Alexis Machuron, to superintend the balloon work in 1897,
and to see the actual ascent.

Mr Lachambre’s account of his experiences in Spitzbergen is a
quaint addition to Spitzbergen literature. He makes numerous
observations on the fauna and flora, but his knowledge of natural history
is too limited to render these of any value. He says, for example,
that the auk is the same bird as the fulmar petrel, and then calls it a
duck. As an example of his remarks on the vegetation we may quote
the following: “There is no vegetation to gladden our sight, nothing
but a few varieties of moss bearing tiny white, violet, and yellow
flowers ; the yellow ones, larger than the rest, resemble very much
the buttercups with which our meadows are dotted in spring.” The
flower-bearing “ mosses ” in question are no doubt species of Ranwn-
culus, the Arctic poppy (Papaver medicaule), and rock roses. The
translator by always speaking of eider-geese, for example, helps to
caricature the natural history notes in the volume. The photographic
illustrations are admirable, and help to atone for the numerous imper-
fections of the text.

A New MEANS oF RESEARCH

PracTIcAL RADIOGRAPHY. By A. W. Isenthal and H. Snowden Ward. Second
edition. 8vo, 157 pp. London: Published for The Photogram by Dawhbarn &
Ward. 1898. Price, 2s. 6d. net.

WE welcome the appearance of this thoroughly practical little book.

Now that the popular excitement due to the novelty of Dr Roentgen’s

discovery is abating, the real workers, those who are earnestly making

use of the power placed in their hands, are coming to the front. That
good work is being done is very clear from a perusal of the book. This
is particularly marked in its application to surgery and medicine; and
we are glad to find that one of its first uses has been to the alleviation
of human suffering, one great end of scientific research. But there
are many other fields where the new power will be of great value.

Apart from the physician, men of science interested in Roentgen rays

may be divided into two classes: those. physicists who are investigat-

ing the nature and properties of the rays, and those who are occupied,

not so much with the discovery itself, as with its application as a

136 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

means of investigation in their own special field of work. Foremost
among these are the biologists, and their appreciation of the discovery
is evidenced by the recent publication of the beautiful series of
radiograms of the British Echinoderms by Prof. R. N. Wolfenden,
the British Batrachians and Reptiles by Messrs J. Green and J.
H. Gardiner, and many others. We feel sure that the peculiar power
of this means of research need only be more fully known to become
very largely used.

Returning to the work before us, there are one or two details that
we must touchupon. The “ Historical Review ” is both interesting and
comprehensive, but we scarcely think Prof. Roentgen has been given the
prominent place due to him; he has certainly done more than to apply
to practical uses a series of investigations begun by others; in fact,
application to practical uses is just what Prof. Roentgen has not
touched upon. We also note the term, ‘Crooke’s tube’; this is
possibly a misprint, but should be Crookes’ tube. Also, mention
is made of a Rhumkorff (? Ruhmkorff) or Apps’ coil; we fail to see
the distinction. In chapter ii, (Apparatus), a quantity of very
elementary matter is introduced, of which we doubt the utility,
for it is not possible, in the space that can be devoted to it, to
teach the elements of electricity ; the same must be said of the early
part of chapter iv. on photography.

The various forms of tubes which have been used for the genera-
tion of Roentgen rays are very fully illustrated, and are of considerable
interest, as also is the description of the new Tesla oscillator and the
more recent form of Ruhmkorff coil introduced by Messrs Rochefort
and Wydts ; in these particulars the book is thoroughly up to date.
The illustrations, particularly the half-tone radiograms, are very
good; but it is almost a pity that these latter are scattered about
the book without any particular reference to the text. Chapters v.,
vi1., and vii., on medical radiography, show the advance that has been
made in this direction within the last two years. The book concludes
with a concise and well-written reswmé of the various theories that
have been advanced as to the nature of the rays. On the whole, we
can congratulate the authors upon the masterly way in which they
have dealt with the subject, and wish the book a wide circulation,

‘“ SCIENCE IS MEASUREMENT ”

NoTES ON OBSERVATIONS, being an Outline of the Methods used for determining the
Meaning and Value of Quantitative Observations and Experiments in Physics and
Chemistry, and for reducing the Results obtained. By Sydney Lupton, M.A.
8vo, pp. x+126. London: Macmillan & Co, 1898. Price, 3s. 6d.

ALTHOUGH, as indicated in the sub-title, this little book is distinctly
intended for the physicist and chemist, still, if we mistake not, it will
be of considerable value to the biologist, and, indeed, to students of
other branches of natural science. Although there are biologists
among us who make much use of mathematical methods in their re-
searches, and although there are mathematicians who love to trespass
on the domain of the biologist, yet mathematics are, as a rule, some-
what of a bugbear to the ordinary student of biology, who, it is prob-
able, spent the time he should have devoted to them in running after
butterflies or exploring the inside of a frog. For the ordinary biologist

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS LY

who desires to comprehend something of the work now being done on

variation, on selection, on specific differentiae, and so forth, or “who may
even be bold enough to attempt some of these mathematical methods
himself, Mr Lupton’s book will come as a godsend. The chapters on
Ideas, on Reasoning, on Fallacies, on Laws of Nature, on Cause and
Effect, and on Observations and Experiments, with their references to
larger works, may be read with profit by many who think they were
taught all about such things at school. But it is when we get to the
explanation of such things ¢ as Units and Dimensions, Averages, Differ-
ences, Mensuration, the Use of Tables, Errors, Means, the Law of Error,
and Graphical Methods, that the special value of Mr Lupton’s book
becomes apparent. There are many who will be glad to learn the
difference between an Average and a Mean, and more particularly to
know which of the various Means is the one now selected by mathe-
maticians as the Mean, while the difference between the Mean and the
Mode is another subject upon which light is needed by a good many
who are not so well acquainted with Prof. Karl Pearson’s writings as
they ought to be.

Nevertheless, valuable though Mr Lupton’s book is, we should
greatly like to see a manual on the same lines, but more especially
adapted for the biologist. Nearly all Mr Lupton’s are taken, as is
natural, from physics or chemistry; Prof. Weldon and his crabs are not
so much as alluded to. But the construction of graphical curves to
represent biological observations presents difficulties and complications
of its own. The useful application of logarithmically ruled section-
paper was recently suggested by Mr D. J. Scourfield ; while readers
who are interested in the determination of species will find an inter-
esting application of mathematical methods suggested by Prof. C. B.
Davenport in Science for May 20. We merely mention these papers
as examples of the kind of thing that might well be incorporated in a
text-book of biological mathematics, and we can but regret that so use-
ful a person as Mr Lupton has been lost to our own branch of science.

HISTORICAL SPECIMENS OF FossIL CEPHALOPODA

List OF THE TYPES AND FIGURED SPECIMENS OF FossIL CEPHALOPODA IN THE
British Museum (Natural History). By G.C. Crick. 8vo, boards, pp. vit+ 104.
London. 1898. Price, 2s. 6d.

To the serious worker who is called upon to identify organisms nothing
is more helpful, and in critical cases essential, than a comparison with
the specimen on which the original description was based ; and to
such persons there is no more welcome aid than a directory of these
so-called type-specimens. As regards the British fossils, a Committee
of the British Association has long been collecting information with a
view to such a list, and owing to its exertions several museums (among
others, those of Cambridge, Manchester, and York) have printed and
published lists of their type fossils.

The present catalogue enumerates somewhere about 1000 speci-
mens (a striking illustration of the wealth of the British Museum)
with full references to the places where they have been described and
figured, as well as to their locality and stratigraphical horizon.

They are arranged alphabetically according to the generic names

K

138 NATURAL SCIENCE [August

under which they were first recorded, but there is an index of specific
names at the end which renders it easy to find those which have been
subsequently placed in other genera. It is not always easy to dis-
tinguish with certainty between type-specimens and those which have
subsequently been figured; and it was hardly to be expected that
any distinction should be drawn between holotypes, cotypes, para-
types, and the like, useful though such distinction is to the systema-
tist.. We cannot help thinking that where a heading is repeated, it
is a help to the eye to substitute a dash for the word rather than to
reprint it each time. There is an error (probably merely clerical) in
the account of Goniatites iris on p. 57.

EXAMINATION ZOOLOGY

Trext-Booxk or ZooLocy. By H. G. Wells, B.Se., Lond., and A. M. Davies, B.Sc., Lond.
University Tutorial Series. 8vo, pp. 366. London: W. B. Clive, 1898. Price,
6s. 6d.

THIS is a new edition of the text-book prepared some years ago by Mr
Wells for the University Correspondence College Press. The original
book had many serious disadvantages; the present volume, all of
which save one chapter, has been re-written by Mr Davies, is im-
mensely improved. The descriptions are lucid and correct, and the
diagrams very useful. We have gone over the volume with close
attention, and with no particular favour for the Correspondence College
system, but we have confidence in saying that a student who has not
the opportunity of attending a regular course of zoology, will gain clear
and correct conceptions from this text-book. It will be necessary,
of course, for him to go through a considerable practical training in
addition, and the authors of the volume constantly impress this upon
his notice.

THE MetTrRICG SYSTEM

Now that the metric system of weights and measures is legalised in
the United Kingdom, everything that tends to encourage its use is to
be welcomed. The Pharmaceutical Journal has done good service in
publishing tables of the metric equivalents of various imperial weights
and measures, together with thermometric equivalents in degrees
Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and Réaumur. These have now been re-
printed as a quarto pamphlet, printed on one side of the paper
only, and to be obtained at the Pharmaceutical Journal office, 5
Serle Street, Lincoln’s Inn, W.C., price 1s. Ed. nett.

ZOOLOGY IN JAPAN

All visitors to Japan know the Japanese Cicadidae. There are
at least sixteen species found in Japan, of which nine are peculiar
to that country. A systematic summary of these species, with the
description of a new one, has been published by Mr M. Matsumura
in Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses (vol. i, pp. 1-20, pl. 1). In
the same number, Mr A. lizuka describes a new species of littoral
Oligochaete, under the name Pontodrilus matsushimensis, since it was
discovered in Matsushima Bay, burrowing in the sand under the half-
decayed leaves of Zostera marina. The species does not agree with
Mr Beddard’s definition of the genus, in that the vas deferens opens

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 139

in the same way as it does in the genera Moniligaster and Ilyodrilus,
which belong to other families. Mr lizuka suggests that this differ-
ence is due rather to ignorance of the true structure of Pontodrilus
than to any divergence in the case of the present species. The last
paper, by Mr M. Namiye, describes the indigenous snake Achalinus
spinalis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE Geological Survey of Belgium, having with some success pub-
lished vol. i. of Bebliographia Geologica, specifying all works and
papers on geological subjects that appeared during 1896, now proposes
to issue a retrospective series. The first volume will comprise the
titles of all geological publications in the lbrary of the Belgian
Survey, arranged according to their subject-matter on the plan of the
decimal classification. Authors who wish to see their works quoted
in so useful a catalogue will, it is hoped, send copies to the library in
question. They may address the Director, Dr M. Mourlon, 2 Rue
Latérale, Brussels.

NEW SERIAL

WE welcome an Italian rival, Rivista di scienza biologiche, edited by
Dr Enrico Morselli, professor of psychiatry at Genoa University.
- Subscriptions are received by Dr P. Celesia, 46 Via Assarotti, Genoa.

THE Rev. H. N. Hutchinson (Author of “Extinct Monsters”) is at
present making a large collection of photographs from life of native
races of all countries, including Pacific Islands, to illustrate a popular
work which he will publish next year in twenty-four sixpenny parts,
with Messrs Hutchinson & Co., of 34 Paternoster Row, E.C. For
this purpose he requires good, strong, clear photos of men, women and
children—some in groups, others as single figures. Silver prints will
be preferred. Readers of Natwral Science who have such photographs
are requested to communicate with Mr Hutchinson, through the
publishers, with a view to purchase.

FurRTHER LITERATURE RECEIVED

Making of a Daisy, Hughes-Gibb: Griffin, London. Zoologische Praktikum,
Kiikenthal: Fischer, Jena.

Summary of Progress of Geol. Survey of U.K., for 1897. Yearbook U.S. Dept.
Agriculture for 1897. Flora of Yucatan, Millspaugh ; Bibliogr. Anthropology of Peru,
Dorsey ; Shells from G. of Aden, Dall ; Mammals from Iowa, Elliot : Publications Field
Columbian Mus. Gesteine und Diinnschliffe Katalog 4, Suppl. 1 and 2, Krantz. Biblio-
graphy W. Australia, Maitland: Bull. Geol. Surv. W. Australia. Guide to Belfast and
N. Counties’ Ry. Results on Exper. fields at Skerrett’s School, Watts & Shepherd,
Antigua. Nomenclature of Seams of Lancashire Coal-measures, Bolton: Manchester
Mus. Handbook. Extinct Rhinoceros, Osborn: Mem. Amer. Mus. N.H. Micro-
scopical light in Geol. darkness, Claypole: Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc. Ratzel’s Hist.
Mankind 27 ; Macmillan.

Actes Soc. Sci. Chili, VII., No. 5; Amer. Geol., May ; Amer. Journ. Sci., July ;
Amer. Monthly Micr. Journ., May ; Amer. Nat., May; Botan. Gazette, June; Feuille
des jeunes Nat., July ; Irish Nat., July ; Journ. Essex Tech. Lab. III. ; Journ. Con-
chol., July ; Journ. Marine Zool. II., No. 2; Journ. School. Geogr., June ; Literary
Digest, June 18, 25, July 2; Naturae Novit., May No. 10, June 11, 12; Naturalist,
July ; Nature, June 23, 30, July 7, 14; Nature Notes, July ; Photogram, July ; Pisci-
culture Pratique, IV., No. 6; Proc. R. Soc. Victoria X., No. 2; Psychol. Rev., June,
July ; Revue Scient., June 18, 25, July 2, 9, 16; Science, June 10, 17, 24, July 1;
Scientific Amer., June, 11, 18, 25, July 2; Scot. Med. and Surg. Journ., July ; Scot.
Geogr. Mag., July ; Westminster Rev., July.

140

OBITUARIES

GEORG BAUR
Born, JANUARY 4, 1859. Diep, JunE 25, 1898

THE premature death of Dr Georg Baur, of the University of Chicago,
removes one of the most brilliant investigators of vertebrate morphol-
ogy from the ranks of the present generation of naturalists. He was
born nearly forty years ago at Weisswasser, in Bohemia, where his
father was at the time Professor of Mathematics. Most of his youth
was passed in Hesse and Wiirtemberg, and his final school was the
Gymnasium at Stuttgart. In 1878 he entered the University of
Munich, devoting his attention chiefly to zoology, palaeontology,
geology, and mineralogy ; and in 1880 he removed to Leipzig, where
he studied under Credner and Leuckart. Two years later he re-
turned to Munich to take his degree of Ph.D., and from 1882 to 1884
he acted as assistant to Prof. von Kupffer. Dr Baur was then
invited by Prof. Marsh to assist him in his work on extinct verte-
brata in the Peabody Museum of Yale University at New Haven;
and from 1884 onwards he made his home in the United States of
America. He visited England in 1886, and again in 1888, and returned
to Germany on several short holidays. In 1890 he resigned his assist-
antship at Yale, and became lecturer in the Clark University at Wor-
cester, Mass. In 1892 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Com-
parative Osteology and Palaeontology in the newly-founded University
of Chicago; and in 1895 he was finally promoted to the rank of
Associate Professor, the position he held at the time of his death.
He was always intensely active and absorbed in his favourite studies,
and the continuous mental strain eventually led to a serious collapse
in health last autumn. A few months’ rest seemed to revive him, and
he returned to Chicago in December; but he was soon compelled to
relinquish work again, and the University granted him an extension
of leave to visit his relatives in Germany. Paralysis unfortunately
supervened, until his mind became completely deranged, and a wide
circle of friends has now to mourn his sad and untimely loss.

Dr Baur’s researches related chiefly to two subjects—the skeleton
of the vertebrate animals, and the natural history of the Galapagos
Islands. He was the author of about 150 notes and papers detailing
the results of these researches. He also published the first part of a
special work entitled Beitrdge zur Morphogenie des Carpus und Tarsus
der Vertebraten (Jena, 1888). He was especially interested in the
skeleton of reptiles; and although he often arrived at conclusions too
hastily, and frequently changed his views, his papers were always
filled with suggestiveness and brilliant generalisation, which none
interested in the progress of knowledge could atford to overlook. His
writings on osteology, indeed, though brief, are among the classics of
the subject. Dr Baur’s interest in the Galapagos Islands was first
aroused by the extinct giant tortoises of North America and the possi-
bility of their close kinship with those of the distant archipelago off
the South American coast. It was not until 1891, however, that he

August 1898] OBITUARIES 141

was able to gratify his desire to examine the facts. In this year he
visited the islands himself, leaving in May and returning in October,
not only making observations but also amassing a most valuable
collection of specimens illustrating the fauna and flora of the group.
He published his results in a series of important papers, still incom-
plete at the time of his death. He specially emphasised his discovery
that each island had peculiar species of animals and plants, those of
neighbouring islands never quite identical though closely related ; and
he maintained that this harmonic distribution, as he termed it, could
only be explained on the hypothesis, that the Galapagos were the
summits of mountains of a submerged continental area, which had
once been connected with the mainland of America. This heterodox
view was at first much opposed, but it has now met with nearly
universal acceptance among naturalists. It was approvingly discussed
recently by Dr Giinther in his presidential address to the Linnean
Society ; it has also been admitted as plausible by Mr W. Botting
Hemsley, the specialist on insular floras. Dr Baur’s work was thus
far-reaching in the realm of biological and geological philosophy, and
an investigator of his originality and broad ideas can ill be spared.

ANTON KERNER RITTER VON MARILAUN
Born JUNE 13, 1831. DIED JUNE 21, 1898

Dr KERNER VON MARILAUN, whose death at the age of 67 is
announced, was Professor of Systematic Botany, and Director of
the Botanic Gardens and Museum of Vienna University. He is
best known to English students from his “ Pflanzenleben,” perhaps
the most charming work on plant-life ever written ; it was recently
translated into English under the direction of Prof. F. W. Oliver.
Another, delightful but smaller work is his “Plants and their Un-
bidden Guests,” translated by Dr Ogle, with a preface by Charles
Darwin. These are the work of a keen observer and lover of nature,
who was gifted with a vivid imagination, which occasionally led him
beyond the limit of strict scientific accuracy. Kerner also wrote
several books and papers dealing systematically with the flora of
Southern Austria, the Tyrol, and neighbouring countries.

FERDINAND COHN, who, on June 25th, died suddenly at Breslau, was
born in that town in 1828, educated there, and had held the chair of
botany at its University since 1859. Author of several books and
papers dealing with plant-life in general, he was best known to the
public by his semi-popular work “Die Pflanze,” of which the first
edition appeared in 1870, the second in 1896. His more strictly
scientific work was on the lower groups of plants, such as Algae,
Fungi, and Bacteria, and most of it was published in “ Beitriige zur
Biologie der* Pflanzen,” an irregular periodical founded by Cohn in
1870 and edited by him till its cessation in 1896. He also edited the
“ Kryptogamen-flora von Schlesien,” which began in 1876 and is still
incomplete.

The deaths are also announced of :—Dr PAut Broccui, professor of zoology and
director of the National Agronomic Institute at Paris, and president of the Society of
Agriculture ; and on March 7th, at Columbia, Mo., of E. H. Lonspaun, of the U.S.

Geological Survey, and formerly connected with the Geological Surveys of Missouri
and Iowa.

142

NEWS

AMONG recent appointments, we notice those of : Mr Herbert Bolton, F.R.S.E.,
who for the last eight years has held the post of assistant keeper in the Man-
chester Museum, to the curatorship of the Bristol Museum ; Miss Agnes Mary
Claypole of Wellesley College, to be assistant in the department of histology
and comparative physiology in Cornell University ; Dr Chas. H. Judd, of
Wesleyan University, to be professor of physiological and experimental psy-
chology in the School of Pedagogy, New York University, being succeeded as
instructor of philosophy at Wesleyan University by Dr Raymond Dodge ;
Dr D.S. Miller to be lecturer in psychology at Columbia University, and Dr E,
Thorndyke to a similar post at Western Reserve University.

THE new buildings of Reading College were opened by the Prince of Wales
on June 11th. He explained that the Institution had for its object the advance-
ment of higher education, especially in those branches more particularly connected
with the science and art of agriculture. Reading College isan outcome of Oxford
University Extension work, and it is hoped that it may be affiliated to the parent
University for the purpose of training students in the science and practice of
agriculture as part of their University career. For the present, however, Oxford
University has rejected this proposal by a very narrow majority.

Lapy Warwick has established a small school of science on her estate at
Bigods near Dunmow in Essex. Mr E. E. Hennesey of the Royal College of
Science has been appointed principal of the school, which is attended by about
sixty pupils of both sexes. The Essex County Council is interesting itself in the
movement, and we agree with Nature that the experiment in every way deserves
success.

THE people of Birmingham are no longer satisfied with Mason University
College, but wish to have a University of their own in which Technical Science
should be one of the faculties. A meeting was held in the city on July 4, and
speeches were delivered by Mr G. H. Kenrick, who has promised £10,000, Prof.
W. A. Tilden, the Bishop of Hereford, and Mr Joseph Chamberlain.

Dr E. D. Pearsons, of Chicago, has presented $25,000 to Pomona College,
California, for the erection of a science building.

Tue Loubat prizes of Columbia University, awarded every fifth year, have
this year been given to Mr W. H. Holmes, of the U.S. National Museum (who
receives $1,000), and to Dr Franz Boas, of the American Museum of Natural
History (who receives $400), for work on archaeology and ethnology of North
America. We note that Mr Joseph F. Loubat has recently presented $1,100,000
to the Library of Columbia University.

Pror. J. RercHarp, of Michigan University, accompanied by Prof. H. B.
Ward, of Nebraska University, Mr A. J. Pieters, and others, is making a biologi-
cal examination of Lake Erie.

From the report of the Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy we learn
that the most important recent additions to the objects exhibited in the court of
the Oxford University Museum are a cast of the skeleton of the gigantic extinct
reptile, Iguanodon bernissartensis, from Brussels ; a cast of the skeleton of the
extinct theromorphous reptile, Pareiasawrus baini, from the Cape Colony ; a cast
of the five-toed ancestral ungulate, Phenacodus primaevus, from the U.S. America ;
a cast of the skull of the gigantic extinct bird Phororhacos longissimus, from
Patagonia ; and an actual specimen of the extinct shark, Cladoselache fylert, from

August 1898] NEWS 148

near Cleveland, Ohio, which last is intrinsically the most valuable specimen
recently added to the collection.

THE Museums Association held its annual conference in Sheffield on July 4-8,
under the presidency of Alderman Brittain, who, in his address, gave a history of
the growth of Museums in Sheffield. The papers read were :—“ Museums in
Relation to Art Teaching,” by Prof. W. C. F. Anderson, of Sheffield, who might
have entitled it “ Unfortunate experiences of an Art-Student in search of infor-
mation” ; “The Relation of Museums to Elementary Education,” by Prof. A.
Denny, who dealt chiefly with object-lessons for teachers drawn from zoological
subjects ; “A History of the Glasgow People’s Palace,” by James Paton ; “ Pro-
vincial Museums and the Museums Association,” by H. Bolton, a suggestion
subsequently endorsed by the Council, that a return of all provincial museums
in the United Kingdom, their staff, expenditure, and character should be pre-
pared by a committee ; “Museums from a Philistine’s point of view,” by R. E.
Ariel Wright ; “‘ Note on some Arrangements and Fittings in the Sheffield
Museum,” by E. Howarth ; ‘“‘ Methods of Preservation and Arrangement of Sea-
weeds for Exhibition,” by Prof. F, E. Weiss ; “The Arrangement of Museum
Herbaria,” by E. M. Holmes, who described various methods adopted in various
large establishments ; “The Advantages of a Gallery of Sculpture (Casts) to an
Art Museum,” by J. MacLauchlan ; “Notes on some Russian Museums,” by
F. A. Bather, who used certain museums of St Petersburg, Reval, Jurjew (Dorpat),
Moscow, Saratow, Astrakhan, Tiflis, Theodosia, as pegs for various controversial
subjects ; “The Electric Light Installation at the Manchester Museum,” by W. E.
Hoyle; “The Cleaning of Museums,” by Miss Nordlinger, who described the
process as it is and as it should be carried out at the Manchester Museum ; “The
Individuality of Museums,” by William White of the Ruskin Museum; “ Marine
Animals Mounted as Transparencies for Museums,” by Dr H. C. Sorby ; “The
Ethnological Arrangement of Archeological Material,” by Harlan I. Smith ; and
“The Australian Museum,” by its secretary, S. Sinclair. During the meeting
visits were paid to the Ruskin Museum, the Sheffield Public Museum, the Mappin
Art Gallery, University College, the electroplating works of Messrs John Round
& Son and Messrs Walker & Hall; and to the works of Messrs Cammell to see
the rolling of an armour-plate for H.M.S. ‘Ocean.’ The meetings of the Associa-
tion were held in the Council Chamber of the Corporation, and lunch was kindly
provided each day by the Lord Mayor. Hospitality was also offered by the
President, by Alderman Gamble, and other residents of Sheffield. The meeting
concluded with excursions to the Langsett Water Works under the guidance of the
engineer, Mr W. Watts, and to Castleton under the direction of Mr John Tym.

Our remarks last month with reference to the salary offered to the curator of
the Bristol Museum have led a correspondent to send us the Western Daily Press
for July 13, from which we are glad to see that there are enlightened councillors
in Bristol after all. On the recommendation that the salary of the curator
should be £200 per annum, Mr Saise asked who assessed the value of the curator’s
services. He thought that the salary was ridiculously inadequate, and that they
would shortly be asked to increase it. Mr Stephens suggested that Mr Saise
should have the courage of his convictions and move a larger salary. Personally,
he thought £200 sufficient to start with. Mr Lloyd said that the Museum only
served a small portion of the city, and, considering that fact, he thought the
£2000 per annum which was required for its maintenance was too much. Mr
Barker was not surprised at Mr Saise having raised the question as to the salary,
because to many people the amount would seem inadequate. But the committee
were placed in a difficulty, inasmuch as the salary which Mr Wilson received was
£200, and a proposal to increase it would have necessitated the committee
coming before the Council, and involved delay in the appointment. The idea

144 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898

that the Museum was too costly would not be borne out by the facts. It was
an exceedingly popular institution, and was undergoing changes which would,
he trusted, make it even more popular. They were building up a magnificent
reference library, of which the city would be proud in years to come.

Tue Association of Naturalists of Levallois-Perret has, during the past fourteen
years, gathered together the material for a museum, which is open free every
Sunday except when the Association is out on an excursion. The collections,
says La Feuille des jeunes Naturalistes, comprise 5264 species of animals, 4626 of
plants, and 4929 geological specimens.

Pror. O. C. Marsa has recently transmitted from New Haven to the Director
of the U.S. Geological Survey the fourth large instalment of Vertebrate Fossils
secured in the West, in 1882-92, under his direction, as Palaeontologist of the U.S.
Geological Survey in charge of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The collection is
packed in one hundred boxes, and weighs over thirteen tons. It includes twelve
skulls and other remains of the gigantic Ceratopsia from the Cretaceous ; various
Dinocerata fossils from the Eocene ; a series of rare specimens of brontotheriwn,
Elotherium, Miohippus, and other genera, from the Miocene ; a very extensive
collection of Rhinoceros and other mammals from the Pliocene ; as well as various
interesting fossils from more recent deposits. These will all be deposited in the
National Museum of Washington.

THE Government has finally stated that it is unable under existing circum-
stances to embark upon an undertaking of such magnitude as an Antarctic Ex-
pedition. What the Government is unable to do the Royal Geographical Society
will attempt. Its Council has authorised the president to take steps to obtain
subscriptions to the amount of not less than £50,000, while the Society itself
will contribute £5000.

Laptns attending the International Congress of Zoologists at Cambridge in
the company of a member may become Associates on payment of 10s.

THE Zoological Society of London has obtained, through Hagenbeck of
Hamburg, a male giraffe, aged one year, from French Senegambia. Though at
present only eight feet high he is in good condition, and will, it is hoped, ulti- °
mately prove a fitting mate for the female giraffe that has been in the Gardens
for some years.

THE metric system of weights and measures is to be introduced officially into
Russia. The Russians are also considering how they may best abandon their Old
Style calendar for that now prevailing in the rest of the civilised world.

Ar Rueschlikon, on the Lake of Zurich, the shore for a distance of two
hundred metres has sunk into the lake, together with some uninhabited buildings
standing upon it. The damage done is considerable.

THE company established at Lubec, Maine, to extract gold from sea-water, and
alluded to in our May number, is said by the Hngineering and Mining Journal
of New York to be “simply another attempt to impose on the credulous.”

WE notice that a paragraph is going the round of the scientific press, quoting
an explanation given in the Zoologist by Mr F. R. Godfrey of Melbourne, con-
cerning the sheep-attacking habits of the Kea, Nestor notabilis of New Zealand.
We do not intend to copy this paragraph into our own pages, because, precisely
the same explanation will be found in Natural Science, vol. vill., p. 157,
March 1896.

THE Government of New South Wales has fitted out a deep-sea trawling ex-
pedition for experimental fishing off the coasts of the colony. Mr E. R. Waite
of the Australian Museum is attached as naturalist, and much valuable material,
including many new species, is finding its way to the museum.

Sir E. Brappon, Premier of Tasmania, has issued a proclamation protecting
the White-capped Albatross for five years from April last.

SEP ZS lege

NATURAL SCIENCE

A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress

No. 79—Vo.t. XIII—SEPTEMBER 1898

NOTES AND COMMENTS

‘VACCINATION

Ir is the plain duty of every scientific journal at the present crisis
in the history of vaccination, to put before its readers a clear state-
ment of the facts at issue. But it must not be forgotten that two
very distinct questions are involved: the efficacy of, vaccination is
one thing, the expediency of compulsory vaccination is another.

The efficacy of vaccination in preventing small-pox is a scientific
fact, established by evidence as clear as any in the range of our
knowledge. We do not, nowadays, pause to argue with a man who
says the earth is flat. No level-headed person with any capacity
for weighing evidence doubts that vaccination, efficiently performed,
affords an almost absolute protection against small-pox for a term
of five to ten years, according to the natural susceptibility of the
individual—that after this period the protection gradually fades,
though, in most cases, persisting in some degree throughout life—and
that it may be renewed by re-vaccination, Vaccination has been
the main agent, in this and other countries, in reducing small-pox
mortality to its present low level, and it has done so by abolishing
the excessive infant mortality from the disease which prevailed in
pre-vaccination times. Statistics show clearly enough that small-
pox mortality in any country diminishes strictly in proportion to
the extent to which vaccination is carried out. In proportion as
re-vaccination is universal, small-pox is reduced to the vanishing
point. What mortal man could do in discrediting vaccination was
done in the minority report of the recent vaccination commission,
an ingenious and plausible piece of special pleading, which was
absolutely torn to pieces by Dr M‘Vail in his paper read before the
Epidemiological Society shortly after.

We take the propositions we have mentioned above as axioms,
and we are not concerned to defend them in this place. Their
scientific basis rests on the principle that the virus of an infectious
disease may be so diminished in effect, by passage through a
relatively insusceptible animal, as to produce a mitigated form of
the affection, capable, nevertheless, of conferring protection against

L

146 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

the acute disease in its unmitigated form. The recognition of
the fact that vaccinia is merely attenuated small-pox—proved now
again and again—only brings vaccination into line with what we
know of other protective inoculations.

There is, on the other hand, a certain price to be paid for the
protection afforded by vaccination. It is the exaggeration of this
price which forms the stock-in-trade of anti-vaccinators, The con-
ceivable risks of vaccination are: (1) the constitutional disturbance
produced by even an attenuated specific disease in a weakly child ;
(2) the introduction of some other disease from the vaccinifer in
arm-to-arm vaccination; (3) the introduction of pyogenic cocci,
normally present in all lymph, and notably in calf-lymph; and (4)
the risks attending every scratch on the skin, especially when the
recipient of the scratch lives under insanitary conditions. Of the
above risks, No. 1 is already largely met by the medical postpone-
ment of vaccination in unsuitable cases: it is an infinitesimal risk,
but it exists. No, 2, as vaccino-syphilis, is the prop and stay of
every anti-vaccinator: authentic cases of this accident are on record,
though every medical man knows that the vast majority of supposed
cases are in reality examples of congenital syphilis, manifesting
itself, as it commonly does, about the time when vaccination has to
be performed—the latter serving as a convenient scape-goat for
parental sins. This risk is abolished absolutely by the proposed
use of calf lymph only. No. 3 is probably an imaginary risk: an
exhaustive study of the matter in Germany shows that the course of
vaccinia is little, if at all, influenced by the presence of pyococci.
In any case the use of glycerinated lymph will abolish what risk
exists. There is a strong presumption, based on the observations of
Klein, and later on those of Copeman, that the specific virus of
small-pox and vaccinia is a spore-bearing bacillus, It has been
shown by German observers, and in this country especially by the
elaborate researches of Copeman, that, by the admixture of vaccine
lymph with diluted glycerine, adventitious organisms are gradually
killed off—the more resistant vaccinia virus, presumably in spore
form, remaining alone, but retaining its full potency, Such glycerin-
ated lymph may already be obtained in the market, sterile to
ordinary bacteriological cultivation, and it is such lymph that the
State proposes to offer. Risk No. 4 is untouched by the present
bill: it is a question of ordinary cleanliness, Erysipelas may follow
an almost microscopic lesion of the epidermis. In practical life
we despise such risks, and we can afford to do so.

Even as matters stand under the present laws, the mortality
from vaccination is exceedingly minute. Compared with the
enormous infant mortality from small-pox in the pre-vaccination
era it is infinitesimal, With the introduction of glycerinated calf

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 147

lymph the standard objections of the anti-vaccinator are done away
with, at least to the unprejudiced mind. The duty of the State is
clearly to secure not only the primary vaccination of the largest
possible number of infants, but also the re-vaccination of the entire
population at the age when the effect of primary vaccination may
be presumed to have worn off. This is the verdict of science, and
here the functions of science cease.

How all this vaccination may best be secured is a question of
practical politics, hardly suited to the columns of a scientific journal.
We may state, however, that we can see no logical halting-place
between stringent compulsion and the repeal of the Vaccination
Acts. For stringent compulsion it may be urged that risk of small-
pox is one that affects not so much the man who refuses to have his
child vaccinated, as his child and his neighbours, and that in other
respects we do not hesitate to coerce the individual for the benefit
of the community. But it may be fairly argued, on the other hand,
that compulsion has been tried, and has failed; and that the remedy
lies in education, The “conscientious objector” conscientiously objects
in strict proportion to his ignorance and inability to weigh evidence :
he is at the mercy of the irresponsible faddist, who deluges him
with fallacious argument and ex parte statements. Were the money
necessary to secure compulsory vaccination spent in a reasonable
system of education of the masses as to the value of vaccination—a
matter now entirely neglected—it is possible that in the long run a
larger percentage of vaccinations might be secured than under the
present unsatisfactory system, or under the illogical makeshift
proposed by the present Government.

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Mr C, W, ANDREWS, of the Geological Department of the British
Museum, has returned from Christmas Island (the one south of
Java, in about 10° 8. and 105° E.) after an absence of fifteen
months, ten of which were spent on the island itself. This pro-
longed stay has enabled him to make fairly complete collections of
the flora and fauna, and also to explore and examine the structure
of nearly every part of the island, This, Mr Andrews informs us,
is very interesting from a geological point of view. It appears to
be probably a raised atoll, the central plateau of which is the old
lagoon, while the elevations which occur round this are the remains
of the islands. Coastwards the land descends in most places by a
succession of three or four cliffs, separated by terraces of varying
width. In some places these cliffs unite, forming a lofty precipice
some 500 feet in height: in these places good sections showing the
structure of the island can be seen, At Flying Fish Cove the lower
five hundred feet consist of alternations of voleanic rock and foram-

148 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

iniferal limestone, above which coral reefs occur. The whole island
is thickly covered with forest and jungle, and locomotion is very
difficult or even, in places, impossible. The soil is very rich and
full of phosphate of lime, beds of which occur on the tops of some
of the hills. There are only a few indigenous species of birds and
mammals, but these occur in great numbers, rats, particularly, being
very unpleasantly numerous.

On the coast immense numbers of frigate birds, tropic birds,
* and gannets nest in the tall trees. The first named are perhaps
the most numerous, and form the chief food-supply of the island.
There was an excellent opportunity of observing the remarkable
breeding habits of these birds. There are several species of land
crabs, including the large Birgus latro, which is very numerous over
the whole island. These crabs, like the rats, are excellent climbers,
and go high up the trees in search of food, and both are a great
nuisance to any one camping in the bush. Mr Andrew Ross has
lived on the island for some years, and has planted cocoa-nut,
bananas, papaias, and other useful plants, and the supply of food is
now abundant. Since the climate is very healthy and not too hot,
there are many worse places of residence than Christmas Island.

NOTES ON SEA-FISHERIES

THE Leport for 1897 of the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory
gives every promise of valuable results being obtained in fishery
investigations. As pointed out by Professor Herdman, the founding
of a laboratory at Piel should enable certain problems, such as those
connected with the feeding, breeding and life-history of shellfish, to
be taken in hand at once, besides giving opportunities for artificial
cultivation, should such be deemed desirable. As regards work
upon the food-fishes themselves, the pioneer work has been accom-
plished elsewhere, and such institutions as that at Piel, beginning
where others have left off, should be able to make rapid progress.
For example, if the investigations at Piel could be definitely directed
to the carrying out of a “scientific experiment which,” to quote
Professor Herdman, ‘“‘ would gauge the extent of the results of arti-
ficial hatching in a given area,” they would justify any reasonable
expense involved. This investigation might perhaps be carried out
in a simpler manner than that suggested by Professor Herdman.
Two circumscribed sea-areas, of which the average fish population is
to be determined, and ten or more years for experiments are almost
unattainable conditions. It is a question how far the importation
and cultivation of varieties from another district, the local presence
of which at later stages could be readily determined, would solve
the difficulty. At least this would be an experiment worthy of
adoption.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 149

Another question pressing for scientific solution is the condition
of the fisheries relatively to former years. There are many factors
which beset this question with difficulty, but there is no doubt that
in certain districts, for one reason or another, there has been a
diminution of the fish-supply. From Jersey, for example, comes
a plain statement by Mr Hornell upon the decadence of the local
fisheries (Nouvelle Chronique de Jersey, March 1898), This was
further borne out by the statements of Mr Renouf at the meeting of
the ‘ Etats’ and resulted in the appointment of a special committee
to consider the whole subject. In this particular instance the de-
cadence is, according to Mr Hornell, more due to local destruction
of young fish than to the more customary British scapegoat, the
trawler.

The April number of Za Piscicultwre Pratique contains the
presidential address of the ‘ Conseil supérieur de Pisciculture.” Mr
Bellesme has to repeat the old tale of science versus politics. His
indictment against those in political power is sweeping but perhaps
not undeserved. “ All their actions are subordinated to the desire
of remaining in power and of providing handsomely for their families
and for those who keep them at the top of the tree.” This is with-
out doubt, telling the truth “ franchement et sans circonlocution.”
The June number contains a very interesting article in connection
with the successful introduction of the Californian salmon. At
Vicence, the young salmon of 1895 have been reared in a lake near
the laboratory and artificial propagation from these is now about to
be attempted. Mr Beilesme, in an able paper, points out the method
of procedure which should be adopted im order to ensure success.
The same writer contributes a general account of the rearing of
larval fish.

STEAM-TRAWLING OFF JAMAICA

THE Carribean Sea Fisheries Development Syndicate, Limited, is an
imposing title. The body bearing this name was subsidised by the
Jamaica Legislative Council for 1896 to institute preliminary experi-
ments with a steam trawler in Jamaican waters. Jamaica has to
draw very largely upon Canada and the United States for its fish-
supply, and it was thought that the adoption of the latest methods
of steam trawling in the local waters might be attended with success
in the way of profit to those pursuing the industry and of gain to
the community of the island. To this end the steam trawler “ Capri-
cornus,” from the Iceland Fisheries, equipped with well, otter-trawl,
and a Grimsby crew was chartered and worked through the district
for nearly three months. The record of the log demonstrates pretty
clearly that the method of steam trawling is impracticable for this
area. The customary ending to each haul appears to have been a
torn net, and the actual number of fish caught seems to have been

150 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

very small. These results are due, on the one hand, to the luxuriant
growth of corals, and on the other hand, to the actual scarcity of the
bottom flat-fish or pleuronectids, which with the allied gadoids form
the most important elements of our northern fisheries.

The scientific results are of some value. It is to be noted that
in many cases in which the lead indicated a sandy bottom, the trawl
showed the presence of dense masses of coral, a fact which should be
noted by coral-reef theorists. Mr J. E. Duerden, of the Jamaica
Museum, gives an able summary of the fauna. Sergia, an actino-zoan
commensal with a sponge, was re-discovered, and sponges and alcyon-
arians were found in great abundance. ‘The edible fishes were not
abundant, either in actual quantity or in number of species. Jesoprion,
Ocyurus, Haemulon, and Serranus appear to be the most important. »

Apparently the local supply in Jamaican waters will in future,
as heretofore, have to depend upon the use of lines and drift-nets.

ASCIDIANS AND BIPOLARITY

We have more than once directed attention to striking cases of
distribution, indicating some connection between the North Pacific
and North Atlantic. Now comes Professor Herdman (77rans. Liver-
pool Biol. Soc., xii., pp. 248-267, pls. xi.-xiv., June 1898) and draws
up lists of closely-allied species of ascidians from Puget Sound and
our own N, Atlantic coasts; similar series are, he says, shown in
a subsequent paper on the Crustacea by Mr A. O. Walker. “ This,
taken along with the similarity between the two faunas shown in
other groups, suggests the possibility that there is a common
northern circum-polar marine fauna which sends extensions south-
wards on the western coasts of Europe and America.”

Such a conception is of course opposed to the well-known hypo-
thesis of Sir John Murray that the marine faunas towards the poles
are genetically more closely related to each other than to any inter-
vening fauna. Sir John has supported this ‘bipolar’ hypothesis
by quotations from the reports of some of the specialists who
described the “ Challenger” collections. It has struck us that this
somewhat crude lumping of the conclusions of many minds, ex-
pressed originally with very different ends in view, could lead to
no secure result, and we are by no means surprised to find Mr
Herdman commenting as follows :—*I do not know how it may be
with other authors quoted, but in my case the series of short
extracts given from my report require to be expanded and explained,
and are then seen not to give Dr Murray’s view the support which
he supposes. My remarks, on p. 265 of the Report, which he
quotes, refer only, it may be stated, to ‘Challenger’ species.
In the genus Styela, for example, there are plenty of species
known from the tropics. Dr Sluiter has described about fifteen

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS Loe

species from the island of Billiton, between Singapore and Java.
I consider that the distribution of Tunicata as a whole does not
lend any support to the bipolar hypothesis. On account of the
admitted want of equivalence between the characters made use of in
specific and generic diagnosis in the different groups mere lists may
be deceptive, especially if drawn up and correlated by one man, who
cannot possibly be a specialist on all groups of marine invertebrata.
For that reason I now abstain from expressing any opinion except
in regard to the group of which I have a more intimate knowledge.
It seems to me that this matter must be settled by specialists in
each group of animals stating their opinions as to the genetic
affinities of the northern and southern faunas in their own groups
quite apart from and uninfluenced by general lists containing other
groups. The Tunicata instanced by Dr Murray, both in his ‘ Chal-
lenger Summary’ and in his paper on the ‘ Marine Fauna of the
Kerguelen Region, help to swell lists that assume rather imposing
dimensions, but when I examine the case of these species and genera
of Tunicata individually, I find that the records of occurrence have
to be added to or modified in such a way as to entirely change the
nature of their evidence, and show that there is no such close
resemblance between the northern and southern polar faunas as
Dr Murray and others have supposed.”

DrEPp ATLANTIC HOLOTHURIANS

ANOTHER instance of similarity between N. Atlantic and Pacific
forms was recently noted by Mr Rémy Perrier in his description
of the deep-sea holothurians, Elasipoda, dredged by the “ Travail-
leur” and the “Talisman” (Comptes rendus Acad. Sci., Paris, ¢xxiii.,
pp. 900-903, Nov. 1896). He describes Psychropotes buglossa as
being a near ally of P. varipes Ludwig, which latter was dredged by
the “ Albatross” north-west of Cape San Francisco at 1573 fathoms.
Unfortunately Mr Perrier does not give either localities or depths of
his new species, nor does he figure them ; this is too much to expect
in a Preliminary Notice. The chief interest of his paper lies in the
rearrangement of the species of Peniagone and Scotoplana according
to the nature of the calcareous spicules, and the establishment on
the same grounds of a new genus Periamna with triradiate spicules,
and having as genotype the Peniagone naresi of Théel.

BIPOLARITY WITH A VENGEANCE

WE are indebted to Mr Henry Campion of Birmingham for a copy
of a 48-page treatise— “The Secret of the Poles” (White &
Pike, price 1s.). Mr Campion recognises the impossibility of man
ever reaching either pole; at the same time he appreciates the great
importance that such an investigation would have, and does his

152 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

best to repair the deficiency by a bold appeal to “the possibilities
of creation.” The result is “frightfully thrilling.” We give a few

of the author’s statements, “Inside the earth is a hollow region
large enough to hide the moon and to spare.” “The earth’s axis has
two openings, one at either Poles (sic).” “Metoric swarms and

ether are attracted through the axis, as food. One supports the
other. The earth does not lose weight but adds to it. Internal
combustion.” All winds and tempests originate at and from the
Antarctic pole.” “The moon has not yet emerged into adult life.
She will do so before long,” and it will be “a startling epoch in our
history.” ‘The heavenly bodies will increase in number, like
nebulae, and produce larger bodies.” The pamphlet is furnished
with a marvellous diagram of the earth in space. We may safely
endorse the author’s own judgment on his work, that, “ whatever its
defects, and they are many, it cannot be said it is wanting in
novelty, for from the first page to the last the interest is fully kept

up.
| THE AGE OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA

A RELIABLE account of the geology of Panama has long been one of
the greatest of geological desiderata, for, in spite of the surveys for
railway and canal, and the repeated traverses of the pass of Panama,
it has been very difficult to obtain any satisfactory information as to
the last date at which marine deposits were laid down upon the
summit of the isthmus. Maack’s observations have been repeatedly
quoted as proving that Pleistocene marine shells oceurred on the
watershed, and that therefore there was a free waterway across the
isthmus in recent times. This view was supported by the zoo-
logists, who, impressed by the general resemblance between the
faunas on the two sides of the isthmus, concluded that this could
only be explained by a recent direct communication between the
two seas. Other workers, however, after a more detailed study of
larger collections, have concluded that, in spite of the generic re-
semblances, the species of the Carribbean and Pacific are almost
entirely different, and that therefore the two oceans have been
separated for a considerable period. All students of West Indian
geology will therefore be very grateful to Professor Alexander
Agassiz, who sent Professor R. T. Hill to Panama to settle
this question by direct evidence, so that we are no longer dependent
on the inferential methods that hitherto have been only available.
Professor Hill’s report has been issued as one of the Budletins of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology (vol. xxviii., No. 5), It is entitled,
“The Geological History of the Isthmus of Panama and portions
of Costa Rica; based upon a Reconnaissance made for Alexander
Agassiz.” The report is accompanied by contributions from Dr
Dall, Mr T. W. Vaughan, Mr R. M. Bagg, and others, and is illus-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 153

trated by nineteen admirable plates. Professor Hill’s work now
conclusively demonstrates that there has been no connection across
the Isthmus of Panama since the Oligocene period, and that there
has not been any very extensive submergence in post-Jurassic times.
The connection between the Carribbean and the Pacific must be
restricted to a very limited connection in the Eocene and Oligocene
epochs. All the interesting theories which explain English glacia-
tion by a Pleistocene submergence of the Panama, and consequent
diversion of the Gulf Stream, may therefore be finally dismissed as
apocryphal.
MIGRATION AND HOoMOTAXIS ©

GEOLOGISTS know well enough that identity of species in widely
separated fossil faunas does not imply identity of age, since time
must be allowed for the species to have migrated from one locality
to the other. It therefore becomes important to know the actual
rate of migration of marine species at the present day, Opportuni-
ties of observation are not often presented. One occurred when the
Suez Canal put the waters of the Mediterranean into communication
with the Red Sea. Another began on Feb, 3, 1825, when the
Limfjord Denmark, up till then a fresh-water lake, became con-
nected with the North Sea and its fauna began to change. A
study of the immigrant animals was published by J. Collin at Copen-
hagen in 1884, and a notice of more recent changes has recently
been contributed by Th. Mortensen to Videnskabelige Meddelelser
(1897, pp. 311-319). Since 1884 the following species are known
to have entered the Limfjord: Raia batis, Actaeon tornatilis,
Clavellina lepadiformis, Portunus arcuatus, Cribrella sanguinolenta,
Ophioglypha albida, and Echinocardium cordatum. But even yet the
fauna is not assimilated to that of the adjoining sea; many echino-
derms have yet to find their way in, such as the sand-stars
Amphiura filiformis, Ophiopholis aculeata, and Ophiothrizx fragilis,
We may expect too that some seventy species of molluscs will enter
before long, for long ago when the Limfjord was an arm of the sea,
and not yet a fresh-water lake, many of these species lived in it and
their shells are found along its margin. In the history of the earth
a century is but “a watch in the night”; nevertheless the time
needed for a species to pass as it were into the next street may
suggest to the geologist how long a similar form must have taken
to traverse the width of an ocean.

STUDIES IN AUXOLOGY

THE growth of marine animals is a study attended with difficulty,
since thorough observation of individuals is only possible in an
aquarium, and there the conditions are inevitably unnatural. Dr
C. G. J. Petersen, the director of the Danish Biological Station, has

154 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

shown that it is possible to estimate age by tabulating the measure-
ments of a large number of individuals of the same species taken
together. The numbers fall into groups, or are concentrated about
nodes, each of which would therefore appear to represent the growth
of one year. Dr Petersen himself has applied this method to
fishes, but it may be used for some invertebrates, as recently shown
by Dr Th. Mortensen (Videnskabelige Meddelelser, 1897, pp. 319-
322). “Some invertebrates” we say, since Asterias rubens, Hchinus
miliaris, Corbula gibba, Nucula nitida, and Carcinas maenas resisted
all Dr Mortensen’s efforts to discover annual groupings. But he
was able to show that Solen pellucidus reached its full length of
23-28 mm. in two years, while those aged one year had a length of
13-17 mm. Similarly Ophioglypha texturata of one year old had
discs of 3-4 mm. diameter and arms 8-10 mm. long, while those
of two years old had dises of 7-11 mm. and arms of 20-32 mm.,
and had reached sexual maturity but not yet done growing.

Here we have a field of observation open to any sea-side
naturalist In want of work, and open also to collectors of fossils,
who might perhaps be able in this way to throw some light on the
number of years required for the formation of any given band of
fossiliferous rock.

AN EVOLVING SPECIES

OveER and over again has it been objected to the theory of evolution
of species that no zoologist or botanist has been able to point to the
actual origin of a new species. Considering that the world has
existed many millions of years, and that men have studied species
for scarcely a century and a-half, the objection seems, on the face of
it, unreasonable. And yet it has been met more than once. Here
is one more instance of what may fairly be described as an evolving
species, an instance which has the additional merit of furnishing
time-data.

On the north side of Dublin Bay is a tract of sand-hills known
as the North Bull, which owes its origin to the alterations caused
by the Dublin Harbour works, and certainly has not existed for
more than 108 years. This is inhabited now by a numerous
race of mice, agreeing in general form and in dimensions with Mus
musculus, but for the most part of a buff or yellowish-white tint,
and differing further from the norm of the species in that they
make burrows in the sand and construct nests at the bottom of
them. This race has been described in admirable detail by Mr H.
Lyster Jameson in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoology, vol.
Xxvi, pp. 465-473, pl. xxx., 1898). He comes to the conclusion
that the colour, which closely resembles that of the sand-hills, is a
protective adaptation due to the fact that the short-eared owls and
hawks which frequent the North Bull pick out the darker mice,

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 155

which, of course, are the ones more readily seen. Isolation also he
regards as an important factor in intensifying the effects of com-
petition ; “the absence of direct communication with the mainland,
and the consequent impossibility of frequent immigrations of dusky
specimens from the houses on the adjoining shore, have allowed
Natural Selection to carry on its weeding-out of unfavourable
variations without disturbances of any kind.”

There can be very little doubt that we have here a distinct race
that has been evolved during the present century. Mr Jameson
gives it no name, not even a sub-specific name, although it is at
least as distinct from the species-norm as many named sub-species
of Mus musculus. We think he is wise, for if the fashion of giving
a name to every local race, confined perhaps to a few square miles
as here, is to spread, we do not see where bounds are to be set. It
is no absurd supposition that there may be many hundred such local
races now in existence, each of absolutely independent origin, and
yet not to be separated upon internal evidence. The fact is one to
emphasise and to remember, but the multiplication of names is no
great help. .

With regard to the plate we would suggest that an actual
rendering of the various colour-tints in separate squares would have
been more to the point than this attempt at realism, with its dirty
sand and impossible grass.

THE RoyaAL BOHEMIAN MusEuUM, PRAGUE

WE have frequently referred to the remarkable progress of the
Natural History Collections in Prague since they were removed to
the new Royal Bohemian Museum. We have now before us the
official Bericht of the Museum for the year 1897. Notwithstanding
limited means and many discouragements, the enthusiasm of the
director and his staff continues to overcome all difficulties; and
those who know the collection will agree with us when we say that
for convenience of arrangement and excellence of labelling it is now
one of the foremost in Europe. The cases and fittings naturally
lack the elegance and ornamental character of those in the larger
and more richly-endowed institutions elsewhere; but so far as the
original investigator is concerned, they are all admirably arranged for
ready reference, while to the general scientific public they cannot
fail to impart such elementary instruction as they desire. When
funds fail for the purposes of this arrangement, Dr Anton Fritsch,
the distinguished director, himself provides the means, and during
the past year he has made a donation of 1000 florins towards the
installation of the palaeontological collection. That the Bohemian
public appreciate his efforts may be inferred from the circumstance
that no less than 78,149 persons visited the museum during 1897 ;

156 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

while the list of original investigators who used the collections for
research includes well-known names of several nationalities.

Among the local acquisitions during the year, one of the most
remarkable is a hedgehog (£rinaceus ewropaeus), of which Dr Fritsch
has published the sketch reproduced in Plate II. In this specimen
there are none of the characteristic spines, the whole body being
clothed instead with normal hair. Spines, of course, are only highly
modified hairs, and this individual is doubtless to be regarded as
an example of atavism, one in which the dermal appendages have
reverted to their original condition.

Most of the acquisitions are, naturally, Bohemian or are im-
portant for comparison with specimens found in the country; for
the Museum not only stores collections, but is also the central office
for the geological and biological exploration of the kingdom.
During 1897 Dr Potta completed the eighth volume of Barrande’s
well-known “Systeme Silurien de la Bohéme”; Dr Fritsch studied
fossil myriapods for his work on the Bohemian gas-coal, and made
important geological observations on the Cretaceous rocks; Drs
Fritsch and Vavra continued those researches among the organisms
of the freshwater lakes of Bohemia, to which we have previously
alluded ; and the botanists made considerable progress in investigat-
ing the local flora, Dr Schiffner paying special attention to the
mosses. . The Barrande Fund was employed by Dr Perner in con-
tinuing his work upon graptolites.

We congratulate our Bohemian colleagues upon their work, and
wish them the continued success they so well deserve.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

(JEOLOGISTS are indebted to the Director-General of the Geological
Survey for one of the most interesting and valuable publications of
‘the year. He has decided for the future to issue an annual Sum-
mary of Progress, containing not merely the bare blue-book statistics
but also a general readable account of the work of the Survey and
its bearing upon previous knowledge. He makes a beginning in the
Summary for 1897 now before us, which is a well-printed booklet
of 176 pages and three index-maps, to be purchased through any
bookseller for the small sum of one shilling. We commend it to
the notice not only of those interested in our own country, but also
to geologists in general who, whatever may be their special studies,
are sure to find much of value in it.

This being the first publication of the kind issued by the
Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, Sir Archibald Geikie has
done well to preface the Summary by an introduction regarding the
history and organisation of his department. This introduction
occupies 30 pages, and traces the progress of the Survey from its

1398] NOTES AND COMMENTS 157

inception by De la Beche in 1835 to its organisation at the present
day. Some technical details as to the staff and field-work during
1897 next follow; and then the new results are summarised in
readable form under the respective geological formations, taking
them in order from the oldest to the newest. It is difficult to make
an adequate abstract of this summary, and it must thus suffice to
enumerate a few noteworthy points. Petrologists will find much
important new matter in the description of the old rocks of the
Scottish Highlands, while stratigraphical geologists will probably
turn with greatest interest to the account of the Scottish Silurian
formations, in which an entirely new fossil fish-fauna has been dis-
covered. The recognition of Upper Carboniferous strata in the Isle
of Arran is also important, although no workable coal-seams have
yet been found. In Mesozoic geology there is little to record, but
the memoir on the Upper Cretaceous formations is evidently making
good progress. In Pleistocene geology there is a wealth of new
observations, which students of the glacial period will truly welcome.

NEW SILURIAN FISHES

THE discovery of Scottish Upper Silurian Fishes mentioned above is
briefly reported upon by Dr Traquair, and when fully investigated is
likely to prove one of the most important contributions to Biology
of recent years. Among these fossils there seems to be clear evi-
dence of a new group of the fish-like organisms now commonly
known as Ostracodermi. The new forms are indeed likely to afford
important additional information as to the affinities of this problema-
tical group, which has hitherto been best known to us by Pteraspis,
Cephalaspis, and Pterichthys. Still more important, however, are
nearly complete skeletons of the primitive fore-runners of the sharks.
It has long been suspected, on theoretical grounds, that the paired
fins of fishes were originally continuous lateral folds of skin sup- °
ported by parallel bars of cartilage. A few years ago some approach
to this condition was observed in the American Lower Carboniferous
shark, Cladoselache. It now appears, from Dr Traquair’s brief notes,
that still more important examples of the same arrangement are to
be observed in the Upper Silurian genera, exactly where the primi-
tive disposition of parts ought to be found according to theory.
Biologists, will anxiously await the completed memoir on these
remarkable new organisms.

EXTINCT RHINOCEROSES

THE rhinoceroses are typically Old World animals at the present
day, and for many years the discoveries of fossil forms seemed to
show that they had always been so. It soon became evident from
fossils that the rhinoceroses could be gradually traced back both in

158 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

Europe and Asia to hornless ancestors in the Miocene period. It
was thus clear that they had passed through at least the latest
stages of their evolution in these regions. In 1850, however,
Professor Leidy first found a fragment of a rhinoceros in the
Miocene of North America; and since that time so many remains—
including several nearly complete skeletons—have been found in
the United States, that these great quadrupeds are now proved
to have been at least as abundant in North America as in Europe
and Asia, during the Miocene and Pliocene divisions of the
Tertiary period. It is true, indeed, that in North America the
rhinoceroses never acquired a typical horn, while they became
extinct before the close of the Pliocene period; but they attained
a truly remarkable development, and we now know more of the
characters of the family from the discoveries made in North
America than from those in Europe and India.

Professor H. F. Osborn, the well-known Curator of Vertebrate
Palaeontology in the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, has just begun to summarise our present knowledge of these
extinct New World rhinoceroses in the first part of a beautifully
illustrated quarto Memoir issued by the American Museum (vol. i.,
pt. 3, 1898, pp. 75-164, pls. xiia,-xx., April 22,1898), It appears
that three distinct groups can now be recognised, adapted for differ-
ent modes of life. Firstly, there were the Upland or Cursorial
Rhinoceroses, such as Hyracodon, all agile, slenderly-built animals,
with three toes, somewhat simulating the three-toed Miocene horses
with which they were associated. Secondly, there were the Aquatic
Rhinoceroses, such as Metamynodon, with great tusks, simulating the
modern hippopotamus of Africa. These were short, heavy animals,
with four-toed spreading feet, and probably a prehensile lip. Thirdly,
there were the True or Lowland Rhinoceroses, very abundant and
doubtless similar in habit to their surviving congeners in Asia and
Africa at the present day, though, as already remarked, destitute of
the characteristic horn. These three groups were differentiated in
North America before the close of the Eocene period, and there is
already some fragmentary evidence of a similar differentiation in
Europe, though the materials as yet available for discussion are too
imperfect to be conclusive,

The present instalment of Professor Osborn’s Meinoir discusses
the morphology of the teeth and skull of the Rhinocerotoidea, tracing
the gradual divergence of the three types, occasionally obscured by
parallelisms and convergences. The true rhinoceroses, Rhinocero-
tidae, are then discussed from the points of view of habits, geological
history, and morphology, while the section ends with a preliminary
bibliography that will be of much value to students. Then follows
a detailed account of the hornless rhinoceroses, Aceratheres, collected

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 159

by the expeditions of the American Museum under Dr J, L. Wort-
man, during 1892 and 1894, from the Oligocene White River Beds
of Nebraska and Dakota, These present a very large and perfect
series of skulls, many of them associated with fairly complete
skeletons,

Future parts of the monograph will deal with the Aceratheres
of the American Miocene; the Aceratheres and Rhinoceroses of
Europe in comparison with those of America, skeletal characters of
American Aceratheres, and final classification of the Rhinocerotidae ;
the Amynodontidae; and finally the Hyracodontidae. Professor
Osborn states that it is his one single purpose “ to establish a sound
philosophical basis for the morphology of the Rhinoceroses, derived
from their primitive, parallel, and divergent characters, and leading
toward the discovery of their origin, phylogeny, and distribution.”
If the remaining parts of his Memoir are like that now before us, he
is fairly assured of success.

On CYCLAMEN

THE well-known genus Cyclamen is the subject of an exhaustive
memoir by Dr Friedrich Hildebrand of Freiburg, which has- been
recently published by Fischer of Jena. The thirteen species are
almost confined to the Mediterranean region, spreading northwards
only as far as southern Germany, and eastwards to the Caucasus.
Cyclamen is a good example of adaptation to the climatic conditions
prevailing in the district in question. A season of luxuriant growth
alternates with a season of rest, but the determining factor is not,
as in higher latitudes, the appearance or disappearance of continued
frosts, but variation in the amount of moisture. Hence the most
striking characteristic of this plant is the great tuber, which, like the
bulb of the lily or the corm of the crocus, enables it to remain alive
during the dry season, It is interesting to note that an important
systematic character resides in this highly adapted structure, since in
some species the tuber protects its contents by a corky layer, in others
by a felt-like covering of hair, Its early development again is of
great interest. The nourishment stored in a seed is generally used
up on germination in the production of one or more green leaves, the
assimilating organs, by aid of which the seedling becomes an inde-
pendent organism. Cyclamen, however, has become so impressed
with the importance of forming a tuber, that it starts even before
the unfolding of the first leaf, which means that some of the reserve
nourishment stored in the seed is not used to make leaf-tissue, but
is passed down the leaf-stalk to form a new reservoir in the short
stem just above the young root.

There has been much argument as to the cotyledons of Cyclamen.
As a member of the primrose family, and, therefore, a dicotyledon, it

160 NATURAL SCIENCE _ - [September 1898

should have an opposite pair of seed-leaves. Gaertner, who first drew
attention to this seedling, considered that the first leaf, to which we
have referred, and which grows to a large foliage leaf, is the only
cotyledon. Other botanists have taken the same view, while some
maintain that a second cotyledon is developed later. Dr Hildebrand
does not consider the nomenclature of these early-developed leaves a
matter of importance, but carefully describes what happens. The
development of the second leaf, presumably the second cotyledon, may
be accelerated by removing the first. The author has had the inesti-
mable advantage of observing the life-history of the species from seed
to seed, and has been able to make many useful observations which
would have been impossible if dried material only had been avail-
able. Among others we note an interesting correlation between the
duration, or time of appearing, of the leaves and the length of the
dormant period before the expiration of which this seed will not
germinate. ;

The section on variation should be read by all who are interested
in this subject, as bearing on the relation between variation and a
changing environment.

The value of Dr Hildebrand’s memoir is enhanced ‘by half-a-
dozen clear, double-paged plates, containing numerous figures.

THE FEMALE OF HETEROGYNA

THE recently published part 2 of the Transactions of the Entomo-
logical Society for the current year contains (pp. 141-150) another
of Dr T. A. Chapman’s valuable papers on the life-history of Lepi-
doptera. He describes the transformations of the South European
Heterogyna penella—a small dusky moth with wingless female, often
associated with the Psychidae which it resembles, but from its early
stages apparently nearer to the Zygaenidae. The vermiform female
imago remains attached to the ventral face of the pupa skin. She
emerges from her cocoon for pairing, but withdraws into it again
after fertilization, becoming replaced exactly in her former position
in the pupa as before emergence. Oviposition then begins, and the
pupa skin becomes largely filled with eggs, the shrivelled body ot
the female stopping up the aperture and protecting the eggs against
drying up, as well as against insect parasites. Dr Chapman believes
that the object of the return of the female into the pupa skin is to
ensure this protection for the eggs. And maternal self-sacrifice is
carried yet further, for the young caterpillars’ first meal is on the
remains of their parent. This concluded, they bore through the
pupa skin and take to their food-plant.

591.9(729.2) 161

I
Zoological Jamaica

HE last day of April 1896 found the Marine Laboratory of the
Johns Hopkins University settled at Port Henderson, Jamaica.
From the porch of the little cottage we occupied, one looks straight
up Kingston harbour, where, seven miles away, lies the commercial
capital of the island. Beyond the city rises Long Mountain, behind
which the Port Royal hills show green and rugged; and, forming a
background to the whole picture, tower the lofty Blue Mountains,
with the Peak capping all. At early morning when the dawn
comes up from behind that range, or late in the afternoon when the
setting sun lights up with endless variety the ravines and gorges of
the Port Royal hills, the scene passes description, and we constantly
assured each other that a lovelier spot could not be found. Back
of the cottage, the Salt Pond hills, surmounted by Rodney’s lookout,
separate us from the large salt-ponds, which he a few miles down
the coast.

The district around Port Henderson is one of the driest in
Jamaica, and cacti form one of the most striking features of the
landscape. These dry hills have a characteristic fauna, consisting
largely of birds and lizards. The latter are very abundant, of half
a dozen species, nearly all of which are handsomely coloured. At
least two of them lay their eggs in the angles of the stem of the
large cacti, called ‘ dildoes, where they are safely protected by the
thick, sharp thorns. Hermit-crabs and the large white land-crab
are also abundant on these hills, and scorpions and centipedes are
common under the rocks and logs. The white ants or termites are
very common in the neighbourhood of Port Henderson and their
large brown ‘nests’ are to be seen on all sides, These latter are
excellent material, when dry, for a smudge to drive away mosquitoes,
which are not wholly absent, though they seldom become much of a
nuisance.

Although bats are occasionally seen at dusk and may be found
in the caves during the day, the only common mammal, so far as
our observations went, was the mongoose, which we often saw very
near the house. The most interesting bird is a mocking-bird,
peculiar to Jamaica, and said to occur at no other point on the
island. The night-hawk, called by the natives ‘Gie-me-a-bit’ from

M

162 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

its very characteristic note, is common here, and occasionally the
big black swift is seen near the summit of the hills. The ground-
dove is very abundant and two or three other doves are common in
the woods, so that their plaintive ‘cooing’ may be heard at almost
any hour of the day. Swarms of cave-swallows breed in the
numerous caves along the shore, their nests and eggs being very
much like those of our common American barn-swallow.

The part of the harbour close to Port Henderson does not offer
very good conditions for marine collecting, but some particular forms
are abundant. The muddy and sandy bottom is literally carpeted
with the commonest sea-urchin, Joxopneustes, and a black holothurian
occurs in some numbers. The rocky shores are the homes of
countless chitons of several species, and of a very lively crab,
Grapsus, while a few species of gastropods are represented by
numerous individuals. On the north shore of the harbour, which
is sandy and slopes gradually into deep water, the huge star-fish,
Pentaceros, which is so often seen as a curio in this country, is quite
common, while large specimens of the shield-urchin, Clypeaster, called
“sea-moon’ by the coloured boys, are occasionally met with.

Separated from the harbour proper by a narrow strip of sandy
soil, there lies to the north quite an extent of shallow, somewhat
stagnant, and near the mouth of the Rio Cobre at least, brackish water,
in part filled up with mangroves. This is known as the ‘Slashes.’
The bottom here is stinking mud, and almost the only forms of
animal life we found in the water were crab-larvae in countless
quantities. Curiously enough it was in such a place that the late
Dr F. 8S. Conant discovered great quantities of a small and exceed-
ingly graceful Cubomedusa, which he has named 7ripedalia. They
were common among the mangrove-roots in water less than two
feet deep, and they were not found anywhere outside of the
‘Slashes.’ The clumps and islands of mangroves are the homes
of several species of herons and rails, the former called ‘gaulins,
the latter ‘mangrove-hens.’ These swamps are rich collecting-
grounds for the ornithologist, and, in the spring, for the oologist
as well.

Directly across the entrance of the harbour from Port Hender-
son, and a couple of miles away, lies the long low sand-spit, on the
end of which stands the historic town of Port Royal. On the har-
bour side of this sand-spit are extensive clusters and islands of
mangroves, among which are beautiful little bodies of water, con-
nected by natural or artificial channels known as the ‘ Lakes.’ The
water in the Lakes is from two to twenty feet deep, and the bottom
is usually more or less clear sand. On the roots of the mangroves,
which hang down into the water on all sides, there is an abundant
growth of sea-weed, with which are mingled oysters, ascidians,

1898] ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 163

sponges, and the like. No other spot that we visited in Jamaica
could compare with the Lakes for abundance and variety of marine
life. The sea-weed on the mangrove-roots is literally swarming
with animals, and a single root would furnish profitable entertain-
ment for hours. The sponges are of all colours and shades from
black to white, red, green, blue and purple being the most striking.
The oysters are small but abundant, and are said to be good eating.
Beautifully coloured planarians and nudibranch molluscs are numer-
-ous both in species and individuals. One of the most interesting
inhabitants of these colonies is a viviparous Synapta, which is abun-
dant in certain parts of the Lakes. On dead mangrove-roots, where
there is little or no sea-weed, one often finds large masses of an
orange-red ascidian, which is one of the most noticeable objects to
be seen. A large tubicolous annelid, Sabella, sometimes called
locally a ‘sea-hen, is quite common, and is conspicuous on account
of its large, brown and white tentacle-gills. Numerous crabs are
found among the mangrove and in the sea-weed, and they form one
of the most fascinating groups in the fauna of Jamaica. Over 100
species have been recorded from the island, and they differ so re-
markably in size, shape, colour and conformity to their surround-
ings that there seems no limit to their diversity. Indeed, curious
novelties in the crab line were sure to turn up on every collecting
trip. We often found small fishes tangled up with the sea-weed
when we lifted roots out of the water, and in this way we captured
several specimens of the curious and graceful little sea-horse, Hippo-
campus. On the bottom of the Lakes the commonest animals are
echinoderms, but one curious discomedusa, Cassiopea, is often found
there, which, as it rests on the sand with its oral tentacles up, bears
such a striking resemblance to a head of cauliflower that it is hard
to believe it is not a vegetable growth. Several species of star-fish
occur, the most striking of which are a bright red Hcehinaster and the
large nine-armed Luidia. Two other species of Luidia occur, and
one or two species of Astropecten are common. Ophiurids are
represented by only a single species, and that a very small one, and
sea-urchins are not very common. But holothurians abound, and
are very noticeable. A few of these belong to the genus Miilleria,
many more to Holothuria, but the great bulk of them to Stichopus.
The latter show the most extraordinary variation in colour and
form, so that the determination of species becomes a difficult matter.
Large tectibranch molluscs, Aplysiae of several species, also occur in
the Lakes, but they are not very common. They excrete a purple
fluid into the water when they are irritated or disturbed. Sea-
anemones are abundant and of several species; one genus, Buno-
diopsis, is rather small, and covers the eel-grass in certain places
with greyish-white patches. A large black ascidian is very common,

164 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

and forms quite a striking contrast to the white sand. Several
species of fish occur, of which the mullet and the pickerel-like bara-
cuda are the most sought after for food. Specimens of the curious,
almost triangular trunk-fish are easily taken with a dip-net, in
the shallow channels between the ‘ Lakes. The remarkable fish,
Fierasfer, was often found in the respiratory-trees of the large holo-
thurians, especially Miilleria, and would only come out into the bucket
or aquarium when the water became very impure,

Outside of the harbour, and several miles from Port Henderson,
are a number of scattered islets known as the Cays. The largest of
these are more or less overgrown with mangroves and other shrubs,
but some of them are entirely bare of vegetation, They are all
surrounded by reefs of coral, which are a source of unfailing interest
to the zoologist. The variety in shape, colour and structure of the
corals is delightful, from the massive brain-corals to the delicate
teather-like alcyonarians. Inside the reefs are banks of sand,
covered in most places by very shallow water, and overgrown in
some spots with eel-grass. All over these sand-flats are slabs of
broken coral-rock, on and under which are a great number of animals
of different groups, This sort of ground makes very good collecting,
Drunkenman Cay offering especial attractions. Balanoglossus of large
size and of two or more species occurs there; and digging in the sand
also brought to light several species of annelids, a small Synapta and
a Thallasema-like echiurid, Nemerteans, planarians and sipuncu-
lids occur on or in almost every piece of coral, while sea-anemones
abound not only among the crevices of the rock but in the sand also,
Several specimens of a small octopus were seen, but they did not
appear to be very common. The huge Synapta lappa lives under
the slabs of coral, but it is not as common there as we found it to
be afterwards at Port Antonio, Several other holothurians are
common, including a very pretty brown and yellow Stichopus,
Star-fishes of the genus Asterina are common, and show very remark-
able differences in colour. They live closely attached to the under-
side of the rocks, and easily escape detection, Sea-urchins are
represented by several species, the two largest being especially
common, One of these, Diadema, is almost black, and has spines
six or eight inches long, while the other, Hipponoé, is white with
very short spines. The latter is sometimes eaten by the natives,
and, as a matter of curiosity, we had our cook prepare some for us;
but our curiosity was soon and effectively satisfied, and sea-urchins
did not appear on our bill-of-fare again, Ophiurids occur under
every piece of coral, and doubtless a great many species might be
obtained by careful-collecting. The most noticeable form is a large
Ophiocoma, almost black, often marked with grey or white, and with
numerous short blunt spines on the arms, Two large and very

$898]: < ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 165

curious species of lobster occur in the deep water outside the reefs,
and though they differ much from each other, they are equally
different from our American species. One is very slender and
graceful with very long antennae, while the other is short, thickset
and clumsy with very short antennae. Neither species has large
chelae on the first pair of feet. The Cays are the resorts of numer-
ous sea-birds, especially terms of several species which breed there.
The graceful and handsome man-of-war bird is common around
Kingston harbour, and roosts on the Cays, as does the brown pelican,
which is quite common. One does not easily tire of watching peli-
cans fishing, so unerring is their aim, and so remarkable the force
with which’ they strike the water.

Almost due west from Drunkenman Cay, the shore of Jamaica
is a low beach of white sand upon which Spirula shells may be
gathered at any time. Just back of this beach lie a series of three
salt ponds, which must have been connected with, and probably
were a part of the ocean until quite recently. The strip of land
which at the present time separates the first and largest one from
the ocean has increased in width very perceptibly in the last three
years. The water seems to be much more densely saline in these
ponds than in the sea, and animal life is far from abundant,
presumably on that account. Gastropod shells oceur in great
numbers, but we found very few living specimens, and almost the
only other animal seen was the large medusa, already mentioned,
Cassiopea, of which a few small specimens were observed. Croco-
diles and fish are said to be abundant, but we saw only one or two
of the former and very few of the latter. One of the fish, known
locally as ‘Calipeerer, is highly spoken of as a food-fish, being
compared to salmon. We were told that this fish is found nowhere
else in the island, that it is marketed in Spanishtown in the spring
only, and that no other fish in Jamaica approaches it in quality.
Unfortunately we could not verify these statements, as we were
unable to get either sight or taste of this remarkable ‘ calipeerer.’

Inside Kingston harbour the surface-collecting offers a good
deal that is of interest. Several large medusae (Aurelia, Cyanea),
are quite common, while on calm mornings the very graceful
cubomedusa Charybdea is not rare. We only noted one species
of ctenophore, but that is a large and- beautiful form, and is quite
abundant. Two or three species of Sagitta are very common, and
the curious decapod, Lucifer, fairly so. Crustacean larvae were
abundant, but we found echinoderm larvae very rare, no matter
when or where we towed. And this seems more remarkable when
one considers that echinoderms are so abundant, and that many
of the species were breeding; and, furthermore, echinoderm larvae
were very abundant at the same place in 1891. Dredging gave

166 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

us very little satisfaction that summer, as the only specimens we
obtained, which were not collected along shore at other times, were
a small holothurian and a large spatangoid. The former was
dredged off Port Henderson and proves to be an interesting and
probably new species of Holothuria. The latter, Meoma, were
dredged outside the reef at Drunkenman Cay, and were almost the
only animals which the dredge brought up from the clear sandy
bottom. In the lakes and in the slashes, very little animal life
was brought to light, while in the harbour proper the dredge soon
elogged with the enormous quantities of Toxopneustes.

From Port Henderson we made collecting trips to different
places, two of which are worthy of special mention. The first of
these was on the last day of May, and had Montego Bay and the
Bogue Islands as its objective point. Aside from the opportunity
to see the central and western parts of Jamaica, this excursion
proved something of a disappointment, To the east of the harbour
at Montego Bay, the shore is rocky and offers very much the same
collecting as that at Port Henderson, while the only new animal
which the sandy beaches afforded was a large white Hippa. On
some of the reefs and on an old pile of masonry near the middle of
the harbour, a tubicolous annelid occurs which is very noticeable on
account of the shape and bright colours of its tentacle-gills. There
seem to be two of these, one coiled on each side in a spiral, 15-20
mm. high, They were usually green, yellow, purple or red, but
often these colours would be mingled with white, so that they were
very handsome objects, resting apparently on the surface of the
rock. If the rock was struck, however, they all disappeared as if
by magic. The Bogue Islands lie a little distance to the west of
Montego Bay, and as they are covered with mangroves, the sight of
them arouses expectations of collecting like that in the Port Royal
Lakes. But such hopes are soon shattered, for even a careful
examination fails to show any superabundance of animal life. A
large buff and brown Stichopus, the commonest species at Port
Royal, is plentiful, and the same may be said of crabs, especially
‘fiddlers,’ Two species of star-fish were found, and a very few
Jasstoped. Man-of-war birds were very abundant and much tamer
than near Kingston. The roots of the mangroves were in many
places well covered with sea-weed, but the expected animal life was
wanting. Surface towing in the evening brought to light nothing
of interest. We spent one night at Montpelier, about ten miles
inland from Montego Bay, and provided with an excellent hotel.
An early morning ramble along a mountain brook introduced us to
some interesting crustaceans and arachnoids. Small black crabs,
the females of which were carrying eggs, were common among
the stones, but like the shrimps, which were abundant in the

1898] ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 167

pools, they were hard to catch. Spiders of small size were common,
and one large Phrynus was captured, carrying about a dozen large
eggs on the under side of the abdomen. .

Our second excursion made late in July was up Blue Mountain
peak, and it was a pleasure and success far beyond our expectations.
The changes in the flora as one goes upward must impress even an
unbotanical zoologist, and the magnificent tree-ferns cannot be
passed by in silence, As one gets well up into the mountains the
clear whistle of the solitaire, not unlike that of our wood-thrush, is
sure to attract attention. Some handsomely coloured finches were
seen in the deepest woods, but birds did not seem to be abundant.
On the summit of the peak we made a careful search for the eggs
of a small tree-frog that is common there, and we were rewarded
by finding many. They are laid in clusters of a dozen or more in
the wet moss which covers everything. Each egg is two or three
millimetres in diameter, and seems very large for the size of the
animal. The scientific worker, no matter what his specialty, who
visits Jamaica and fails to make the journey up Blue Mountain
peak, misses one of the most charming features of the island.

In 1897 the University established its laboratory at Port
Antonio, the most beautiful harbour on the north side of the
island. From here trips were made east and west along the coast,
and inland to Cuna-cuna Pass, Castleton Gardens and Bog-Walk.
Members of the party also visited Porus and Mandeville in the
centre of the island, and one party made a week’s trip around the
west end of the island, visiting the harbours of St Ann’s Bay, Rio
Bueno, Falmouth, Montego Bay, Lucea, Saranna-la-mar and Black
River. The marine fauna along the whole of the north shore seems
to be essentially the same as on the south side of the island, but the
land fauna differs very much from that near Port Henderson. There
are no mangrove swamps on the north side in any way comparable
to those at Port Royal, but the collecting on the reefs is very good,
and strikingly like that on Drunkenman Cay. The same star-fish,
sea-urchins, ophiurids, and holothurians occur, but are more abundant
and easier of access at Port Antonio. The same may be said of
most of the annelids, molluscs and sea-anemones, and is especially
true of the corals. Deep water is so very near to the shore that
the 100 fathom line is within easy rowing distance. The richest
collecting is on the sandy bars or flats in one to three feet of water,
where are plenty of slabs of broken coral rock, under which an
abundance of animals is sure to be found. One of the most
interesting of these is a small flesh-coloured holothurian, Chirodota,
several specimens of which were collected with the body-cavity full
of young. While collecting on these flats, the small but numerous
fishes, many of them gorgeously coloured, proved a great annoyance,

168 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

as the moment the rock was overturned they would rush in and
seize any hapless worm or other small, soft animal which might be
exposed ; many fine specimens were lost in this way. Several
holothurians were found at Port Antonio which were not seen else-
where ; one of them was remarkable, not only for its large size and
unusual facility of locomotion, but also for its habit of eviscerating
as soon as brought to the surface of the water, so that it was impos-
sible to procure perfect specimens. Several species of echinoids, not
seen on the south side, were found here, but Zoxopneustes was com-
paratively rare, only a few small specimens being found. The large
brown Lchinanthus was not uncommon, and the huge Meoma, which
we found common near Drunkenman Cay, was plentiful and was
twice the size of those we saw on the south side. Two other very
pretty little spatangoids, Brissus and Echinoneus, were very common
in the same situations with Chirodota. The commonest sea-urchin
was the dark reddish-brown Echinometra, which simply covered the
rocks in some places. Some very handsome gastropods were
collected on the reefs, and the large conch, the shell of which is so
common in America for ornamental purposes, occurs plentifully all
through the harbour. Along the sandy shore, near the lighthouse,
the same white Hippa which we saw at Montego Bay is common,
but on the shore of East Harbour, where the sand is mixed with
black mud, occurs a somewhat smaller dark-brown Hippa, which
differs from the other in habits as well as in appearance. Dredging
proved more interesting than at Port Henderson, especially in East
Harbour where there is a good deal of eel-grass on the bottom.
Here we found large numbers of the beautiful Cubomedusa,
Charybdea, which we rarely saw at the surface, and in the same
locality the delicate olive-green sand-dollar, Mellita, is quite
common.

The fresh-water and land fauna at Port Antonia is especially
interesting on account of the numerous streams and the proximity
of the hills. The streams abound with gastropods and shrimps, and
large, beautifully coloured cray-fish are common. Insects are not
particularly numerous or noticeable, but myriapods and arachnoids
are abundant. Pseudoscorpions and pedipalps are both plentiful,
and scorpions are not rare. Large centipedes with their yellow eggs,
two or three millimetres in diameter, were frequently brought to us
by the coloured boys, while equally large millipedes were common in
the woods. Only a single specimen of Peripatus was found, and
that was a small one; but we were told that they were not con-
sidered exceptionally rare. The land-crab at Port Antonio is very
different from the one at Port Henderson, the two being distin-
guished as the ‘ black’ and ‘ white’ land-crab, respectively. Land-
molluses, especially large slugs, are very common, and the eggs of

1898] ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 169

the latter were often found in the banana ‘trash.’ Tree-frogs are
common, especially the species which lays its eggs in the water held
in the base of the leaves of the Bromeliac, where we often found the
tadpoles swimming about. Lizards of all sorts and sizes abound,
some of them being beautifully coloured. Two or three small
iguanas were also brought into the laboratory, but they are rather
rare. At Port Antonio we heard a good deal about Jamaica’s most
interesting mammal, the agouti, or, as it is more often called, the
cony. It is peculiar to the island, though there is an allied species
in Cuba. Though now quite rare it is still to be met with in the
John Crow and: Blue mountains. There are several specimens in the
small menagerie of native animals kept at the Jamaica Institute in
Kingston, and they have bred there. At Port Antonio we were
offered a pair alive for twenty dollars, but we were unable to procure
any, dead or alive, at any less price.

Most noticeable and best known of all the native fauna, the
birds of Jamaica demand a special word. Over 200 species have
been recorded, of which 40, almost exactly one fifth, are peculiar
to the island. Of the remainder about 50 may be classed as West
Indian, while about 90 are distinctly North American, many of
our common New England birds being migrants or winter visitors.
There are four or five summer visitors from the mainland of South
and Central America, but they form a very insignificant part of the
avifauna. Much the greater number of water-birds are more or
less well known in the United States, and the same may be said
of the warblers. But the doves, cuckoos, swifts, humming-birds,
parrots, and fly-catchers are almost exclusively West Indian, and a
large number of them are distinctively Jamaican. On the coast,
besides the man-of-war birds and pelicans already mentioned, the
tropic-bird occurs and terns are abundant, especially in Kingston
harbour. The two common humming-birds are found in all culti-
vated districts; one is interesting because of its very small size, the
other because of its rich, dark-purple plumage and long, forked tail.
About Kingston the small palm-swift is abundant, and nests in the
cocoa-nut trees in the very heart of the city. The most gorgeously
coloured bird, the tody, is one of the smallest, and its bright red
and vivid green plumage is very striking. The two fly-catchers,
which correspond so closely to our king-bird and phoebe as easily
to deceive even a careful observer, are especially common at Port
Antonio, where the peculiar cuckoo, Crotophaga, is also always in
evidence.

It is curious to note the paucity of names among the natives
for even the common animals, a single name being made to serve
for two or more widely different forms. The name ‘sea-cat’ is
given to the octopus, and to large medusae, especially Cassiopea,

170 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

but it is also used almost indiscriminately for any unusual fish.
‘Sea-squirt’ is used for both ascidians and holothurians. When a
native speaks of an ‘owl’ or a ‘ potoo, it is not always possible to
determine whether he means the barn owl, or the large goatsucker,
Nyctibius, as the names are constantly interchanged, ‘ Rain-bird’
may be a swift or one of three different kinds of cuckoo, while
‘doctor-bird’ and ‘ banana-bird’ are also terms whose value depends
on the speaker.

That the fauna of Jamaica is undergoing comparatively rapid
changes must be clear to even a casual observer. The manatee and
the agouti, as well as the iguana, are apparently on the road to
extinction, and it is almost certain that the famous ‘ Blue Mountain
duck’ (Aestrelata caribbaea) has been exterminated during the last
half of this century. The introduction of toads and the mongoose
have clearly affected the land fauna, though it looks as if the native
animals were adapting themselves to the new conditions. It is only
a little over twenty-five years since the mongoose was introduced,
and it is now common everywhere. Five or six years ago the
snakes seemed to have been practically exterminated by their new
enemy, but now they are beginning to appear again, so that one or
two species are no longer varieties near Kingston, and we saw
several near Port Antonio. Whether the snakes have developed
some new form of defence or escape, or whether the mongoose has
ceased to look for food in that group of reptiles, is still an open
question. It is not only among the land animals, however, that
such changes are going on. Several instances of remarkable
changes in the abundance of a given species may be mentioned
among marine animals. There seems to be very good evidence
showing that the viviparous Synapta is becoming rarer each year,
and that the area it inhabits is becoming more and more restricted.
Cassiopea was far from common in 1896 where it was most
abundant in 1893, and we did not find large numbers of it in any
one place. The remarkable little cubomedusa, Zvripedalia, which
was very abundant in the ‘Slashes’ in 1896 had completely dis-
appeared in 1897, and a week of careful searching failed to disclose
a single specimen anywhere in the Slashes or Lakes, It may not
be safe to draw any sweeping conclusions from a few isolated facts
of this sort, but they are at least worthy of note.

One cannot close an account of zoological Jamaica without
some reference to the scientific work which is being done in the
island itself. As an authority on Jamaican shells, Henry Vendries,
Esq., of Kingston, has a world-wide reputation, and his collection of
native shells is very extensive. Mr P. W. Jarvis has been an
extensive collector of the crabs of Jamaica, and has furnished the
United States National Museum with the types of many new

1898] ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 171

species. Mr C. B. Taylor has collected and studied birds in all
parts of the island, and is beyond question the best informed man
on the island in questions of ornithology, For the past nine years
natural science in Jamaica has enjoyed the patronage and support
in countless ways of His Excellency Sir Henry Blake, the Governor
of the island, and his estimable wife. Lady Blake has painted from
life the caterpillars, chrysalids and adults of many of the native
Lepidoptera, and her collection of over 100 water-colours of this
order are a treat to the artist as well as to the entomologist. She
has also painted many of the beautifully coloured fish which abound
in the Caribbean Sea, and she has contributed to scientific journals
in America and England, articles on the “ Aborigines of the West
Indies” and kindred topics. But the scientific work in Jamaica
naturally centres around the Jamaica Institute at Kingston, <A
handsome building, erected only a few years ago, houses a very good
collection of the principal animals of the island, some of the
specimens being of considerable value. At the rear of this building
is a small zoological garden, which contains specimens of many of
the most interesting native birds, mammals, and reptiles. There is
at the Institute a very good library which is of great assistance to
a working zoologist. A specialty is made of books on Jamaica.
The Board of Governors of the Institute show every courtesy to
visiting zoologists, and are ably seconded by the present curator of
the Museum, Mr J. E. Duerden, a Dublin University man, himself
a trained zoologist, whose work on the Actinaria of the island is
already attracting attention. An excellent beginning has been
made towards interesting the people in the natural history of their
island and in making the museum the repository of a complete
collection of the native fauna. In both of these aims the Institute
deserves and ought to receive the assistance of every scientific
visitor to the island. HUBERT LYMAN CLARK,
AMHERST CoLLEGE, Mass., U.S.A. :

551.33(41.5) 172

II
The Eskers of Ireland

F the more recent geological phenomena none are more curious,

and none have given rise to more speculation, not to say con-

troversy, than the ridge-like accumulations, principally of sand or
gravel, found throughout the midland district of Ireland.

Considering that geologists have very commonly associated these
ridges—eskers as they are called in Ireland—with the products of
glaciation, it appears to me not a little remarkable that they are
confined to a comparatively narrow zone running through the
flattest part of the island from Galway Bay to Dublin Bay. The
remark would apply with almost equal force to the corresponding
formations of Scotland and the Scandinavian peninsula. The kames
are nearly confined to the valleys of the Clyde and Forth, as the
asar of Sweden have their most striking development in the Lake
Malar district. True, there are mounds of gravel in some of the
northern counties of Ireland, but they are not to be confounded
with the typical eskers of Galway, King’s County, North Tipperary,
Queen’s County, Kildare, and Dublin; and in Scotland the term
kame is applied to ridges and mounds “of marine, lacustrine,
fluviatile, and meteoric (wind-driven) drifts.”

“The centre of Ireland is chiefly a great plain of Carboniferous
Limestone, partly surrounded by several groups of lofty hills com-
posed of the oldest rocks, which rise from beneath the limestone.
The hills to the south of this plain have every height up to 3000
feet above the sea. Other hills, rising to heights of 800 or 1000
feet, are composed of Coal-measures lying on the limestone; these
are surrounded by valleys which are branches of the great plain.
The general level of the limestone plain is from 100 to 300 feet
above the sea, only a few isolated hills of limestone in the interior
of the country rising to as much as 500 or 600 feet.”

From this description by Jukes, it is clear that, if the surface
of the country were depressed 300 feet from its present level, the
waters of Galway Bay would meet those of Dublin Bay, forming a
broad channel interrupted only by a few islands and occasional shallows.
That such was the case during at least a portion of the period of the
deposition of the limestone-gravel is generally maintained by Ivish
geologists ; and the term ‘esker sea’ (Kinahan) has been used to
denote the inland waters when the land depression was at or near

September 1898] THE ESKERS IN IRELAND 173

300 feet from the existing level. The old sea-margins are pointed
to in proof of the depression—lines of beach, and notches cut into
the hill-sides ; but, as will appear further on, such evidence is by
no means conclusive of marine action.

“The low country,” continues Jukes, “is largely covered by a
widely-spread mass of drift, consisting of dark sandy boulder-clay,
with pebbles and blocks, and occasional beds of sand and gravel,
sometimes very regularly stratified.” In a footnote he adds :—
“This seems to be the equivalent of the Scottish 77l, at least in
its upper part.” The gravel, it may be remarked, extends through-
out wide areas and to considerable depth, without any apparent
mingling of clay, but consisting wholly, or almost so, of sand and
pebbles, “The great majority of the pebbles are rounded fragments
of Carboniferous Limestone, whence the deposit usually goes by the
name of the limestone gravel. This deposit rests not only on the
limestone but sweeps up on the flanks of the hills, both those that
are made of the lower palaeozoic rocks and those formed of the
Coal-measures. In each case the limestone gravel becomes largely
mingled with detritus of the rocks of which the hills are made, and
sometimes to such an extent that the local rocks assume a decided
preponderance and occasionally compose almost the whole of the
deposit.”

That these superficial deposits were formed under the sea, Jukes
entertains no doubt, just as Professor Ramsay holds that the drift of
North Wales is of marine origin. Kinahan agrees with Jukes. The
only ground, according to these able writers, for a contrary opinion
is supplied by the unfossiliferous character of the deposits, But the
circumstances would not be in favour of the preservation of shells
(save those embedded in the limestone) in a mass of materials, which
presumably have been subjected to much agitation and trituration.
Against these, however, we have the very decided opinion of
Dr James Geikie, as to the analogous order of things in Scot-
land :—“It seems most reasonable to conclude that neither the
water-worn and stratified drift, nor the loose angular debris, nor
yet the erratics that le scattered over the low grounds of Scotland,
give any indications of a former submergence of the land below the
sea. The loose angular debris or moraine matter and erratics have
been carried down and dropt over the terminal front of the ice-
sheet, or have stranded upon the mountain-slope and hillside, or have
been left lying in what once formed the bed of the old ice-sheet.
The sand and gravel drifts have been produced by the
action of water escaping from the melting ice-sheet which
re-arranged the morainic debris, &¢., heaping it up in banks
or spreading it out in undulating flats” (“The Great Ice Age,”
p. 244 of 2nd Ed).

174 NATURAL SCIENCE - _. [September

Passing, for a little while, from this direct conflict of opinion,
we come to discuss the particular subject now before us. For the
present we accompany Jukes : “ One of the most remarkable features
of the upper gravelly and sandy drifts is the way in which these
deposits are often heaped into mounds and ridges, which sometimes
run continuously over the surface of the country. Such ridges are
known as kames in Scotland, eskers in Ireland, and asar in Sweden.
These remarkable outlines are not due to mere denudation, but, as
shown by the external structure of the mounds, have usually been
produced at the same time as the mass of the sand and gravel was
deposited.

“These mounds, in most cases, probably received their form
during their first accumulation; but sometimes the surface of the
drift seems to be one caused by subsequent erosion.” “In one con-
spicuous instance (Jukes adds), two or three miles north of Parsons-
town, which I visited in November 1861, in company with Mr A. B.
Wynne, a widely spread expanse of deep horizontally stratified lime-
stone gravel appears to have been so far acted upon by subsequent
denudation as to have now an abruptly-undulating surface consisting
of small mounds, ridges, and valleys running in various directions
over a space several miles in length and one or two in breadth.
One of these ridges, however, and the most conspicuous of them,
forms a long esker, or narrow gently-undulating bank some fifty feet
above the surrounding flat country, and some miles in length.. Such
eskers are very numerous in Ireland over all the low central plain.
One is to be seen three or four miles to the west of Dublin, running
from the banks of the Dodder, past the old castle of Tymon, by the
Green Hills, towards the valley of the Liffey.” Jukes mentions
similar accumulations at Maryborough, Stradbally, Borrisokane, and
other places.

One of the most remarkable groups (although not mentioned in
particular by either Jukes or Kinahan) is situated at the western ter-
minus of the series, just three miles to the south-east of Athenry, at
St Joseph’s College—locally known as ‘ Esker College ’—formerly a
Dominican priory, and so marked on the Ordnance Survey map,
but lately converted into a diocesan college. The locality is called
‘Esker,’ just as—to the great perplexity of post-office officials—
several other townlands to the west of the Shannon are so named
owing to the prevalence of the drift ridges. But ‘Esker, Athenry,
is distinguished among them all, no less by its history than by the
gigantic character of its ridges and mounds of limestone gravel, a
subject which I shall have occasion to discuss in some detail
further on.

I quote again from Jukes: “The eskers are often opened for
gravel pits, as may be seen in the Green Hills, near Dublin, and

1898] THE ESKERS OF IRELAND 175

the arrangement of the materials is very curious. Irregular beds of
large blocks, or of small pebbles, or of the finest sand, are arranged
one over the other, generally with a rude attempt at conforming to
the external slopes of the ridges, but not preserving to any distance
either the thickness or the inclination.”

This description of the ‘section, although written with special
reference to a ridge quite at the eastern extremity of the great
central plain, would apply to the great esker at the College near
Athenry, particularly the remarks on the stratified arrangement of
the sand and gravel.

The true esker, or ridge, when seen at a little distance bears a
striking resemblance to a railway embankment, and, as Kinahan
remarks, is sometimes so narrow at the top that people may almost
shake hands across the width. This is, however, rather exceptional.
I know well the Parsonstown esker described by Jukes. It crosses
the county road between Birr and Banagher—the road is, in fact,
cut through ‘The Ridge’; and the latter runs across the country in
the direction of the Shannon, the top of it serving, for a consider-
able distance, as a bog-road or boreen. The Maryborough esker
—also locally known as The Ridge—is said by the country people
to extend “all across Ireland”: it can indeed be traced, more or less
continuously, for many miles. Adjoining the town of Maryborough
its slopes and top have until recently been used as a cemetery.
Geikie mentions certain kames in Scotland that had long been used
for the same purpose.

So far we have been making approach to the interesting
but perplexing question—How came these eskers to be what they
are? By what particular agency, or agencies, have sand, gravel,
clay, and shingle been ridged up, and at the same time sorted and
stratified as we find in the typical esker ?

All who have attempted the solution begin by confessing the
very great difficulty of the question; and the admitted difficulty
has given rise to a considerable amount of ‘scientific’ romancing.

“A small mound quite close to Dunfermline is locally famous
under the name Mont Dieu. According to an old story this drift
mound owes its origin to some unfortunate monks, who, by way of
penance, once carried the sand in baskets from the sea-shore at
Inverkeithing” (J. Geikie, “Great Ice Age,” p. 212). And there is a
similar legend as to the origin of a mound in the valley of the Kali
Water, Roxburghshire. From the economical point of view these
cases are very good examples of ‘unproductive’ labour. But, from
the inquirer’s point of view, they are hardly more romantic than the
explanation put forth, in the cause of science, by Mr A. E. Torne-
bohm as to the origin of the Swedish asar or eskers.

His belief is that the asar are ancient river courses, and he

176 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 1898

points to their river-like ramifications, In the valleys containing
these asar, detached patches of sand are sometimes found—the
wreck, he believes, of a great deposit of sand, In such a deposit,
rivers would soon cut down a deep channel. In the bottom of this
channel pebbles and gravel would collect, then gravel, or sand, or
mud layers, In time, the course of the river is diverted, the
adjacent sands wear rapidly away, and the more compacted deposits
of the river-bed longer resist denuding influences, and in the end
stand out in bold relief as asar or eskers,

One can hardly forbear exclaiming—Too clever by half! The
author uses, to the full, the romancist’s privileges, He has every-
thing he requires at hand and in abundance, and what he no
longer requires he gets rid of with the readiness of a necromancer.
Rivers have, no doubt, often struck out new lines of action for
themselves. But here everything makes its bow and retires just
when it has acted its part.

THOMAS FITZPATRICK.
Sr Ignatius’ CoLLEGR,
GALWAY.

(To be continued.)

581.19 rat

III
The Chemistry of the Forest Leaf

ape fundamental feature of a leaf is, as everybody knows, the

presence therein of a body called chlorophyll, which is defined
as “the substance, or maybe a mixture of substances, to which the
pure green colour of ordinary healthy leaves and of other vegetable
organs is due.” Here our attention is at once arrested. Is it pos-
sible that no competent and expert chemist can be found who will
proclaim with absolute confidence and assurance that chlorophyll is
a single substance, or that it is a mixture of substances? So far as
I can find, the original investigator of chlorophyll was Morot, and
he gave a hypothetical formula for it, but said it was always
accompanied by a fatty substance which he regarded as the
chromogen thereof. In 1860 Fremy showed that the green
matter was a simple mixture of two bodies, viz. a blue (phyllo-
cyanin) and a yellow (phylloxanthin) existing side by side;
whereas Pringsheim and others held that these were merely de-
composition products of an originally single chemical individual.
On the other hand, Dr Sorby considered the existence of a chloro-
phyll, a phyllocyanin, or a phylloxanthin of a definite chemical
composition to be improbable. Meanwhile, an examination of the
foliar organs of various species among the great vegetable groups
and classes led Gautier in 1866 and later to conclude that chloro-
phyll differs among these—nay, even in various species of the same
genus it may be dissimilar. But the crowning consummation of
all previous researches seems to have been reached in 1895 when
Mr Etard, in a memoir read before the French Academy, declared
that a given species of plant may contain several chlorophylls, e.g.
he describes four distinct, perfectly defined ones as occurring in
Lucerne. “It may be concluded,” he states, “that the green
matters of leaves contain a very stable fundamental nucleus
carrying the function of optical absorption in connection with a
biological process; and around this nucleus, this trophic point,
can be fixed, in a way more or less permanent according to the
needs of nutrition, different chemical groupings giving place to
chlorophylls different in their composition, their molecular weight,
their solubilities, their isomers, and the role which they may play in
the living species.” “The operations of vegetable synthesis leading at
the same time to fatty bodies insoluble in water and to matters emin-
ently soluble, always by the intermedium of absorptive green matters,
it is natural to think that one and the same chlorophyll would not
be sufficient for the work” (Comptes Rendus, vol. exx., p. 328).

N

178 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

Now, although Mr Etard has, by virtue of masterly analytical
skill, succeeded in separating certain distinct green bodies occurring
in the same species, which seem to respond to a definite chemical
composition, it is not so clear that the question as to what chloro-
phyll itself really is has been finally settled. ‘The grand difficulty
is to decide definitely whether chlorophyll is (like carotin) a solid
substance in itself and present in such quantity as to allow of its
being separated and withdrawn purely and simply from the other
constituents of the leaf; or whether it exists therein in exceedingly
minute quantity only (like that of a dye fixed on a vegetable fibre),
and inseparable therefrom save by means which bleach and destroy
it irrevocably? It is evident that if the former alternative be
accepted, then by simply absorbing the green pigment by animal
charcoal from the ‘ chlorophyll, it will still retain its physical and
chemical characters unchanged; if the latter be adopted, the same
absorption will completely destroy only the colouring matter as such.

Unfortunately it is absolutely impossible to tackle the question
on these grounds or in this fashion, for the simple reason that no
solvent at present known extracts chlorophyll, ze. the pigment,
purely and solely from the leaf; it is invariably conjoined with
fats, waxes, resins, etc., and even subsequent exhaustive treatment
with a series of different solvents does not eventually effect a com-
plete purification. Such being the case, we must rest content with
the results and effects of close application and a prolonged experi-
ence, feeling assured that in the course of time views and vistas
will open, leading to a correct apprehension of the subject. One of
these views may now be exploited for the edification of the reader.

Microscopic observation of the living leaf reveals that the
chlorophyll granules are individually independent globules of dense
protoplasm without proper walls plunged in the midst of the funda-
mental protoplasm and tinged by the green matter, their form and
size remaining unaltered when extracted by ether, etc. Protoplasm
itself is of course insoluble in the solvents which readily dissolve
chlorophyll, but it is always accompanied by fatty matter of free
formation which doubtless is one of the products of assimilation.
Starch also, although not invariably present, very commonly occurs
in these corpuscles ; and Belzung seems to think that its presence is
necessary for the formation of the green pigment—an opinion which
I am disposed to dispute. In addition, however, to starch and fat,
the occurrence of which is sufficiently palpable, it would be absurd
to imagine that other bodies are not evolved in quantities more or
less minute during the career of the tremendous vital energy exerted
by the living protoplasm. Tremendous certainly it must be at the
actual moment of its outcome, but perhaps for that very reason
- essentially frail and subject to degradation and decay. - Hence arise

1898] THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FOREST LEAF 179

the well-known and characteristic decomposition products, normal or
putrefactive, one of which, to take an example, indoxyl-sulphate of
potassium (present in human urine) is easily oxidised to the powerful
pigment indigo. In 1873-Bommer showed that some very small
colourless granules scattered on the protoplasm of the flowers of
Phajus maculatus readily produce indigo when the oxygen of the air
comes in contact with the cell-contents; and according to him the
experiments of Fremy fully suffice to prove that the origin of blue
chlorophyll (phyllocyanin) is due to the presence of indican trans-
formed into indigo, which exists in chlorophyll though in excessively
minute proportion. We may observe that it is just this extreme
minuteness which forbids probably for ever the precise determina-
tion of the chlorophyllian chromogen. We do not know what its
chemical constitution is, or whether it is a real dye-stuff with a
function either basic or acidic (I believe it is the latter). It has
been maintained that chlorophyll is not a substance derived from an
open chain of carbon atoms, and that very probably it is a derivative
of a benzenoid hydrocarbon; but I think it is more probably a
derivative of polyuric or acrylic acid. The difficulties attending the
discovery of its real origin and chemical relationships seem to spring
from the fact that its outcome and presence in the leaf do not depend
on the aérial oxidisation incident to an expanded cellular surface, still
less on transpiration, but are solely and absolutely the direct and
immediate result of the life energy whose existence is indissolubly
interwoven with the protoplasmic stroma of the chlorophyll granule.

A. Baeyer suggested that in the dissociation of carbonic acid, or
of water, protoplasm is at the bottom of the whole business, and
that chlorophyll plays only some subsidiary and indirect part, such
as that of temporarily fixing carbon dioxide as does haemoglobin, and
so facilitating the dissociation. According to Engelmann, while the
chlorophyll granules give off oxygen in the light, colourless proto-
plasm, cell membrane, and nucleus do not; the green pigment itself
is not capable of so acting, it must be present in connection with the
living stroma of the chlorophyll granule. Tuimiriazeff held that the
function of chlorophyll is to absorb the rays which possess the
greatest energy, being transparent for those rays, and to transmit
this energy to the molecules of the carbon dioxide, which would not of
themselves undergo decomposition ; while Mr Berthelot has shown
that the presence of inert gases, such as nitrogen in the air, deter-
mines the phenomenon of the dissociation, they having the effect of
separating the atoms of the carbon dioxide, acting thus on the active
gas as a diminution of pressure would do. Nevertheless, and although
all these physical and mechanical agencies may aid and abet, the
question is, are they really and truly the practically determinant or
dominant causes of the effect? It seems to be tolerably certain

180 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

that colourless protoplasm is quite competent to effect the dissocia-
tion in question (i.e, if such ever actually does come to pass), pro-
vided always that its forces are sufficiently concentrated and its
position favourable. It is known that the protoplasm of the chloro-
phyll bodies is, like that of the nucleus, denser than the cytoplasm,
and this increase of density is doubtless associated with an aug-
mentation of vital energy and activity. Then why may not the
nucleus with all its superior density likewise achieve the decomposi-
tion of carbon dioxide? Because its composition is utterly different
from that of the cytoplasm ; its function is to generate not special
matters, but special motions; it excites the activity of the cytoplasm,
but is not indispensable for metabolism; it is no part of its business to
decompose gases or liquids; in fact, according to Preyer and Windt,
it merely regulates the progress of the assimilation and de-assimila-
tion of the protoplasm. In this connection it may suffice to merely
mention the amyloplasts of Schimper, the leucoplasts of Sachs, and
the free formation of starch without the intervention of chlorophyll,
or even of leucites demonstrated by Belzung.

If we profoundly consider the matters herein and just now set
forth, we can hardly resist the conclusion that chlorophyll, z.e.
the simple pigmentary substance, is not truly the cause or indis-
pensable auxiliary of the assimilative energy of the protoplasm of
the leaf, but rather it is one of the direct and immediate conse-
quences of the vital activity thereof. Whatever increases and
heightens the vital activity increases at the same time and pari
pass the amount of chlorophyll. The peculiar and characteristic
feature in connection therewith is that it is not really a waste- -
product, or an excretion in any sense, or a product of de-assimilation ;
it is a specific consequence of the specific life activity interwoven
with a protoplasmic substratum, whose molecules dissociate but do
not degrade. Living protoplasm has an active power of respiration,
and the greening of etiolated leaves grown in the dark is, when they
are exposed to light, for and by itself no assimilation process, and it
takes place without decomposition of carbon dioxide. The pigment
itself is almost certainly a dark dull blue substance, such as can be iso-
lated from Gramineae more especially,and the mixture thereof with the
brilliant and stable yellow carotin, which all leaves contain, affords the
greenery, and at the same time vivifies and, as it were, burnishes it.

If Mr Etard’s conclusions that a given species of plant may
contain several kinds of chlorophyll be provisionally accepted, it is
indispensable that the term ‘chlorophyll’ should mean not the pure
pigment only, but the entire waste or excretion ensuing from the
chemical processes undergone in the protoplasm of the chloroplastids.
His researches furnish a twofold basis. “It is the chlorophylls,” he
states, “ that are insoluble in pentane, which tend on splitting up to

1898] THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FOREST LEAF 181

produce carbohydrates, tannins, and extracts ; those that are soluble
in pentane tend to produce essences and oils.” Hence supposing
that these two chlorophylls exist in different or varying proportions
in different species of plants, and practical analysis proves that they
do so, then we have a satisfactory explanation of the fact that some
plants are oil-producing, while others are starch-producing. It is
well known that the leaves of various species differ enormously in
their capacity for forming starch, and trees have actually been
classified by Fischer and Suroz into ‘ Fettbaiume’ and ‘ Starkbiiume.’
There is, however, another view of the matter, viz., that pro-
pounded by Mr Mesnard, according to which, while the free fat oil,
carbohydrates, and the reserve albuminoids are products of assimila-
tion, the tannoid compounds, essences, resins, and tannin are products
of de-assimilation. All are products of chlorophyll, and all constitute
materials for the latex; but the immediate origin of the fixed oil is,
if this version be correct, not the same as the immediate origin of
the essential oil; whereas, according to Mr Etard, both of these
plant constituents proceed from the same kind of ‘chlorophyll. It
is hardly necessary to mention that the original doctrine formulated
by Wiesner, and upheld by Fluckiger and Tschirsh and by many
other German chemists and physiologists, was that the essential oils
and resins are formed.at the expense of starch or even of cellulose,
that in fact the resins and ethereal oils are the final products of a
series which begins with starch or glucose, and passes through tannin
as an intermediary (Franchimont had, however, contested this as to
resin) ; but according to Mr Mesnard the substances in question pro-
ceed from the transformation of the tannoid compounds produced by
chlorophyll. “The formation of the essential oil,” he states, “is very
rapid, and is effected in a fashion almost immediate, while that of the
tannins and pigments requires a long exposure to light and air.”
Thus it will be seen that while many investigators, with some
honourable exceptions, were fumbling and bungling over the subject,
and allowing themselves to be misled and distracted by fanciful
formulas and mystical alchemy, the true scientific ideas and ex-
periments of a single Frenchman (with whom, however, Mr Blondel
may be associated) have thrown a powerful search-ray of light over
the hitherto dark and troubled waters. Personally I never could
swallow the doctrine that the tannins were derivatives of the carbo-
hydrates ; and notwithstanding Waage’s elaborate formulary to prove
that phloroglucin is formed as the result of the splitting up of glucose,
I am more disposed to accept Nickel’s view that it may be formed
by the withdrawal of water from inosite—a body whose reactions
seem to connect it to some extent with the proteids or albuminoids.
T am convinced that, save and except the processes connected directly
with assimilation, the other subsidiary and supplementary chemical

182 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

operations which take place in the leaf are of a comparatively simple
character. Before, however, we proceed further, it will be advisable
and indeed highly requisite to provide a table after Mesnard (slightly
altered) :—

Products of assimilation. Products of de-assimilation.
Free fatty oil. Tannoid compounds (rutin, etc.).
Carbohydrates (starch, glucose, Resins, balsams, and essential oils.
. etc.). Tannins.
Albuminoid matters of reserve. Coloured pigments.

It would be superfluous to adduce facts as bases for arguments
to prove that the sketch here set forth is a positive and veritable
representation of what actually comes to pass in the chemistry of
the living foliar organ. No one disputes that fats, carbohydrates,
and albuminoids are direct products of assimilation. The fat oil is
deposited in the cells without there being a simultaneous deposit of
albuminoid matters; but that there is some close connection
between the oil and the starch and sugar is evident (though only
provisionally and superficially) from the respective distribution of
these bodies in the plant tissues. Thus the oil of the ripe seed is,
according to Sachs, produced from the starch and sugar transported
from the primary stem. The storing up of oil occurs in all the
amylaceous tissues. In the autumn the starch contained in the
branches of our forest trees is gradually ‘ transformed’ into oil, and
in the spring this oil is again ‘transformed’ into starch and sugar.
The cells of the leaf which are free from oil are also free from
starch. On the other hand, the fact that oil occurs stored up in
the cells of the perisperms or of the cotyledons of certain seeds in
Cruciferae, poppies, flax, almonds, ete., in which little or no starch
is produced, would seem to show that oil and starch are more or less
independent of each other. “In all cases,” says Mr Mesnard, “ the
fatty oil is independent of the starch and the glucose, even in the
rare cases of grass seeds where the oil is specially localised.” I
think it by no means follows because, as in the winter boughs of our
forest trees, the oil steps into the place of the vanishing starch, and
vice versa in the spring, that therefore one of these bodies is un-
questionably derived from, transmuted into, or even formed at the
expense of the other. Protoplasmic activity specifically directed is
amply capable of creating or of destroying one or the other con-
stituent independently and in accordance with the contemporary
needs of the organism. Possibly may it not be that the winter
production of oil is associated with low vitality, while the summer
production of starch is associated with a high vitality? With regard
to the organic acids of the leaf, I adhere to the views of Dehérain
and others that they are oxidation products of the carbo-hydrates,
and have got nothing to do with the synthesis of the proteids.

1898] THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FOREST LEAF 183

With reference to the scheme of the products of de-assimilation
exhibited on the right-hand side of the aforedrawn table, it may be
observed that a considerable experience in plant analysis is requisite
in order to appreciate it thoroughly. Suppose, for instance, that
we are determined to engage in a complete study of the chemistry
of the forest leaf, we must commence with the earliest growth of the
organ—in fact, we should commence with the winter buds, but at
any rate we examine the young leaves just unfolded, and we, by
appropriate methods of analysis, discover that one body seems
almost universally present in them all, and that body is a tannoid
compound (rutin or quercitrin), It is inevitably present because it
is the first formed product of the chlorophyll (ie. the proteid)
substance that has spent its energy, and lies in the position of a
waste or excretum. But what then ensues ?

The leaf progresses in growth. Oxidation more or less com-
plete supervenes on every item of its tissues and contents which is
not directly under the dominion of the reducing energy of the living
and vigorous protoplasm. The tannoid compound aforesaid is
gradually transformed -more or less completely into volatile oil and
resin, or into tannin, but until the late autumn the change into the
latter body is probably never entirely and absolutely accomplished.
Practically in the majority of our forest trees there is no formation
of essential oil in the leaves, but there is always apparently a
residuary resinous body or a ‘ bitter principle’ extracted by benzene
or alcohol, and there is invariably tannin, the quantity of which
increases from spring till autumn, reaching its maximum about
October or November. According to Kraus, there is generally
twice as much in the October leaves as there is in the June leaves,
That some such progressive change ensues as is here described, even
supposing that a portion of the material formed is daily conducted
away into the bark and wood, there can be no doubt whatever.

On the whole, therefore, it may be admitted as established that,
while the forest leaf is par excellence an organ of reduction so far as
its purely and distinctively protoplasmic energy is concerned, yet at
the same time very considerable and important oxidising processes
take place among the lifeless ruins, so to speak, of its spent and
exhausted activities. The bye-products, the waste of protein bodies
are only partially and slowly excreted and cast off, an expulsion
which dies gradually away in the old age and decrepitude of the
organ when autumn comes upon the scene, and the reducing agencies of
the protoplasm having been expended, the oxidising agencies of light
and air enjoy unrestricted sway crowned by the golden and crimson
glories of the autumn woodlands. P, Q. KEEGAN.

PATTERDALE, NEAR PENRITH, WESTMORELAND.

575. 184

IV
The Species, the Sex, and the Individual?

N investigating the evolution of animal structure we have to
consider not merely the features which distinguish species and
groups of species from one another, but the difference between dis-
tinct types within the same species, and the changes which the
individual passes through in the course of its life. The selection
doctrine is held by its adherents to afford an explanation of the
facts in all three of these divisions, but no one has hitherto pointed
out the close similarity between the phenomena in the three cases,
and attempted to prove that the principles he adopts are really
applicable in detail to all of them. Examples of the differences of
structure by which animals are classified are familiar to every one;
the remarkable differences between male and female in the same
species of bird, such as the peacock or pheasant, illustrate the
second class of facts; and the differences between the tadpole and
the frog, the caterpillar and the butterfly, illustrate the third.

Selection in nature can only mean the survival of an individual
by virtue of some useful peculiarity in its structure, and selection as
a theory of evolution can only be applicable to structural features
which are of some use to the individual, enabling it either to obtain
food or shelter, to escape enemies and natural dangers, or to repro-
duce its kind. Hence if the selection doctrine is true, everything in
the structure of animals must be adapted to some useful end, must
be an adaptation—or it must be the physiological corollary of an
adaptive structure, must be correlated with some useful variation.

1 With reference to this paper, Mr Cunningham has given us the following infor-
mation, which we have verified. The paper was written at the beginning of 1897, and
after some time was submitted to the Zoological Society, but not accepted, even for
reading, on the ground that the Society did not usually publish papers of a theoretical
and controversial character. The manuscript was then sent to the Linnean Society,
where it was read on May 6th of the present year, and a brief description of it was
published in the report of the meeting in the Athenewm and in Nature. But this
Society also refused to publish the complete paper, the alleged reason being the pressure
of other papers and illustrations. It is due to Mr Cunningham that these facts should
be known, for on June 7th, 1898, there was read before the Zoological Society a paper
by Mr L. W. Wiglesworth, containing conclusions as to sexual dimorphism very similar
to those of the present paper. In particular,-as the published abstracts show, the
author maintained that secondary sexual characters in birds were due to the stimulation
of parts through use, or external violence, or irritation.

So much for Mr Cunningham’s title to priority. As for the refusal to publish his
paper, we understand that the Zoological Society has equally refused that favour to
Mr Wiglesworth, although he was more fortunate in having his views placed before a
meeting, and published in abstract. There is a general feeling among those who hold
views opposed to the current strictly Darwinian notions that they cannot-get fair play
from our learned societies. It is a pity that they should be able to adduce so many

facts in support of this opinion, however erroneous the opinion itself may be.—
Ep., Nat. Se. I.

Sept. 1898] SPHCIES, SEX, AND THE INDIVIDUAL 185

The conception of correlation means that, owing to something in the
constitution of the animal, two or more features can only vary to-
gether in certain directions, for example it might be found that a
dog could not have less hair without having smaller teeth, and the
advantage of larger teeth might in such case be alleged as sufficient
explanation of long or thick hair.

It is of course not necessary to the selection argument that all
characters should be useful at the present day. They might have
been evolved in a former period when they were useful under other
conditions, and be still inherited after they have ceased to be useful.

However, the more we study the forms and structure of animals
the more difficult we find it is to believe that all peculiarities by
which the various species are classified are to be explained directly
or indirectly by adaptation. We may study the question in refer-
ence to the characters distinguishing subdivisions of any degree, but
it has been most discussed in reference to the peculiarities of species,
and these can only be studied in actual examples.

The case with which I am most familiar is that of the flat-fishes.

The plaice, flounder, and dab, are three species of the same
genus, whose habits and life-histories are fairly well known, and
whose structural peculiarities have been minutely investigated. The
dab is principally characterised by the presence of well-developed
ctenoid or spinulated scales all over both sides of the body, and by a
semicircular curve of the lateral line above the pectoral fin.

In the plaice we see conspicuous red spots; the scales are for
the most part smooth, cycloid and reduced, the lateral line is straight,
and the bony ridge behind the eyes is elevated into five tubercles.

In the flounder we find another condition of the scales: some
are smooth and reduced in size as in the plaice, while others are
enlarged and developed beyond the condition seen in the dab. Along
the bases of the marginal fins there is a series of these enlarged
scales, which form thorny tubercles; and there are others along the
lateral line. Other peculiarities are the smooth ridge behind the
eyes, and the small number of the fin-rays. |

In other respects these fish are much alike. There are differ-
ences in their habits and life histories. The flounder lives in
estuaries and rivers, only descending to the sea in the spawning
season. The plaice and dab are almost invariably found together.
The plaice feeds mostly on molluses, the dab chiefly on crustaceans,
worms and echinoderms. The young plaice congregate near shore,
while young dabs are found at various depths. The plaice begins
to spawn earlier in the year than the dab.

Now it is quite impossible, at any rate up to the present time, to
find the slightest indication that the specific characters of these three
species are useful in relation to these slight differences of life-history.

186 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

We cannot find that the rough tubercles of the flounder are useful
to it because it lives in rivers or for any other reason, we know of
no advantage which the plaice derives from its red spots, its smooth
scales, or the bony tubercles on its head. Nor can we find any
indication that these peculiarities are correlated with adaptive differ-
ences. The only adaptive difference at present clear is that the
plaice, has blunter teeth in its throat than the other species, and that
these are suitable for crushing the shells of the bivalves on which
the plaice feeds. But we know of no connection between this and
the other characters. The theory then that these specific peculi-
arities are due to the natural. selection of indefinite variations is
unsupported by any evidence.

How then are we to explain such specific characters? It seems
to me we are forced to regard them as the necessary consequences of
growth and of the conditions of life. It is evident enough that differ-
ences of habit and the extension of a species into different regions
will necessarily lead to its subdivision into groups between which
little or no interbreeding takes place. The individuals which
lived in estuaries would breed together and not with those that
lived always in the sea. Thus any modification produced in the one
group would remain confined to that group, and by interbreeding
within that group would be kept approximately uniform. It is
difficult in the present state of our knowledge to say how modifica-
tions of the kinds here in question are determined. There are
indications that continuous modification takes place in successive
generations without any direct stimulus that can be detected. We
must remember that the development of the individual is the growth
and multiplication of groups of differentiated cells. This develop-
ment is controlled partly by heredity, partly by surrounding condi-
tions, but the development of every part and every organ is to some
extent independent. The facts indicate that a particular part or
organ may for some unknown reason obtain increased nourishment
and develop with increased vigour, or on the other hand may show
diminished vigour, and that the change may be progressive in suc-
cessive generations. It would seem that ultimately the effect must
be due to external conditions acting upon the properties of living
matter. But the action is evidently very indirect, and the processes
involved are so complicated and recondite that at present we know
nothing about them. We have indications of the influence of ex-
ternal conditions in the differences in the same species in different
geographical areas. Thus the flounder in the Mediterranean has
scarcely any tubercles, while in the Baltic and Arctic regions those
structures are excessively developed, so that nearly the whole skin is
covered with them. Whether this is due to the cold or not we do not
know, but it is a fact that the plaice also shows greater roughness of

1898] SPECIES, SEX, AND THE INDIVIDUAL 187

the scales in the north than in the south. The difficulty is that this
effect of northern latitudes is not observed in the fishes of other
families, and we have to face the problem how it is that the same
change of conditions produces different effects in different cases. It
is possible, however, to investigate the subject by analysis and
experiment. The point on which I wish to insist here is that specific
characters are intelligible when regarded as the necessary conse-
quences of the conditions of life, while the supposition that they are
of any use or significance in the struggle for existence is in a vast
number of cases unsupported by any evidence.

Having thus indicated the reasons for rejecting the conclusion
that all distinguishing characters are adaptive or advantageous, we
may proceed to consider the origin of adaptations.

It may be truly said that no animal is without adaptations ; it
must be provided with some means by which the essentials of life
are secured, but these means may be exceedingly simple or exceed-
ingly complex. But there is another idea implied in the conception
or adaptation, the idea of unity in diversity, of parts essentially
similar being modified in different animals for different purposes,
being adapted in many cases for purposes quite different from that
which they originally served, as in the case of the fore-leg becoming
in birds the wing. It is possible to trace such modifications and
more or less disguised homologies without any reference to the doc-
trine of evolution. The principle of descent with modification gives
the explanation of the phenomenon. The unity of plan is due to
heredity; the divergence, to adaptation to changed conditions. But
we must pursue the investigation further, and endeavour to discover
how the modification is effected. It may be asked, since we admit
that adaptation is such a prevalent phenomenon in the animal king-
dom, even if it is not universal and exclusive, what other explana-
tion of it is required than natural selection? In reply to this I
would urge, in the first place, that natural selection implies and
assumes the appearance of variations, of slight modifications by
virtue of which certain individuals differ from their brethren and
from their parents, in fact from all pre-existing individuals. The
real explanation of evolution therefore lies in the explanation of in-
dividual variations. We admit that they occur, but how and why ?

Darwin held that the use or disuse of organs and the direct
action of conditions caused modifications of individuals in definite
directions, and that these modifications were hereditary in some
degree. Now, if once we admit this, selection becomes a secondary
and subordinate factor. For if a new set of conditions or a change
of habits caused a hereditary change of structure in all the indi-
viduals exposed to it, continuous modification would take place even
if all the individuals generated survived, or if those which were

Iss” NATURAL SCIENCE [September

killed were taken at random without selection. Thus Darwin’s
system contained its own refutation within itself. A later school
of evolutionists have maintained that the effects of habits or
conditions on the individual are not inherited, and therefore not
cumulative. According to this view, only those variations are
hereditary which arise in the germ, in the internal constitution of
the egg; such variations are supposed to be numerous and to take
place in all possible directions, and natural selection is supposed to
pick out from among them those which are advantageous and so
accumulate them. I do not propose here to discuss the various
theories of heredity. The question of the possibility of the trans-
mission of acquired characters, or the determination of congenital
modifications by the direct influence of conditions is a very important
one, and has been much discussed. But I wish to draw attention
to a mode of considering the subject which is generally neglected,
namely, the inductive method. The doctrine of evolution is an in-
duction from the facts of zoology; in my opinion conclusions con-
cerning the method and the causes of evolution can also be obtained
as inductions from a sufficiently wide survey of the phenomena.
Every one will admit without hesitation that all variations must
be due to causes. But, according to the selectionists, hereditary
variations have no primary and essential relation to the require-
ments of life. Such variations occur in all or many directions
indefinitely, and they are so diverse that by the survival of a few
individuals out of the many that are generated, the complicated
adaptations which we know have been gradually produced. It is as
though we conceived of a table being produced by the process of
selecting from a large stock of pieces of wood of all shapes and
sizes, those which were of the shape and size required, and joining
them together; and not by the usual process of sawing and planing
the various parts into shape out of a stock of planks all originally
similar. Thus selection preserves and combines the variations which
are most advantageous under the given conditions, but the relation
between the structure and the outer world has no hereditary effect
in moulding or shaping the structure. Romanes maintained with
much truth that natural selection was a theory only of the origin of
adaptations, and not necessarily of the origin of species, but it is
further necessary to realise that it originates adaptations only in the
sense of preserving and combining the variations or modifications
which occur, and which happen to be advantageous. It may be
said to combine only in the sense of causing different variations in the
parents to be transmitted together to the offspring, and of allowing
new variations to occur only in the individuals which have survived.
Now it is possible by actual observation to ascertain what
evidence there is, that variations which might by natural selection

1898] SPECIES, SEX, AND THE INDIVIDUAL . 189

be combined into the adaptations we see, do occur apart from the
special habits or conditions to which the adaptations are related.
The variations that occur constantly in the form of individual
differences, have been minutely investigated in the past few years by
statistical methods, with the aid of the higher mathematics, The
greater the difference, the more rarely it occurs; and occasionally
striking abnormalities are observed, the character of which points to
definite principles of symmetry and repetition in development. But
it is not proved that, without change of conditions, variations occur
which could by selection give rise to such special adaptations as
abound in the animal kingdom, For example, the power of partial
or complete flight by means of a membranous fold of skin, has been
evolved in many independent cases in the vertebrate sub-kingdom,
in the extinct pterodactyl reptiles, in bats, in flying foxes, flying
squirrels, etc. But the variations in the condition of the skin and
limbs in animals that do not fly or take long leaps through the air,
are not such as to justify the belief that by the mere selection of
the maxima among such variations, a membranous organ of flight
could be evolved. To take another instance, there is a fish which
has its eyes in a very remarkable condition. Spectacles for our own
eyes, for human eyes, are sometimes made in which the upper half
has a curvature different from that of the lower. The fish to which
I refer, Anableps, does not wear spectacles, but actually has its eyes
made in two parts, in the upper part of which the lens has a
different curvature from that of the lower. The pupil is also
divided into two by prolongations from the iris. This fish is in the
habit of swimming at the surface with its eyes half out of the water,
and the upper half of the eye is adapted for vision in air, the lower
half for vision under water. Now, however various the individual
variations in fishes’ eyes, there is no evidence that variations which
could by selection give rise to this curious condition, occur in other -
species of fish. It seems to me that we have no reason to suppose
that the required variations ever occurred, until the ancestors of
Anableps took to swimming with their eyes half out of the water.
A similar argument applies to many other cases of special adapta-
tion, and the logical conclusion is that the habits and conditions
determined the modification.

On the other hand, it may be asked, what positive evidence have
we that special habits or conditions do determine special modifica-
tions. The reply is, that we have abundant and admitted evidence
as to the effect on the individual; and as hereditary modifications
are, in many cases, of the same kind as these, the presumption is,
that the effect on the individual has become hereditary. The
question, however, of the origin and causes of adaptations cannot be
considered apart from the phenomena of development and individual

190 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

metamorphosis to which I shall refer further on. At present I will
pass on to the consideration of the second class of structural
differences, those which distinguish constant forms within one
species.

The commonest and most widely extended case of this is the
existence of what are called secondary sexual characters, in other
words the existence of structural differences between males and
females in addition to the primary and essential differences in the
generative organs. Darwin explained these differences by another
kind of selective process, namely sexual selection. He pointed out
that there is competition in courtship as well as in the struggle for
existence, that the successful males are those which conquer their
rivals by force, or which please the females best by their beauty of
appearance or melodiousness of song. Now whether this is true
or not, and there is certainly a great deal of truth in it, it is not
sufficient to explain all the facts. In the first place it does not
explain why the peculiarities of males do not begin to develop until
the generative organs become functionally mature. If selection by
the female were the principal factor, an earlier development would be
an advantage. A male bird, for example, that already had its special
plumage fully developed when he first became mature, would defeat
those in which it had only just begun to develop, and consequently
early development of the special plumage would soon become uni-
versal. The only way to meet this objection is to maintain that
the young males find an advantage in being inconspicuous like the
females, because they thereby escape their enemies, or that they
obtain some other benefit in the struggle for existence by the re-
tardation of the development of their secondary sexual characters.
But when we study the matter without prejudice we find that the
sexual peculiarities are associated with special habits and conditions,
which do not come into force until maturity is attained, and we
have reason to infer that the necessary modifications only occurred
in connection with these habits and conditions.

As it is usually the male bird which is stronger, more active,
and more adorned, some biologists have concluded that the whole
constitution of the male is naturally more inclined to active
physiological changes, that of the female more to simple vegetative
erowth, But there are plenty of cases to show that no secondary _
characters are invariably associated with the male sex rather than with
the female; the evidence indicates that the characters are related to
particular conditions and habits. In some species the usual differ-
ences between the sexes are reversed, the male is inconspicuous and
resembles the young female, while the adult female has peculiar
characters. In these species we find that the usual habits are also
reversed, .

1898] SPECIES, SEX, AND THE INDIVIDUAL ToL

‘Every one knows that there are enormous differences among
different species in the degree of development of secondary sexual
characters. In many cases there are no such characters, the males
and females are similar; and in these cases not only are sexual
differences wanting, but we do not find variations which if increased
would lead to them. Secondary sexual characters in the plumage
and in other structures are very conspicuous in the Class of birds,
but there are numerous species of birds in which the male and
female are scarcely distinguishable. It is an important fact that in
the latter cases the birds are monogamous, pairing either for a whole
season or for life, while birds in which the male plumage is in
gorgeous contrast to that of the female are frequently polygamous.
This fact has been emphasised by Darwin, but the significance of it
in his view was that polygamy involved a relative excess in the
number of males, so that those which obtain a plurality of wives
have been selected from a large number, leaving a remnant which
obtain no wives at all. I believe that the correct interpretation of
the matter is very different.

It is well known that, in the most familiar cases of special plum-
age in male birds, this plumage is elaborately displayed in courtship
in a definite manner peculiar to each species. As Darwin states,

“ Ornaments of all kinds, whether permanently or temporarily gained,
are sedulously displayed by the males, and apparently serve to at-
tract or fascinate the females.” Now this display is an erection of
the feathers by the muscles in the skin, and a movement, an agita-
tion or vibration, of the feathers. We have every reason to believe
that a mechanical movement of the feathers must irritate the papillae
from which they are produced, and stimulate the proliferation of
epidermis to which the growth of the feathers is due. Thus, if we
consider only the increased size of the feathers apart from their
colour or markings, we may conclude that the display and erection
of certain feathers is the exciting cause of their excessive develop-
ment in the males. This theory is supported at any rate by the
fact that the degree of development of special plumage corresponds
to the proportion of his life and activities which the male devotes to
courtship. This may, in the present tendency of biological doctrines,
be considered absurd, but it will be found, if the facts are examined,
that it is literally and scientifically true. The pigeon, for example,
pairs for life. He performs gestures of courtship it is true, but he
also takes an equal share with the female in the duties of incuba-
tion and care of the young, and consequently his courtship consumes
only a small portion of his time. A polygamous male bird on the
other hand performs no part of the work of incubation or feeding
the young, and in the breeding season spends a very large part of
his time in displaying his plumage to his numerous partners.

192 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 1898

In no family of birds are the males more gorgeous or more
different from the females than in the Birds of Paradise. Darwin says
in his treatise on Descent of Man and Sexual Selection that, accord-
ing to Lesson, these birds are polygamous, but that Mr Wallace doubts
it. The sexual selection therefore is to this extent less probable or less
severe, but there is no doubt whatever about the difference of habits
to which I attribute the difference of plumage between the sexes.
In another passage in the same book Darwin writes: “ With Birds
of Paradise a dozen or more full-plumaged males congregate in a
tree to hold a dancing party as it is called by the natives, and here
they fly about, raise their wings, elevate their exquisite plumes, and
make them vibrate, and the whole tree seems filled with waving
plumes.”

It may be objected that the mechanical stimulation which I
have adduced as the cause of the hypertrophy of the feathers, will
not explain their brilliant colouring or the beauty and symmetry of
their markings. To which I would reply that stimulation of the
growth probably causes also a more intense production of pigment ;
that symmetry of marking is a universal character in organic growth
throughout the animal kingdom; and, thirdly, that very possibly
the different qualities of the light to which males and females are
exposed have something to do with the dull colours of the female
which sits close with her young in obscure retreats, and the bright
colours of the male which keeps more in the open.

I have already referred to the fact that in some species the
relative characters of the sexes are reversed, and it is the females
which are larger, more pugnacious, and more elaborately adorned
than the males. Darwin, of course, attributes this to the reversal
of sexual selection, but it seems to me more rational to hold that
the differences are not merely selected but called into existence by
the habits and conditions. In these cases the male alone performs
the duties of incubation and nursing, and the female takes all the
initiative in courtship. Here, as in the males in the usual case,
the peculiarities of the female only begin to develop when she is
approaching maturity, the young of both sexes being similar to the
adult male. Species of Zurnix in India and Australia are instances

of this condition.
J. T, CUNNINGHAM.

1 MorRAB TERRACE,
PENZANCE,

(To be continued.)

551.77 (44) 193

V

The Delimitation of the Albian and Cenomanian
in France

HE nomenclature of the English Cretaceous System is based

upon the lithological differences exhibited by its members,

the only division which from the beginning ‘had a name of different

origin being the Wealden. Such a basis of nomenclature is bad
because lithological differences are local or provincial accidents.

French geologists have often expressed surprise at the con-
servatism of Englishmen in retaining a nomenclature which only
perpetuates errors and cannot be made to express the true relations
of the component parts of the Cretaceous System. They are quite
right: it has perpetuated the error that the Gault as a whole is older
than the Upper Greensand as a whole, and has prevented us from
recognising long ago that they were to a large extent merely
different lithological facies of one formation.

There can be no question that the distribution of species affords
a better basis of grouping than the lithological characters of deposits.
Put in this way it seems a truism, but it is nevertheless a fact that
our existing system of nomenclature ignores this principle, and does
actually separate deposits which ought to be grouped together ;
while it suggests a connection between ‘Lower’ and ‘ Upper’
Greensand which has no existence in reality.

The French method of nomenclature is free from this reproach,
and it has been preferred to our own by most other European
nations. The French completely ignore lithological differences, and
their subdivisions or stages include all deposits which yield a similar
assemblage of fossils.

D’Orbigny says that his principal object in undertaking the
“ Paléontologie Frangaise” was the application of palaeontology to
the natural classification of the formations, and it is to him
that the French owe their nomenclature of the Jurassic and
Cretaceous systems. He found that of the Cretaceous system in
dire confusion, but when he had examined 593 species of Cretaceous
Cephalopoda and Gasteropoda he felt himself justified in dividing
the whole system into five distinct stages, each containing a special
fauna. This was in 1843, and, abandoning the lithological names
which were then current in France, he proposed new names for his
stages, taken from those of towns or districts where each stage was
well developed and specially fossiliferous. These five stages were
Senonian, Turonian, Albian, Aptian and Néocomian. In 1852
he added a sixth, having recognised that the group which he called
Turonian in 1843, really comprised two stages with essentially differ-

' O

194 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

ent faunas; consequently he restricted the name Turonian to the upper
of these stages, and gave the name of Cenomanian to the lower.

Since 1852 these names have always been used by French
geologists, but in spite of much careful work on the fossils, and in
spite of the progress made in stratigraphical geology, the delimita-
tion of these stages has never been satisfactorily settled. The
restriction of the fossil species to the several stages did not prove
so complete and exact as had originally been supposed. Many
species were found to range from one stage to another, and where
there is a gradual passage from stage to stage, there is of course
scope for difference of opinion regarding the plane of separation.
Moreover in the case of the Albian and Cenomanian there are
special difficulties, for in the Aube whence was taken the type
of the Albian, the fossiliferous beds corresponding to the Lower
Gault are overlaid by a great series of almost unfossiliferous marls
(representing Upper Gault), and the Cenomanian is neither well
developed nor very fossiliferous. D’Orbigny, again, considered the
Albian to be absent from the area taken as the type of the Ceno-
manian (la Sarthe), and this view is still held by many French
geologists, though there are basement beds which some have
regarded as older than the true Cenomanian.

When the stratigraphical succession in the north-east of France
(Marne, Meuse and Ardennes) came to be better understood, it was
found that between the beds which yielded typical Albian fossils
and those in which only Cenomanian fossils occurred, thick deposits
of sandy marl and fine-grained sandstone (gaize) came in, and that
these beds contained a mixture of species, some being such as were
originally regarded as Albian and others such as are generally
confined to the Cenomanian. In these beds the prevalent Am-
monites are A, inflatus (= rostratus) and A. auritus, and they came
to be known as the zone of A. inflatus. Occasionally, however,
they contain Ammonites of the species A. mantelli, A. varians, an
A, faleatus, which are essentially Cenomanian forms.

D’Orbigny was not fully acquainted with the fauna of these beds,
but he was aware that the Gaize de Montblainville contained such a
mixture of species, and he nevertheless referred it to the Albian.?
Further, he regarded the Gault of Wissant and of Folkestone as the
equivalent of his Albian stage, and in his “ Paléontologie Frangaise,”
Ammonites inflatus, A. varicosus, A. auritus, and A. mayorianus, are
given as Gault (z.e. Albian) fossils.

The Upper Gault with Ammonites inflatus continued to be re-
garded by most French writers as Albian, up to the year 1874, but
Hébert in 1864, and Barrois in 1874, preferred to consider it as
Lower Cenomanian, the latter giving as reasons (1) that the Gaize

1 Vide his ‘‘ Paléontologie et Géologie Stratigraphique.” Tom. ii., p. 622, 1852,

1898] ALBIAN AND CENOMANIAN IN FRANCE 195

de l’Argonne contains so many Cenomanian species, (2) that this
zone overlaps the Lower Gault, and thus in his opinion separates
itself from the latter. Later in 1876 Barrois expressly included
the Upper Gault of Folkestone and Wissant in the Cenomanian.
But he made no estimate of the number of species which united the
zone of Ammonites inflatus at these places to the beds above, nor
did either of them ever discuss the relative values of the different
elements of the fauna of the A. inflatus zone.

The variation and discordance of opinion in France may be
gathered from the change in the grouping of the zones in different
editions of A. de Lapparent’s well-known “ Traité de Géologie.” In
his edition of 1885 the zone of A. inflatus is grouped as Albian, in
that of 1892 it is placed in the Cenomanian. The latter method
of grouping has been adopted by Mr G. Dollfus for the Service
de la Carte géologique de la France. At present, therefore, most
French geologists make a very small Albian and a very: thick
Cenomanian, while the line of separation between the two stages
is drawn through the middle of the Gault of Wissant and through
a perfectly continuous bed of sandy clay at Havre.

In England we have arrived at very different results; De Rance
in 1868 and Price in 1874 showed that the Gault of Folkestone
was separable into two divisions—a Lower Gault characterised by
Ammonites interruptus and A. lautus, and an Upper Gault charac-
terised by A. varicosus and A. rostratus. In 1876 Barrois published
his excellent Researches on the Upper Cretaceous Series of England,
and proved to us that the greater part of our Upper Greensand was
the stratigraphical equivalent of the Upper Gault of Folkestone.

Subsequent investigations have led us to regard the combined
Gault and Greensand as a single stage or natural group of beds, to
_ abandon the names Gault and Greensand as denoting definite chrono-
logical divisions ; they can only be regarded as descriptive of different
lithological aspects or facies of the formation, and consequently as
serviceable only on maps that are designed to exhibit such lithological
variations. Hence we can recognise with Barrois a zone of Ammon-
ites rostratus (= inflatus), but it is quite impossible for us to accept a
classification which groups this zone with the Lower Chalk and separ-
ates it from the Lower Gault. | We base our refusal on the very
principle by which the French themselves profess to be guided, namely,
on the faunistic relations of the several zones, and especially on the
range and relative abundance of the different species of Cephalopoda.

Now a classification which appears to be the best and most
natural expression of the facts in southern England can hardly be
unnatural in the north of France, and thus it became clear that
some study of the French sections from an English point of view
was greatly needed. Such a study was made by Mr W., Hill in

196 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

1895, and the results were published in a joint paper with myself
on the “ Delimitation of the Cenomanian in England and France.” !
Careful and repeated examination of the fine coast section near
Havre led us to dissent entirely from Professor Hébert’s grouping and
to agree with those French geologists who had placed the base of the
Cenomanian above the local representative of the Gaize (or zone
of -Ammonites inflatus) We showed, in fact, that the series near
Havre is obviously and naturally divisible into an Albian and a
Cenomanian, which exactly correspond with the two English stages
of (1) Gault-cum-Greensand, and (2) Lower Chalk.

Our descriptions and arguments did not however carry convic-
tion to the mind of Mr G,. Dollfus, who discussed the question in
February last,” and maintained that our views were not in accord-
ance with the palaeontological evidence. The July and August
numbers of the same periodical contain a rejoinder to this attack,
in which the friendly challenge was taken up and the palaeontolo-
gical argument stated more fully than had previously been attempted
either in England or France, with the advantage of being translated
into French by my courteous opponent himself.

As the French nomenclature has been adopted in most European
countries, it becomes a matter of international importance to decide
what is to be connoted by the terms ‘ Albien’ and ‘Cénomanien.’
I desire, therefore, to publish part of my reply to Mr Dollfus in its
English version, and this (with a few small corrections) constitutes
the remainder of the present article.

Referring to the section at Wissant Mr Dollfus remarks: “ If
Mr Jukes-Browne wishes us to place the line of separation above the
clay with Ammonites inflatus, far from making us take a step forward,
he would lead us backward; his opinion is that of a period which we
out-grew in France twenty-five years ago.” That depends on the
point of view; I think that twenty-five years ago the geologists of
France took a path which deviated from the right road; it is quite
true that I seek to lead them back from this wrong path, and I pro-
pose that we should walk together along the straight highway of
progress. That is my hope, but I know that I have first of all to
essay the difficult task of persuading my confréres that the path
they took was a wrong one.

In the first place let us consider the Cenomanian of the typical
area near Le Mans. How was this stage established? D’Orbigny
did not go into stratigraphical details, but he studied the fossils which
had been found in the beds near Le Mans, and he saw that the fauna
as a whole was different from that of the Albian of Dienville and the
Gault of Wissant. D’Orbigny, it is true, thought that there was only

1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. lii., p. 99 (1896).
2 Fewille des Jewnes Naturalistes for February 1898, No. 328.

1898] ALBIAN AND CENOMANIAN IN FRANCE 197

one fauna at Le Mans, but then he also thought the Albian was not
present at Havre, where it is now admitted to exist. In the same way
it may be necessary to admit the existence of Albian at Le Mans.

Now what does present itself at Le Mans? I will quote the
words of Mr Dollfus: “ At Le Mans the base of the Cenomanian
consists of sands containing Ostrea vesiculosa, Nautilus subelegans,
Pecten asper, Ammonites inflatus, etc. These sands rest on Oxfordian
beds with Rhynchonella varians, without the interposition of any beds
belonging to the Lower Cretaceous; this lower limit is therefore
very clearly marked, for it is based on a considerable stratigraphical
break.” But what kind of break is here? There is no break in
the Cretaceous series, only an incomplete condition, from the absence
of everything below a certain horizon in the series. |

It is this very break or hiatus which is a source of difficulty,
for, if the succession in the Sarthe had been complete, I do not think
this discussion about the base of the Cenomanian would ever have
arisen. French geologists have hitherto taken for granted that
everything at Le Mans must be Cenomanian down to the local
base. It is this to which I object: this assertion must be proved,
not taken for granted. My position is this, that the delimitation
of the Cenomanian cannot logically or properly be settled in La
Sarthe. Its upper limit can be determined there because both
Cenomanian and Turonian are fully developed; but its lower limit
eannot be determined there; this must be done in some other
region where both Albian and Cenomanian are fully represented.

I do not ask my French confreves to come to England for the
decision of this question, nor do I ask them to accept a new name :
I recognise that it is primarily a French business, and I will accept.
the evidence of the French strata. But I do say this, that the
matter must be judged by the evidence of the fossils found in the
region which is selected for trial, and that the fossils of La Sarthe
must be left out of the account while the comparison is being made -
between the fauna of the zone of A. inflatus with the faunas of the
beds above and below it.

Where then in France should this comparison be made? Not
at Havre where the Albian is little developed; not in the Pays de
Bray where fossils are rare in the Gaize. It is to the east of
France that Mr Dollfus himself appeals on this point, maintaining that
the fauna of the zone of A. inflatus at Wissant and in the Gaize de
lArgonne is so different from that of the zone of A. interruptus, that
it must be grouped with Cenomanian, not with the Albian. I accept
this test, but I do not come to the same conclusion.

Let us take first the Gaize de PArgonne. Mr Dollfus says that
the list published by Mr Barrois shows that 51 species are Albian
(Gault Inférieur) and that 70 are Cenomanian; but the latter figure is

198 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

his, not that of Mr Barrois, who only says “un assez grand nombre
despéces cénomaniennes” (a considerable number of Cenomanian
species). I do not understand how Mr Dollfus arrives at the 70
unless he brought the fossils of the Sarthe into account. This, I
contend, should not be done; those only should be marked which
occur above the Gaize in the east of France; 7.e. those recorded by
Mr Barrois in his “ Terrain Crétacé des Ardennes,” in the beds which
lie between the Gaize and the Turonian. I have done this and find
that only +8 range upward. The numbers 51 and 48 are so near
that it is clear the Gaize de l’Argonne will not decide the question.

We come next to the Upper Gault of Wissant, as to which
Mr Dollfus says that d’Orbigny was wrong in referring it to the
Albian. I cannot find that any French geologist has published a list
of the fauna of the Upper Gault at Wissant. Mr Barrois tells me
that he does not know of any such list, and in classing the upper
part of the Wissant clay as Cenomanian, he seems to have relied on
the proofs of its correspondence with the Gaize de Argonne, and on
the greater extension or overlap of the zone of 4. inflatus.

A list of the Wissant fauna has, however, been published in Eng-
land by Mr F. G. H. Price, who sent the fossil-collector, J. Griffiths
of Folkestone, over to Wissant for the express purpose of collecting
separately from the Lower and Upper Gault of that place. The
results were embodied in a small treatise on the Gault published by
him in 1879, but the Wissant lists have never been printed separ-
ately. In this connection it will be useful to give a list of the
fossils found by Griffiths in the Upper Gault of Wissant, indicating
at the same time how many occur also in the Lower Gault of that
place and how many range up into the beds above.

LOWER GAULT. | CENOMANIAN.

Ammonites auritus, Sow. axe

5 cristatus, de Lue.

& delaruet, V’Orb. <

‘5 latidorsatus, Mich. x

s lautus, Sow. x

7 mantelli (?) Sow. x

55 rostratus, Sow (inflatus).

2 splendens, Sow. x

as tuberculatus, Sow. x

- varicosus, Sow.
Ancyloceras spinigerum. x
Belemmites minimus, List. i
Hamites flecuosus, d’Orb. x

» elegans, d’Orb. x
» w~ntermedius, Sow. x
» virgulatus, VOrb.
Nautilus clementinus, @Orb. x
Aporrhais parkinsoni, Mant. xX
Dentalium decussatum, Sow. x
x
x

Scala dupiniana, d’Orb.
Solarium conoideum, Sow.

1898] ALBIAN AND CENOMANIAN IN FRANCE 199

Lower GAULT. CENOMANIAN.
Solariwm dentatum, d’Orb. x 2
Anomia sp.
Areca carinata, Sow, D4 x
»» glabra, Sow. x x

Cardita tenuicosta, Sow. x x
Corbula elegans, Sow. ;

» socialis, d’Orb. x
Lima parallela, Sow. x
TInoceramus concentricus, Sow. x

sulcatus, Sow.

Nucula ovata, Sow. x

» pectinata, Sow. x ba
Ostrea arduennensis, d’Orb. x
Pecten raulinianus, VOrb.
Plicatula pectinordes, Sow. x x
Terebratula biplicata, Sow. x
Serpula articulata, Sow.
Cidaris gaultina, Forbes.

27 Tor 8

In the above list there are 38 named species, and of these no
fewer than 27 occur in the Lower Gault of the same place, which
is in the proportion of 71 per cent., while only 7 or 8 (about 20 per
cent.) range into the Cenomanian beds above. D’Orbigny, it therefore
appears, was perfectly right in classing the Upper Gault as Albian
and there is no necessity for revising the lists of the Albian fossils
given by him in his “ Prodrome.” It is Messrs Barrois and Dollfus
who have made a mistake by classing the Upper Gault as Ceno-
manian without a sufficient study of its fauna.

Turning now to England, let us choose localities which corre-
spond most nearly with Wissant and with |’Argonne ; it is generally
admitted that the Gault of Folkestone is an expansion of that of
Wissant, and it will not be denied that the Gaize of Devizes
resembles that of Argonne.

I have made a list of the fossils of the Upper Gault of
Folkestone, basing it on that of Mr Price (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,
Lond., 1874) supplemented by his later record in 1879. Selecting
the Mollusca and neglecting other fossils, I find that the Upper
Gault has yielded 103 named species; of this number 54 occur
also in the Lower Gault, while only 29 range upward into the
Chloritic Marl and Lower Chalk (Cenomanian) of Kent. Here,
therefore, the zone in question has a much more decided affinity
with the beds below than with those above.

Passing to the Gaize of Devizes my lists are not quite complete,
but they include 92 species of Mollusca, and no less than 44 of
these do not. range out of the zone of Am. rostratus (or inflatus), but
36 occur in the Lower Gault of Wiltshire and Folkestone, while
only 18 range into the Warminster sand, and 20 into the Lower

200 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

Chalk (including the zone of Stauronema). Here also the true rela-
tions of the fauna are quite clear.

In this study of the fauna of the English zone of Am. rostratus
I have excluded Echinoderms, because their evidence is not of first-
rate value; in support of this opinion, I may quote that of Dr J. W.
Gregory of the British Museum, who has remarked that, “Echinids are
rather a clue to the conditions of formation of deposits than evidence
of their exact contemporaneity in age.” Thus it may be quite true,
as Mr Lambert declares, that the affinities of the Echinoidea found
in the Gaize of Havre are Cenomanian, but their evidence cannot weigh
against that of the Cephalopoda which are most clearly not Cenomanian.

Mr Dollfus quite omits to notice that I have appealed to the
Cephalopoda as affording the best criterion of the affinities of the
fauna of these beds. Let us see what this criterion proves.

From the Upper Gault of Folkestone Messrs Price and De Rance
have recorded 31 species of Cephalopoda, and of these 12 range down
into the Lower Gault, and only 4 range into beds above. Similarly
in the Gaize of Devizes there are 20 Cephalopods, of which number
7 occur in Lower Gault and 4 range into higher beds. Both at Folke-
stone and Devizes Ammonites rostratus and A. varicosus are restricted
to the Gaize and Upper Gault, but in the counties of Buckingham
and Bedford, I have myself found both species in the Lower Gault.
In two cases they were in company with A. Jautus and A. splendens
about 30 feet from the base of the Gault which is there 200 feet
thick ; in a third case they occurred with A. interruptus quite near
the base of the Gault. With respect to the upward range of A. rostratus,
it passes upward into the green glauconite sands above the Gaize,
both in Wiltshire and Dorset, and where the Chert Beds are absent,
I have found it within six or seven feet (two metres) of the top of
the Upper Greensand. No Ammonites have yet been found in the
Chert Beds, but A. rostratus has never been found above them.

Next let us consider the true Cenomanian group of Cephalo-
poda :—Ammonites varians, falcatus, mantelli, navicularis, rotoma-
gensis, Scaphites aequalis, Turrilites costatus, tuberculatus. No one
who has collected along the south coast of England or at Wissant,
or at Havre, could doubt where these species first set in as common
fossils; they come in with Stawronema carteri and A. laticlavius in
what is generally called the Chloritic Marl. |

It is only occasionally and locally that any of them occur below
this horizon, but so far as my experience goes not one of them
ranges further than six feet below it. A. varians, faleatus and
navicularis are not uncommon at the top of the Greensand between
Warminster and Maiden Bradley, but are not associated with A.
rostratus ; the bed in which they occur is evidently a passage bed
from Greensand to Chloritic Marl.

1898] ALBIAN AND CENOMANIAN IN FRANCE 201

I only know of two cases where A. varians and A. rostratus are
said to be associated: one is in the highest bed of the Greensand in
North Dorset where both are rare. The other is the record by Mr
Price of A. varians from his bed XI. at Folkestone, but the varians
was a doubtful specimen and no other has since been found. Mr
Munier-Chalmas states that A. varians occurs with A. rostratus in
the East of France, and doubtless it does occur occasionally at the
summit of the A. vostratus zone. Such occurrences are not rare
near the junction of two stages, and they only prove that there is
no hard and fast line separating one fauna from another. It is
generally conceded that in the delimitation of zones or stages, we
must be guided by the abundance of certain characteristic species
not by the mere occurrence of one or two of them. Consequently
those who argue that the zone of A. rostratus must be Cénomanien
because A. varians sometimes occurs near the top of it are re-
versing the rule, and seek to establish a precedent which would
destroy our principles of classification.

Mr Dollfus has said “it is an illusion to think that we can ever
possess a perfect classification which would satisfy geologists of all
countries.” That is quite true, but it is not an illusion to believe
that we can frame a classification which will suffice for one strati-
graphical province or basin of deposition, such as that of England
or Northern France.

I do not seek to upset the French nomenclature, on the con-
trary I recognise that the French will accept no other nomenclature.
Endeavours have been made to employ it in England, but at present
that isimpossible. D’Orbigny’s names have been so wrested from their
original application by the modern French geologists that many English
geologists think that these names no longer possess any fixity of mean-
ing ; consequently they oppose the adoption of them. There are of
course some who see that the alterations are merely personal views
of grouping, and that the faunistic differences on which the names
were founded remain the same. So far as the divisions of the Chalk
are concerned, we may eventually be able to employ the French names,
and the time will be hastened if our French confréres will restrict the
Cenomanian to its proper limits; but with respect to the English Gault
and Greensand I see no alternative but to propose a new name.

I hope at any rate to have made it clear that I do not advocate
“a return to antiquated classifications based mainly on mineralogical
facies.” On the contrary I believe that Mr Dollfus and I are in
perfect accord in regard to the principles of classification. We
both consider palaeontology and stratigraphy to be the true guides,
and we only differ because we interpret the teaching of these guides
in different ways. A, J. JUKES- BROWNE.

ETRURIA, TORQUAY.

bo
oOo
bo

SOME NEW BOOKS
WELWITSCH’S AFRICAN PLANTS

CATALOGUE OF THE AFRICAN PLANTS collected by Dr Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61,
Dicotyledons, Part II., Combretaceae to Rubiaceae. By W. P. Hiern, British

Museum (Natural History). 8vo, pp. 337-510. London: Printed by order of the
Trustees. 1898. Price, 4s.

THE number of those who have braved the dangers and discomforts
attendant upon botanical journeys in distant countries is continually
on the increase. Such men, to cite only a few names, as Robert
Brown, Von Martins, Spruce, Weddell, Hooker, Beccari, have highly
distinguished themselves by honourable labour in this department of
science, and their services have been gratefully recognised by the
world at large. But among them all, none is more worthy of
recognition than Dr Friedrich Welwitsch, who, for eight years, ex-
plored the at that time all but unknown Portuguese possessions in the
south west of Africa. Welwitsch’s great merit resides in the thorough-
ness with which he set himself to perform his allotted task. It is one
thing to pass rapidly through a country, plucking specimens when
opportunity offers, as a member of an expedition protected by all the
resources of civilisation against the many unpleasantnesses which
would otherwise have to be encountered. Very different must it be
when the solitary traveller has to rely upon his own devices ; when
year by year he struggles on against the scorching heat of the tropics,
against the swarming insect life, whose only object seems to be the
reduction of man to the lowest ebb of wretchedness, against the vicis-
situdes. of the seasons with the inevitable diseases lurking in their
train, against the ever-present danger from noxious animals and still
more noxious members of the human race. All this Dr Welwitsch
did, and the result is seen in the truly splendid additions to our know-
ledge of the tropical African flora which we owe to his instrumentality.
No one could possibly have turned his opportunities to better account ;
and when we search the record of achievement in this branch of know-
ledge, we fail to remember one explorer who, in the matter of scrupu-
lous care in the selection of his specimens, and ungrudging toil and
sagacity in the writing of the notes to accompany them, can be men-
tioned as Welwitsch’s equal.

Unfortunately the great explorer died before he was able to give to
the world the full result of his unparalleled efforts ; but a fine set of the
plants, equal to all intents and purposes to the first set now at Lisbon,
was happily secured by the Trustees of the British Museum. Owing
to pressure of work, these plants for some years remained undescribed;
meanwhile sets of inferior value were distributed from Lisbon to vari-
ous herbaria, and by these means descriptions of Welwitsch’s novelties
have exercised the pens of various botanists from time to time. But
desultory work of this kind, however useful it may be, is scarcely a
worthy way of dealing with the subject; it is therefore a matter for

September 1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 203

unalloyed satisfaction that Mr Hiern has stepped into the breach by
undertaking a full elucidation of Welwitsch’s collections. In the
second part of the memoir devoted to this object, the one we are
here noticing, the interest aroused by the appearance of the first part
is fully maintained, as is also the high reputation of the author. Mr
Hiern is well known for the painstaking accuracy of all his work ; he is,
also, a man whom, in any case when divergency of view is admissible,
one would much rather have on one’s own side than as an opponent..
Moreover, the excellent judgment he displays in making full use of
the explorer’s notes, gives him an extra claim on our gratitude. True,
we have one objection to make in respect of this, an objection which
may perhaps seem odd as coming from an Englishman. We think
that too much of the memoir is written in our own language. After
all, Welwitsch was a German, and the country he so thoroughly
explored is a possession of the Portuguese crown. Moreover, a large
number of those to whom the work appeals are foreigners. If,
therefore, our objection be ruled invalid so far as concerns the
notes themselves, we certainly see no good reason for departing
from the time-honoured practice of describing in Latin at least the
salient features of a new plant. By the use of Latin a person of any
nationality at once knows what an author is driving at, and we can
only hope that our Russian and Hungarian brethren will not resort
to reprisals ; otherwise troublous times are in prospect.

Combretaceae occupy the place of honour in the present part; thence
we pass on to Myrtaceae, and so through the remaining calycifloral
orders to the first order of the Gamopetalae, the Rubiaceae, and with
this the part closes. We much like the pithy introductions to the
principal orders, wherein geographical data, economic uses, and so forth
are skilfully detailed. As regards nomenclature, we are glad to see
that Mr Hiern does not lend himself to the extreme views prevalent
in some quarters. To most of the changes he introduces no one who
admits the advisability of change at all can possibly object. But we
must confess that had the original disturber of nomenclature come to
us for advice regarding the use to be made of his portentous know-
ledge, we should have felt disposed to answer in the words of the lady
at the close of Mr Austin Dobson’s delightful lovers’ quarrel :-—

“Td say no more about it
If I were you.”

But a great deal has been said about it, and much more written, so
that one begins to think the best way out of the difficulty to be the
adoption of the change as soon as possible. We grieve, though, to see
an old and familiar name like Psychotria disappear; a change involv-
ing scores of species, and a large addition to the list of synonyms.
And why does Mr Hiern refrain from attaching his name to species
now for the first time ranged under some new denomination? Thus
he prints Myrstiphyllum cristatum (the new name for the old Psycho-
tria cristata, Hiern) without appending any authority, and so on
throughout the work. ~

Oversights are very rare; but such a sentence as this—“ Africa is
but little favoured with the natural occurrence of Myrtaceae” is far
from elegant, though it is only fair to say that we have found no

204 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

similar case of faulty diction. On p. 371 Rotala verticillata is printed
for R. verticillaris, and “near genus” (p. 388) should obviously be
“new genus.” But errors like these are unimportant and, indeed,
almost unavoidable. The main point to recognise is that we have here
the second instalment of a work which shows excellent promise of
proving creditable alike to the author and to the naturalist of whose
‘grit’ and sagacity it bears such unequivocal signs.

For AMATEUR GARDENERS

GARDEN-MAKING: Suggestions for the use of home grounds. By L. H. Bailey, aided
by L. R. Taft, F. A. Waugh and Ernest Walker. 8vo, vili+418 pp. New York:
The Macmillan Co. 1898. Price 4s. net.

Tur Pruntne-Boox: A monograph of the Pruning and Training of Plants as applied
to American conditions. By L. H. Bailey. 8vo, xii+538 pp. New York: The
Macmillan Co. 1898. Price 5s. net.

ALTHOUGH these two charming little books are written primarily for
American readers, they should be none the less welcome in this
country. There are many things that we can learn from the ingen-
uity of our Transatlantic cousins, and under the guidance of Professor
Bailey, we are sure to do so in the most pleasant manner possible.
The number of books that this genial author contrives to publish
during a single year is a marvel in itself, even making allowance for
the help of various colleagues; but what is even more remarkable
is the verve with which each is written. Professor Bailey, it is clear,
enjoys writing his books, and that is why we all enjoy reading them.
The illustrations, too, are always good and appropriate.

The book on Garden-making is original, with quaint fancies here
and there, but practical withal. Its opening paragraph is one of the
most fascinating introductions to a fascinating subject that we re-
member. Let us quote some sentences. “ Every family can have
a garden . . . one plant in a tin may be a more helpful and inspiring
garden to some mind than a whole acre of lawn and flowers may be
to another. The satisfaction of a garden does not depend upon the
area, nor, happily, upon the cost or rarity of the plants. It depends
upon the temper of the person. One must first seek to love plants
and nature, and then to cultivate that happy peace of mind which
is satisfied with little. If plants grow and thrive, he should be
happy; and if the plants which thrive chance not to be the ones
he planted, they are plants nevertheless, and nature is satisfied with
them. . . . We are happier when we love the things which grow
because they must. A patch of lusty pigweeds, growing and crowd-
ing in luxuriant abandon, may be a better and more worthy object of
affection than a bed of coleuses in which every spark of life and spirit
and individuality has been sheared out and suppressed. The man
who worries morning and night about the dandelions in the lawn will
find great relief in loving the dandelions. Each blossom is worth
more than a gold coin as it shimmers in the exuberant sunlight of
the growing spring, and attracts the bees to its blossom. Little
children love the dandelions: why may not we? Love the things
nearest at hand, and love intensely. If I were to write a motto over
the gate of a garden, I should choose the remark which Socrates made

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 205

as he saw the luxuries in the market: ‘How much there is in the
world that I do not want!’”

The Pruning-book is eminently practical, but in the right way.
All the advice is based on a body of solid principles, and these are
explained by reference to the life-histories of various typical branches.
Anyone who has mastered the instances given by Professor Bailey
should be able to work out for himself the correct mode of pruning
any unfamiliar tree. A hundred and forty pages are devoted to
American viticulture, but this need not be grudged by us, as the rest
is well worth the money.

BIRDS NEAR SYDNEY

THE BIRDS OF THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND. By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.8., Australian
Museum, Sydney. Reprinted from the Handbook of Sydney and the County of
Cumberland. Melbourne: George Robertson & Co. 8vo, pp. 116.

Mr Nortu has produced a useful pamphlet for local ornithologists.
His list of twenty-one species does not include any but well-known
Australian birds; but it has been compiled with manifest. care, and
should enable any visitor to ascertain what species he might hope to
study during a few months’ residence within the prescribed topo-
graphical limits. It is satisfactory to learn that the Lyre-bird (Menura
superba) still frequents certain spots in the mountain ranges, and that
the Black Swan (Chenopsis atrata) is still common in most of the
inlets along the coast. Our information concerning the Freckled
Duck (Stictonetta naevosa) is already so meagre that we wish that Mr
North could have supplemented his reference to the occurrence of this
bird in New South Wales in 1897, with a few fresh facts as to its
life history. The families of Zimelitdae and Meliphagidae include
many of the most characteristic Aves of this district ; but the Order
Psittaci is also much in evidence. H. A. MAcPHERSON.

ALEXANDER GOODMAN MORE

LIFE AND LETTERS OF ALEXANDER GOODMAN Morz, with Selections from his Zoologi-
cal and Botanical Writings. Edited by C. B. Moffat, B.A., with a preface by
Frances M. More. 8vo, pp. xii. 642, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1898.

THE late Mr A. G. More possessed such a charming personality that
there could be no doubt as to the wisdom of republishing his corre-
spondence with the late Charles Darwin, Professor Newton, and other
well-known zoologists. But the present volume does far more than
this. A large portion of the text is occupied by pleasant letters and
extracts from the diaries of the late Curator of the Dublin Museum ;
but more than two hundred pages are devoted to the reproduction of
Mr More’s essays and papers on Irish botany and zoology. Two of
these articles are of wider interest than the rest, viz., those on the
“Distribution of Birds in Great Britain during the Nesting Season,”
and the “Geographical Distribution of Butterflies in Great Britain.”
The former may indeed be considered classical, and proved of the
utmost value to later workers. But A. G. More expended his greatest
efforts in advancing the extension of Irish natural history. The
impetus which his personal influence lent to the original researches
of such Irish naturalists as Barrington and Barrett-Hamilton can best

206 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

be ascertained by a careful study of these pages. The most valuable
piece of work which poor More accomplished during his later years
was undoubtedly the official list of Irish Birds; the second revised
edition of which appeared in December 1889, and is now reproduced,
with footnotes by the Editor and Dr Scharff, which bring it fairly up
to date. The statement (p. 368) that the specimen of Zurdus migra-
torius procured in Ireland in 1891 was the first obtained in Europe is,
of course, a mistake, at least five examples having been proved to have
strayed across the Atlantic previously, one of the number having
occurred in England in 1876 ; but this is a venial fault. The Shear-
water, catalogued as a specimen of Puffinus obscurus, obtained off the
Kerry coast in 1853, has recently proved to be Puffinus assimilis ; but
in other respects this catalogue of Irish birds is invaluable for refer-
ence purposes. The smaller papers on Irish zoology cover a variety
of ground, and the index has been carefully compiled. H. A. M.

SOME JAMAICAN JELLY-FISH

THE CuBoMEDUSAE. By Franklin 8. Conant. Memorial Vol., with Biographical
Sketch. Mem. Biol. Lab., Johns Hopkins Univ. IV. Part 1, xvi+62 pp., viii.
pls. and frontispiece. Baltimore, 1898.

THE friends of the late Dr Conant, with the aid of the Johns Hopkins
University, have printed in the form of a memorial volume his disser-
tation on the anatomy of the Cubomedusae.

There is no group of the Coelentera which needed the careful
investigation of a clever student more than the one which Conant
chose for the subject of his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philo-
sophy at the John Hopkins University.

The Cubomedusae present so many features of exceptional interest
that zoologists have felt very keenly that a reinvestigation of their
anatomy and a study of their development were among the most
important pieces of work yet to be done in the group of the Coelen-
tera. The investigations of Claus and Haeckel, who were able to
study preserved material only, are necessarily incomplete and unsatis-
factory, and Conant seized the opportunity which the discovery of
large numbers of the living medusae on the coast of Jamaica gave
him of reinvestigating the whole subject. There can be no doubt in
the minds of those who read the volume which records the results of
his labours, that this contribution to science is a solid and valuable
one. His descriptive writing is remarkably lucid, his reasoning clear,
and at the same time cautious, and the numerous illustrations to the
memoir are admirable. With such impressions framing themselves as
we read the pages, there comes the feeling that in Conant we have lost
a zoologist who had every prospect before him of a brilliant career in
the scientific world. His patient and noble devotion to the cause he
had at heart demands our admiration, and calls out our sympathy for
his friends and fellow-workers in America who mourn his untimely
death.

The species that Conant had to work upon were Charybdea
saymacana and Tripedalia cystophora, both of which were found in
Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, the latter being the sole representative
of the new family Tripedalidae. The habit of these two species is

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 207

not their least remarkable feature. The Cubomedusae were generally
considered to be deep-sea forms, but both these species are found at
the surface and near the shore. T'ripedalia occurs—very locally—in
water that is not only very shallow but discoloured with organic
matter, with a bottom of black mud. It is very unfortunate that
Conant was unable to complete his embryological investigations, but
the following note on p. 23 concerning Z'ripedalia is of very great
interest. “The embryos were thrown out in the Aquaria as free-
~ swimming planulae, which settled down on the bottom and sides of
the glass in a day or two, and quickly developed into small hydras
with four tentacles. . . . In this condition they lived for three weeks
without essential change, and they were still giving no promise of
further development when the laboratory broke up and the jars had
to be emptied.”

Tripedalia is the smallest form of the Cubomedusae, the height of
the bell in the largest individuals being only 8 or 9 mm., whereas
of the twenty species mentioned by Haeckel only two are less than
20 mm. in height. The generic name is given to it on account of the
prominent feature of the arrangement of the tentacles in groups of
three, with separate pedalia, Further details of the anatomy of this
new genus are given in the text.

The greater part of the dissertation is occupied by an admirably
lucid account of the anatomy of Charybdea xaymacana, containing
several new points of interest; but perhaps the most important part
is the detailed description of the vascular lamellae and the nervous
system of the Cubomedusae at the end of the volume. It will be
noted with some interest that Schewiakoff’s account of the histology of
the eyes was not confirmed in all details. It will be remembered that
Schewiakoff recognised in the retina two kinds of cells which he
named visual cells and pigment cells respectively. This Conant was
unable to do; in fact he found considerable evidence against the two
types of retinal cells, and he found that the long pigment streaks are
parts of retinal cells continued into processes like Schewiakoft’s visual
cells,

There is one point in the Memoir which needs criticism in case it
is copied by others who succeed Dr Conant in the literature of
Medusae. The use of the word ‘gelatine’ in the sense in which the
word ‘ mesogloea’ is used in this country is not justifiable. Mr Sedg-
wick in his recently published text-book objects to the word ‘meso-
gloea’ because “it suggests an ectogloea and entogloea which do not
exist,” and says that when the supporting lamella is thick and bulky
it is simply called the ‘jelly.’ There is no very serious objection to
the use of the word jelly in this manner, because it implies nothing
more than a substance of jelly-like consistency; but the word ‘gelatine’
implies a definite chemical character, and all the evidence we have at
present tends to prove that the mesogloea of Coelentera is not gelatine
but mucin. It is therefore to be hoped that the word ‘gelatine’ in
the sense in which it was used by Dr Conant will be dropped and the
word mesogloea take its place. Mr Sedgwick’s objection to the word
cannot be considered a very serious one, for it would be equally applic-
able to the word mesentery, which he uses throughout his book.

SYDNEY J. HICKSON.

208 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

THE SKELETON OF MARYLAND

MaryLanp GeroLocican Survey. Volume One, By Wm. Bullock Clark, State
Geologist, E. B. Matthews, and L. A. Bauer. 8vo, 540 pp. and 17 plates.

Wiru its first volume of Reports, the Geological Survey of Maryland
makes an imposing, attractive, and generally successful start. This
Survey has the benefit, inestimable in America, of being removed
from the immediate control of politicians, since it is under the direc-
tion of a commission “composed of the Governor, the Comptroller, the
President of the Johns Hopkins University, and the President of the
Maryland Agricultural College.” We may therefore expect the ful-
filment of the promise that other volumes will follow, dealing with
the mining, geology, palaeontology, mineralogy, forestry, agricultural
physics, and so forth.

The present volume opens with an Introduction by Professor
Clark, who relates the history of the establishment of the Survey,
describes its plan of operations, and then gives an account of the pro-
gress of investigation concerning the physical features and natural
resources of Maryland. This is followed by an outline of present
knowledge of the physical features of the State, embracing an account
of the physiography, geology, and mineral resources. This also is
from the pen of Mr Clark ; it occupies 87 pages, and is illustrated by
a hypsometric and a geological map and several photographic plates
of scenery. A useful appendix to this is a bibliography and carto-
graphy of Maryland, with special reference to its geology, by Dr E. B.
Matthews, who was assisted in the compilation by all the members
of the Survey. The volume concludes with the First Report upon
Magnetic work in Maryland, by Dr L. A. Bauer, who has been. con-
ducting this division of the work of the Survey.

The State of Maryland forms part of the eastern border region
which stretches from the Atlantic coast to the crest of the Alle-
ghanies, and from its central situation affords, perhaps, the most
characteristic section of this broad belt. In Maryland, as elsewhere,
this part of the continent is divided into three physiographic areas :
the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Appalachian Region.
The Coastal Plain includes rather over one half the land area of the
State (nearly 5000 square miles), and attains in places'a width of 100
miles. By the great Chesapeake Bay, running north and south, it is
divided into the very low-lying Eastern Maryland, and a higher
western trait usually called Southern Maryland. The Piedmont
Plateau occupies somewhat over one quarter of the land area of
the State, being about 65 miles wide in the north, and gradually
narrowing to 40 miles in the south. It is divided by Parr’s Ridge
into an eastern and western division. The former has a diversified
topography due to varied crystalline rocks with complicated structure ;
in it are broad, fertile limestone valleys running in various directions.
The western division includes the broad limestone valley of the Mono-
cacy, on which is the town of Frederick, and near the mouth of which
is Sugarloaf Mountain rising rapidly to a height of 1250 feet. The
Appalachian Region extends from the Piedmont Plateau to the
western limits of the State ; it comprises about 2000 square miles, and
attains a maximum width of 115 miles in the northern part of Mary-

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 209

land. It consists of parallel mountain ranges, with deep valleys,
which are cut, nearly at right angles, throughout much of the distance,
by the Potomac river. It is divided into three districts, based upon
clearly defined geological differences ; these are an eastern (Blue Ridge
and Great Valley), a central (Appalachian Mountains proper), and a
western (Alleghany Mountains).

Within the relatively small limitsof the State of Maryland there is
hardly an important geological epoch that is not represented, the most
important omissions being in the Jurassic, with the possible exception
of its later portion. The seven regions just indicated are each com-
posed of a distinct series of geological formations. The beds of the
Coastal Plain are nearly horizontal, still there is a predominance of
the latter Cainozoic formations in the eastern division, and of Meso-
zoic and early Cainozoic rocks in the western. East of Parr’s Ridge, in
the Piedmont Plateau, is a sequence of highly crystalline rocks, largely
igneous, which represent the remains of a vast Archaean Continent,
whose detritus furnished the Palaeozoic sediments. West of Parr’s
Ridge are greatly folded and metamorphosed, but less crystalline,
beds of early Palaeozoic time ; the Frederick valley, above alluded to,
lies in blue Palaeozoic limestone in part overlaid by the red sandstone
and shale of Mesozoic age. In the Appalachian region, Blue Ridge
and Great Valley are in Cambrian and Lower Silurian (= Ordovician)
rocks, in places so eroded as to expose the Archaean floor; the
Appalachians are built of Upper Silurian and Devonian strata; the
Alleghanies are composed of more gently folded Devonian and Car-
boniferous deposits, carrying the valuable coal seams of the Cumber-
land basin.

It is thus clear that ample opportunity is afforded to Professor
Clark and his assistants of producing a series of memoirs of varied
and profound geological interest. The present volume forms an
excellent basis, and augurs well for the future.

DowN AND ANTRIM FOR THE HOLIDAYS

BELFAST AND County Down RAILwAy Company. OFFICIAL GuIDE To County Down
AND THE Mourne Mountains. By R. Lloyd Praeger, with seventy [reproductions
of] photographs of Scenery by R. Welch, Belfast, maps, and other illustrations.
8vo, xvi+232 pp. Belfast: Marcus Ward & Co. 1898. One Shilling.

OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE BELFAST AND NorTHERN CoUNTIES RAILWAY, THE GIANT’S
CAUSEWAY, AND THE AnTRIM Coast. Maps and illustrations. 8vo, viii+172 pp.
Belfast: W. & G. Baird. 1898. Sixpence. |

THESE are two excellent handbooks for the tourist in Counties Down

and Antrim. Of late years a very great improvement has taken place

in the accommodation for visitors to the North-east and the West of

Ireland especially, and travel there is as comfortable as anywhere.

There is no better holiday in our opinion than a fortnight spent

between Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway, with a day or two spared

for the Mourne Mountains. These guide-books cover the exact area, and
are indispensable each in itself and as supplying the gaps in the other.

The first on our list is compiled by the well-known President of the

Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club, and that alone should secure it a large

sale. It deals in an equally able manner with the History, Archaeology,

Sports, Artistic merits, Natural History, and Geology, and these in no

mere perfunctory way. It has several maps, one of which, by Professor

M. F. Fitzgerald, is of great value, as it gives for the first time the

fe

210 NATURAL SCIENCE [September

contours of Newcastle district of the Mourne Mountains. There is
scarcely need to mention the photographic reproductions of Mr Welch,
every reader of Natural Science must be familiar with them; but it
“may be as well to note that the original photographs naturally far
surpass these reproductions. For these alone it will repay every
geologist to invest his shilling.

The other book is of quite similar class to the first, which, as we
said above, it complements. Here the Geology is dealt with by Pro-
fessor Cole, the Botany by Mr Praeger, Fishing byJ. 8. Hamill, Antiqui-
ties by W. Gray, and Sketching localities by Miss Sydney Thompson.
An excellent and liberal selection of Mr Welch’s views are also drawn
upon, and many other pictures of interest. We note the exterior and
interior of the homestead of Francis M‘Kinley, whose descendant is
now President of the United States. Like the above book, this is of
especial interest to geologists by reason of its pictures, and we strongly
recommend it to any one who has seen or is interested in the district
of Larne to the Giant’s Causeway.

VITALISM

DurinG the recent academical year Prof. Léo Errera, of the Uni-
versité Libre of Brussels, lectured on the question—‘ Js there such
a Thing as a Vital Force?” He has been good enough to send us
a syllabus of his lectures, which contains a very useful bibliography
of the subject. He comes to the conclusion that there has not yet
been demonstrated in living beings any source of energy independent
of external energies, although the resultant of these various energies,
as exhibited in the structure of an organised being, may conveniently
be spoken of as ‘vital.’ To abstract what is itself an abstract is
hardly possible for us; but those who are interested in the subject
might do worse than write to the Libraire Lamertin, Rue Marché-au-
Bois, Bruxelles, for a copy, which costs 75 centimes.

THE zoological results of Dr Arthur Willey’s travels in New Britain,
New Guinea, the Loyalty Islands, and other islands of the South
Pacific, during 1895-97, are to be published by the Cambridge
University Press in a series of monographs. The writers, besides
Dr Willey himself, include Dr Paul Mayer, Mr R. I. Pocock, Dr D.
Sharp, Prof. 8. J. Hickson, Mr A. E. Shipley, and Mr Jeffrey Bell.
The work is expected to be completed in five or six parts, of which
two will be issued during the autumn.

WE have received from Messrs Blackie & Son a small manual,
entitled “Elementary Chemistry, Practical and Theoretical, First
Year’s Course,” by T. A. Cheetham. Since this is outside our scope
we can only say that Mr Cheetham appears to have combined the
practical and theoretical divisions of his subject in an intimate and
successful manner. The descriptions of the experiments are clear and
should enable them to be carried out easily by the student.

SCRAPS FROM SERIALS

To the paper of Mr Jukes-Browne, which appears in its English form
in the present number, a reply by Mr G. Dollfus, entitled “ Role de la

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 211

stratigraphie dans la classification Géologique,” was published in the
August number of La Fewille des jewnes naturalistes, Evidently the
discussion has cleared the ground, and though the compromise sug-
gested by Mr Dollfus is not likely to be accepted by Mr Jukes-Browne,
there are signs that an agreement may be arrived at eventually.

In the Westminster Review for August, Mr J. F. Hewitt has an
article on “The Smithsonian Institution: Its history and its later
Ethnological publications.”

No. 4. of vol. ui. of the Records of the Australian Musewm was
published on June 13, and contained a description of new or little
known Palaeozoic Gastropoda from Victoria, Tasmania, and N.S.
Wales, referred to the genera Goniostropha, Mourlonia, Helicotoma,
Trochonema, Holopea, and a new genus Gyrodoma allied to Mur-
chisonia, by R. Etheridge, jun., who also founds a new species H.
australis, for specimens of the Silurian chain-coral, Halysites, from N.S.
Wales. In the same number W. J. Rainbow describes the larva of
the geometrical moth Pseudoterpna percomptaria, and a new species of
Araneid, Poltys multituberculatus. C. Hedley describes and figures
Lima alata, a new bivalve from Santa Cruz, 8. Pacific. A. J. North
furnishes a series of ornithological notes.

Part 2. of vol. ii. of Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses is to hand,
and contains a paper by C. Sasaki on the wild and domestic silk-
worms of Japan, in which he comes to the conclusion that the latter
are derived from Theophila mandarina. Prof. Ijima contributes a
preliminary synopsis of the genera and and species of the sponge
family Rossellidae. Yet another preliminary notice we regret to see
is that of new Japanese Echinoids by S. Yoshiwara; in this ten
species are somewhat briefly described without any illustrations.

Volume iii. of the Journal of the Essex Technical Laboratories fully
carries out the promise of earlier volumes, and Mr Houston and his
assistants are to be congratulated on the success that has attended their
efforts in the teaching of science as applied to agriculture and dairy-
farming. The lectures on dairy bacteriology are particularly valuable.

FURTHER LITERATURE RECEIVED

OuTLINEs of Vertebrate Palaeontology, A. S. Woodward : Cambridge, Nat. Sci. Manual.
Natural Hygiene, Lahmann ; Radiation, Hyndman: Sonnenschein, London. Plant Life,
Barnes: Holt, New York. Classification of Vertebrata, Gadow: Black, London.

The Periodical Cicada, Marlatt: Bull. U.S. Dept. Agriculture. Minnesota
Botanical Studies, ser. ii., part 1. Report Manchester Micro. Soc., 1897. Clays in
New Jersey (no reference given), and Soundings from the Pacific, Edwards: Amer.
Micro. Journ. Importation of San José Seale from Japan, Webster: Canadian
Entomologist. 'Transactions Norfolk Nats. Soc., vol. vi., part 4. Report S. African
Mus., 1897. Flat-fishes of Cape Colony, Boulenger: Dept. Agriculture, C. of Good
Hope. L/origine des individus, Herrera: Mem. Soc. Antonio Alzate. 'The Temperance
Question, Reid : Medical Mag. Report Manchester Mus., 1897-98. Seams of Lancashire
Coal measures, Bolton: Manchester Mus. Handbook. Rev. Mensuelle de Bibliogr.
Scient., Bailliere.

Amer. Journ, Sci., Aug. ; Amer. Micro. Journ., June, July ; Amer. Nat., June,
July ; L’Anthropologie, May-June, vol. ix., No. 3; Avicula, May-June, July-Aug. ;
Boll. de Naturalista, xviii., No. 7; Botan. Gazette, July; Feuille des jeunes Nat.,
Aug. ; Irish. Nat., Aug. ; Knowledge, July, Aug. ; Literary Digest, July 9, 16, 22, 30,
Aug. 6; Naturalist, Aug ; Nature, July 21, 28, Aug. 4, 11; Nature Notes, Aug. ; New
Age, June; Photogram, Aug. ; Plant World, July ; Review of Reviews, July ; Revue
Scient., July 23, 30, Aug. 6,13; Riv. Ital. Sci. Nat., July and Aug. ; Rev. polit. e
litteraria, iv., fasc. 1; Science, July 8, 15, 22, 29, Aug. 5; Scientific Amer., July 9,
16, 23, 30, Aug. 6; Riv. Psichologia, June, fasc. 4 and 5, July, fasc. 6 ; Scot. Med.
- and Surg. Journ., Aug.; Scot. Geogr. Mag., Aug.; Victorian Nat., June, July ;
Westminster Rey., Aug.

212

NEWS

Proressor E, Ray LANKESTER has been appointed Director of the Natural
History Branch of the British Museum. We have on a previous occasion ex-
pressed our admiration of Prof. Lankester’s biological work. Further than this
he has shown, by the excellent museum installations carried out under his guid-
ance at Oxford, how well he is fitted to continue the exposition of the national
collections on the lines laid down by Owen and Flower. All who have ever had
the pleasure of working under him admit with gratitude the inspiration and
guidance they have received, and recognise that his powers are remarkably
adapted for the direction of a great scientific establishment. We fail to see how a
more fitting person could have been found.

Dr D. Morris, of Kew, has been appointed head of a newly founded govern-
ment department to direct practical applications of botany in the West Indies.
We fear that the learned gentleman will not be welcomed with open arms by the
many botanists in those parts, which already have an excellent Botanical Garden
and staff in Jamaica.

OTHER recent appointments are those of Dr Charles Hunter Stewart to the
professorship of Public Health and Sanitary Science at Edinburgh University,
and Dr Heinrich Ries, of Columbia University, to be instructor in Economic
Geology, a newly created post at Cornell University.

AFTER serving the Museum of Comparative Zoology in various capacities for
thirty-five years, Mr Alexander Agassiz has resigned his position as Director and
Curator. The policy of the establishment will hereafter be guided by a Com-
mittee of the Museum Faculty of Harvard, consisting of Dr H. P. Walcott and Pro-
fessor George L. Goodale. Dr W.McM. Woodworth has been appointed assistant
in charge of the Museum, to date from August 1, 1898.

PROFESSOR JAMES HALL, State-Geologist of New York, died on August 7th,
having nearly completed his eighty-seventh year. We hope to devote a special
article to this famous American geologist in our next number.

THE new galleries of comparative anatomy, anthropology, and palaeontology,
at the Museum of Natural History, Paris, were opened on July 21.

Tue U.S. National Museum has recently acquired the Lacois collection of
fossil insects. It is said to contain over 6000 specimens.

DurRinG two years of active work in amassing an herbarium in connection
with the Botanical Department of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, over
50,000 mounted and classified sheets have been accumulated ; these are distri-
buted geographically about as follows:—North America, 16,000; Mexican
Boundary, 1575; Mexico, 6125; Central America, 1575 ; West Indies, 1050 ;
South America, 1500 ; Europe, 10,500 ; Asia, 4500; Africa, 3850; Japan, 1050 ;
Oceania, 1200; Australasia, 2250.

WE regret to learn that the young male giraffe recently bought by the
Zoological Society died on the night of Monday, August 8, from indigestion.

Tuer Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union, joined by members of the Lincolnshire
Science Society, and the Grantham, Grimsby, and Louth Naturalists’ Societies,
met at Grantham on June 7, and had a very successful excursion to Saltersford,
Stoke Park, Woolsthorpe Manor House, and Little Ponton. <A report by Rev.
E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, with lists of specimens collected, appeared in The
Naturalist for August.

September 1898] NEWS 213

On August 1 the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union made an excursion to Spurn,
and succeeded in collecting many specimens of interest.

THE Geologists’ Association of London held their Long Excursion in the Bir-
mingham district from July 28 to August 3, under the Directorship of Professors
Lapworth and Watts, Dr Stacey Wilson, and Messrs Jerome Harrison and Wick-
ham King. Messrs Sollas, Blake, Sherborn, and Miss Wood of Birmingham, were
among the fifty or sixty persons present. Mr Frederick Meeson acted efficiently
as Excursion Secretary. The main attraction of the Excursion was the compari-
son of the Archaean and Cambrian Rocks of the district with those seen on a
previous occasion in the Shrewsbury area under the same directors. The clear
and patient exposition of the “Old Boy,” as Professor Lapworth calls the
Archaean rock, was warmly acknowledged by the visitors, many of whom had
followed for a second time this eminent leader in British geology. The basic
dyke in Abel’s Quarry, near Nuneaton, penetrating the Archaean, but cut off by
the overlying Cambrian Quartzite, was an object of much interest, while the
Hyolithes beds of Cambrian age yielded sparingly Kutorgina, Hyolithes, and
other fossils. The remarkable bending of the edges of the Menevian beds under-
lying the Carboniferous conglomerate was examined in detail, and the theory of the
movement of soil-cap was held to be sufficient to account for it without calling in
any more violent means. The geologists were shown, by Professors Lapworth and
Watts, the imaginary restoration of the old Triassic sea, with its islands of Charn-
wood, Nuneaton, Lickey, Shrewsbury, &c. The head of a trilobite was found for the
first time in the Lower Stockingford Shales, thus helping forward the elucidation
of the life of the period. The last day an excursion was made to the Dudley and
Wren’s Nest Silurian, and owing to the excellent arrangements made by Mr
Claughton the workings were explored in boats in a most complete manner,
Heavy bags were made, chiefly of rock-specimens, and a rumour was current a
few days later that the Oxford express had broken an axle.

THe German Emperor, whose sympathy with all forms of literature, art,
and science is notorious, must have had excellent reasons for prohibiting the
intended meeting at Posen of the Polish Association for the Promotion of
Medical and Natural Science, and for threatening with banishment any Prussian
subject who should take part in the proceedings. That he should wish “to
envenom the relations betwen the Polish and the German nationality,” no sane
man can believe ; yet this is what is openly stated by sixty protestant professors
in a circular addressed to leading members of the medical profession in Great
Britain.

Ar the Congress of Chemists in Vienna, Dr Leo Lilienfeld, a former pupil
of Du Bois Reymond, and now at Vienna, demonstrated a simple synthesis of
albumen, or rather pepton, said to be similar in composition and reactions to the
natural product as formed by the digestion of albuminous substances. The
ingredients are said to be phenol, glycocol, amydo-acetic acid, monochlorine
acetic acid, and phosphoric oxychloride. Whether the nutritive qualities of the
compound are the same as those of natural pepton has yet to be proved. There
is no immediate prospect of its replacing the roast beef of old England.

From the Bolletino del Naturalista we learn that a committee has been formed
at Turin in order to establish there a freshwater aquarium for the advancement
of pisciculture in Italy and specially in Piedmont.

On August 1 the Public Library at Norwich was destroyed by fire. It had been
founded over a century, and contained more than 60,000 volumes. The depart-
ment of local archaeology was specially valuable, and many of the books so un-
happily lost can never be replaced.

214 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 1898

THE expedition of Mr C. E. Borchgrewink to the Antarctic is to sail early
in October on board the ‘Southern Cross,’ built by Mr Colin Archer, architect
of the ‘Fram. The scientific staff includes Sub-Lieutenant William Colbeck,
R.N.R., and Mr Louis Bernacchi of the Melbourne Observatory, as magnetic
officers; Dr Herlof Klévstad of Christiania Observatory, as medical officer ;
Messrs Nicolai Hansen and Hugh Evans, as zoologists and collectors.

THE Egyptian -Geological Survey proposes to attack the Peninsula of Sinai
during the coming winter. From Dr W. F. Hume, who, with Mr Skill as
topographer, will survey regions as yet little explored, we look for some in-
teresting results.

THE Congo Independent State intends to make a thorough scientific survey of
Tanganyika. Twenty observation and experiment stations have already been
built, and collections will be made of the flora, fauna, and geological specimens.
The results have to be published at Brussels in a new periodical, the Scientific
Annals, which will appear every six weeks.

AN expedition is being fitted out in Amsterdam for the zoological, botanical,
and oceanographic exploration of the waters of the East Indian Archipelago. The
leader will be Dr Max Weber, professor of zoology at Amsterdam University. He
will be accompanied by Mrs Weber, who will have charge of the botanical section
of the researches, and by Dr J. Versluys and Mr H. F. Nierstrasz, who will
assist in zoology.

THE German deep-sea expedition, on the s.s. ‘Valdivia,’ of the Hamburg-
American Line, Captain Krech, left Cuxhaven at 8 p.m. on August 1st, and crossed
to Granton. Some successful trials of the apparatus were made on the way. The
scientific staff consists of Prof. Chun of Leipzig, director ; Prof. Schimper of Bonn
as botanist, Drs Apstein and Vanhoffen of Kiel, and Dr Braem of Breslau, as
zoologists ; Dr G. Schott of Hamburg as oceanographer ; Dr P. Schmidt of Leip-
zig as chemist. Navigating officer Sachae, Dr Bachmann of Breslau as bacteriolo-
gist and medical officer. Non-ofticial members are the zoologists, Dr Brauer of
Marburg a/L., and Dr zur Strassen of Leipzig; and Mr F. Winter of Frankfort,
as draughtsman and photographer. The laboratories and cabins are spacious and
admirably fitted up, and the ship is supplied with a fine scientific library. On
the evening of August 4 the ‘ Valdivia’ again sailed for the Faroe Channel ; she will
pass round the north of Scotland, and then go down to Cape Town, where she is
due towards the end of November.

215

CORRESPON DENCE

PROGRESS AND PROVENDER

Mr BrernarpD modestly considers that the chief value of his entertaining paper ‘A
new reading in the Annulate Ancestry of the Vertebrata” (Nat. Sci., xiii., pp. 17-30,
July 1898) lies in its exemplification (whether rightly or wrongly) of a factor in evolu-
tion hitherto not sufficiently emphasised, namely, ‘‘that the profoundest morpho-
logical transformations leading to the rise of new groups of animals can be traced to the
adoption of new methods of feeding.” Self-evident though the proposition seems,
‘yet Lam not aware,” he continues, ‘‘that it has ever been applied systematically
except in the two cases in which I have myself endeavoured to apply it.” From this
it appears that he is ignorant even of the title of Mr A. T. Masterman’s suggestive
article ‘‘On some points in the general morphology of the Metazoa considered in con-
nection with the physiological processes of alimentation and exeretion” (Zool. Anzeiger,
xix., pp. 190-198, 206-221, and 225-229—1896). On p. 228 of that paper, Mr Masterman
says, ‘‘Reasons have been given for regarding the modifications of the alimentary
processes to be the direct originators of other sets of organs, the instances of skeletal
and pigmentary organs being taken as typical. If in phylogeny the various organs
arise from and are intimately connected with, the alimentary processes, then in ontogeny
the same will result. The first signs of differentiation will appear in connection with
the sustentative function, and mechanical ingestive processes will lead the way.”

That modifications of the alimentary processes have been the chief guides in the
evolution of the classes of Echinoderma is a view that I never felt to be in need of
emphasis. It has however been emphasised by Dr Otto Jaekel, who says, ‘‘The
morphogeny of the Pelmatozoa depends essentially on two factors, on the one hand the
development of the nutrient ciliated grooves of the ambulacra, which soon results in
the formation of free arms, on the other hand those passive transformations which bring
about a correlation of those structures with the rest of the body” (Sitzber. Ges. naturf.
Freunde Berlin, 1894, p. 103).

Mr Bernard will doubtless be glad to find that a view which he holds so strongly
and expresses so ably, is not likely to perish for lack of other support.

F, A. BATHER.

‘““THE STUDY OF VARIATIONS.”

WHILE not wishing to unnecessarily prolong this subject, I should be glad if you would
allow me to clear up some misconceptions in reference to the position 1 endeavoured to
maintain in your magazine for April and June.

My position was based mainly on the immense difficulty experienced in determining
the value of small variations, and the fact, equally,patent, that when this had been
accomplished there remained even more disputed questions in reference to the causes
which had led to their production.

Instead of offering any theory of heredity, I merely put forward some suggestions
which I thought might explain the causes of this endless dispute : for this reason I en-
deavoured, as far as possible, to approach the subject from a neutral position. As a
matter of personal belief I think Mr Henslow and others have succeeded in demon-
strating that variations are more definite in nature than Darwin believed. I did not
need to state this conviction, because I provisionally accepted the facts adduced by Mr
pelo himself, which therefore made it quite unnecessary to bring forward any other
evidence.

While admitting that his explanation was, from his point of view, justifiable, it yet
appeared to me that the same facts were capable of explanation on another theory, which
was itself merely the necessary corollary of Natural Selection. Thus merely by continually
eliminating the less fit, and therefore leaving the more fit to survive and reproduce, the
average range of variability must increasingly tend towards perfect adaptability, in
exact proportion to the length of time and constancy of conditions operating on the
organism. On this hypothesis those forms of life which are subjected to continuous condi-
tions should have variations which are more definite in character than other forms
which have a more varied and less constant environment, hence plant life generally as
compared with animal should exhibit greater evidence of definiteness in its variability,

216 CORRESPONDENCE (September 1898

and because conditions are usually more powerful, and necessarily operate for shorter
periods of time, when under man’s direction than in nature, so variations should be
correspondingly less definite in the domesticated forms of life.

This position also destroys the force of the two chief arguments used against Natural
Selection by demonstrating that it is itse/f able to induce those favourable variations, which
it subsequently selects from. Firstly, it is urged that Natural Selection being unable to
produce definite variations must be dependant on some other factor until the
variations are sufficiently far advanced to be of selective value, and it is therefore in-
competent to solve the most important question in the formation of species ; secondly,
the number of coincidences, which are necessary to perpetuate any given favourable varia-
tion on the assumption of indefinite variability, are so great that Natural Selection must
be regarded, at best, only as a subordinate factor. By showing that, if natural selec-
tion acts at all, it must tend to produce definite variations, these two objections are
largely overcome, and the facts adduced by the Neo-Lamarckian school easily accounted
for. Hence with two competing theories to explain species formation, it becomes neces-
sary to makea further appeal to facts to determine the value of each.

I feel so convinced of the importance of this aspect of the subject that I should be
sorry if any want of clearness on my part at all obscured the point at issue.

J. LioNEL TAYLER.

THE GrorTo, HAMPTON-ON-THAMES.

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99 39 ””

2? 3) 99

OCT 24 1ygt

NATURAL SCIENCE

A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress

No. 80—Vo.. XIII—OCTOBER 1898

NOTES AND COMMENTS
WANTED, AN EDITOR!

Ir is with the deepest regret that we find ourselves compelled to
announce a step which may, we fear, result in the cessation of this
Review at the close of the present year. For a time that, as the
history of journals goes, is short, but that, when taken from the life
of individuals in its most active period, appears long indeed, we have
endeavoured to maintain the fortunes of Natural Science. The
labour that this has entailed has undoubtedly been one of love;
but, as years advance, responsibilities increase, and the time at the
disposal of those who conduct this Review becomes less. We have
therefore decided to discontinue the editing of Natural Science after
the next December number.

It may be imagined that we do not take this step without
anxious deliberation. We believe ourselves, and we are told by
others, that Natwral Science has filled a place in scientific journalism
occupied by no other periodical, at least in this country. We have
endeavoured to be independent, an aim that it is often difficult to
accomplish. We have sought to praise the good because it was
good, and to censure the bad because it was bad. And if censure
has sometimes seemed to overbalance praise, let the truism be
remembered that there is far more bad than good in the world.
We have endeavoured to be impartial and to bow to no authority
save justice and reason; but we have also tried to recognise that
our ideas of justice and reason might not always be those of other
people. Hence we have allowed a free field to the champions of
views unorthodox as well as orthodox. The reproach of omniscience
and infallibility has, it is true, been laid to our charge. But these
sins of a private individual are the virtues of an editor. They may
ibe accounted for by the fact that we have had freely placed at our
disposal the pens of many, if not most, of the eminent biologists
and geologists of the day, without distinction of nationality. To all
our contributors, those whose names have been published, and those
who have helped in the less grateful task of furnishing unsigned
comments, we tender our heartfelt thanks.

We have said this much in praise of Natural Science, because
we believe that a journal of this nature should not be allowed to
drop altogether. We are prepared to hand it over, with all stock,
appurtenances, and goodwill, to any scientific man who is prepared

Q

218 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

to relieve us of all responsibility and to continue it as an indepen-
dent journal. We had rather see it continue in other hands than
drop out of existence altogether, and we believe that our opinion
will be shared by most of our readers. Now is the time for expres-
sions of admiration and sympathy to be translated into practical aid.

THE BIOLOGICAL EXHIBITION AT BRISTOL

AmoneG the features of the British Association meeting that held
out promise of novelty and interest was the widely-advertised
Biological Exhibition arranged at the Zoological Gardens, Clifton.
At 3 P.M. on September 8th, the entrance to the grounds was
crowded by those who came to hear and see Sir John Lubbock
open the exhibition. These numbers can hardly have been
expected by those responsible for the arrangements, and it
resulted that Sir John was seen by few and heard by fewer.
The exhibition itself was attractive in many ways, and, con-
sidering the intense heat of these few days, remarkable as a
tour de force; but to the biologist it was rather disappointing.
The greater part of it was a flower-show, to which many lead-
ing firms of florists contributed. In this section the exhibit of
most scientific interest was that of Dr E. J. Lowe, who showed
beautiful examples of rare ferns, with crossed varieties of double,
triple, and quadruple parentage. The zoological section contained
a somewhat miscellaneous lot of exhibits, and it was clear that the
committee had been prevented by the usual considerations from
exercising that stern selection which alone could have maintained
the desired standard. We, who are not thus hampered, need only
mention the following :—Dr J. A. Norton of Bristol showed clutches.
containing cuckoos’ eggs, in illustration of the various foster-parents,
also a series of robins’ nests with cuckoos’ eggs, intended to elucidate
the problem whether there be any variation in the egg according to
the nest in which it is laid; Mr C. K. Rudge of Clifton, various
nests of British birds, with an analysis of the materials from which
they were formed. Mr G. C. Griffiths of Clifton had an interesting
little case containing hybrids of Lepidoptera, examples of mimicry
of plants by Lepidoptera (eg. Kallina inachis, the Indian leaf-
butterfly and its allies), and instances of protective and aggressive
resemblances among Orthoptera. . Mr H. A. Francis of Clifton
showed specimens of local wasps and wild bees, with examples:
of protective mimicry of the same by other insects. Professor
E. B. Poulton exhibited the proof quite recently obtained by Mr
Guy A. K. Marshall, that Precis octavia-natalensis and P. sesamus:
are but seasonal variations of the same species: the parent speci-
men, here exhibited, of the form P. octavia-natalensis laid three eggs.
on February 27, 1898; on April 15, one of these produced a P.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 219

sesamus, here exhibited; and on April 20, another egg produced
P. octavia-natalensis, also shown. Mr F. G. Richmond of Braunton,
Devon, had arranged some aquaria containing various species and
hybrids of trout and salmon. The exhibit of the Marine Bio-
logical Association was of interest, not so much for the species
shown as for the illustration it afforded of success, under the
most difficult conditions, of keeping marine animals of various
kinds alive by the constant circulation of the water. There
were five shallow wooden tanks and about 400 gallons of sea-
water was used. The water entered the tanks from a small
upper reservoir by means of glass siphons, and after passing
through them collected in two lower reservoirs, from which it
was periodically pumped into the upper: one again. The pump
used was an ordinary semi-rotary yacht pump. Most of the fish,
as well as many of the invertebrats, had been living in a healthy
condition in the tanks for some two weeks previous to the opening
of the exhibition, and there had been comparatively few deaths.
Naturalists were also glad to have the opportunity of seeing in
operation the ingenious plungers devised by Mr E. T. Browne and
Dr E. J. Allen, and worked automatically by means of the fresh-
water supply filling a can that was intermittently emptied by a
siphon. Such a plunger keeps the sea-water in a bell-jar aquarium
in constant movement, and serves to keep medusae alive and to rear
the larvae of marine animals to the adult stage.

BREAD OUT OF AIR

Str WILLIAM CROOKES in his presidential address to the British
Association traversed a wide field, practical, physical and psychi-
cal, in each department applying or suggesting the application of
the most recent advances in modern physical research.

Starting with the question of late so much mooted, of the
wheat -supply of these islands, intimately connected with the
wider question as to the possible insufficiency of the wheat-supply
of the whole world at no distant date, Sir William showed that
whereas the consumption of wheat was increasing, the amount of
land available for its production was strictly limited, and that
already those limits were nearly reached. It is therefore necessary
to increase the fertility of the land by means of nitrogenous.
manures. Unfortunately that special sanitary appliance which is
the glory of our country,and which she has presented to all parts of
the civilised world, has the disadvantage of wasting, in this country
alone, “‘ fixed nitrogen to the value of no less than £16,000,000
per annum.” But even if we relinquish the system that Liebig
stigmatised as “a sinful violation of the divine laws of nature,” we
shall not repair the mischief already done. Already the world’s

220 NATURAL SCIENCE — [October

deposits of guano are becoming exhausted, and our final resource,
the nitrate-fields of Chile, cannot last more than fifty years, even if
the demands upon them be not increased. The solution proposed
by Sir William Crookes is the formation of nitrate by the com-
bustion of the atmosphere. This can be effected, he says, by passing
a strong induction current between terminals. By utilising natural
sources of power, an electric current may be obtained that will
enable nitrate of soda to be produced at less than £5 per ton, two-
thirds the price of Chile nitrate.

THE MYSTERIES OF MATTER

THE second portion of the Presidential address was interesting
chiefly for its speculations on the constitution of matter. Here
Sir William adduced the various recent discoveries confirmatory of
his own views, so long opposed, as to the existence of molecular
streams of electrified radiant matter. The task of the future is to
render available the energy contained in matter that to outward
appearance is quiescent. The phosphorescence of uranium, and in
a higher degree of the newly discovered polonium, is due to its
power of extracting such energy, however that power be explicable.
A new application of the principles that underly his theory of
radiant matter has within the last few weeks enabled Sir William
Crookes to add another to his remarkable successes in the frac-
tionation and spectrographic study of the rare earths. He believes
that he has demonstrated the existence of yet another element,
which he terms Monium, because the lines of its spectrum stand
alone, almost at the extreme end of the ultra-violet.

These far-reaching speculations as to the existence of energy,
barely thinkable and yet capable of investigation, of measurement,
and of utilisation, naturally led Sir William Crookes on to the most
debateable and most confessedly speculative part of his address.
To his previously published statements on the subject.of psychical
research, he adheres. However far we may accompany or lag
behind Sir William in acceptance of the alleged phenomena of tele-
pathy, this at least we must recognise in his words: the belief on
the one hand that the enquiry has not yet reached the scientific
stage of certainty ; on the other hand, that any explanation will be
an extension of theories of the constitution of the material universe
already widely held and serving as the basis of actual experiment.
Whether the suggestion, which we imagine to be implied, that
telepathy is analogous to wireless telegraphy be accepted by physi-
ologists matters little. We believe that it is right of Sir William
Crookes to allude to these matters from the President’s chair, since
we think that for their investigation is demanded the co-operation
of the keenest intellects in all branches of science. “To ignore the

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 221

subject would be ””—not only for Sir William Crookes—“ an act of

cowardice.”
STEREOCHEMISTRY AND VITALISM

In connection with the above remarks, it is interesting to note that
the Presidents of the Sections for Mathematical and Physical
Science and Chemistry—Professors Ayrton and Japp—dealt with
subjects which might equally well have been considered in the
Biological Sections, while the President of the Zoological Section
applied to certain biological problems the methods of mathematics.
Professor Ayrton described certain interesting experiments on the
smells of substances. Professor Japp considered certain facts of
stereochemistry in their relation to the fundamental problem of life.
He pointed out that all inorganic compounds were symmetric, and
that the forces producing them were either symmetric, or, if asym-
metric, then asymmetric in two opposite senses. Compounds of
one-sided asymmetry originate with the living world, and are only
known to be produced by some selection in which living organisms
must directly or indirectly take part. It is of course possible that
some day the isolation of asymmetric compounds may be proved
possible without the intervention of even the directing intelligence
of the chemist in his laboratory. Professor Armstrong, who spoke
after the address, evidently thought that this would be proved before
the next meeting of the British Association in Bristol. We are as yet
only on the threshold of the problem, and fresh methods of investi-
gation or fresh conceptions may upset the prophecies of to-day.
For the present, however, Professor Japp has done good service in
setting before us one of the difficulties to be overcome before the
vitalistic hypothesis can be rejected.

THE NEED OF NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION IN BIOLOGY

PROFESSOR WELDON, choosing a subject which the ordinary naturalist
is apt to consider abstruse and uninviting, succeeded in delivering
an address that both for content and exposition was one of the
successes of the meeting. Entitled, “Some objections to the theory
of Natural Selection,” it was in the main an attempt to expound to
biologists the modern doctrine of chance, and to show that the
variations which actually occur in the animal world are neither
more nor less definite than those which result in the tossing of
ha’pence or the casting of dice; further, that these ‘chance varia-
tions’ do afford scope for the action of Natural Selection in a way
that admits of accurate measurement. The instance taken was the
variation in frontal breadth of Carcinws maenas from a particular
patch of beach in Plymouth between 1893 and 1898. It was
shown that the frontal breadth was diminishing at a rapid rate in
this particular race, and evidence was adduced to prove that this

222 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

was due to the selective action of an increase of silt in the water.
Professor Weldon urged the necessity of extending as widely as
possible this kind of numerical study. The difficulty of the theory
of Natural Selection hes in the postulate that in any given case a
small deviation from the mean character will be sufficiently useful
or sufficiently harmful to affect the race. But determination of the
deviation and of its effect on the death-rate is often possible.
Whenever possible it is our duty to make it. “ Numerical know-
ledge of this kind is the only ultimate test of the theory of Natural
Selection, or of any other theory of any natural process whatever.”

MorpHOLOGY

PROFESSOR BOWER, in his address to the Section of Botany, placed
before his hearers the principles of modern morphology, and dis-
cussed the limits of their application. He advocated the establish-
ment of classifications upon purely phylogenetic grounds. The
attempt is beset with difficulties of all kinds, but it is the only
goal of the taxonomist. Now this transference of our point of
view from mere similarity of structure to questions of the origin
of each structure brings into still greater relief the ever more
complicated problems of homology. When we find that organs,
structurally similar, have been independently developed in totally
different races, how far can we consider them homologous? Ought
we even to call them by the same names? The difficulties are
manifest enough in every group of animals and plants; but often
they are complicated by an alternation of generations, in which
case the use of identical terms for organs that arise at absolutely
different stages of life-history is apt to give rise to serious mis-
conception.

“Taking the case of leaves for the purpose of illustration, we
may contemplate the following possibilities :—(a) A possible origin
of two homoplastic series of leaves in the same plant, and the
same generation (Phylloglossum) ; (b) Two homoplastic series in the
same plant, but in different generations (Lycopodium cernuum); (ce)
a possible distinct origin of homoplastic leaves in distinct phyla, but
in the same generation (sporophyte of ferns, lycopods, equiseta) ; (d)
a distinct origin of homoplastic leaves in distinct phyla, and distinct
generations (eg. leaves of Bryophyta and of Pteridophyta). Now
Homology has been used in an extended sense as including many, or
even all, of these categories. It seems plain to me that this collec-
tive use of the term homology carries no distinct evolutionary idea
with it; it indicates little more than a vague similarity ; the word
will have to be either more strictly defined or dropped. The old
categories of parts based upon the place and mode of their origin
are apt to be split up if the system be checked by views as

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 223

to descent. Comparison, aided by experiment, supersedes all other
methods, and the results which follow raise the question of ter-
minology of parts which have arisen by parallel development. In
parts which are of secondary importance, such as stipules, pinnae,
the indusium, hairs, glands, the inconstancy of their occurrence
points to independent origin by parallel development in a high
degree; in parts of greater importance, such as leaves, a parallel
development may also be recognised, though in a less high degree ;
in the case of sporangia, their acceptance as a category sui generis
dispelled the old view of their various origin from vegetative parts ;
but we must remember that this does not by any means exclude a
parallel development also in them, by enlargement and septation
from some simpler spore-producing body, though this is not yet a
matter of demonstration. There are two extreme courses open to
those who wish to convey clearly to others such matters as these:
the one ‘is to use a separate term for each category of parts, which
can be followed as maintaining its individual or essential identity
throughout a recognised line of descent—in fact, to make a poly-
nomic terminology of members run _ parallel with a polyphyletic
development ; the other course is to make it clear always in the
use of terms applied to parts, that they do not contain any evolu-
tionary meaning, and to use them only in a descriptive sense.
Perhaps the former is the ideal method, and it may be a desirable
thing, as polyphyletic origins of parts become more established, that
the terminology should be brought to reflect at least the more im-
portant conclusions arrived at. For the present, the whole matter
is still so tentative that it is well to be content with something
which falls short of the ideal, and to maintain the usual terms, such
as stem, leaf, root, hair, sporangium, &c., as simply descriptive of
parts which correspond as regards general features of origin, posi-
tion, and nature; but with no reference either, on the one hand, to
conformity to any ideal plan, or, on the other, to any community by
descent—in fact, we shall preserve the original pre-Darwinian sense
of these words, which was purely descriptive, and avoid any attempt
to read into them any accessory meaning.”

FoRM AND FUNCTION
“* And it was full of bones; . . . and lo, they were very dry.”—EzkEKIEL.
ONE of the most serious drawbacks to the study of Botany as it is
put before us in recent text-books, especially English text-books, is
the dry unlifelikeness of the part devoted to Morphology. And
especially external morphology, the comparative study of the general
form and development of the plant-members, which, completely
divorced as it has been from the study of function, reserved for the
chapter on physiology, has often degenerated into a succession of

224 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

pages filled with theory and bristling with technical terms. Dr
Goebel, professor at Munich University, is to be congratulated on the
attempt in his recently published Organographie der Pflanzen (part
1) (Fischer, Jena) to clothe and breathe the breath of hfe into
those dry bones. Taking his text from Herbert Spencer when
insisting on the interdependence of structure and function, and the
impossibility of giving any true explanation of natural phenomena
without keeping in view this co-operation, he puts before us a
system of morphology based on physiology and biology. As in the
case of most reformers he sometimes goes too far. Few botanists
will follow him, when, for instance, he sets aside entirely homologies
of stem and leaf-structures, preferring instead physiological analogies
as a basis of terminology.

Notwithstanding such occasional examples of over-zealousness,
Prof. Goebel’s book is a most useful addition to botanical literature,.
and should be read and marked by all advanced students and
teachers of botany. The subject matter falls under five sections,
namely, general segmentation of the plant-body ; symmetry relations;
difference in formation of organs at different stages of development ;
young forms, malformations and their significance for organography ;
and influence of correlation and external stimuli upon form. We are
especially glad to note the clear-headed treatment of the section on
malformations which have been too much pressed into the service of
morphology. Malformations, which by the way cannot be sharply
distinguished from variations, follow certain laws, and are either in-
herited or caused by external factors. The study of monstrosities
lends support to Sach’s theory of ‘Stoff und Form,’ which insists
that ‘differences in form of plant-organs are based on differences in
material, and that alterations of form are due to alterations in the
nutritive processes.”

RIND FUNGUS AND SUGAR CANE

THE Experimental Fields Station at Skerretts School, Antigua, has
just issued a report by Messrs Francis Watts and F. R. Shepherd
on the results obtained in the experimental cultivation of the Sugar
Cane. These are a continuation of those which have been conducted
since 1891, and comprise a study of a number of varieties of cane
which have been established at the station for six years, an attempt
to introduce additional varieties, and a record of results obtained on
the applications of various manurial substances to the Bourbon cane
in the hope of ascertaining the manurial requirements of the sugar
cane under the conditions prevailing at Skerretts.

The chief result seems to be that the Rind fungus (7'richosphaeria)
is a specific disease, because it cannot be attributed to a deficiency
of lime in the soil as some writers have suggested. The disease

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 225

often occurs in places where the soil contains carbonates of alkaline
earth equal to 40 or 50 per cent of carbonate of lime. As a
general rule the authors seem to have found that the addition of
Nitrogen either as Sulphate of Ammonia, Nitrate of Soda, or Dried
Blood, or of Phosphates (mineral or basic rather than superphos-
phate) is beneficial, but at present it is very difficult to draw
definite conclusions.

AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

THE excellent year-book of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(1897) of which we have recently received a copy shows a useful
departure from the usual form. In addition to the miscellaneous
papers, eighteen in number, there is a series setting forth the work
of the several bureaus and divisions, under the general title “‘ Work
of the Department for the Farmer.” No better means could be
devised of proving to the American people, and peoples generally,
the enormous advantages of such a department equipped with the
best scientific experts that can be procured, and the great saving to
the nation financially. Take for instance the first on the list, the
‘Weather Bureau,’ the work of which in relation to practical agri-
culture falls under three heads: (1) The forecast services for pre-
dicting storms, cold waves, and frosts. (2) The river and flocd
service for predicting floods. (3) The climate and crop service for
recording and presenting the details of climate and the weekly and
monthly conditions of crops. Besides the 150 paid meteorological
stations there are no less than 8000 voluntary observers, the
majority of whom, under the liberal policy of the Government, have
been presented with standard instruments. By a wide distribution
of weather forecasts and warnings, together with suggestions for
minimising the injury arising from sudden meteorological changes
or disturbances, crops, stock or property is saved each year many
times exceeding in value the cost of the department.

The department of Botany refers to its work in introducing
forage-plants suitable to the various parts of the country, in investi-
gating fungous diseases of plants, in exposing the adulteration of
seed, &c. The subject of weeds has been taken up with good
results chiefly by preventing their introduction into uninfested parts
of the country. Through a large number of correspondents the
department is kept informed as to the distribution of the worst
weeds, and maps showing at a glance their present range are con-
structed and kept on file. When information is received that one
of these weeds has been found far beyond its known limits the local
authorities are advised and the importance of promptly destroying
it suggested, together with means by which the destruction can be
accomplished. In this way the Russian thistle, which in 1893

226 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

damaged the wheat crop of the West to the extent of $3,000,000
to $5,000,000, has been kept out of California. Besides these two
there are seventeen other papers by which the different bureaus and
divisions equally justify their existence. One of the most useful .
items of the work of the department is the wide diffusion of its
publications. Half a million copies of the present report are dis-
tributed, and the total number of publications issued during the
past year was 424, aggregating over 6,500,000 copies. Yet the
Secretary complains that he cannot nearly meet the growing
demand, and asks for an increased appropriation.

Perhaps some day we shall have a Department of Agriculture on
similar lines. In the meantime we would advise all who are in-
terested in the application of science in this direction to buy or
borrow a copy of the United States Year-book.

RECENT WORK ON THE FORAMINIFERA

SINCE our note appeared in June last a great number of papers have
eome to hand. Foremost among these is one by R. M. Bagg, on
“The Cretaceous Foraminifera of New Jersey” (Bull. U.S. Geol.
Survey, No. 88). This paper, we believe, may be considered as the
first serious paper on the group which has appeared in America, and
is, moreover, well illustrated, and well edited. Bagg lists and
describes about 110 forms, of which 6 are considered new. The
work has been done from a zoological, not palaeontological, stand-
point, and deserves warm praise. On the whole, we prefer Chapman's
Vitriwebbina to the word Vitrewebbina used by the author. Chap-
man’s contribution to recent literature deals with a new form from
Torres Straits, which he calls Haddonia, one of the Lituolidae,
related possibly to Rupertia. The paper appeared in Journ. Linn.
Soc. Zool., vol. xxvi. In the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society,
1898, pp. 258-269, is a paper by that careful writer, F. W. Millett
of Marazion, whose work, unfortunately, we so rarely see in print.
It is, however, one of a series, which the Microscopical Society may
well be congratulated upon having secured. Mr Millett deals with
the Foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago, from material from
thirty stations collected by Mr A. Durrand. At present only the
Miliolinae have appeared, but there is promise of a series of especial
value, and one which should be doubly welcome to those investigat-
ing the structures of Funafuti and Christmas Islands. The region
from which this rich material comes was practically untouched by
the “ Challenger.”

Dr Alfredo Silvestri publishes in the Atti of the Accademie di
Scienze Acireale, vol. viii., a “ Contribuzione allo studio dei Fora-
miniferi Adriatici,” part 1 of which appeared in 1895. The work
is the more valuable as it is the first thoroughly systematic descrip-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 227

tion of the contents of the sands, so laboriously studied by Soldani,
and rendered classic by the figures of Plancus, Gualtieri, Breyne and
Ginanni. Silvestri also figures a new form of Peneroplis pertusus in
Memorie Pont. Accademie Nuovi Lincei, vol. xiv.; but these one is
tempted to regard more as worn specimens than novelties. They
are however well figured on two plates, and form a useful contribu-
tion to the subject in any case. Carlo Fornasini is still busy, and
gives us a beautiful plate of Uvigerina bononiensis in Rivista Italiana
di. Palaeontologia, anno iv., one specimen of which shows a double
mouth. He also publishes another contribution to the Tertiary
Foraminifera of Italy, dealing this time with the Pliocene of San
Pietro, in Lama, near Lecco. His third paper, now before us,
is “ Indice de le Rotaliine fossili d'Italia,” published by the Bologna
Academy in its Memoires, and which is especially valuable in that
Fornasini gives facsimiles of dOrbigny’s original drawings of his
described species, which have never been published before.

Yet another paper is one by Jan Perner of the Prague Museum
who describes and figures in the Bulletin international, Academie des
Sciences de Bohéme, 1898, some very interesting Lituoloids from the
‘Tithonian of Stramberg. Five forms are described, of which three
are considered new, and two are insufficiently known to be speci-
fically determined. Mr Charles Schlumberger occupies our atten-
tion with two papers, one, in La Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes,
on Jnvolutina conica, n. sp., an interesting form from the great
oolite of Héronvillette near Caen. The specimens were obtained
by heating the rock and then plunging it into cold water. His
second paper is on a new genus, which he -calls Meandropsina
Mun.-Chalm., though we believe that this is the first appearance of
the name in print. The genus resembles Orbiculina, is formed
of three thicknesses of cells, the centre of which is composed of
spiral chambers, starting from an initial sphere, and becoming
concentric and circular: this is covered above and below by a layer
of vermiform and meandriform chambers. The layer is imperforate,
but the last chamber has numerous openings all round the dise. It
is of Cretaceous age. Friedrich Dreyer contributes a magnificent
monograph on Peneroplis, of 119 pages and four double quarto and
one single quarto plates. This is a separately published work issued
by Engelmann of Leipzig at 12 marks, and the numerous figures
show plainly the immense variation among the foraminifera.

THE PERIODICAL CICADA

THE latest entomological Bulletin (No. 14, n.s.) of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture comprises an exhaustive account by Mr C. L.
Marlatt of Cicada septendecim, the American Periodical Cicad. The
bibliography of this famous insect goes back to the year 1633, when

228 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

the sudden appearance of a brood was believed to be the cause of a
“kinde of pestilent feaver.” Records of the insect, during nearly
two centuries, over the eastern and central States, have shown that
there are two races, a northern with a seventeen-year, and a southern
with a thirteen-year life-cycle. A number of broods of each race:
have been registered, and their distribution being known, the future
occurrences of the insect can be accurately forecast for the various
districts. Careful observations of the larval and nymph stages have
been made, and the changes undergone by the insect during its long
underground life have been traced. | When development is com-
plete the nymphs of a brood leave the ground almost simultaneously,
and an alarming swarm of cicads is the result. The perfect insects
live but a few weeks, and are believed to take no food. The female
makes cuttings in tree-twigs wherein she deposits her eggs; the
newly hatched larvae fall to the ground and burrow immediately.
The injury caused by the cicads is almost confined to their egg-laying
incisions ; though the larvae and nymphs suck sap from the roots of
plants, their slow rate of growth and feeding prevents them from
doing much damage. The life-cycle of this cicad is longer than that.
of any known insect, but Mr Marlatt makes the probable suggestion
that other larger species of the family might be found to have even
longer larval stages, could the course of their generations be
accurately followed.

THE LARVA OF PELOPHILA

In part 2 of the Zvransactions of the Entomological Society for the
present year (pp. 133-140), Messrs W. F. Johnson and G. H.
Carpenter make a contribution to the neglected subject of the life-
history of the Coleoptera, by describing with figures the grub of the
eround-beetle Pelophila borealis, which they have discovered in Ire-
land. The larva agrees with those of the beetle’s nearest relations.
—Nebria and Leistus—in possessing a pair of long, mobile cerci at
the hinder end of the abdomen, apparently a primitive character.
The head of the Pelophila grub, however, is broad and quadrate, and
the legs short, contrasting with the rounded head with constricted neck
and long legs of Nebria and Leistus, and in these respects reealling
the structure of more generalised carabid larvae.

FLAT-FISH oF SouTH AFRICA

Mr J. D. F. Gincurist, who was recently appointed Marine Biologist
to the Government of Cape Colony, is publishing in separate papers
descriptions by various specialists of the material which he collects.
These are entitled, “ Marine Investigations in South Africa. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope.” We have received a
copy of a short paper on the Flat Fishes by Mr G. A. Boulenger.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 229

It contains the description of a species new to science, and descrip-
tions of the five other species previously known from the coast of
South Africa. The new species is an Arnoglossus, and receives
the name A. capensis. In these descriptions, as in many others
published by the systematists of the British Museum of Natural
History, generic characters are unnecessarily repeated, and no
attempt is made to point out the characters which distinguish the
species from its nearest allies. The new Arnoglossus is described
from a single specimen 16 cm. long. The sex of the specimen is not
stated, nor is any mention made of the depth at which it occurred.
Considering the interest that has been exerted by the sexual dimor-
phism of the British Arnoglossus, some reference to the subject
might have been expected in the definition of a new species of
the genus. In the case of the other species, beyond the statement
of the specific characters, no details concerning the specimens are
given. It is to be hoped that other specialists who undertake the
examination of Dr Gilchrist’s collections will describe the specimens,
and not merely identify them, and will give specific definitions.

A NEw ICHTHYOSAURUS

A FINE skeleton of Ichthyosaurus has recently been uncovered in a
quarry in the Lower Lias at Stockton, a village near Rugby. The
owner, Mr Lakin, communicated with the’authorities of the British
Museum (Natural History), to which institution he has presented
the specimen, and arrangements were made for carefully extracting
it without disturbing the relative position of the bones. The animal
les in a clayey band, which, is unfortunately, unfavourable for the
preservation of any traces of the outlines of the soft parts such as
occur in the specimens described by Fraas. The only parts of the
skeleton wanting are portions of the pelvic and pectoral girdles and
some small bones of the paddles. The total Jeneth is about 18 ft.
The quarry is said to have been visited by thousands of people,
most of whom, no doubt, would not have taken the smallest notice
of the skeleton had it happened to be in a glass case. The atten-
tion of some of these enthusiasts might perhaps be pvofitably
directed to the County Museum where there are many fine fossils.

A NEw DINOSAUR

ANOTHER still more important find of reptilian remains has recently
been made by Mr A. N. Leeds, whose collections of vertebrate
remains from the Oxford clay are so well-known. In this case, a
large part of the skeleton of a gigantic Dinosaur has been obtained,
including a series of twenty-six caudal vertebrae, sixteen feet
long, a hind limb, the femur of which is four feet six inches long,
parts of the fore limb and of the pectoral and pelvic girdles. It is

230 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

to be hoped that further excavations will lead to the discovery of
other bones, and particularly of the skull. The parts at present
known indicate the existence of a dinosaurian reptile which seems to
be closely related to the American genus Diplodocus and, to the well-
known Cetiosaurus and Ornithopsis of this country. In fact it is
possible that it will be found that all these genera are almost
identical.

THE EXHIBITION OF EXTINCT VERTEBRATES

From the Annual Report of the American Museum for 1897 we
learn a good deal as to the methods employed for familiarising the
public with the skeletons and external forms of the great extinct
vertebrata. In this Report attention is especially called by means
of photographs to a skeleton of an Upper Miocene Rhinoceros, in
which the perfection of the beautiful methods employed by Mr
Adam Hermann are well seen. The entire skeleton is supported by
steel rods which pass through the centre of the bones, only the two
main supports being visible. This gives a very striking effect, and
seems a desirable method, provided the bones themselves are dupli-
cates and not types. We are of the opinion, however, that dupli-
cates and only duplicates should thus be treated, and consider that
described or figured specimens, or unique things, should never be
sacrificed, for when once a bone is pierced and mounted it is inacces-
sible to the student, to whom it is of far more importance than the
general public, who are quite satisfied with a plaster cast to look at.
The plasterotheria of our museums are admirable as teaching objects,
but the anatomist wants to handle and examine the real bone, and
such should never be maltreated in any way. The mount of
Phenacodus in the American Museum is an admirable example of
what we mean, for there every bone can be removed for purposes
of study. Among the plaster reproductions of external forms of
animals this Report illustrates Agathaumus, Hadrosaurus, Naosaurus,
and a highly amusing representation of a combat for the diamond
belt between J.L.—we beg pardon—Megalosaurus (Laelaps, Drypto-
saurus) aguilunguis and another of its kind, which is very real, and
would, could it possibly be seen at the Aquarium, draw immense
houses. The attitude of defence of the recumbent dinosaur is very
striking, and the terrific lunge possible of the hind legs might fairly
convert the attacking creature into a constellation.

CRETACEOUS Rocks IN WEST GREENLAND

Davip WHITE and Charles Schuchert accompanied the Peary Arctic
Expedition of 1897 to the Nugsuak peninsula, West Greenland.
They have now published a paper describing the Cretaceous series
of that locality (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., ix., pp. 843-368, pls. xxiv.-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS Zal

xxvi., June 21, 1898), and the following are their chief conclusions.
The Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks lie unconformably on a hilly base-
ment of old crystalline rocks and early Cretaceous basalts, and reach
at Atanikerdluk 3040 feet above the sea. Along the north side of
the peninsula the Lower Cretaceous beds have an easterly dip,
although the higher beds appear towards the west, probably in con-
sequence of faults. The sediments appear to have been derived
from the east, in which direction are few marine but some fresh-
water fossils. The deposition of sediment seems to have been con-
tinuous in some portion of this region throughout Cretaceous and
early Tertiary times, although minor movements and erosion may
have affected the beds before they were covered by the Tertiary
basalt cap. The entire thickness of the sedimentary rocks is over
3500 feet.

These beds were divided by Heer into four series, on the basis
of their vegetable contents. Of the lowest of these, the Kome.series,
developed on the north coast of the peninsula, a thickness of pro-
bably not over 700 feet is exposed above tide. The discovery of
additional dicotyledons in the Kome series, from which hitherto only
Populus primaeva was known, and which was regarded as Urgonian
in age by Heer, casts serious doubt on the reference of those beds
to so low a stage in the Lower Cretaceous. The flora as a whole is,
however, to be compared with that of the Virginian Potomac forma-
tion, with some, perhaps the upper, portion of which the Kome
series 1s probably synchronous.

The Atane series, hitherto not positively known on the north
shore of Nugsuak peninsula, is clearly present at Ujarartorsuak with
characteristic Atane plants. Farther west, at Kook Angnertunek
and Niakornat, the dark homogeneous shale series probably repre-
sents both Atane and Patoot members of the Upper Cretaceous, since
of the marine organisms found here some are identical with those
occurring at Ata and Patoot, the typical localities for the two
divisions of the Upper Cretaceous. The marine invertebrates from
the Atane series, which Heer correlated by means of fossil plants
with the Cenomanian of Europe, strongly indicate that the series is
to be correlated with Fort Pierre and Fox Hills or Montana forma-
tion of the western United States. By means of its fossil plants
the Atane series is so closely related to the Vineyard series of
Martha’s Vineyard, the Amboy clays of the Raritan region of New
Jersey, or the uppermost Potomac of Alabama, as to furnish strong
reason for the belief that the middle one of Heer’s groups is the
Greenland contemporary of the Amboy clays. The Patoot series,
which appears lithologically and stratigraphically to be inseparable
from the Atane series, contains at the same time many plants
common in the upper part of the Amboy clays, with others allied

232 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898

more closely to the higher Cretaceous floras, such as that of the
Laramie. The Patoot series may perhaps be safely interpreted as
constituting a palaeontological as well as sedimentary transition
from the Atane series to the Tertiary. The thickness of the Atane
and Patoot series (Senonian) is not less than 1300 feet and may
considerably exceed this.

TERTIARY AND LATER GEOLOGY OF W. GREENLAND

Many plants from Atanikerdluk were referred by Heer to the
Miocene, but are now generally admitted to be Oligocene, and
Messrs White and Schuchert suggest that they may even be of
Eocene age. They further remark that the distinction between the
floras of Heer’s three Cretaceous series rests largely on minutiae of
systematic description that cannot be upheld, a view that will
doubtless be shared by most palaeobotanists.

There is some evidence for Tertiary erosion west of Niakornat.
After this the entire region was covered by a great number of super-
imposed, approximately horizontal, non-columnar basalt beds of
varying thickness and of great extent. Frequently 3000 feet of
this basalt cap remains, while at Kilertinguak (6250 feet above
tide) over 4000 feet is preserved. In certain regions numerous
dikes intersect at varying angles the Cretaceous, Tertiary, and even
the lower portion of the basalt cap, and are frequently found both
forking and intersecting. Intruded basalts are not rare, especially
in the Tertiary. The peridotite intrusive beds, about 350 feet
thick, behind Kaersut, are probably of Tertiary age, as are also the
other high intercalated basalts. At the time of the great elevation
of the region, probably in the late Tertiary, the basalt cap, which,
judged by the development on Unbekanntes Island, may have
exceeded 7000 feet in thickness, most probably extended north-
wards in an unbroken sheet from the south of Disko Island to
beyond the Svartenhuk peninsula, a distance of 250 miles.

The dissection of this great basalt sheet, the development of the
Vaigat, the Umanak fiordal system, the isolation of Disko—in fact,
approximately the present land topography of this coast—-were
accomplished at a much greater elevation during Pleistocene time.
Evidence of post-Pleistocene subsidence, with Arctic climatic condi-
tions, is found in the presence of recent Arctic marine shells occur-
ring in terraces at an elevation of from 100 to 150 feet above tide.
In the old crystalline region, much farther south, the terracing is
said to extend to 300 feet above tide. The extent of the more
recent uplift is not known, since the retreat of glaciers, the inun-
dation of ancient dwelling-sites, and the records of tide-gauges
point to present downward movement observable within historical
time.

575. 233

The Species, the Sex, and the Individual
Past, LI.

HAVE been discussing characters that are related to sexual court-
ship, but among characters confined to one sex there are others
which are connected with other actions. For instance, there are struc-
tural peculiarities which are only employed in combat. Among the
most highly developed of -these are the antlers of stags. It cannot
be disputed that these are the special, apparently the only weapons
of the stag, and that there is no stag in a state of nature which does
not regularly follow the practice of duelling without any variation
in the arms employed. But those who consider that the evolution
of the antlers is sufficiently explained by the constant victory and
survival of the stags which have them most developed, leave out of
view important problems :—-Firstly, why do the antlers only begin
to develop when the stag becomes mature; Secondly, why are they
renewed every summer, and drop off again in spring? In relation
to these problems it is at least significant that the males only fight
when they begin to breed, and, when mature, only in the breeding
season, which is limited to the autumnal months. As the fighting
of stags is fierce and frequent, it is quite possible that the irritation
due to butting with the forehead was the exciting cause in the
beginning, and has been ever since, of the remarkable outgrowth of
bony tissue which forms the antlers. If this were so, it would be
physiologically intelligible that when the stimulation ceases at the
end of the butting season and the circulation becomes less active,
the bone should cease to grow, should become dry and brittle, and
then the antlers should either drop off of their own accord, or
be intentionally broken off by the stag. Next season a renewal of
the fighting would cause a renewal of the growth. My theory is,
that stimulations periodically repeated, physiologically cause periodi-
cal phenomena of growth, and that these rhythmical processes of
growth repeated in successive generations ultimately become heredi-
tary. It is, or has been, a current belief that effects so caused are
not inherited; but such inheritance has not yet. been proved to be
impossible. I am only attempting to show that the facts seem to
lead inductively to the conclusion that. structural evolution has
R

234 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

been largely determined by the direct influence of stimulation on
growth.

In the reindeer, and in the bovine animals, the horns are
developed in both sexes, and appear at an earlier age; those in
the reindeer, however, are also periodically shed, and consist of
bare bone, while those of the Bovidae are permanent and are
encased in cornified skin. I do not know whether the young
males and the females of the reindeer fight, or whether there is
any other special habit in them to explain the development of their
horns, but in the bovine animals it might be suggested that the
same stimulus of butting is applied less violently and not with the
same regular periodicity, and therefore has led to more permanent
growth.

A brief consideration of the third kind of structural differences
is now to be undertaken, namely, differences in the structure of the
same individual at different periods of life: This is, in some respects,
the most important of the three kinds I have defined, for it is in-
separably connected with the other two. We cannot investigate the
origin and cause of the differences between kinships, or between
members of the same species, without studying the transformations
of the individual, for these differences arise as alterations in the
development of the individual.

Now the embryos of the higher vertebrates all exhibit certain
characters in common, in the presence of gill-arches and gill-slits,
and in the origin of the limbs as bud-like outgrowths. The great
embryologist of the beginning of this century, Von Baer, whose
studies were directed principally to the higher vertebrates, formul-
ated the generalisation that animals of different classes resembled
each other closely in the earlier stages of their development, and
diverged more and more as they progressed toward their final form.
This remains true of the higher classes of vertebrates,—reptiles, birds,
and mammals. When the doctrine of evolution became paramount,
and it was seen that the comparative anatomy of the higher verte-
brates obviously pointed to their common derivation from ancestors —
which were essentially fishes, the resemblance and the structure of
the embryos were attributed to the retention in these embryos of the
essential characters of the fish. The generalisation of Von Baer was
therefore changed into another, to wit, that in development the in-
dividual passed successively through the stages of its ancestors to
arrive at its present final condition. Haeckel gave great publicity
to this doctrine, calling it the biogenetic law, and formulating it in
the terms that ontogeny, or the development of the individual, is a
repetition of phylogeny, or the evolution of the race. The late
Professor Milnes Marshall still further popularised and established
the principle by embodying it in another phrase, namely, that the

1898] SPECIES, SEX, AND INDIVIDUAL 235

individual in its development is compelled to climb its own genea-
logical tree.

A more comprehensive and more accurate study of the facts of
development throughout the animal kingdom has shown that this
law is by no means universal. It is true in regard to a certain
number of facts in the development of the higher vertebrates, but it
is not the whole truth about them, and it is contradicted by a great
many other facts even in the development of reptiles, birds, and
mammals. For example, snakes are characterised by the absence of
limbs. In some snakes rudiments of the hind limbs are present in
the adult condition, but in no snake has any trace of the fore limbs
been discovered in any embryonic stage. Yet we cannot doubt that
the ancestors of snakes possessed two pairs of limbs. Again, there
can be no doubt that the wing of the bird has been evolved from a
limb with five digits lke that of many reptiles, but the wing
contains only three digits, and the most complete embryological
investigation has only succeeded in discovering small and very
doubtful rudiments of the lost two. The ancestors of birds had
teeth, but no trace of teeth has been found in the embryo. In the
horse again there are traces of the second and fourth metacarpals
and metatarsals in the limbs in the adult, but examination of the
development has shown that only the merest vestiges of the second
and fourth digits are ever formed, and of the first and fifth none
at all.

Balfour has expressed the general result of observation in the
statement that ancestral stages are lable to be omitted from em-
bryonic development by abbreviation, and to be obscured or replaced
by new characters in free larval development. He also suggested
that the retention of the branchial arches and clefts in the embryo
of higher vertebrates was due to the fact that these structures were
functional in the larval stage of the amphibian ancestors of these
vertebrates after they had become rudimentary in the adults, and
that the limbs in spakes had completely disappeared because there
‘was no such advantage in their retention at a particular stage.

Mr Sedgewick has lately elaborated this last suggestion into the
general theory that ancestral characters are only retained in the
embryo when the ancestral condition was once a larval condition
which has more recently become embryonic, in consequence of the
retention of the larva in the egg or within the body of the mother
until after its metamorphosis.

These are numerous instances of the truth of Mr Sedegwick’s
theory, but it is not a general theory of individual development.
‘The general theory will be found to correspond to that which I
have indicated in the case of the structural differences between
groups of species and between individual types in the same species.

236 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

The general truth is that when the habits and conditions are
different at different periods of the individual life, then, and to a
proportionate degree, will the structure of the individual be different
during those periods. It may be said that this is merely another
way of stating the principle of adaptation as the result of natural
selection, the most advantageous variations being selected at each
stage of life separately. But my contention is that, if there is not
sufficient evidence of the occurrence, apart from the influence of
habits and conditions, of the variations necessary to explain the
other two kinds of difference, still less have we proof that the
changes in the structure of the individual at different periods of
life have been independent of the direct influence of the changed
conditions. To my mind the phenomena of metamorphosis can
only be explained on the principle that the different conditions
acting on the individual at different periods of its life give rise to
and determine the direction of the modifications which characterise
the successive stages of the individual structure.

This matter again can only be studied in actual instances.
The most familiar case is that of the frog and other Amphibia. We
can have no doubt that the air-breathing Amphibia were evolved
from fishes, though we may not be able to say exactly what kind of
fishes. We have, however, various transitional or intermediate
forms in the lower Amphibia and in the Dipnoi or lung-fishes, which
breathe air to some extent. Now, how can we conceive the con-
version of a single individual fish into an air-breathing creature,
apart from the change of conditions, the breathing of air? It is
true that the blood can and does secrete gases, oxygen and other,
into a closed air-bladder, but the structural arrangements connected
with the action of lungs, cannot be conceived apart from the
respiration of atmospheric air. We know of plenty of cases in
which, the water being scarce or foul, fish have become capable of
breathing air, in one way or another, but we have no evidence of the
occurrence of variations in adult life tending towards air-breathing
structures in fishes which are never exposed to the air. We do not
find them, for instance, in fishes that live on the sea-bottom or in
the ocean abysses. When the fish is exposed to the air at a late
stage of its life, then its structure undergoes modification, first into
a lung-fish breathing both air and water, or into an amphibian that
retains its gills throughout life. Afterwards such a form spreads
into places where water is still scarcer, and it becomes still more
modified, so as to breathe air altogether, and to crawl about on
land.

But, at the same time, the young aquatic stage or larva is being
modified. If we suppose that the tadpole resembles the ancestor of
the frog, it follows that that ancestor was destitute of paired limbs

1898] SPECIES, SEX, AND INDIVIDUAL 237

and of fin-rays, and that the terrestrial form of limb, transversely
jointed into three segments and divided at the extremity into five
digits, was not evolved from the fin of a fish, but was a new organ.
Such a view is very improbable and by no means inevitable. It is
much more reasonable to suppose that the terrestrial limb was:
evolved by the modification of the fin of a fish. The tadpole has
lost its limbs, because in its short life their use has become
diminished. It does not sustain itself in the water, but fixes itself
to plants by means of its suckers, and moves from one place to
another by violent strokes of its tail. Its habits have been almost
as much altered as those of the frog, and its structure has been
determined by its habits. Thus from an ancestral fish has been
evolved a creature passing by a well marked metamorphosis from a
larval aquatic stage to an adult terrestrial stage, and in each of
these stages it has become very different from its ancestors.

The original reptiles were derived from the Amphibia by a
change in the character of their eggs, which acquired large yolks
_ and were enclosed in tough shells. Within the shell ‘the larva was
retained, never being set free in the water, and thus for the first
time terrestrial vertebrates became entirely independent of a liquid
medium. The embryo in the latter evolution of terrestrial verte-
brates has undergone various modifications, but the condition in
which we find it at the present day is the original larval condition
of the amphibian ancestor, except so far as it has been modified by
the conditions of development within the egg-shell or the uterus.
Thus the course of development in the higher vertebrate is not to
be explained by the law of recapitulation, according to which tran-
sient embryonic stages represent ancestral structures, but by the
fact that the embryonic stage is a larval stage which passes through
its metamorphosis before hatching or birth. The larval stage and
the metamorphosis were originally determined by the temporary
conditions of life in the individual, and the persistence of larval
characters in the embryo is due to the fact that there has been
nothing in the conditions of embryonic life to change them.

Let us turn now to another instance, namely, the transformation
of the flat-fishes. Perhaps it will be thought that there can be no ex-
euse for throwing doubt upon the accepted doctrine that the larva of
these fish swimming upright in the water with an eye on each side
of its head, repeats in individual development the conditions of the
ancestor. But a more careful study of the facts shows that this
doctrine is erroneous, or at least only a partial truth, and it must be
modified to agree with the state of knowledge at the present time.
A brief summary of the facts will be sufficient to prove this.

The flounder when first hatched is a minute larva not quite
3th in. in length. The right and left sides are perfectly similar to

238 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

one another, and it swims vertically in the water. But it has no
fin-rays and no bones, a continuous fin-membrane passes along the
edge of the back round the end of the tail. The conversion of this
larval form into the fully developed flounder takes place when it is
from two to three months old, and about half an inch long. When
the bones and fin-rays begin to develop, the left eye rises first to the
edge of the head, and then passes completely over to the right side.
At the same time the litle fish begins to lie on its side on the
ground, and loses the power of sustaining itself in the water. With
slight differences in details, the development and metamorphosis
of other species of flat-fish are similar. The early condition of the
flat-fish therefore is not that of any fully developed fish at all, but
of a fish larva without bones or fin-rays. It is in all respects
similar to the larvae of other marine fishes, for instance, to that of
the mackerel or that of the cod. When the bones begin to develop
the eye begins to become asymmetrical, and we have not the an-
cestor but the flat-fish, We do not know at present whether the
elongated fins along the dorsal and ventral edges had the same
form in the ancestor, and we have reason to believe they
had not so great an extent, yet they are developed directly, not
by gradual increase. The true reading of the matter therefore is,
not that the ancestral condition is repeated, but that the larval
condition of the ancestor is retained, because the larva is still
hatched and still lives in the same way; but the structure after
metamorphosis is different because the adult fish has acquired differ-
ent habits. On the theory of natural selection we must suppose
that those individuals have been selected whose eyes were most
symmetrical in the larval stage, and most asymmetrical in the adult
condition. But we have no evidence that among symmetrical fishes
individuals occasionally occur in which one eye moves up towards
the edge of the head during growth. Even if slight variations of
such a character were proved to exist, it would be difficult to believe
that they would be great enough to make any difference to the fate
of the individuals possessing them when the fish took to lying on the
ground. The theory of independent variation and selection as
applied to flat-fishes is unsupported by evidence, while the conclusion
that the metamorphosis of these fishes is the direct result of the
change of conditions is in harmony with all that we know of the
effect of physical conditions on individual organisms.

In these two cases, that of the frog and that of the flat-fish, the
larval condition is either unmodified or less modified from the ances-
tral condition than the adult. But in numerous other cases the
larva has been modified in adaptation to new conditions while the.
adult has remained nearly the same. This is particularly conspicu-
ous in many insects. I will not discuss at length the question of

1898] SPECTES, SEX, AND INDIVIDUAL 239

the tracheal gills of aquatic larvae, for, although they are probably
secondary adaptations in the larva, there are some who regard them
as representing an ancestral series of organs from some of which the
wings were derived. But if this be the case, the entire absence of
wings and tracheal gills in the terrestrial larvae shows that the
latter by no means recapitulate the ancestral history. Again, if the
lees on the abdomen of the caterpillar behind the three pairs of
thoracic legs are in any way related to the abdominal appendages of
the ancestor, it is all the more certain that the maggots of the flies
or of the ants, bees, and wasps, having no legs at all, cannot resemble
the ancestor. In such cases the structure of the larva corresponds
to its mode of life, and is much more different from any possible
ancestor than is the adult. The individual does not here climb its
own genealogical tree, unless it may be said to begin at the top and
climb downwards. As for the origin of the modifications in the
young stages, we have no evidence that their appearance was inde-
pendent of the conditions ; the fact that the special structure only
lasts as long as the special larval habits last, suggests strongly
enough the direct dependence of the modifications on the conditions
of life.

To sum up the argument of which I have attempted to give an
outline, its main points are these. Selection assumes the occurrence
of variations: the variations must either be similarly indefinite and.
promiscuous in all cases, or they must be different in different cases
—that is, in different species, different sexes, different stages of life.
If they are different in different cases, then selection is a very un-
important matter, for the chief questions are evidently what are the
differences and what made them different. To deny that the varia-
tions have always been different in different cases is to deny the
most evident facts: such denial might be possible when we consider
only the difference between species, but is impossible when we study
the differences between the sexes in the same species and between
different stages in the same individual. In all cases the variations
correspond to differences in habits and mode of life, and in many cases
are of the same kind as the changes known to be produced in the
individual by special stimulation or special activity of organs: this
is true of many and probably of all cases of adaptation. The general
conclusion is that adaptation is not produced indirectly by the selec-
tion from indefinite variations, but directly by the influence of
stimulation in modifying the growth of the parts or organs of the
body. J. T. CUNNINGHAM.

1 Morrap TERRACE,
PENZANCE.

575. 240
581.16
595.793

I]

Bees and the Development of Flowers

ARWIN and Dr Russel Wallace maintain that the bright
colours of flowers are due to insects, and this view has,
till recently, been accepted by most biologists.. But difficulties —
become apparent as soon as the methods of insect workers are
closely investigated. The result of such investigations has been
that some naturalists (among them Mr G. W. Bulman, writing in
Natural Science, Aug. 1897) have come to the conclusion that the
colours of flowers have arisen quite independently of insects and that
they have yet to be accounted for on Darwinian principles.

A prwrt, if it be granted that the Darwinian hypothesis affords
a satisfactory explanation of other phenomena of the animal and
vegetable worlds, it seems unlikely that it should leave the colours
of flowers unexplained. Moreover, flowers that are invariably fertil-
ised without insect aid are almost all of them dull and inconspicuous.
The young cones of the larch are an exception. In these the colour
may, possibly, be looked upon as a by-product of the physiological
activity of the plant. The more striking blossoins, elaborate in form
and coloration, cannot possibly be mere by-products.

The difficulty of explaining the colours of flowers, though by no
means insuperable, is very real. Insects can never produce a new
species unless during each journey from and back to the hive they
keep to the same sort of flower. That they show a remarkable
constancy is undeniable. When at work upon dandelions they will
not wander to a neighbouring narcissus. In thus keeping to flowers
of the same make, they are consulting their own interest: they can
extract the honey with greater speed than if they wandered to
flowers of a different build. Frequent practice at the same exercise
produces great dexterity of limb and proboscis, and the work goes
merrily on. There is but little of the tentative buzzing and recon-
noitring that is unavoidable when a bee is investigating an unfamiliar
flower. And thus it is to a bee’s own interest not to transfer
pollen to a flower of a different genus or of different family. But
she is often tempted to go from one variety to another, or to a
closely allied species, and she does so without scruple. Thus it is
just where her constancy might seem most needed that it breaks
down. When new varieties are arising, the operation of bees comes

Oct.) BHES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLOWERS 241

in, to swamp them, if possible, by inter-crossing, and so prevent
them from developing into species.

How bees fail as species-makers, may be seen from the following
examples. In a field of buttereups there are often two species in
blossom side by side, Ranunculus bulbosus and R. acris. The
former begins to blossom a good deal earlier than the latter, but
the flowering times of the two overlap. If you watch a bee among
these, she will often for a time keep to one species. &. acris stands
a good deal higher and, owing to this, she will for a while perhaps
pass over &. bulbosus. But before long she will often change her
level and busy herself with the lower-growing species. In a bed
of mixed polyanthus flowers she may often be seen going from one
colour to another, heedless of the claims of polytypie evolution.
The same thing takes place when she is busy upon rhododendrons
and columbines of slightly different or even widely different tints.
These instances of infidelity to colour or species I select because
I have recently observed them. There is no doubt that they
overthrow the theory that insects by their constancy have been
makers of new species. It must be owned that bees, in spite. of
their great reputation, dating from the days of Aristotle, are great
blunderers. Still I cannot but believe that to bees and other
insects are due all the brilliant colours of wild flowers. The
transference of pollen from variety to variety is an undoubted fact.
But what if it produces no effect? A number of French botanists,
wishing to prove that evolution was a myth, have made experiments,
during a number of years, showing that even varieties distinguished
by what appear the most trifling differences, are inter-sterile. This
discovery is in reality no blow to evolution, but by the irony of
fate 1t comes in very opportunely to help the Darwinian theory.
The inconstancy or defective constancy of bees is of no consequence,
since most varieties and, possibly, all species of wild plants are
inter-sterile or, if they are not absolutely inter-sterile, their own
pollen is prepotent, so that when two pollens are put on one flower,
that which represents its own variety or species alone takes effect.
In addition to all experiments made by botanists, we have those
made by the bees themselves: they are constantly doing their best
to inter-cross species and varieties, and we know that the species
and varieties remain distinct.

To account, then, for the colours of flowers we have the proved
colour-sense of bees—Sir John Lubbock has tested it by experiment:
they are attracted by brilliant blossoms and, therefore, it has been
to the interest of plants, in order to obtain cross-fertilisation, to
produce conspicuous flowers. Every variation in the direction of

1An account of these experiments may be found in Romanes’ Darwin and after
Darwin, vol. iii.

242 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898

increased brilliancy has been of advantage. But the bees for whose
favours the plants were bidding would have ruined all, had not the
plants on their side had a very marked characteristic: infertility
with varieties of the same species, or with other species of the same
genus. The bees have constancy enough to ensure frequent cross-
fertilisation between plant and plant within one variety or species:
but, intent upon their own business, they take no trouble to put
barriers between new varieties. This work is done by the plants
themselves. The varieties, at any rate all the large number that
have survived, have kept themselves apart. Through this inter-
sterility the bees have been gardeners who had each variety and
each species in an isolated garden, and for whom each new variety
as it arose proceeded to isolate itself without any trouble on their
part. They with their colour-sense and the plants with their
preference for pollen from one of their own species, or even for
pollen from one of their own variety have, working together, given
us all the colours, shapes, and scents of flowers.
F. W. HEADLEY.

HAILEYBURY COLLEGE.

551.33(41.5) 243

Tit
The Eskers of Iveland
Part Il.

HE various theories which have been advanced to account for

eskers may, I think, be reduced to two classes—

The first class will contain those held by geologists who, while
differing in matters of detail, agree that the eskers result from
marine agency—tides and currents. :

The second class will contain those propounded by writers who
see their way to dispense with marine action, and who find in the
agency of glacier-ice the origin of all manner of drift deposits.

The Neptunists—a term which will serve to indicate the
upholders of the marine agency theory—are well represented by
Jukes and Kinahan, who have the advantage, as regards the
eskers, of minute practical acquaintance with the geology of
Treland.

The Glacialists are represented by Hummel and Geikie—the
former belonging to the Geological Survey of Sweden, and the latter
to the Geological Survey of Scotland.

I begin with J. Beete Jukes, who was for many years, prior to
his death in 1869, connected with the Geological Survey of Ireland.
In his opinion the ‘ ridges’ “seem to have been formed by the piling
action of two opposing currents, or to have been heaped up in the
eddy at the margin of the currents running in different directions.”

But it is in this ‘piling-up action’ that the difficulty lies.
Irregular heaps or mounds of sand, gravel, or shingle may have
been got together in this way, although it would not be so easy to
account for the stratification observable in the true eskers, But
when we come to consider the long narrow ridges of the railway
embankment type the difficulty becomes really formidable. I have
no doubt that Jukes is correct in saying that “many of the eskers
were perhaps similar to harbour-bars in their mode of formation,
and may be directly related in this way to the valleys running into
the neighbouring hills, which must, of course, have formed bays or
harbours during some part of the last slow rising of the land above
the sea.”

In Geikie’s edition of “ Jukes’ Manual ” of Geology, there is a note
on p. 712, citing, as an excellent example of an old ‘ harbour-bar,’

244 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

the case of the Seven Churches, Co. Wicklow: “ All the ruins are
on a bank of drift, stretching across the main valley, and formed
partly of the detritus from that valley, but chiefly perhaps from the
other steeper and narrower valley, which must at one time have
emptied its drainage into the old harbour just above this point,
and brought down the detritus, of which the tidal currents formed
the bar.”

There are, | have no doubt, drift formations in other places,
which may have originated after the manner of the ‘ harbour-bar,’
But we must bear in mind the well-marked difference in form of
these accumulations and the esker proper.

“ Others, however,” continues Jukes, “ especially those numerous
ones which run in various directions all over the great central plain
of Ireland, can only have been formed in the open sea by the action
of different currents, as that sea became shallow in consequence of
the elevation of its bed.” Now, as it appears to me, this statement
would go further if we could suppose the bottom of this shallow sea
already thickly strewn with the prepared materials—the sand,
gravel, clay, and rock fragments. As the waters would become
shallow, these deposits would more and more come within reach of
the surface currents, and, doubtless, would in many places become
heaped up in mounds or ridges of some kind. But I am not sure
that this is exactly what Jukes intends to lay down.

The ‘ counter-current ’ theory has been worked out with boldness
and clearness by Mr G. H. Kinahan, in his interesting “ Manual of
the Geology of Ireland,” chapter xiv. In this work there is no un-
certainty like that just mentioned. The author includes the eskers
among “ the moraine drifts that are undoubtedly post-glacial.” These
drifts he divides into periods corresponding with alleged pauses in
sea depression “at or about the 300 feet contour line,” “ at or about
the 100 feet contour line,” ete.

The margin of the esker sea, he explains, “will be found in
places on the hills sometimes as a shelf cut in the sides, at other
times as a beach accumulation.’ But, as Geikie has shown in the
case of the Parallel Roads of Glenroy, near Fort William, in
Scotland, the notches and old beach lines may have resulted from
fresh water dammed up in the mountain valleys by the obstruction
of great glaciers in the plains adjoining. At one time Geikie held
the same opinion as Kinahan regarding the marine origin of the eskers.
“ But,’ he writes, “ having since seen reason for believing that the
sea has had no share in the formation of the Scotch gravel ridges,
which are in the same category as the Irish eskers, I now look upon
the latter as having been heaped up principally by the action of
sub-glacial waters during the final melting of the confluent glaciers.”
This goes a long way towards reducing the esker sea to a myth.

1898] THE ESKERS OF IRELAND 245

In some places on the low ground the esker sea drifts (as
Kinahan terms them) are spread out in undulating sheets, as in
the County of Kildare. The famous Curragh may be cited as a
tabular deposit of such materials. Now all these deposits point in
the clearest manner to ‘the rushing of great waters’; and if we only
consider the thaw of such an ice-sheet, as all admit to have existed,
we can have perhaps floods and rushing waters enough for any pur-
pose, without calling in the aid of subsidence beneath present sea-
level.

Mr Kinahan does not, however, forget that the formation of the
eskers is a disputed point; but he thinks it probable that they are
modifications of the banks and shoals which accumulate at (1) the
colliding, and (2) the dividing of the flow-tide currents of the esker
sea, similar to those that are found in the seas around Great Britain
and Ireland at the present day. He examines three contem-
poraneous instances of the ‘ colliding’ of currents giving origin to
bank formations :

(a) In the Irish Sea, in the vicinity of the Isle of Man, there is
a meeting of the north and south flow-tide waves, or a ‘ Head of
tide.’ Where the tidal currents meet they neutralise, forming a
mass of currentless water that simply rises and falls, depositing silt
and other materials.

(6) There is a ‘ Head of tide’ in the Straits of Dover ; and

(c) In the German Ocean, between Norfolk and Holland.

But in the Straits of Dover and in the German Ocean the
meeting is not precisely a case of ‘ colliding,’ as the currents pass
for some distance ; and at their edges, or their junctions, long banks
of gravel and shingle accumulate,

It is also found, says Kinahan, that long banks of gravel and
shingle may form at the dividing and splitting up of the
flow-tide currents. We have here some resemblance between
currents at sea and rivers on land. Just as the river-flow, dividing
at the outlets, makes a deposit which may eventually become a delta,
so does the ocean-current where it parts produce an accumulation
varying in its constitution, extent and form with the nature and
supply of materials affected by the moving mass of waters.

As an illustration Kinahan cites the following: From Greenore
Point (Co. Wexford) a main current runs northward up the Irish
Sea, while secondary currents break off into Wexford Bay; and at
the junction of these currents with the main one there are long
banks between Greenore Head and Wicklow Head. Similar
results, he adds, must have occurred in the esker sea. He applies
his theory in this way :

The flow-tide wave entering at Galway must have sent a main
current eastward to the coast between Drogheda and Dublin.

246 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

Southward of this current there would be a bay, somewhat similarly
circumstanced to Wexford Bay, off which banks would form between
Galway Bay and Dublin, that is in the line of country occupied by
the principal eskers.

That the author was himself sensible of the difficulty already
alluded to, is clear from the words above quoted: “ The typical
eskers are very unlike shoals.” By the conflict, or the separation,
of flow-tide currents you can have shoals and flats and mud-
banks, but can you have an esker like one of those already described ?
Let anyone put the question to himself as he stands beside one of
these ridges, or walks its road-like top, for only in such circum-
stances can the difficulty be fully realized.

Kinahan, however, goes further, and explains how subsequent
denudation may have played a part in the modelling process.

Although it cannot be affirmed, yet it appears possible (he says)
that as the sea shallowed, and the shoals and banks became ‘ awash,
the current should have the power of changing the massive banks
into narrow ridges, for at the half-tide or ‘ awash, portions of banks,
or in the shallow places where two currents collide, there are esker-
like ridges as St Patrick’s Bridge between Kilmore and the Saltees
Co. Wexford.

But with all this before me I am unable to account to my own
satisfaction for the form of the esker proper. It is not easy to
conceive how by any process of marine or aérial denudation great
massive banks could be attenuated to the slender figure of an esker
running for miles like an artificial earthwork. One may
ask how the denuding forces could waste all but the back-bone, and
yet spare the latter which was, after all, no more likely to resist
erosion than the rest of the drift matter.

In the first edition of his Manual, Mr Kinahan attached particu-
jar importance to the ‘ Head of tide’ origin of banks, ete. But at
a later period he abandoned this in favour of what I have sketched
as the ‘ Cross-current theory.’ He believes that, allowing the marine
origin of eskers, the various details and complications of the drift
formations of the central plain of Ireland could be explained by the
‘ colliding’ or meeting of the flow-tide currents branching from the
main, with these coming through the straits—now valleys—in the
surrounding hills, as also the different eskers to the north of the
main current.

It is indeed remarkable that the great eskers of the central
valley. are opposite some great gap or valley which, on the hypo-
thesis of an esker sea, was at one time a strait or channel. For
example, the Parsonstown esker is opposite the great gap of Roscrea
between the Slieve Bloom mountains and the mountains of North
‘Tipperary. .The East Galway groups are in relation with the open-

-1898] THE ESKERS OF IRELAND 247

ing between the Silvermines and the Seve Boughta mountains behind
Portumna. Last, not least, the great group of drift ridges and hills
at Esker College, Athenry, is situated near the mouth of the great
strait which occupied the valley of Gort and Lough Cooter between
the mountains of South Galway and those of North Clare.

Dr James Geikie remarks that Mr Kinahan was the first to
point out the relation between these groups of post-glacial mounds
and ridges with the openings of valleys branching off from the great
central plain; and the circumstance is further noteworthy as form-
ing (accidentally, I think) a connecting link between the two sets of
theories represented by Kinahan and Geikie respectively. While
Kinahan looks to the ‘ colliding’ or dividing of flow-tide currents,
Geikie finds all that is necessary in the melting away of ‘ confluent
glaciers. The latter regards the explanation which Mr David
Hummel gives of the asar of Sweden as applicable to the drift for-
mations of Scotland and (as he believes) to the analogous formations
of Ireland, including, of course, the eskers.

From the observations made by him on the asar and other
drifts of Sweden, Hummel concludes that the facts indicate the
agency of running water, and the direct action of glacier-ice ; and
he comes to the conclusion that the asar have been formed in
tunnels underneath the dissolving ice by running water introduced
through crevasses, etc., acting on the ground moraines of the great
confluent glaciers which covered Sweden during the glacial period.
Geikie adopts a similar explanation of the kames of Scotland, and
remarks that the theory to some extent resembles Mr Goodchild’s
view of the origin of drift deposits in general.

Dr N. O. Holst has proposed another explanation of asar, which
he supposes to have been deposited in superficial channels licked out
of the ice-sheet by the water derived from the melting of the inland
ice. The materials were, as he believes, derived from the melting
ice in which they had lain embedded. Geikie rejects the explanation
for these reasons :—

(1) Because asar, eskers, and ridgy kames are not so continuous
as they must have been had they been formed in superficial river
channels; and

(2) Because we have no reason to believe that the ice of the
old extinct glaciers was more thickly charged with debris than the
present ice-sheets of arctic and antarctic regions.

Moreover, it occurs to me that, while it is by no means im-
possible that morainic matter may have collected in such grooves, it
is very unlikely that it would come to terra firma without disturb-
ance of stratification. The groove would be narrower at bottom
than at top, the reverse of what we find in the esker.

Hummel’s theory, as adapted by Geikie, while open to a share

248 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

of the objections, will perhaps be found to apply to Ireland as to
Scotland and Sweden; it will, at all events, be found to explain
some phenomena not easily reconcilable with other theories. Take
the case of the large erratics frequently perched on the top or sides
of eskers and similar deposits. When I have read that such blocks
had been borne by ice-rafts which, stranding on the eminences,
there melted, and dropped their burdens, I have asked without
being able to find an answer satisfactory to myself: How could
so slender and fragile a structure survive the rude impact of an
iceberg? On Hummel’s hypothesis I can satisfy my own mind at
least. I can understand how crevasses would wear and widen into
tunnels,—how the water flow derived from the melting ice would
sweep the morainic matter into these tunnels,—how the melting
would vary with the season——how the solid matter would vary
from time to time with the force of the water,—how there would
be strata dipping towards the sides which would wear away un-
equally at different sections,—how even on the same line of crevass
we may find a well-formed ridge, a mound, or a heap of morainic
matter,—and how the greater blocks would remain on the ice-
surface, till let down on the surface or side of the ridge. I am not
sure that we can so easily account for the roundness and smoothness
of most of the pebbles as we could on the hypothesis of marine
action. And I am still at a loss to know why the true esker is
confined to the comparatively narrow midland zone.1 Surely there
were crevasses and morainic matter elsewhere, and the great thaw
would be general and pretty nearly equal all over the area of
Ireland. It is easy enough to conceive that the greater part of the
products of glaciation would finally become scattered about, levelled,
or, in some places furrowed, by the floods which would cover all the
low-lying parts of the country with deposits of sand, gravel, and
shingle. Perhaps it may yet be shown that eskers were formed
in other parts of the country, but were destroyed by local glaciers
of later date, or by other causes. In parts of Ulster, Co. Monaghan
for instance, there is abundance of limestone gravel in hillocks and
mounds. That there are no long narrow ridges at present does not,
perhaps, justify the assumption that there never have been any
there. The preservation of an esker is, or ought to be, not less a
subject for wonder than its original formation.

I have already partly described the great drift formations at the
College near Athenry, and I give some further details, which may
afford additional illustration of Hummel’s theory. This group
consists of two great parallel ridges running westward from the

1 Some well-formed eskers may be seen adjoining the railway between Tuam and
Claremorris. The locality may, however, be regarded as a portion of the great midland
plain.

1898] THE ESKERS OF [RELAND 249

college (which enclose on two sides the lawn or playground), and a
series of immense mounds or hills to the south-east, east, and north-
east. These sand-hills form a miniature mountain system with
valleys, and some curious bowl-shaped depressions. Seen at a little
distance, in the twilight they may easily be mistaken for a veritable
mountain-chain with sierra-like crest. But there is no appearance
of rock, the whole consisting of drift deposits, mainly limestone
eravel and sands, with a surface which in a ‘ dropping’ (@.e. rainy)
season supports a fairly good sheep pasture, and forms burrowing
ground for myriads of rabbits. Apart from these ridges and sand-
hills the country around is flat, and less than a century ago must have
been almost entirely covered with deep bog, but most of ae has been
cut away. There are some outliers, ad one long ridge, partly
levelled and obliterated, may be traced along the Kingsland road as
far as the outskirts of the town of Athenry, at one time the Anglo-
Norman capital of the province of Connaught.

Having spent a number of years in this peculiar locality, 1 have
often seer how by any known agency of tide or current these
ridges and sand-hills could be shaped as they are. While some
features could be accounted for by marine action, others could not
be brought within range. How could the ‘ flow-tide’ heap up two
great parallel ridges within a stone’s cast of each other? If it is
within the function of the tides to accomplish this, I am afraid
we don’t quite understand the question of ways and means. By
Hummel’s theory we get over the difficulty. There is remarkable
parallelism among the asar of the Lake Malar district. And if
there were no such difficulty in the way of the marine theory, there
is a rather formidable one as regards the heaping up of a ridge so
high and steep-sided in proportion to width at top.

The eastern end of the more northern ridge has been cut away
to make room for some of the buildings, and in this way is made a
very good section, which, although partly obscured by a wall and by
detritus at the base, affords the best view of the internal structure
of an esker that I have anywhere seen. This section shows a curious
alternation of sand and gravel beds with an occasional ‘leaf’ of clay,
or rather lime-clay paste, but the dip is not quite so steep as the
sides. Owing to the percolation of rain-water, there is matrix of
calcareous matter which serves to bind the whole into a tolerably
compact mass, which, however, readily yields to the pick-axe, and
the loosened materials when screened, serve to mix with mortar for
building, Over the sides and top there is, however, a deposit of
aérial drift, in which the rabbits can work their way. Formerly,
the peat closely surrounded both ridges. I have heard it stated
that there is peat underneath the gravel. But 1 know that in the

summer of 1897 a pump was sunk within two yards of the section
S

250 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

I have described, and to the depth of twenty-five feet, without any
indication of peat. The boring passed through beds similar to those
of the ridge, but horizontal, and of closer grain. No boulders were
met with until the water-bearing stratum had been tapped, and then
some large ones were encountered.

In the sand-hill group, the few openings I have seen showed
less of the stratified arrangement, with a greater number of rounded
pebbles, exemplifying, I think, the passage of the true esker into
the morainic mounds, much acted upon by denudation.

Are we then to take it as a settled matter that the esker sea is
all a myth ?

I hardly think so. Even Geikie admits the probability of an
epoch of depression, and mentions that “gravel beds with marine
shells have been traced in Ireland up to a height of 1235 feet on
Montpelier Hill.” Again, how are we to account for the presence
of large blocks of the red porphyritic granite of western Galway on
the Sheve Bloom mountains? This granite, as Jukes remarks, ‘‘is
easily recognisable inasmuch as it contains hornblende instead of
mica, and has large crystals of pinkish felspar, and is therefore
porphyritic.” How could these erratics be borne to their present
situation except on rafts of floating ice? It is known that blocks
of stone will sometimes rise through the glacier to its surface.
But in such cases the erratics do not rise above the level of their
origin; they merely describe a plane of less incline than the upper
surface of the glacier. It may be contended that the period of
depression did not synchronize with the formation of the eskers,
and if so, we have new difficulties to meet. It may be that the
eskers were not all formed at one time or in one way, and that
most of the theories apply to a certain extent, while no one theory
yet propounded, is comprehensive enough to cover all the ground, or
clear enough to explain all the circumstances. I have no intention
and no ambition to attempt a new solution. But I have frequently
been struck by what appears to me the marked resemblance between
some eskers and certain phenomena in progress round the shores of
Galway Bay.

In his essay on ‘“‘ The Arenaceous Rocks of Ireland” (Proe. R. Soe.
Dublin, n.s., vol. v., p. 507, 1887), Kinahan describes a curious spit
of conglomerate at Lisbellaw, Co. Fermanagh, which he believes
to have been formed in Silurian times after the manner of the
Chesil Bank. “In Lyme Bay the flow tide current runs from the
westward of Portland Bill which acts as a groyne; Chesil Bank or
Beach becomes coarser and larger as it is followed east, till it forms a
massive heap of shingle to the west of the Bill; but eastward of the
Bill, in Weymouth Bay, there are finer accumulations. In Silurian
times similar forces were at work in the neighbourhood of Lisbellaw.”

1898] THE ESKERS OF IRELAND 251

And similar forces, I should say, were at work in the ‘esker’
sea, as they are at the present day in Galway Bay, and must have
been at work on some parts of the margin of the sea in every
geological age. Mr Kinahan makes incidental reference to the
ridge from Co. Wexford to the Saltees. Within three miles of the
mouth of the Corrib River, on which Galway stands, there are
examples of what I take leave to call Chesil Bank formation in
progress at the present hour, some to the east and some to the west
of the outlet.

East of the town, and separated from it by the inner bay known
as Lough Atalia (crossed by the railway) is the promontory on which
stands Renmore Military Barracks. Off this headland is Hare
Island, a rather remarkable fragment of the boulder-clay drift
which appears in cliffs just opposite and in other places around the
Bay. At low water this island is connected with the mainland by
a natural causeway, about half a mile in length, of so regular
construction that it would, at first sight, appear almost as the work
of man. At high tides this causeway or bar is covered under water
deep enough to float a small schooner. At the land end it joins
other ridges more of the ‘ harbour-bar’ character, running to right
and to left along shore, and cutting off lagoons from the Bay, the
bars being above the reach of all but the highest tides. ‘Who
made this road ?” I asked an old man residing in the hamlet hard
by. “The tide,” he answered; ‘the bank has grown out from
the island, and is still growing.” The island divides the flow-tide,
and the shingle and sand are ridged up very much as Kinahan’s
theory lays down. More curious still is the great loop which the
ridge makes at the island, forming a deep pond or loch of over an
acre in extent, the surface of the enclosed water being, when I saw
it, at ebb-tide on 24th May 1898, fully ten feet above the level of
the surrounding waters. Near the famous Claddagh, a great bank
of shingle has cut off many acres inshore, flooded only at high
tides through a gap in the ‘bar. At the western end of this ridge
there is also a fragment of boulder-clay. Again, about a mile to
the west of the beautiful sea-side suburb, Salthill, is a conspicuous
promontory of the boulder-clay known as Mount Gentian (now the
Golf Links). Off this headland is another island fragment of the
elay-drift; and this too has been joined to the shore by a long
narrow causeway of shingle which stands clear of the highest tides,
and may be traced for a mile in the direction of Salthill promenade,
in the form of a ‘harbour-bar, cutting off a considerable space of
old beach now converted into grazing ground..

The two marine causeways here described present some striking
resemblance to many of the inland ridges I have seen. There is
resemblance in contour, of slope, of proportion, of bedding; and if

252 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 189%

the ‘causeways’ have a preponderance of pebble and shingle, that
is owing to the circumstance that the shore in question is thickly
strewn with granitic boulders.

It is not necessary, I think, to point out that I do not advance
these remarks as a solution of the esker question. At the same
time, { submit that the circumstances are deserving of some attention
when the question is as to the way or ways in which the typical
eskers have been formed. However much we may feel inclined to
prefer the explanations offered by Hummel and Geikie, we cannot,
I fancy, yet afford to discard in its entirety the principle so ably
worked out by Kinahan. That there is a ridge-forming power in
the flow-tide action of the great ocean—-when the current meets:
some object sufficient to part it im the shallower waters near the
coast—-we can see for ourselves in such instances as I have just
cited. That the eskers, properly so-called, are mainly confined to:
the zone which may be regarded as a continuation of Galway Bay
is, to my mind, a circumstance more easily reconcilable with
Kinahan’s than with Geikie’s later theory. Yet I do not regard
this aspect of the question as by any means fatal to the principle
propounded by the latter. If we have not typical eskers outside the
midland zone we have at least their ruins, and these in plenty, in
the counties of Monaghan, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Mayo, etc.; that is,
we have such heaps, mounds, and flats as would be produced by the
partial dispersion of a true esker ridge. In whatever way we may
suppose the ridge to have been produced we can see that there were
many chances against survival in the perfect form. That so many
have withstood ‘ the shocks of time and chance’ is rather wonder-
ful; for hardly less curious or less puzzling than their origin is the
question as to the conservation of so many eskers in Ireland and of
corresponding ridges in other countries.

THOMAS FITZPATRICK.

St Ienatius’ CoLLEGcRE,
GALWAY.

597.55(53.1) 253
639.(53.1)

IV
The Grey Mullet Fishery in Japan

HERE are three known species of Mugil in Japan, namely,
M. cephalotus, M. haematocherlus, and M. joyneri.

The first species is known by the name of Shirome (white eyed),
Bora, Nayoshi, &e., and while immature Subashiri, Oboko, Ina, &c.,
according to different stages of development. The second species is
called Ahamé (red eyed), Shukuchi, &c.; and the third species,
Meina. The first species is abundant along the whole coast of the
main island or Hondo, and is captured throughout the whole year.
In summer we find innumerable fry of this fish in brackish water,
and often in fresh water too. In spring the fish migrate in shoals
towards shallow water, and remain scattered there during the whole
summer, while in autumn they assemble together and form shoals
again and migrate along the coast. Then as winter approaches
they gradually seek warmer and deeper water, and pass the cold
season in rather a dormant state. They are also cultured in
brackish ponds, and sometimes in canals round such rice fields as
are near the sea.. Their average length is a little more than a
foot.

The second species, Mugil haematocheilus, is abundant in the
southern district, and is caught in autumn when it comes in
large shoals towards the coast for the purpose of spawning. Roes
of this fish are salted and dried, and are highly esteemed as a
delicacy. This fish attains a larger size (about two feet) than the
preceding species.

The third species, MZ. joyneri, is not abundant, and consequently
is not important economically.

The average annual catch of the grey mullet is about four
hundred thousand yen in value, about £40,000. There are very
diverse methods for its capture. Sweep-seines, dip-nets, pound-
nets, hand-nets, stop-nets, set-nets, drift-nets, cast-nets, and drift-
lines are the chief apparatus used for the purpose. These appliances
are chiefly used in shallow waters, not more than ten fathoms in
depth, as the fish are mostly found in these parts.

The mullet, especially Mugil cephalotus, is said to be frightened
by sound and light. Moreover, it is said that the fish hate the
presence of oily substances, so that they turn their route of migra-

254 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

tion from the place where such are found. Therefore, at the fish-
ing ground, fishermen do not throw away any oily substance out of
the boat; moreover, they keep very quiet, uttering no word.

The sweep seine.—There are many kinds of this seine,
different in structure as well as in the method of using. I
shall describe some nets of special interest.

The double floats seine (Fig. 1)—This is simply a long, narrow
net, of which the height is greatest in the middle and decreases gradu-
ally towards either end. The length of the rope at both upper and
lower margins of the net is 600 feet. This net has a very long and
narrow netting added to its upper margin like a roof, to prevent the
fish from leaping out of it. The narrow netting has its own floats on
the free margin, hence the seine has two rows of floats. This special
structure makes the net adapted for the capture of the mullet. When

the net is in use, a small boat constantly attends to the roof-like net-
ting to make it keep the right position and not to collapse; this is done
by binding two or three floats together, as the seine is gradually drawn
towards the shore and the two wings approach each other more and
more. This seine is used by a boat manned by seven men to encircle
a shoal of fish, and it is done under directions from a watch-tower
on shore. When the seine is completely put out, it is dragged in by
about thirty men on shore. This net can be used only in flat sandy
shores.

The sweep-seine fishery with a sunken rope.—In certain parts of
Central Japan a peculiar method is employed. During the night a
big straw rope is sunk to the bottom of the sea at right angles to
the coast line, and fishermen wait silently on land for the approach
of fish with a boat ready in which a sweep seine is loaded. It is
said that when a shoal of fish approaches, some fish are frightened by
the sunken rope and leap out of water. The fishermen hearing
the sound of the leaping fish, jump into the boat and hastily encircle
the seine.

The dip net (Fig. 2)—Of this net also there are many
kinds. It is used generally on rocky ground. It is rectangular
or square in shape, and is mostly of a large size (some nets measure
about 240 feet by 120 feet). The net is sunk at a convenient
place in the route of migration of the fish. In some cases the net is

19983) THE GREY MULLET FISHERY IN JAPAN 255

entirely sunk under the surface of water, while in other cases only
one side is sunk. In rocky districts where the sea is generally
deep, the mullet swims very close inshore. The net is often set in a
bay having a slight curvative, because such a place is more convenient
than an open coast or a coast deeply indented. In the former case
the sea is more rough, while in the latter case the fish does not come
often. The movement of the fish is observed from towers on land,
and the communication between them is made by signals. When
the fish come on the net, the sunken side or sides are immediately

Bigs) 2;

raised by hauling ropes which are fastened to the sides of the net.
Ropes are held by anchored boats, and are hauled by a signal from
the watch-tower nearest to the net. Such a dip-net is sometimes
accompanied with two long wings, which are used to encircle the fish
and force them to go on to the sunken net as well as to prevent
them from escaping. As the quick performance of work is neces-
sary for this fishery, numerous boats and men are generally em-
ployed.

The pound-net.—The apparatus (Fig. 5) next to be described
is not a proper pound-net, because fish do not come into the net by
themselves, moreover there is no special device to prevent the

Fig. 3.

fish which enter the net from going out again. The net is spiral
in shape. It is supported by bamboo sticks, stuck into ground, and
consists of three different parts—outer, middle, and inner or central.

256 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

A straw rope with a few stems of straw, put between strands of
the rope and suspended at regular intervals, forms the outer part.
The end of these straw stems nearly touch the ground. ‘The
middle part forms the greater portion of the pound-net, and is
made of a netting which is stretched between bamboo sticks
to form a barrier. The central part is short. Its essential
portion consists of three wooden boards, placed in the shape
of the letter U. The space between the boards and the ground is
cautiously closed by a netting. To catch fish, three or four persons
row a small boat very swiftly, and at the same time drive scattered
fish by beating the surface of water with oars or poles. When the
boat comes near the end of the net, whence it cannot go further, a
man comes out of the boat and continues the driving in the same
way, wading towards the centre of the net. The fish are at last
compelled to leap to clear the barrier, and are caught by the boards.
This net is used in a shallow ground at the outlet of a brackish
lake. The mouth of the net faces the outlet of the lake.

There is another kind of pound-net (fig. 4) used in a shallow bay
where there is a great difference in the height of water between the
flood and ebb tides. It is a very long net, set by means of poles,
parallel to the coast line, and bent towards the coast at both ends.
There is a fold, or a series of pockets, which runs through the whole

length of the net at its middle part. The mouth of the pocket opens
towards the coast. When the tide recedes, the upper part of the net
is bent backward to form a roof. The roof is supported by a series
of floats. Fish are entangled in the pockets, or caught on the roof-
like part.

The hand net (fig. 5).—This is a simple apparatus, but the
method of using it is somewhat interesting. It is trapezoid in shape;
its upper and lower margins are strengthened by ropes, and the two
slanting sides by bamboo poles. This net is used on the shallow

1898] THE GREY MULLET FISHERY IN JAPAN 257

sandy shore of a bay. The two bamboo sticks are held by two men
wading in the water, or by two boats. Thus the net is expanded
between them, special care being taken not to leave an open space
between the lower margin of the net and the ground. The net is
held obliquely against current. While the net is thus prepared, two
boats row swiftly and drive fish towards the net by means of a long

Inies J5y,

scare-cord held between them. When the cord touches the net, the
latter is quickly raised out of water to bail out the fish. The scare-
cord is made of hemp, and is about 900 ft. in length. It is provided
with numerous thin, small, rectangular pieces of wood (ea. 1 ft. by
2 ins.). They are slightly curved, and make a noise, and disturb
the surface of the water very much when they are drawn quickly.
The stop net.—This is chiefly used in harbours to stop escape
of fish, either by encircling a shoal of fish, or by closing the mouth
of the harbour. This is generally accomplished with set-nets or
gill-nets. For the benefit of this fishery, a certain district is closed

Fic. 6.

to fishermen, and sometimes even to the anchorage of boats, during
a certain season. To allure fish to such a place, bran and mud are
mixed together and made into balls, which are distributed over the
ground.

The drift line (fig. 6).—This is used from a boat in a brackish
lake. The line is made of hairs from horse tails, twisted together

258 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898

to the thickness of about one line, and 120 to 140 yards in total
length. Hooks, about ten in number, are attached to the line by
means of short snoods. Moreover, there are many small, round
floats attached to the line. The snood is provided with a long float
made of wood near the point of attachment of the snood to the line.
When a fish is caught on a hook, the long float belonging to the hook
stands out of the surface of water. The hooks are baited with earth-
worms. At the distal end of the line a boat-shaped float with a
sail is tied, by means of which the line is sent far from the boat.
This apparatus is used only for sport. K. KISHINOUYE.

IMPERIAL FISHERIES BUREAU,
Tokio, JAPAN.

590.6 259

-
, The Zoological Congress

HE fourth meeting of the International Zoological Congress was
held at Cambridge between the 22nd and 27th of August,
under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock. The attendance was
more than twice as great as at any previous meeting, and the whole
Congress must be regarded as an unqualified success.

The plan of work comprised a discussion on some problem of
general zoological interest in the morning, a series of sectional meet-
ings for the consideration of more technical matters in the afternoon,
with garden-party or reception in the evening.

The proceedings opened on Monday evening with a reception
by the Mayor of Cambridge to the members of the two Congresses
of Zoology and Physiology, both of which were sitting during the
same week. On Tuesday morning Sir John Lubbock began the
work of the Congress by delivering his Presidential Address. Follow-
ing the precedents set by the previous Presidents, Milne Edwards,
Kapnist and Jentink, Sir John Lubbock confined his address to a
welcome to the members, some interesting remarks on the great field
of work still open to zoologists, and reference to the flourishing
school of zoology which has its seat at Cambridge. The general
report of the Congress was read by the treasurer, and Dr van Hoek
announced some reforms in the postal charges for natural history
specimens that were to be granted. Zoological nomenclature was
brought up in reference to a report of a committee on that eternal
question; but, to the general relief, any discussion was cleverly
shelved until the next Congress.

The two principal meetings of the Congress were held on Wednes-
day and Thursday morning. At the former, Professor Delages and
Mr Minchin opened a discussion on the “ Position of Sponges in the
Animal Kingdom.” The fight soon resolved itself into a long-range
skirmish between the old men and the young. Delages and Minchin
both held that the inversion of the embryonic layers in the sponge
precludes the reference of that group to the Coelenterata, though
whether it is to be ranked as a separate group, or as directly descended
from the Choanoflagellata seemed less certain. Haeckel and Schulze
both clung to the Coelenterate theory. Vossmaer declined to ex-
press an opinion, and Saville Kent reaftirmed his belief in the

260 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

affinity of the sponges with Choanoflagellata. The general trend of
the discussion certainly seemed to favour the newer view.

On Wednesday morning the problem for discussion was the
Origin of the Mammalia, opened by Professors Seeley and Osborn,
and continued by Marsh, Sedgwick, Hubrecht, and Haeckel. The
main question round which the discussion ranged was whether the
mammals had descended from the reptiles, instead of from the
amphibia, as is now generally taught in text-books in accordance
with Huxley’s teaching. Professor Seeley’s speech was a clear com-
parison of the osteology of the anomodont reptiles with that of mam-
mals. He showed that all the supposed mammalian characters are
also found among the extinct anomodonts, which have completely
broken down the distinction between reptiles and mammals. Pro-
fessor Osborn began by deducing the probable characters of the an-
cestral mammal from certain general considerations. He agreed with
Seeley as to the origin of mammals from reptiles, but preferred to
regard the former as descended from a third, as yet undiscovered,
group of anomodonts, instead of going back to the Devonian or
Silurian for some common ancestor of mammals and anomodonts.
Marsh expressed no positive opinion on the main question, but
insisted on the fact that the reptiles and mammals are still separated
by four important osteological characters. He adduced strong reasons
for considering that the resemblances between mammals and reptiles
adduced by Professor Seeley may be explained as a case of parallel
adaptation, the same characters having been independently acquired.
Sedgwick made an effective speech protesting that embryological
evidence will not help in the solution of such a remote question as
that under discussion, as it gives no indication of the polydactyle
stage of the ancestral horse, the toothed stage of birds, or the limbed
stage of snakes, though the existence of those stages is not doubted
by any one. Professor Hubrecht did his best to defend embryology
from this einphatic statement of its limitations, and Haeckel, strangely
conservative, still upheld the origin of all placental mammals from
the marsupials. But this view was generally scouted, and the dis-
cussion seemed to strengthen the case for the reptilian ancestry of
the mammals.

The principal feature in the Friday morning’s proceedings was
Haeckel’s discourse on the Descent of Man. The previous day’s
discussion anticipated much that he intended to say, so he did not
read his paper, and until that is printed it is not possible to estimate
the scientific value of his contribution. His speech was popular,
and Haeckel received an ovation at its close.

The afternoon meetings were devoted to papers of more technical
character and exhibitions in the museum. The papers were of very
unequal value. A few were advertisements of forthcoming works,

1898] THE ZOOLOGICAL CONGRESS 261

by the exhibition of sample plates. That comparatively little of
the time of the Congress was wasted in this way is no doubt
due to the courage with which the secretaries had rejected the
more obviously useless papers. Among the exhibits those of Mr
Graham Kerr, Mr Stanley Gardiner, Mr Willey, and Mr Rousselet
are especially worthy of mention.

On Saturday morning a business meeting was held, at which it
was arranged that the next meeting should be in Germany during
1901. The Congress then adjourned to London for visits to the
Zoological Gardens and British Museum (Natural History), where
on the Saturday evening Sir John Lubbock gave a reception. On
Monday a large number of members went to Tring to see Mr
Rothschild’s magnificent museum, and on Tuesday a smaller party
under the guidance of Mr Lydekker inspected the Duke of Bed-
ford’s collection of deer at Woburn Abbey.

In such a varied course of proceedings it is difficult to draw
any general conclusions as to results. Thanks to the skilful plans
of the secretaries, Professor Jeffrey Bell, Mr Sedgwick, and Mr
Bourne, and the tactful arrangements of the secretaries of the local
reception committee, Dr Harmer and Mr Shipley, the Congress
was held without a hitch. The opinion was generally expressed
that the scientific standard of the papers was much higher than
usual. The discussions were especially enjoyed, and will no doubt
henceforth be regarded as a chief feature of future meetings.
From the proceedings three impressions seem to have been gener-
ally felt. First, the scanty attendance of entomologists and ornithol-
ogists may indicate the increasing separation of those branches of
zoological work. The ornithologists have a congress to themselves,
and the entomologists also will not improbably start one, to settle
their own difficulties without the interference of specialists in other
subjects. Secondly, the greater importance attached to palaeon-
tology, and the increasing distrust of embryology as a guide in
phylogeny, were shown repeatedly. Thirdly, there seemed a feeling
of boredom with the interminable question of zoological nomencla-
ture, and a certain determination to refuse to follow rigid rules
when they lead to absurdities, and to trust more in the future to
common sense.

925.5 262 [October

James Hall

T has been given to few men to serve for upwards of sixty years
on the official staff of a public department in the Old World;
and probably the late Dr Hall’s sixty-two years of service in the
Geological Survey of New York State is unique in American annals.
James Hall was born on the 12th September 1811, at Hingham,
an old-fashioned New England town near Boston, which claims the
oldest occupied church in America. Early in the century it was
little more than a fishing village, and Hall received his scientific
education in the Rensselaer School at Troy, which has since grown
into the Troy Polytechnic Institute. He graduated there in 1832,
when he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry and natural
science. In 1836 he was transferred to the professorship of geology,
and in the same year was appointed to one of the posts of assistant
geologist on the newly established Geological Survey of New York
State. In the following year he was promoted to the rank of State
Geologist, and began field work during the same year. From 1838
until 1843 he was engaged on the survey of the western part of the
state, and began the study of the recession of the Niagara Falls, to
which he acted as Lyell’s guide in 1841. In 1843 he wrote his
last field report, and was appointed the State Palaeontologist.
Under his supervision systematic fossil collecting was undertaken in
the rich palaeozoic faunas of New York, resulting in the formation
of the magnificent collections in the Albany Museum. The faunas
were described in “The Palaeontology of New York,” of which
thirteen huge imperial quarto volumes were issued between 1847
and 1894 at the estimated cost of about a million dollars. In
addition to writing and editing this great work, Hall contributed a
long series of reports to the annual volumes of the “ Regents Reports
of the New York State Musewm,” and a number of other papers in
the usual scientific serials. In 1848 he was elected a Foreign
Member of the Geological Society, and ten years later received from
the same society its Wollaston Medal, of which at his death he
was the senior recipient by no less than eleven years, while the
third medallist in seniority was elected twenty-three years later.
In 1855 he was offered the post of palaeontologist to the Canadian
Geological Survey, with a promise of the reversion of Sir William
Logan’s position of Director. He declined the offer, but worked out
the collection of Canadian graptolites, which were described in a report
on “ The Graptolites of the Quebec Group,” published in 1865.
In 1855 Hall accepted the post of State Geologist of Iowa.

1898] JAMES HALL 263

That office and the similar position for the state of Wisconsin,
which Hall received in 1857, he was able to hold without affecting
his position in the New York service. His work in connection with
these surveys increased his knowledge of the geology of the Missis-
sippi basin; and he was able to make important additions to the
geology of the western states, as he was entrusted by the Federal
Government with the description of the collections made by
many of the expeditions and surveys in that region. Thus he
described the fossils collected by the Fremont expedition, the
collections of the Pacific Railway Survey, the Cretaceous fossils
obtained by the Mexican Boundary Commission, and wrote a
report on the geology and palaeontology of the basin of the Great
Salt Lake of Utah from materials brought back by Lieutenant
. Stansbury.

In 1856 Hall was elected President of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. At its meeting in Montreal in the
following year he gave his famous address, in which was first
definitely expounded the theory that the elevation of mountain chains
is due to the deposition of sedimentary deposits, and that the direction
of the mountain chains are determined by lines along which the
thickest accumulation has taken place.

But this and similar incursions into the domain of physical
geology only temporarily distracted Hall from palaeontographical
work to which his inexhaustible energies were mainly devoted.
His additions to the materials of invertebrate palaeontology are
probably greater than those of any other man. The number of
important new genera founded by Hall is enormous. The roll of
Hall’s new genera and species was by 1858 so long, that Colonel
Portlock, the President of the Geological Society whose duty it was
to present Hall with the Wollaston Medal, felt bound to qualify his
patronizing commendations by a warning that he was himself “ prone
to hesitate respecting new species when closely allied to previously
known species.” But the work which Colonel Portlock appeared to
disparage is now recognised as Hall’s most permanent title to fame.
As a note in the Geological Magazine reminds us, palaeontology is
indebted to Hall for the following important genera: among the
eraptolites there are Callograptus, Dicranograptus and Phyllograptus ;
among the corals, Coelophyllum, Heliophyllum and_ Streptelasma ;
among the Pelmatozoa, Calceocrinus, Heterocrinus, Dendrocrinus,
Glyptaster, Glyptocrinus and Hemicystis; there is the star-fish
Palaeaster, and the echinid Lepidechinus; the additions to the
Monticuliporoids and Bryozoa are very numerous, including Favistella,
Callopora, Bactropora, and Trematopora; and among the Trilobites
are Plewronotus, Bathynotus, Mesothyra and Ptychaspis. His Memoir
on North American Hurypterida, Pterygoti and Ceratiocaris (1871),

264 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898

is one of the most valuable contributions to these forms of
Arthropods. And Hall not only described fossils systematically ;
he carefully studied their anatomy and the microscopic structure of
their tissues, a work in which the magnificent preservation of the
North American palaeozoic fossils gave him exceptional oppor-
tunities.

In 1872 Hall visited England to attend the meeting of the
British Association at Brighton, and read a paper “On the Clinton,
Niagara, and Upper Helderberg Formations in the United States.”
Four years later he helped to found the International Congress of
Geologists, an institution in which he always took a keen interest.
In fact only last year, in spite of his 86 years of age, he visited
Russia to attend the last meeting of the Congress and subsequently
accompanied it in a fatiguing excursion through the Ural Mountains.
In 1884 Hall was elected a corresponding member of the Paris
Academy of Sciences.

During the last few years of his life Hall was greatly worried by
the friction with the literary departments of the New York State
service with which his own was associated. Originally the
scientific departments were under the control of the library and
literary branches of the service, which regarded the great cost of the
scientific departments with disfavour. At length in 1893 Hall
succeeded in getting a bill through the New York legislature, which
secured his freedom from literary control. An attack was then
made on his private character. Mr Melvil Dewey, the state libra-
rian, charged Hall with having sold for 65,000 dollars a collection
of fossils which he said were really the property of the State. A —
legislative committee investigated the charges, Dr Hall was triumph-
antly acquitted, and the New York Geological Survey has continued
its work in peace.

Hall’s indomitable energy, unfailing courtesy and bright good
humour rendered him an universal favourite in American scientific
circles. His humour was keen, and though sometimes cynical, never
marred by any suspicion of unkindness. For example, his wife was
a Roman Catholic and had at one time converted Hall to her views,
Hall used to attribute his abandonment of Romanism to the breaking
of a pulley chain, whereby there were simultaneously smashed to
shivers one of his favourite fossils and his faith in providence.
After this Hall’s relations with his wife were not so sympathetic ;
for she appeared a little jealous of his devotion to his scientific work.
So he built a house for his wife in his park, and they lived together
for years on terms of friendly neighbourship. She died some years
ago, and Hall keenly felt her loss. He himself passed away rather
suddenly on August 7th, at a quiet resort in the White Mountains,
where he had gone for his usual summer’s rest.

bo
o>
OU

591.5

VII
Animal Intelligence as an Experimental Study

HE investigation of the problems suggested by the observable
phenomena of instinct and intelligence in animals is passing —
we may now say has passed,—into the experimental stage. The col-
lection of anecdotes, useful enough for preparing the ground and (as
Time’s irony has shown) for enabling one to perceive the insecurity
of any such basis for reliable conclusions, has had its day. It is
realized by serious students that, not only for the interpretation but
also for the observation of the phenomena, if they are to serve the
ends of science, some real training and discipline in psychology are
essential. Dog-stories and cat-stories though often full of subtle
humour and though not infrequently revealing an affectionate and
imaginative nature, serve rather to tickle the fancy than to appeal
to the rational faculties. It is not on such foundations, nor with
such materials, that a science of comparative psychology can be
securely built. Observations ad hoc by an investigator trained ad
hoc, will always carry weight. But the casual jottings of well
meaning though uninstructed people serve rather to check than to
forward the diffusion of exact knowledge.

Mr E. L. Thorndike in a monograph on “ Animal Intelligence ’
published as a supplement to the Psychological Review (June 1898)
has approached his subject in the right way, as one full of difficult
problems to be grasped, faced, and if possible solved, and has
furnished an experimental basis, narrow perhaps, but capable of
further extension for the conclusions that he draws. I have
briefly noticed his work elsewhere (Nature, July 14th, 1898); but
I regard it as of sufficient importance to justify a more extended
presentation and consideration here.

The subjects (one might, alas! almost say victims) of Mr
Thorndike’s experiments—or those to which the exigences of space
compel us to confine our attention—were thirteen kittens or cats
from three to eighteen months old. His method of investigation
shall be stated in his own words.

>

“After considerable preliminary observation of animals’ behaviour under
various conditions, I chose for my general method one which, simple as it is,
possesses several other marked advantages besides those which accompany experi-
ment of any sort. It was merely to put animals when hungry in enclosures from
which they could escape by some simple act, such as pulling at a loop of cord,

at

266 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

pressing a lever, or stepping on a platform. The animal was put in the enclosure,
food was left outside in sight, and his actions observed. Besides recording his
general behaviour, special notice was taken of how he succeeded in doing the
necessary act (in case he did succeed), and a record was kept of the time that he
was in the box before performing the successful pull, or clawing, or bite.
This was repeated until the animal had formed a perfect association between the
sense-impression of the interior of that box and the impulse leading to the suc-
cessful movement. When the association was thus perfect, the time taken to
escape was, of course, practically constant and very short.

“Tf, on the other hand, after a certain time the animal did not succeed, he
was taken out, but not fed. If, after a sufficient number of trials, he failed to get
out, the case was recorded as one of complete failure. Enough different sorts of
methods of escape were tried to make it fairly sure that association in general,
not association of a particular sort of impulse, was being studied. Enough
animals were taken with each box or pen to make it sure that the results were
not due to individual peculiarities. None of the animals used had any previous
acquaintance with any of the mechanical contrivances by which the doors were
opened. So far as possible the animals were kept in a uniform state of hunger,
which was practically utter hunger.”

To Mr Thorndike’s monograph we must refer those who desire
detailed information as to apparatus and procedure. It must here
suffice to state that the box-cages employed were rudely constructed
of wooden laths, and formed cramped prisons about twenty inches
long by fifteen broad and twelve high. Nine contained such simple
mechanisms as Mr Thorndike describes in the passage above quoted.
When a loop or cord was pulled, a button turned, or a lever de-
pressed, the door fell open. In another, pressure on the door as well.
as depression of a thumb-latch was required. In one cage two’
simple acts on the part of the kitten were necessary, pulling a cord
and pushing aside a piece of board; and in yet others three acts
were requisite. In those boxes from which escape was more diffi-
cult a few of the cats failed to get out. The times occupied in
thoroughly learning the trick of the box by those who were success-
ful are plotted in a series of curves, the essential feature of which
is the graphic expression of a gradual diminution in the time
interval between imprisonment and escape in successive trials.
In some cases the cats were set free from a box when they (1)
licked themselves or (2) scratched themselves.

Mr Thorndike comments on the results of his experiments as
follows :—

“When put into the box the cat would show evident signs of discomfort and of
an impulse to escape from confinement. It tries to squeeze through any opening ;
it claws and bites at the bars or wire ; it thrusts its paws out through any
opening and claws at everything it reaches; it continues its efforts when it
strikes anything loose and shaky : it may claw at things within the box. It does
not pay very much attention to the food outside, but seems simply to strive
instinctively to escape from confinement. The vigour with which it struggles is
extraordinary. For eight or ten minutes it will claw and bite and squeeze
incessantly. . . . The cat that is clawing all over the box in her impulsive struggle

1898] ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 267

will probably claw the string or loop or button so as to open the door. And
gradually all the other non-successful impulses will be stamped out and the
particular impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by the result-
ing pleasure, until, after many trials, the cat will, when put in the box,
immediately claw the button or loop in adefinite way. . . . Starting, then, with
its store of instinctive impulses, the cat hits upon the successful movement, and
gradually associates it with the sense-impression of the interior of the box until
-the connection is perfect, so that it performs the act as soon as confronted with
the sense-impression. . . . Previous experience makes a difference in the quickness
with which the cat forms the associations. After getting out of six or eight
boxes by different sorts of acts the cat’s general tendency to claw at loose objects
within the box is strengthened and its tendency to squeeze through holes and
bite bars is weakened ; accordingly it will learn associations along the general
line of the old more quickly. Associations between licking or scratching and
escape are similarly established, and there was a noticeable tendency to diminish the
act until it becomes a mere vestige of a lick or scratch. After the cat gets so that
it performs the act soon after being put in, it begins to do it less and less
vigorously. The licking degenerates into a mere quick turn of the head with one
or two motions up and down with tongue extended. Instead of a hearty scratch,
the cat waves its paw up and down rapidly for an instant.”

These experiments confirm the conclusion to which I have been
led by my own observations that the method of animal intelligence
is to profit by chance success and to build upon fortunate items of
experience casually hit upon and not foreseen. I need not here
repeat cases already published, such as the opening of a gate on the
part of my fox terrier by lifting the latch, a trick he certainly learnt
by this method; but I may very briefly describe one or two further
observations not yet recorded. I have watched my dog’s behaviour
when a solid indiarubber ball was thrown towards a wall standing
at right angles to its course. At first he followed it right up to the
wall and then back as it rebounded. So long as it travelled with
such velocity as to be only just ahead of him he pursued the same
course. But when it was thrown more violently, so as to meet, him
on the rebound as he ran towards the wall, he learnt that he was
thus able to seize it as it came towards him. And, profiting by the
incidental experience thus gained, he acquired the habit—though
for long with some uncertainty of reaction—by slowing off when the
object of his pursuit reached the wall so as to wait its rebound.
Again, when the ball was thrown so as to rebound at a wide angle
from a surface, at first,—when the velocity was such as to keep it
just ahead of him,—he followed its course. But when the velocity
was increased he learnt to take a short cut along the third side of a
triangle, so as to catch the object at some distance from the wall.
A third series of experiments were made where an angle was
formed by the meeting of two surfaces at right angles. One side of
the angle, the left, was dealt with for a day or two. At first the
ball was directly followed. Then a short cut was taken to meet its
deflected course. On the fourth day this method was well estab-

268 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

lished. On the fifth the ball was thrown so as to strike the other
or right side of the angle and thus be deflected in the opposite
direction. The dog followed the old course (the short cut to the
left) and was completely non-plussed, searching that side and not
finding the ball for eleven minutes. On repeating the experiment
thrice similar results were that day obtained. On the following
day the ball was thrown just ahead of him so as to strike to the
right of the angle and was followed and caught. This course
was pursued for three days, and he then learnt to take a short
cut to the right. On the next day the ball was sent, as at first, to
the left and the dog was again non-plussed. I have not yet
succeeded in getting him to associate a given difference of initial
direction with a resultant difference of deflection. And since these
words were written the dear little fellow has died. No doubt it
will be said by some fortunate possessor of a particularly rational
dog that my fox terrier was a fool. Let him experiment and
record the stages of progress, remembering that a rational being
will quickly and surely pierce to the heart of the mystery.

I may here mention that whenever searching for a ball of which
he had lost sight in the road he would run along the gutter first on
one side and then on the other. <A friend who was walking with me
one day regarded this as a clear case of rational inference. “The
dog knows,” he said, “the effects of the convex curvature of the
road as well as we do.” I am convinced, however (having watched
his ways from a puppy), that this method of search was gradually
established on a basis of practical experience. No logical inference
on his part is necessary for the interpretation of the facts; and we
should not assume its presence unless the evidence compels us
to do so.

Such experiments carried out on a different method give results
in line with Mr Thorndike’s. The conditions are more natural
which I regard as in some respects an advantage. But we need
experiments on different methods,—the more the better,—and if
the results they furnish are in accord, their correctness will be
rendered the more probable. I hope, however, that Mr Thorndike
will devise further experiments in which (1) the conditions shall be
somewhat less strained and straitened, while the subjects are in
a more normal state of equanimity (cannot “utter hunger” be
avoided ?), and (2) there shall be.more opportunity for the exercise
of rational judgment, supposing the faculty to exist. To establish
the absence of foresight in the procedure of the cats, it is surely
necessary so to arrange matters that the connections are clearly
open—nay even obvious—to the eye of reason. It appears
to me that this consideration has not weighed sufficiently with
Mr Thorndike.

1898] ANIMAL INTELLIGENUE 269

A number of interesting experiments were made with a view to
testing the influence, if any, of imitation.

“ A box was arranged with two compartments separated by a wire screen. The
larger of these had a front of wooden bars with a door which fell open when a
string stretched across the top was bitten or clawed down. The smaller was
closed by boards on three sides and by the wire screen on the fourth. Through
the screen a cat within could see the one to be imitated pull the string, go out
through the door thus opened and eat the fish outside. When put in this com-
partment, the top being covered by a large box, a cat soon gave up efforts to claw
through the screen, quieted down and watched more or less the proceedings
going on in the other compartment. Thus this apparatus could be used to test
the power of imitation. A cat who had no experience with the means of escape
from the large compartment was put in the closed one ; another cat, who would do
it readily, was allowed to go through the performance of pulling the string, going
out, and eating the fish. Record was made of the number of times he did so and
ot the number of times the imitator had his eyes clearly fixed on him. . . . After
the imitatee had done the thing a number of times, the other was put in the big
compartment alone, and the time it took him before pulling the string was noted
and his general behaviour closely observed. If he failed in 5 or 10 or 15
minutes to do so, he was released and not fed. This entire experiment was
repeated a number of times. From the times taken by the imitator to escape and
from observation of the way that he did it, we can decide whether imitation played
any part. . . . No one, I am sure, who had seen the behaviour of the cats would
have claimed that their conduct was at all influenced by what they had seen.
When they did hit the string the act looked just like the accidental success
of the ordinary association experiment. But, besides these personal observations,
we have in the impersonal time-records sufficient proofs of the absence of imi-
tation. It therefore seems sure that we should give up imitation as an a priori
explanation of any novel intelligent performance. To say that a dog who
opens a gate, for instance, need not have reasoned it out if he had seen
_another dog do the same thing, is to offer instead of one false explanation
another equally false. Imitation in any form is too doubtful a factor to be
presupposed without evidence.”

Mr Thorndike is of opinion that monkeys are probably imitative
in a sense that cats and dogs are not. But this is not at present
substantiated by analogous experiments. I trust that he will submit
it to this test.

As Mr Thorndike himself well observes, it is necessary clearly
to differentiate the various meanings which are intended when
the word “imitation” is used. The most elementary form of
imitation—that, of which, I believe, we find abundant evidence
in the procedure of animals—is where the performance of a
simple act by one individual suggests the performance of a similar
act by another. This is the “ plastic limitation ” of Professor Mark
Baldwin, and is analogous to mimicry as a biological phenomenon
in this respect ; it is imitative from the observer’s point of view but
does not imply intentional imitation on the part of the performer.
Conscious and purposive imitation involves faculties of a high
order; and I am not prepared to accept its existence in animals,

270 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

even the Primates, without more conclusive evidence than is at
present forthcoming. But unconscious imitation of the follow-my-
leader type (the outcome of a direct suggestion) is a factor of prime
importance alike in animal and in human life. And of this Mr
Thorndike’s experiments do not offer any disproof. A cat with no
experience of the means of escape sees another perform a certain
act and learns nothing from the experience. This no doubt proves:
that the cat had not in any sense grasped the problem to be put
before it; and shows that when placed in similar difficulties it did
not go back upon its previous merely observational experience (if
such it can be called). But the previous experiments have already
gone far to disprove the rationality of the cat—have at any rate
thrown the onus of proof on the upholders of the alternative
hypothesis. The whole gist of the chance experience interpretation
of animal behaviour is that there must be such chance experience
to build on. The cat cannot gain this by looking on, never so
intently, unless it be provided with a rational, as well as a sensory
eye. But the act of pulling the string is not of the type that cay
reasonably be regarded as likely to afford a follow-my-leader
suggestion. It has been reached by the gradual elimination of
many failures; it is a differentiated act, and one therefore so far
removed from the ordinary procedure of kittens. In all this I
think Mr Thorndike will agree. But his statements might well
lead readers of his work to suppose that he denied this influence of
suggestion. When he lays it down that “to say that a dog who
opens a gate, for instance, need not have reasoned it out if he had
seen another dog do the same thing, is to offer instead of one false
explanation another equally false,” he is, I think, open to mis-
construction. Puppies at a gate do most certainly in some cases
(1 speak from observation) follow the lead in an unmistakable
manner, and unquestionably profit by the suggestive behaviour of
one of their number. To contend that they imitate with conscious
intent would be quite another matter.

A series of experiments were made to ascertain whether
instruction (in the form of putting the animal through the
procedure requisite for a given act) was in any degree helpful.
The conclusion is that such instruction has no influence. Those
who have had experience in teaching animals to perform tricks will
probably agree here—though some trainers give expression to a
different opinion. It is, however, essential carefully to distinguish
between showing an animal how a trick is done, and furnishing
useful accessory stimuli (such as the occasional taps of the trainer’s
whip) which temporarily enter into the association complex. If
the latter be eliminated the practice of trainers, I believe, bears
out the general result of the experiments. Mr Thorndike never

1898) ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE ah

succeeded in getting an animal to change its way of doing a thing
for his. Nor was I, after repeated trials, able to modify the way
in which my dog lifted the latch of the gate. He did it with the
back of his head. I could not get him to do it (more gracefully)
with his muzzle. |

It is not my purpose to discuss Mr Thorndike’s psychological
analysis of the procedure of the cats. I think he is a little disposed
to emphasise the points in which he and I differ—though in many
cases the difference is more apparent than real. But in truth we
agree on more points than I care here to enumerate. I fully concur
in the opinion that what we have to deal with in animal intelli-
gence is a sequence of conscious situations ; that it is only through
analysis of mental complexes that we separate and isolate free
ideas ; that man can do this, and that the animal in all probability
can not. I am absolutely at one with him in the belief that the
method of animal intelligence to profit by chance experience without
rational foresight, and that unless such experience be individually
acquired, the data essential for intelligent progress are absent.
While in our attempts to realise the general nature of animal con-
sciousness there is a.close similarity of treatment. In my Jntroduc-
tion to Comparative Psychology I devoted a good deal of space to an
analysis of the psychology of skill “in order that we may infer
what takes place in the minds of animals”; and I said :—“ When
I am playing a hard game of tennis, or when I.am sailing a yacht
close to the wind in a choppy sea, self does not at all tend to
become focal. Hence, though I am a self-conscious being I am
not always self-conscious. And presumably when I am least self-
conscious, I am nearest the condition of the animal at the stage
of mere sense experience. J am exhilarated with the sense of
pleasurable existence, my whole being tingles with sentient life.
I sense, or am aware of, my own life and consciousness, in an
unusually subtle manner. Experience is vivid and continuous.
Such I take it to be the condition of the conscious but not yet self-
conscious animal,” .

I can therefore cordially endorse Mr Thorndike’s conclusions as
expressed in the following passages :

“One who has watched the life of a cat or dog for a month or
more under test conditions, gets, or fancies he gets, a fairly definite
idea of what the intellectual life of a cat or dog feels like. It is
most like what we feel when consciousness contains little thought
about anything, when we feel the sense-impressions in their first in-
tention, so to speak, when we feel our own body, and the impulses
we give to it. Sometimes one gets this animal consciousness while
in swimming, for example. One feels the water, the sky, the birds
above, but with no thoughts about them or memories of how they

272 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

looked at other times, or esthetic judgments about their beauty ;
one feels no ideas about what movements he will make, but feels
himself make them, feels his body throughout. Self-consciousness
dies away. Social consciousness dies away. The meanings, and
values, and connections of things die away. One feels sense-
impressions, has impulses, feels the movements he makes; that
is au.

And after an illustration from such a game as tennis, Mr
Thorndike adds :—“ Finally, the elements of the associations are not
isolated. No tennis-player’s stream of thought is filled with free-
floating representations of any of the tens of thousands of sense-
impressions or movements he has seen and made on the tennis-
court. Yet there is consciousness enough at the time, keen con-
sciousness of the sense-impressions, impulses, feelings of one’s
bodily acts. So with the animals. There is consciousness enough,
but of this kind.”

There is much in Mr Thorndike’s monograph to which there is
not space to allude. He is weak in that historical sense which
gives continuity to the development of scientific interpretation, but
I regard his investigation as one of great promise, and believe that
its further prosecution will lead to other results not less important
than those which he here presents. Experimental work in this
field is sorely needed; and Mr Thorndike has proved himself one
who is able and willing to carry it out.

C. Luoyp MorGan.
16 CANYNGE Roan,
CLIFTON, BRISTOL.

1898] 213

SOME NEW BOOKS

Fossit PLANTS FoR STUDENTs oF BorANy AND GroLocy. By A. C. Seward, M.A.,
F.G.S. (Cambridge Natural Science Manuals.) Pp. i-xviii+ 1-452. With frontis-
piece and 111 figures. Cambridge: University Press, 1898. Price 12s.

No better indication could be given of the increased interest in the
study of fossil plants than that afforded by the publication during the
last few years of several text-books specially dealing with this branch
of Natural History. At last it seems to be recognised that the student
of recent botany must possess some knowledge of fossil botany to
enable him to have a comprehensive view of his subject and equally,
if not even more important is it, for the palaeobotanist to be thoroughly
conversant with recent botany and especially with those groups which
are more closely connected with those occurring in the fossil state.
It is only when Fossil Botany has been so studied that any real advance
can be made, and the present work admirably brings before us in a
clear and lucid manner, the results which have been attained within
the last few years from the study of fossil botany on these lines. I
am certainly not one to declaim against the older workers who
laboured under disadvantages which the modern student can scarcely
appreciate, and who by patient work laid the foundation on which all
workers must build, but by modern methods of research unknown to
them, fossil botany now holds an important position in biological
science, to which it has only attained within the last few years.

Only the first volume of Mr Seward’s work has appeared. It
begins with the lowest forms known as fossils and ends with the
Sphenophyllales. Part I., consisting of six chapters, deals with
matters connected aenerally with the study of fossil plants, while
Part II., comprising chapters vii.-xi., treats of the systematic portion
of the subject.

Chapter i. gives a short historical sketch, while chapter 1.
deals with the Relation of Palaeobotany to Botany and Geology. A
short but very concise geological history is given in chapter 11., which
is quite sufficient to show the succession and chief characteristics of
the various “Formations.” Chapter iv., which describes various
modes of Preservation of Plants as Fossils, we consider one of the
most important parts in the work. It is only after much practical
experience in collecting and examining fossils, that one learns
how much to allow for differences in appearance, even in the same
species, which are entirely due to different modes of fossilization.

Chapter v. on the “Difficulties and Sources of Error in the
Determination of Fossil Plants” is also admirably written and must
be carefully read by all students. It illustrates the utter absurdity
of classification based on external similarities of appearance or form.
I may quote one sentence which shows a good use such errors may
serve in the future. “It would serve no useful purpose, and I would
occupy no inconsiderable space to refer at length to the numerous
mistakes which have been committed by experienced writers on the

274 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

subject of fossil plants. Laymen might find in such a list of blunders.
a mere comedy of errors, but the palaeobotanist must see in them
serious warnings against dogmatic conclusions or expressions of
opinion on imperfect data and insufficient evidence”; and it is in
this spirit, not one of severe criticism, that we must study many of
the earlier writers.

Nomenclature is dealt with in chapter vi, and though a text-
book is not the place to treat fully this “difficult and thorny ques-
tion,” the general principles are laid down for the protection of the:
name of the original describer as the author of the species, even
though circumstances demand its removal to another genus than that
in which it was originally placed.

Part IL., beginning at chapter vii., deals with the systematic portion
of the subject. The divisions of the plant kingdom are taken in
their natural sequence, beginning with the lowest and passing
gradually to the highest group. The Thallophyta are therefore
first considered, the various groups or genera being preceded by
a short account of their recent representatives. Here are included
the Girvanella of Nicholson and Etheridge. The supposed fossil
bacilli are described in some detail, and though some minute
bodies are possibly correctly included here, a great deal of un-
certainty hangs over many of these so-called Bacteria.

The Algae form a difficult class. Undoubtedly most of the fossils.
originally described as Algae are inorganic markings and animal
tracks, though a few true Aleae have been found in the fossil state—
even in palaeozoic rocks. Examples of tracks simulating Algoidal
structures are given which will illustrate the difficulties in dis-
tinguishing between true fossils and inorganic markings. We believe’
Mr Seward is correct in the doubts he holds as to the vegetable:
nature of Chondrites verisimilis, Salter.

It is impossible to refer in detail to the many interesting points.
touched on by the author in his admirable treatment of this very
difficult class of fossils, but Mematophycus — the Prototaxites of
Dawson—deserves a passing notice. This plant is very fully gone
into by Mr Seward, who arrives at the conclusion that “on the
whole it is probably the better course to speak of Nematophycus as a
possible ally of the brown Algae rather than as an extinct type of,
the Siphoneae,” and this is going quite as far as our knowledge of the
fossils warrants.

In chapter viii. the Bryophyta are considered. We are here
treading on very difficult ground, and especially in regard to those
species discovered in the older rocks, none of which seem to be alto-
gether free from doubt.

When we reach the Pteridophyta, chapter ix., one possesses more
certain data from which to form an opinion of the affinities of the
various fossils described, though even here there is room for much
difference of opinion. ;

The Equisetaceae are first described,—a sketch of Hquisetwrm
prefacing the study of its fossil allies, and here are met with some of
the most interesting fossils one requires to consider.

The genus Hguisetum has been recorded by several writers from.
Palaeozoic rocks, but Mr Seward places all these in Hqutsetites, and as.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 275

there is no absolute certainty that any of these so-called palaeozoic
Equiseta are identical with the recent genus, he probably takes the
right course. Among those described are Hguwisetites Hemingwayt,
Kidston sp. ; Lquisetites spatulatus, Zeiller; EL. columnaris, Brongt.; and
E. lateralis, Phill. The consideration of Phyllotheca and Schizoneuwra
lead us up to the Calamites—which is one of the most important
groups—(for it cannot be considered a genus in any true sense of the
term)—of palaeozoic times.

The study of the Calamites is introduced by a historical sketch,
and this is succeeded by a description of the anatomy of the stems,
leaves, roots, and cones, each of which is illustrated by good figures.

This class he treats with great skill and shows a complete mastery
of a very difficult subject. He recognises three types of Calamite
stems as determined from internal structure :—

Arthropitys, which is the type commonly met with in the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire Coal Fields.

Arthrodendron, which is very rarely met with in Britain.

Calamodendron, which hitherto has not been recorded from Britain.

The structure of the leaves is next given, after which follows a
description of the Calamitie genera that are founded on impressions.
These are :—Calamocladus (Asterophyllites), of which Calamocladus
equisetriformis is fully described as a typical form. This is succeeded
by a description of Annularia, A. stellata and A. sphenophylloides
being given in full detail. The roots of Calamites are next dealt.
with, and with them is now associated the Astromyelon of Williamson.

Three types of Calamitic cones are described. These are Cala-
mostachys (with which is united Stachannularia); Palacostachya and
Macrostachya. Huttonia is also referred to, but with the exception of
the first two genera, little is known of their internal structure, with-
out which their true position cannot be satisfactorily determined.
Much still requires to be done in the elucidation of Calamitic cones
and great care must be exercised in forming opinions as to their
affinities.

The impressions and casts of stems are now considered and are
classed under the three sub-genera of Weiss :—Calamitina, Stylo-
calamites aud Hucalanutes. The study of Calamite stems presents
considerable difficulty. Many specimens which have been regarded
as stems are certainly only the casts of the pith cavity, but others,
such as many Calamitina show the outer surface of the stem. These
three sub-genera are distinguished by the manner in which the branches
were borne on the stems—a system of classification which can only be
regarded as provisional. In very few cases can the foliage and cones
be associated with their parent stem.

Archaecalamites, from the Lower Carboniferous and Devonian, forms
another group, which is closely related in some of its characters to
Caulamites, but is clearly separated from that genus by several
important differences in the stem and cones.

» Chapter xi., which concludes the volume, is devoted to the
Sphenophyllales.

As in the previous groups the structure of the stem of Sphenophyl-
lum is first described. Owing to the numerous specimens of Spheno-
phyllum which have been discovered showing fine structure, the develop-

276 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

ment of the vascular bundle from its most rudimentary form to that
of the fully developed stem is fully known. These are illustrated in
the work before us. The structure of the stems of Sphenophyllum
insigne and Sphenophyllum plurifoliatum are given in detail.

The cones of Sphenophyllum offer an interesting field of study.
Though the vegetative system of all the species possess many points
in common, the sporangia in their number and details of attachment
to the bract, differ considerably in the few species of which we possess
any concise knowledge. As illustrating these differences in the
structure of Sphenophyllum cones, several species are described in
detail under the generic name of Sphenophyllostachys. The tirst,
Sphenophyllostachys Dawsoni, Will. sp., is almost certainly the cone of
Sphenophyllum cunerfoliwm, Sternb. sp. In this cone each bract bears
three sporangia and each sporangium is supported on a slender sporan-
giophore, but as all the sporangiophores arise from the same point on
the bract and are placed in sequence, the sporangium most distant from
the axis of the cone has a much longer sporangiophore than that next
the axis. In Sphenophyllostachys Roemeri, Solms Laubach sp., the in-
curved end of each sporangiophore bears two sporangia. There is
here also, probably, three concentric circles of sporangia. In Spheino-
phyllum trichomatosum, Stur, each bract seems to have borne a single
sessile sporangium. It is therefore seen that although in the vegetative
system, all the Sphenophyllwm possess many common characters, in the
arrangement of the sporangia, the cones show important differences.
Mr Seward rejects, and we believe correctly, the idea that Spheno-
phyllum was an aquatic plant. There is absolutely no evidence in
support of this view and very much against it.

Mr Seward’s “ Fossil Plants” is a most successful treatment of a
difficult subject. All of importance is brought forward and impar-
tially discussed and numerous references are given to the original
papers consulted. The work however is not a compilation, but em-
bodies the opinions of one who has done much good original work in
Palaeophytology. Such a book has long been a . desideratum, and its
appearance must give a great stimulus to the study of fossil botany in
Britain. Mr Seward’s style is clear and concise, and the many pitfalls
into which beginners are apt to stumble are clearly pointed out. We
heartily congratulate the author and publishers on the completion
of the first volume of “ Fossil Plants,” and have only to express the
hope that ere long the completing volume will be issued.

A full list of the works referred to in the text is appended and the
index, a most important matter, is very full. The illustrations are
also good and well chosen. K.

Bau uND LEBEN UNSERER WALDBAUME. By Dr M. Biisgen. 8vo, pp. vili+ 280, with
100 figs. in the text. Fischer, Jena, 1897. Price, 6 marks.

Dr BUscen has produced a useful introduction to the study of
forestry, which will, doubtless, find a welcome in the various forestry
schools on the Continent. Naturally, much of the subject-matter is
similar to that of the general text-book of botany, embracing the
principles of the anatomy and physiology of plants. But the woody
plant is always kept in view, and made to supply the necessary illus-

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 277

trations. The result is a book which may take the place of the
elementary botanical text-book, and at the same time give the pro-
spective forester some idea of the more special part of his work.

The scope of the volume may be gauged from a review of the
headings of the fifteen chapters. Chapter i. deals with the general
habit of the tree as determined by its mode of branching, a study
eminently fitted for the half of the year during which the trees are
leafless. In chapter ii. the causes of the tree-form are discussed, in-
cluding the direct influence of the external conditions, gravity, light,
and wind. The bud is the subject of the third chapter, which ends
with a table in which a number of woody plants are arranged in a
clavis, according to the position and external appearance of the buds.
As might be expected, the grouping by no means follows the natural
affinities, unlike plants being thrown together, such as mountain ash,
walnut, and like (¢.g. willow and poplar), often widely separated.
The remaining chapters refer to the general structure of stem, leaf,
root, and the function of individual tissues, always with special refer-
ence to the woody plant ; chapter viii, for instance, is devoted to the
consideration of the density and structure of various woods. The last
chapter deals with the flower and fruit, and the germination of the
seed. The illustrations, many of which are borrowed, are considerably
below the average of the general text-book.

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF PERU

THE work of compiling bibliographies is apt to receive far less recog-
nition than it deserves, considering the great value of such work to
students, and we are glad to have the opportunity of saying a word in
praise of the “ Bibliography of the Anthropology of Peru,” by Mr G, A.
Dorsey, recently published by the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago.
This should certainly prove of considerable use, since it appears to
have been compiled with considerable care and much labour, and has
the appearance of beimg a very complete list of works written upon
this interesting region. That there should be omissions is inevitable,
but so firm a foundation will readily bear an appendix. All the
known editions of the earlier Spanish works are given, and, what is
very welcome, short biographical notices of some of the early writers
are appended. The arrangement is by authors, alphabetically, and in
a second part, to be published later, an index by subjects and topies is
promised, and will add much to the usefulness of the work. We
might suggest that an appendix of abbreviated titles, chronologi-
cally arranged, would have its value, especially in the case of the
contemporary writers. This bibliography was commenced in 1893 in
the form of a card catalogue for the compiler’s own use in his special
studies, but, fortunately, Mr Dorsey was persuaded to continue and
complete the work for the benefit of others. That the labour was
great cannot be doubted any more than that the result was well worth
the pains. “This is my first attempt at bibliography,” says Mr
Dorsey, “it shall be my last as well. . . .” This remark seems to echo
a sigh of relief on the completion of a long and tedious piece of work,
but many, to whom such bibliographies are of great value, will regret
the latter part of the sentence.

278 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

INVERTEBRATA OF FRANCE

FauNA DE Franck. Thysanoures, Myriopodes, Arachnides, Crustac¢és, Némathel-
minthes, Lophostomés, Vers, Mollusques, Polypes, Spongiaires, Protozoaires.
By A. Acloque. 1664 illustrations. 18°, pp. 500. Paris: J. B. Bailliére et Fils.
Price 10 frs.
Tuts is the third volume of Mr Acloque’s Fauna of France, Coleoptera
appearing in 1896, Orthoptera and the remainder of the insects in
1897. We are promised a fourth and last volume to contain the
Vertebrata and Tunicates. We are also indebted to the author for a
flora which appeared in 1894. Acloque takes his subject genus by
genus, giving a brief diagnosis of each of them, then following on with
the species recorded from France, he similarly gives short diagnoses and
localities. The numerous figures are sketchy, but no doubt charac-
teristic and useful for identification. There is room for a book on this
plan dealing with the English fauna.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEXICAN GEOLOGY

BIBLIOGRAFIA GEOLOGICA Y MINERA DE LA REPUBLICA MEXICANA, FORMADA PAR
RAFAEL AGUILAR Y SANTILLAN. 4°, x+158 pp. Mexico: Oficina tipografica de
la Secretaria de Fomento. 1898.
Dr Rafael Aguilar deserves hearty thanks for this excellent and
compendious Bibliography. No less than 1953 items in the geology
of Mexico are sufficient to appal anyone who knows the weakness of
our London libraries on special subjects of this kind. The list is
arranged in double columns, under authors in alphabetical order, while
the last eight pages are devoted to indexes of the principal localities
cited and of the more important matters. It is well and clearly
printed and will be a great accession to all geological libraries and
students.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESTRALIAN GEOLOGY

THE first Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Western Australia, is
devoted to a Bibliography by Mr A. Gibb Maitland. Mr Maitland,
who was formerly on the Geological Survey of Queensland, has
arranged this under authors, and like so many of these useful works
it was originally compiled for his own convenience. Mr H. P.
Woodward, his predecessor, assisted Mr Maitland with a list of works
extracted from the catalogues of the British Museum. As the Biblio-
graphy contains Papers, Reports, and Maps bearing upon the
Mineralogy, Mining, Geology and Palaeontology of Western Australia,
we need not refer further to its importance.

Dr Cuas. Davison hopes to publish, with Messrs Cornish of Birming-
ham, a volume on the Hereford Earthquake of December 17th, 1896,
provided that a sufficient number of subscriptions be obtained to
cover the cost of its production.

This earthquake was one of the most important ever recorded in
this country. Though inferior to the Essex earthquake of 1884, with
regard to the damage done to buildings, its disturbed area was at least
twice as great, being not less than 100,000 square miles. It was felt
in every English county, except the three northern ones, over the
whole of Wales and the Isle of Man, and in the eastern counties of
Ireland. The number of observations on which the discussion is

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 279

founded is 2902, coming from 1940 different places, and in no previous
ease have the observations been so detailed and interesting.

Among the facts and conclusions of scientific importance which
Dr Davison claims to have established with regard to the Hereford
earthquake the following may be mentioned:—The position of the
centres of disturbance is determined, and also the direction and hade
of the originating fault. It is shown that there were two entirely dis-
tinct centres, lying in a north-west and south-east line, and separated
by a few miles, the north-west centre being the first in action by a
few seconds. A series of new lines called ‘ isacoustic lines’ (or lines
of equal sound-audibility), is drawn; these throw an important leht
on the origin of the earthquake. Coseismal lines (or lines passing
through places where the shock was felt at the same instant) are
drawn for the first time with an approach to accuracy, and by their
means the average velocity of the earth-wave (which, in the case of
any but avery strong shock, was unknown) is determined. While the
estimates of the direction of the movement in a limited area vary
widely among themselves, it is nevertheless found that the average of
all these directions passes through the centre.

We hope that the publication of so interesting a work will not be
prevented by any backwardness on the part of British geologists.

SCRAPS FROM SERIALS

In the Transactions of the Manchester Microscopical Society, there
is a paper on Botriomyces a microcosm which produces tumour of the
jaw in oxen chiefly, and was formerly regarded as a malignant cancer
known as osteo-sarcoma. This is by Mr Worstenholme. Mr
Gillanders reviews the Hemiptera-Homoptera, and Mr Mark Sykes
treats of Natural Selection in the Lepidoptera. This latter paper,
which we hope to notice elsewhere, is beautifully illustrated by eight
plates.

_ The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria (vol. x. pt. 2)
contains papers by W. 8S. Dun on some new Upper Silurian Corals ;
J. Dennant on a new Unio from the River Glenelg (U. glenelgensis ;
a much wrinkled form resembling young examples of U. australis ) ;
E. R. Waite on Muridae from Central Australia with two new generic
names founded on species of Gould’s (Podanomalus and Thylacomys) ;
J. Dennant and Clark on the Miocene of the Gippsland Lakes area ;
Pritchard and Gatcliff on Coralliophila wilsoni, a new gasteropod from
Port Philip; Baldwin Spencer on Initiation Ceremonies in the Arunta
Tribe; T. 8. Hall, Stylasteridae from the Victoria Tertiaries with a new
genus " Deontopora ; Officer and Hogg the second part of the Geology
of Coimaidai ; and Ada M. Lambert on a new land Leech (Philaemon
pungens ; Blanchard, undescribed),

In the Journal of Conchology for July there is an interesting
account of the pairing of Zimaxz maximus, L., by Mr Lionel E. Adams,
fully illustrated by Dr J. W. Taylor. Observations were made on the
whole performance and much information concerning the curious
suspensory threads was obtained; the anatomy of the parts is also
given by Mr W. M. Webb.

280 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

THE Boletim de Museu Paraense, October 1897, contains papers on the
Simii of the New World by Hermann Meerwarth, with maps of the
distribution of each genus, further notes on the geology of Brazil by
Fred. Hartt, the Devonian fauna of the river Maecuru by Friedrich
Katzer, notes by Dr Goldi on Lepidosiren and Mesomys ecaudatus,
and J. Huber on plants of the genus Hevea. All the papers are in
Portuguese.

THE Memorias Sociedad “ Antonio Alzate” (vol. xi. Nos. 5-8) contain
the education of the Mexican woman by Galindo y Villa, the origin
of individuals by Professor Herrera, public instruction in Mexico by
Torres Torija, gold in Mexico by E. Ordonez, the water supply of the
city of Mexico by Dr A. Pefiatfiel, and seismic notes from Central and
South America by Montessus de Ballore. Herrera’s, Ordonez’, and
Montessus’ papers are in French, the others in Spanish.

THE first part of Dr Arthur Willey’s “ Zoological Results based on
material from New Britain . . . and elsewhere,” contains the anatomy
and development of Peripatus novae-britanniae by the editor, Meta-
protella sandalensis a new Caprellid by Dr Paul Mayer, Aipysurus
annulatus a rare marine snake by G. A. Boulenger, reports on the
centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, pedipalpi and spiders by R. IL.
Pocock, and an account of the Phasmidae and their eggs by Dr D.
Sharp.

The Geological Survey of India notify that by order of the
Government the “ Records ” issued by their department in the months
of February, May, August and November each year, ceased to be
published from the 1st January 1898. Annual Reports will be issued,
and papers will appear in the Memoirs.

FurTHER LITERATURE RECEIVED

ZOOLOGICAL results based on material from New Britain, New Guinea, Loyalty
Islands, and elsewhere, collected during 1895-7, Arthur Willey: Cambridge Univ.
Press. Composition of Maize, W. H. Wiley: U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. 50. Geology for
Beginners, W. W. Watts: Macmillan. Faune de France (Thysanoures—Protozoaires),
Acloque: Bailliere et Fils. Bibliografia geologica y minera de la Republica Mexicana,
Rafael Aguilar : Secretaria de Fomento, Mexico. Report on West Australian Rocks, G.
W. Card. Darwin Wrong, R. F. Licorish: Barbados. Studien iiber die Protoplasma-
stromung bei den Characeen, by Georg Hoermann: Gustay Fischer. Wisconsin Geol.
and Nat Hist. Survey, Bulletins i., ii, Manual of the Geology of India, Economics, ed.
2, part i., Corundum by T. H. Holland: Geol. Survey, Calcutta. History of Mankind
(Macmillan), pt. 28. Mem. Soc. Antonio Alzate, xi., pts. 5-8. Proc. Biol. Soc.
Washington (numerous papers by Bangs and Preble). College of Agriculture and
Mechanical Arts, Mesilla Park, Annual Catalogue. Annals of the South African
Museum, part 1: Trustees. On Pontobolbos, and other papers, Arthur Dendy.
Additions to the fossil Flora of Queensland, J. Shirley.

Amer. Geol., Aug.; Amer. Journ. Sci., Sept.; Amer. Monthly Micro. Journ.,
Aug.; Amer. Nat., Aug.; Botan. Gazette, Aug. ; Feuille des jeunes Nat., Sept. ;
Irish. Nat., Sept. ; Knowledge, Sept. 1; Literary Digest, Aug. 13, 20, 27 ; Naturae
Novit., Aug., Nos. 15 and 16 ; Naturalist, Sept. ; Nature, Aug. 18, 25, Sept. 1, 8;
Nature Notes, Sept. ; Naturen, June-Aug. ; Photogram, Sept. ; Plant World, Aug. ;
Psychol. Rey., Sept. ; Review of Reviews, Aug., Sept. ; Revista Quin. Psich., Aug. ;
Revue Scient., Aug. 20, 27, Sept. 3, 10; Science, Aug. 19, 26, Sept. 2; Scientific
Amer., Aug. 13, 20, 27, Sept. 3; Scot. Med. and Surg. Journ., Aug., Sept. ; Scot.
Geogr. Mag., Sept. ; Victorian Nat., Aug. ; Westminster Rev., Sept.

1898] 281

OBITUARIES
NICOLAS AUGUSTE POMEL
Born 1821. Diep AvuGcust 1898

THE death of Pomel removes from Algeria a distinguished mineral-
ogist and geologist and one who had made for many years a particular
and detailed study of the country and its palaeontology. Auguste
Pomel commenced his geological career by writing in 1842 several
papers on the geology of the Auver ene ; his ‘thirty fourth paper (1854)
was the first written on ‘African matters, since when he has
published little short of 100 papers on Northern Africa. Perhaps his
best known work is his essay on the classification of the Echinoids in
which he founded new genera by the score. The work was regarded
with such disapproval that it was deliberately ignored by the Zoo-
logical Record, which declined to record his swarm of new generic
terms ; and it was denounced with much vigour by the late Professor
Dunean and Mr Sladen, ina paper for which the title of “ Pomelism and
Crime” was suggested. His “Catalogue méthodique du mammiferes
tertiaires,” 1853, is a wonderful book, and was undeservedly dis-
credited by Paul Gervais and other writers.

JOSEPH CHARLES HIPPOLYTE CROSSE
Born 1827. Diep 7TH Avcust 1898

WE regret to record the death of this distinguished conchologist,
which occurred at Vernou (Seine-et-Marne) at the age of 71 years.
Mr Crosse was the editor of the Journal de Conchyliologic, a journal
founded by Petit de la Saussaye, and continued by Paul Fischer and
Bernardi until 1861, when Crosse took the place of Bernardi, and the
two raised the Journal to one of first importance. Among Mr
Crosse’s chief works we may mention the Mollusca of Mexico and
Guatemala in the Mission Scientifique au Mexique, and the
Mollusca in Grandidier's Madagascar. He worked chiefly on
exotic forms and contributed frequently to his own Journal.

FELIX BERNARD
Born 1863. Diep Avaust 1898

ANOTHER zoologist of great promise has been removed at an early age
in the person of Félix. Bernard, of the Paris Museum. He was best
known by the series of papers on the hinge of the bivalved mollusca,
which considerably advanced the study of that difficult group, and
which have been noticed at length in these pages. He also wrote
“Eléments de Paléontologie,” 1895.

U

282 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

Me G. E. Grimes, whose appointment to the Geological Survey of
India we announced in October 1895, succumbed to an attack of
cholera at Thayetmyo, Burma, on the 11th April last. Mr Grimes
had shown great promise as a stratigrapher during the two and a half
years he had been in the service, and was only twenty-six when he died.

JOHAN LANGE, the distinguished botanist, died at Copenhagen, April
3, aged eighty. His principal works were a Manual of the Danish
Flora and the last ten volumes of the Flora Danica, He was Presi-
dent of the Danish Botanical Society for twenty-seven years ; for
twenty years Director of the Copenhagen Gardens; and was also
Professor of Botany at the Agricultural College there.

Among others whose deaths have been receutly recorded are :—FREDRICH CHARLES
APLIN, the ornithologist, at Bodicote, aged 43; Dr E. B. Ave.ine, formerly assistant
in physiology at Cambridge and professor of chemistry and physiology at New College,
well known as a populariser of evolution and a lecturer and writer on socialism,
died in London on August 4, aged 47 years ; Evert Jutius Bonsporrr, formerly pro-
fessor of anatomy and physiology at Helsingfors University, aged 88 ; Lurc1 BALzan,
the arachnologist of the University of the Ascension, Paraguay ; AXEL GUITTBRAND
BuiytT, professor of botany at Christiana. University, on July 25, aged 54; Dr.ERNEsT
Canpiz, the coleopterologist at Gla, near Liittich, on June 30 ; PASQUALE ConTI, the
botanist, who died at Largano after 4 lingering illness ; Dr Dryry, the naturalist and”
physiologist, best known for his researches into the pharmaceutical properties of quinine,
at the Hague, on August 7; The Right Hon. Murray Epwarp Gorpon Fixcu-Harron,
twelfth Earl of Winchelsea, well known for his agricultural interests, on September 7,
aged 48; Dr D. P. Frame, veterinary surgeon and microscopist, at Kansas City, on
February 25 ; CARLO GIACOMINI, professor of anatomy at Turin University on July 5 ;
C. W. A. HERMANN, the mineralogist, at New York on June 21, aged 97 ; Professor
D. 8. KELLIcoTT, one of the best known microscopists in America, who died at the Ohio
State University in April last; JoAo Marta Moniz, the botanist, on July 11 at Funchal,
aged 75; the metallurgist, BERNARD Mostvs, while travelling from America to Europe
on May 17, aged 46 ; Professor PARK MorriL1, of the Forecast division of the Weather
Bureau of the United States, died at Washington on August 8 of typhoid fever ; HENRI
VANDER MEUTEN, a well-known horticulturist, at Ixelles, Belgium, on July 24, aged 83;
CARMELO ScrnTo Parti, geologist and engineer of Sicily, born January 21, 1829, died
February 7, 1898 ; ACHILLE PorraN, an enthusiastic naturalist of Aubervilliers and the
canton of Pantin, aged 23; Dr E. Lewis SturTEVANT, the agronomist, on July 30 at
Framingham, Mass., aged 56; W. F. R. SurrNGAR, professor of botany in the University
of Leyden, and Director of the Gardens and Herbarium there ; Major-General Robert
GossEr WooprTHorpPE, closely associated with the geographical exploration of India,
born 1844, died May 26, 1898, of whom a long obituary notice and a portrait appears in
the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.

1898] 283

NEWS

Tue following appointments have recently been made :—Leopold Adametz as
veterinary professor at the High School for Agronomy at Vienna ; Prof. W. P.
Blake, of Tucsan, Arizona, as State Geologist of Arizona; Dr Carl Brick as
assistant in the Hamburg Botanic Garden ; Rudolf Beyer as honorary professor
of botany in Berlin ; Friedrich Blochmann, of Rostock, as professor of zoology at
Tiibingen University ; Friedrich Moritz Brauer as director of the zoological
collections in the Hof-Museum, Vienna ; Dr W. T. Brigham’ as director of the
Berenice Panahi Bishop Museum at Honolulu; Dr Frederick E. Clements as
reader in botany in the University of Nebraska ; Hermann Dingler as professor
of botany at the Institute of Forestry at Aschaffenburg ; Dr O. V. Darbishire as
demonstrator in Botany at Owens College, Manchester ; Benj. M. Duggar and
Dr Elias I. Durand as readers in botany at Cornell University ; Dr Adrian Fiori
as private docent in botany, Padua University ; Albert Heischmann, of Erlangen,
as professor of zoology at the University there, in the room of Dr Selenka ; Dr
Karl Fritsch as director of the botanical museum at the University of Vienna, in
the room of the late Kerner von Marilaun ; G. T. Hastings as assistant in botany
at Cornell University ; Dr Franz Hoffmann as private docent for physiology in
the University of Heidelberg; Dr J. Jablonowski, of Berlin, as assistant in
anthropology at the Dresden Museum ; Ludwig Katharina as professor of zoology
and comparative anatomy in Freiburg University ; George Klebs, of Basle, as
professor of botany at Halle University ; Dr Hans Lenk as professor of mineralogy
and geology at Erlangen University ; Ludwig Kerschner as professor of histology
at the University of Innsbriick ; H. J. Monson and Andrew Linton as senior
and junior professors of agriculture to the School of Agriculture at Ghizeh ; W. A.
Murrill as assistant in botany at Cornell University ; Lubomir Niederle as pro-
fessor of archaeology and ethnography in the Bohemian University of Prague ; Dr
C. C. O'Hara as professor of geology and mineralogy in the South Dakota School
of Mines; Dr Ph. Pocta as professor of palaeontology at the Ceske Museum,
Prague ; Mr Gifford Pinchot, as chief of the Division of Forestry in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, in the room of Dr B. E. Fernow, who becomes the
head of the New York School of Forestry ; Dr Aladar Richter as chief of the
botanical department of the Hungarian National Museum, and Paul Kuckuck, of
Heligoland; to~be keeper of botany there ; Dr Ludwig Reh as zoological assist-
ant at the Concilium Bibliographicum, Ziirich ; Dr F. J. V. Skiff, of the Field
Columbian Museum, as director of mining and mineralogy at the Paris Exposi-
tion of 1900; C. F. Myers-Ward as lecturer in physiology at the Owens College,
Manchester ; Dr A. Weberbauer as private docent for botany in Breslau Uni-
versity ; Dr Zograf, extraordinary professor of zoology, and Dr Mrensbier, extra-
ordinary professor of comparative anatomy in Moscow University.

Lorp Pret has been appointed a trustee of the British Museum in the place of
the late Mr Spencer Walpole.

Dr C. H. Hircucock of Dartmouth, U.S., has left for a year’s geological
exploration in the Hawaiian Islands. His address will be Honolulu.

WE regret that we entirely overlooked the fact that the Government made a
substantial grant from the Royal Bounty of £150 to Mr Joseph Wright of Belfast

284 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

for his long and valuable researches into the palaeontology of the rocks of Ireland.
We were quite aware that this had been a. possibility for some years past, and
hasten to congratulate Mr Wright on his well-deserved distinction.

THE monument to Charcot will be formally unveiled on October 28rd, in the
Salpétricre, Paris.

A tire of William Turner of Cambridge, 1507-1568, one of, if not the earliest
British zoologist, has been contributed to the Zoologist for August, by the Rev.
H, N. Macpherson.

A MEMoIR of Fritz Miiller, the Brazilian naturalist, is to be undertaken by
Dr A. Moller, of Eberswalde. Dr Moller begs the loan of letters or material that
will help him in his task.

Tue following grants have been made by the Berlin Academy :—2000 marks
to Prof. Engler, for East African plants ; 600 marks to Prof. Graebner, for the study
of German Heaths ; 500 marks to Dr Loesner, to complete his monograph on the
Aquifoliaceae.

Mr A. J. Herpertson, lecturer on geography in the Heriot-Watt College,
Edinburgh, has obtained the degree of Ph.D. multa cum laude in geography at the
University of Frieburg, in Baden. Dr Herbertson’s thesis was on the “ Distribu-
tion of rainfall over the earth’s surface,” a subject which he has investigated while
compiling the rainfall maps for the physical atlas about to be published by
Bartholomew.

Tue Hon. John Macgregor has presented a cheque for £500 to the fund for
the endowment of a chair of Forestry in the University of Edinburgh. It will be
remembered that the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society has asked the
Government for a grant for the establishment of a State Forest near Edinburgh
for research in forestry.

THE Swiney Lectures on Geology, under the direction of the Trustees of the
British Museum, will be delivered by Dr R. H. Traquair on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5 p.m., beginning Monday, October 3. They will
be on the Palaeontology of Great Britain, and will be given in the Lecture
Theatre of the South Kensington Museum.

THe New Whale Gallery at the British Museum is the subject of an illus-
trated article by Mr Lydekker in Knowledge for September 1. Owing to the
difficulty of position, however, the photograph does not give one a proper idea of
the gallery, which is well worthy a visit even from those not specially interested
in zoology.

WE learn from Science that the Lacoe collection of fossil insects contains the
types of about two-thirds of those described from North America. Besides these
there are 3500 specimens from the Oeningen Tertiaries, and a large collection from
Florrisant, Colorado. The United States National Museum has now perhaps a
collection of fossil insects second to none, in any case it has a collection of the
first importance.

Tue late Professor Victor Lemoine bequeathed his palaeontological collection
to the Paris Museum, In order that the collection may be further supplemented
Madame Lemoine has handed over the land at Cornay, near Rheims, whence the
fossils were obtained, to the same institution.

Tur South African Museum has so far advanced as to issue “ Annals of the
South African Museum,” a handsome octavo serial, well illustrated by lithographic
plates, and printed and published in London by West, Newman & Co. It will
appear at irregular intervals, as matter for publication is available, and will

1898] NEWS 285

be devoted to the researches of the museum staff. The first part, which is dated
June 1898, contains papers on Scorpions by Purcell, Mutillidae by Péringuey,
Reptiles by Sclater, and Hispinae by Péringuey. The Trustees report that the
whole work of transferring the collections from the Old Museum to the New
Museum Building was accomplished in a month, with practically no damage or
loss, at a cost of approximately £90.

Tue American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, New York, is
rapidly progressing with its new buildings. These consist of a corner to the
west wing and a lecture hall, the latter of which may be ready for occupancy this
year, and the former ready for cases and fittings during 1899. Among the excel-
lent work done by this Museum is the fitting out of expeditions for special objects:
thus Dr Carl Lumholtz has returned after four years spent among the tribes in
Mexico with a large and valuable collection ; Dr Adolf Bandalier has continued
his researches in Bolivia and Peru ; Mr Ernest Volk has been employed for the
whole year exploring near Trenton, N.J., for the purpose of careful investigation
of the question which has arisen relative to the antiquity of man in the Delaware
Valley ; while Mr A. J. Stone begins this year, and will continue till 1900,
collecting vertebrate Zoology from Montana to Bering Strait. Two great
dinosaurs in a remarkable state of preservation have been secured from
Wyoming, and a complete skeleton of the three-toed horse has also been obtained
for the collection. The Library grows rapidly, and many scarce works on Zoology
have been added to the shelves, while the Duke of Loubat has been a generous
donor in the department of Mexican and other ethnology.

Tue National Herbarium of the United States has received from Dr W. H.
Forwood his collection of plants of Western Wyoming, collected in 1881 and 1882.
The Plant World states that the collection forms the basis of two scarce reports
published by the War Department. Many of them are also referred to in Tweedy’s
Flora of the Yellowstone.

THE Report of the Keeper of the Manchester Museum refers to the installation
of electric light, which has been rendered possible by the generosity of Mr
Reuben Spencer, who contributed £500 to the expense. The Museum is at
present in the hands of the painters, and it is to be hoped that the committee
will sanction the general whitening of the ceilings asked for by Mr Hoyle, in
order that the electric light may have a good start. Prof. Hickson has been doing
good work on the plankton of Lake Bassenthwaite, and some of the rarer forms
will shortly be placed on exhibition. Miss Nérdlinger, the keeper’s efficient
secretary, receives due eulogies, and we are glad to hear that she has taken entire
charge of the library and hope she will be able to open the proper purse-strings
for much needed additions. The committee have undertaken the printing of
Mr Sherborn’s index to the 10th and 12th editions of the “Systema Naturae ” of
Linnaeus, which should prove of value to zoologists, as these books form the
starting-point of zoological nomenclature. A series of lectures will be delivered
by Prof. Boyd Dawkins on certain Saturdays and Sundays between October and
June, other lectures to be delivered by the staff as usual. Mr Hoyle closes
his Report with an eloquent appeal for more funds, and it really does seem
singular that Manchester can only afford an expenditure of £2785 a year on its
Museum, while Liverpool spends £5700. Manchester must wake up.

A USEFUL part of Mr Hoyle’s Report referred to above is his account of the
twenty-five museums visited by him while travelling in the United States and
Canada in 1897 ; the list, however, is too long to quote here.

Tue Keswick Museum, which was founded in 1873 in connection with the
Keswick Literary and Scientific Society, was removed early this year to Fitz Park,

286 NATURAL SCIENCE [October

Keswick, and is now known as the Fitz Park Museum. It owes its origin to the
late James Clifton Ward, whose valuable geological work in the lake district is
well known. The present curator is Mr James Postlethwaite. The collections
are restricted entirely to objects illustrative of the local natural history, and
although some of the sections are still far from complete, considerable energy is
being displayed to make it exhaustive. A catalogue was issued in 1888, and this,
we hope, will soon be followed by a new edition.

_ Some 3000 members attended the meeting of the British Association at Bristol,
September 7-14, under the presidency of Prof. Sir William Crookes. Lectures
were delivered in the evenings by Prof. Sollas on “ Funafuti, the study of a Coral
Island,” and by Mr Herbert Jackson on “ Phosphorescence,” while Prof. Poulton
delivered the Working Man’s Lecture on “The ways in which animals warn their
enemies and signal to their friends.” A special biological exhibit was arranged
in the Zoological Gardens, consisting of living hybrid trout, specimens of cross-
breeding in animals, and hybrid and crossed varieties of flowers, ferns, orchids,
and other plants. The First Lord of the Admiralty stationed, by request,
four Battleships in Kingroad, Avonmouth, for the edification and protection of
the visitors. An excellent series of excursions took place, those most interesting
to our readers being Austcliff on Sept. 10 to see the Rhaetic beds, and to Tort-
worth on Sept. 15 to see the new exposure of Silurian beds recently re-opened by
Lord Ducie. This proves to be a thin band of Wenlock bordering the exposure
of Upper Llandovery, and is crowded with Coenites. A long excursion of five days
was taken from Sept. 16-20 to Exeter, Torquay, Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Dart-
moor. In a comprehensive pocket handbook which was issued, Prof. Morgan
gave a sketch of the geology of the district, Mr J. W. White of the botany, Mr
A. E. Hudd of the insects, and Messrs Morgan and Charbonnier of the verte-
brata, with the exception of the birds which were dealt with by Mr H. C. Playne.

THE Royal Society of Victoria has had a shock not uncommon to societies in
the Australian continent, viz., the reduction of its Government grant. We echo
the hope of the Council in their last report that “with a return of more
prosperous times the vote may be increased so as to enable the Society to publish
the papers presented to it.” There is a steady growth of the library as indicated
by an additional 200 feet of shelving erected during the year.

THE Manchester Microscopical Society has issued a satisfactory report for
1897. There is a loss of two members, but that no doubt will be regained next
year. The library and the collection of slides are both increasing, and the latter
is carefully listed out at the end of the current transactions.

Tue Edinburgh meeting of the British Medical Association was commemo-
rated by the Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal in a special number, issued as
volume iii., No. 2, for August, price two shillings. This is well illustrated with
photographs of the Presidents, University old and new buildings, M‘Ewan Hall,
Royal Infirmary, and many Scottish Spas. Among other interesting articles are
Medical Institutions in Edinburgh, Medical Student Life in Edinburgh, Edin-
burgh Medical Clubs, their Songs and Song-Writers, the Edinburgh Royal
Infirmary Old Residents’ Club, and a general account of Scottish Spas and their
mineral waters. A photograph of the Residency table at the Royal Infirmary,
covered with names of past residents, will awaken many memories.

THE roll of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria is 129 members, a slight
decrease on that of last year. Its journal, the Victorian Naturalist, has com-
menced its sixteenth year and is edited by Mr F.G. A. Barnard. One of the
chief works of the year has been the protection of the albatrosses on Albatross

1898] NEWS 287

Island, the result of a deputation to the Premier of Tasmania. They are now
safe all the year round for five years. Mr C. French was again elected president.

THE Council of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in its 84th Report
expresses its satisfaction over the new geological survey of the county at the hands
of Mr J. B. Hill. Application to the Government was made as the result of the
Annual Joint Meeting of the Scientific Societies of Cornwall, at Falmouth, in
August 1896, and Mr Hill was told off by the Survey to examine the pedtions of
ae south coast last autumn. The Council also reports the complete and detailed
examination of the St Erth pliocene, and has under its consideration the preserva-
tion of the plans and sections of abandoned mines. Mr Howard Fox has been
awarded the Bolitho gold medal, and Mr J. H. Collins has been made an honorary
member.

From the Annual Report of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society
we learn that the roll of members is 164, This is the highest since 1893, and it
is satisfactory to learn that all these members are in active association with their
Society. The editors have dated their Proceedings with the proper year of issue,
instead of one year earlier as heretofore. Next year we hope they will improve
on this and add the month, for we note that the future bibliographer will not be
able to say whether Mr Woodward’s paper on the Yorkshire fossil fishes was pub-
lished in January or December 1898. The Proceedings contain a paper on Filey
Bay and Brigg by Mr Fox-Strangeways, which is illustrated by eight beautiful
photographs by Mr Godfrey Bingley. There are also portraits and obituaries of
Thomas Tate and John Stanley Tute.

THE Selborne Society in the September number of Nature Notes desire to wipe
off a printer’s debt. The Society is now sufficiently flourishing to show but a
small deficit in its balance sheet, but hopes to raise three hundred pounds during
the next three years to clear itself of debt.

In June last we called attention to an application for subscriptions to erect a
suitable monument to the late Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. This was set
on foot by the executors. We now note that a second committee has been formed
by Mr W. Wiesbaden, Professor Baldwin Spencer, and others, who are desirous
of founding some National Memorial which shall worthily perpetuate his name.
Whilst nominally the Government Botanist of Victoria, it is well known that the
Baron von Mueller’s assistance was sought by and always freely given not only
to public bodies but to private individuals in all parts of Australia. Apart from
his purely scientific work, upon the value of which it is unnecessary to dwell,
Von Mueller devoted himself to the development of the more practical side of
various branches of work, such as those connected with Forestry, Agriculture,
Horticulture, Pharmacy and, not least, Geographical Exploration. His own
explorations in early days, both in Northern Australia as botanist in the expedi-
tion under Mr A. C. Gregory, and when, subsequently, he traversed alone the
then little known wilds of Gippsland, were of considerable importance, and his
deep interest in and the practical assistance which he rendered to the explorations
of others are well known. Not only did he spend his whole life in the furtherance
of the work in which, from the nature of his position, he was most deeply
interested, but he devoted practically the whole of his income to the assistance
of those who were engaged in work the object of which was to increase our
knowledge of the nature and products of Australasian lands. It is on these
grounds, “therefore, that the committee hope that sufficient funds will be forth-
coming to provide for (1) the erection of some form of statue, and (2) the
endowment of a Medal, Prize or Scholarship, to be associated with Von Mueller’s
name and to be awarded from time to time in recognition of distinguished
work in the special branches in which he was most deeply interested, and which

288 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898

shall be open to workers throughout the Australasian colonies. Subscriptions
to the Fund may be sent to the Hon. Treasurer, addressed to the College of
Pharmacy, Swanston Street, Melbourne.

THE Report of the Botanic Gardens and Domains of New South Wales for
1897, by Mr J. H. Maiden, has recently appeared, and contains full accounts
of the Botanic Gardens, Government Domains, Garden Palace Grounds, Centen-
nial Park, State Nursery at Campbelltown, &c. _Mr Hugh Dixson has placed his
collection of Australasian orchids at the disposal of the Botanic Gardens, and
suitable accommodation is to be speedily provided for their reception. Parlia-
ment has also voted a sum of money for the erection of a building to house the
Herbarium ; the Library shows a steady progress. Altogether a very favourable
and hopeful report, and the first of a new series, which is to be continued annually.
The last report appeared in 1878.

We learn from the Echo that 100 tuns of beer and 18,000 cups of coffee were
consumed at the Berlin Zoological Gardens on Whitsun Day. We are not
responsible for the statement, but, if true, it shows that zoology as an interest is
not likely to die out in Berlin.

“ NaTuRE” for August 25 has an interesting article on “The Marine Fauna
in Lake Tanganyika and the advisability of further exploration in the great
African lakes,” by J. E.S. Moore. Mr Moore prints a list of empty shells and
fishes previously known and also a list of the entire mollusca and fishes obtained
during his expedition.

THE Swiss Society Rambertia has laid out an Alpine Garden at Montreux, at
an elevation of 6000 feet, where the characteristic trees and flowers of the country
are to be cultivated.

Ar the moment of going to press we learn that Dr Florentino Ameghino has
made a remarkable discovery. Details of a nocturnal quadruped have been
brought to him from time to time by Indians, and a few years ago the late
Ramon Lista actually saw and shot at a mysterious creature in the interior of
Santa Cruz. Apparently bullet-proof, it disappeared into the brushwood, and all
search for it proved futile. Lista described the creature as a pangolin, without
scales, and_covered with reddish hair. Despite the fact that Lista was known to
be a good observer, Dr Ameghino could not help feeling that he was deceived.
Lista, however, has now been proved correct, for Ameghino received recently
from South Patagonia some fresh bony ossicles and a partially destroyed skin.
The ossicles were comparable to those of Mylodon, but smaller, and they were
embedded in the skin, like “paving stones in a street.” The skin itself is two
em. thick, and of such toughness that it could only be cut with a hatchet.
The surface of the skin itself shows an epidermis, not scaly at all, but covered
with coarse hair, four to five cm. in length. and of a reddish grey shade. This
Ameghino considers was the animal described by Lista, and as that naturalist
has unfortunately lost his life while exploring Pilcomayo, and was the only
civilised man who had seen it in the flesh, he names it Neomylodon listat. The
importance of the discovery need not be emphasised here.

NOTICE

To ContripuTorsS.—All Communications to be addressed to the Epiror of NATURAL
ScreNcE, at 29 and 30 Bedford Street, London, W.C. Correspondence and Notes
intended for any particular month should be sent in not later than the 10th of the
preceding month,

DEG 10 1892

NATURAL SCIENCE
A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress

No. 81—Vo.t. XITI—NOVEMBER 1898

NOTES AND COMMENTS

FouND—AN EDITOR

Our readers will be glad to learn that Matwral Science will continue
to appear as heretofore during 1899 and, we hope, for many years to
come. -Arrangements have been made for its transfer to an Editor
in whom we have every confidence, and who has undertaken to
continue the journal on the lines with which our readers are
familiar. Particulars as to the future editorial and publishing
offices will be given in our December number.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCEANS AND CONTINENTS

In discussing the theories of the distribution of the Oceans and
Continents before the British Association, Dr J. W. Gregory re-
marked that the “main object of geomorphology is to explain the
existing distribution of land and water on the globe. A remarkable
series of coincidences in the form and arrangement of the land masses
suggests that the distribution has been determined by some general
principle and not by local accidents. The three most striking fea-
tures that require explanation are the antipodal position of oceans
and continents, the triangular shape of the geographical units, and
the excess of water in the southern hemisphere. Attempts to ex-
plain this arrangement have been made deductively from general
physical considerations, as by Elie de Beaumont, Lowthian Green,
and G. H. Darwin; and directly from the evidence of stratigraphical
geology as by Suess, Lapworth, and Michel-Levy. Thus Elie de Beau-
mont regarded the form of the continents as determined by the moun-
tain chains, which he correlated into a regular geometrical network ;
while Lapworth regarded the distribution of land and water as due
to a series of great earth-folds, the arches forming the continents,
and the troughs forming the ocean basins. Suess has treated the
x

290 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

subject synthetically ; he has shown that the structure of the world
can be explained by subsidences in the crust, when subterranean
support is removed by the shrinkage of the internal nucleus, and
by the movements of elevation which produce the chains of fold-
mountains. Suess’s view explains the structure of the continents
and ocean basins, but not their arrangement. To settle this problem
fuller knowledge is needed as to the distribution of land and water
in past times. Neumayr’s attempt to settle this question for the
Jurassic was premature, and his conclusions are untenable. We are
thus still dependent upon the deductive systems for suggestions as
to the most profitable lines of research. Elie de Beaumont’s famous
scheme attached undue importance to linear symmetry and was too
artificial. It led, however, to the tetrahedral theory of Lowthian
Green, which regards the world, not as shaped like a simple tetra-
hedron, but as a spheroid slightly flattened on four faces. Such
flattenings occur on hollow, spherical shells, when they are deformed
by uniformly distributed external pressure. The oceans would
occupy the four depressions thus produced, while the land masses
oceur at the angles and along the edges. The existing geographical
arrangement is in general agreement with this scheme; for as the
tetrahedron is hemihedral the assumption that the lithosphere is
tetrahedral explains the antipodal position of land and water, the
excess of water in the southern hemisphere, and the southward
tapering of the land masses. The main lines of the existing system
of fold-mountains have a general agreement with the arrangement
of the edges of a tetrahedron. Some striking deviations occur, but
are explicable by the variations in the composition of the litho-
sphere, and the existence of impassive blocks of old strata which
have moulded the latter movements. ‘The lines of the old fold-
mountains of the Hercynian system may have been tetrahedrally
arranged, but with the axes occupying different positions from those
of the great Cainozoic mountain system. So far, however, there is
no completely satisfactory theory of geomorphology, for which we
must wait for further information as to the distribution of land and
water in successive epochs of the world’s history. For the historical
method promises more reliable results.than the deductive method.”

TOXODON

THE important serial publications of the Museum of La Plata, Argen-
tina, contain some of the most valuable contributions to natural
science which have been made during the last decade. We have
had frequent occasion to refer to them, and to the vast store of
unique specimens which the energy and genius of Dr F. P. Moreno
have accumulated in the comparatively new capital of the State of
Buenos Aires. The Revista and Anales, however, contain only

WOAGSAW VIVTd VI DHL NI GHLNOOW SV

‘wopoxoy, LO NOLHTANG

292 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

general memoirs and papers, without any detailed statistics of the
Museum collections. The Director has thus wisely decided to begin
a third set of publications, namely, a series of Catalogues recording
the specimens in the Museum under their register-numbers, with
brief descriptions and illustrations, somewhat on the plan of the
Catalogues of the British Museum. The first of these publications,
just issued, relates to the Department of Palaeontology, and is en-
titled “ Catalogo de los Mamiferos Fdsiles conservados en el Museo de
la Plata.” Only the first section is before us, namely that comprising
the type-genus of the ungulate order, Toxodontia, by Dr Santiago
Roth, curator of the fossils. No less than 128 pages, with 81 text-
figures and 8 plates, are devoted to this characteristic genus of
extinct South American hoofed animals. The well-known figure of
the nearly complete skeleton of Towxodon at La Plata, which we
reproduce herewith, has now found its way into most recent
text-books. The student of mammals has thus known for some
years what to expect from a detailed account of the specimens of
Toxodon in the La Plata Museum; and now for the first time he
is furnished with tolerably adequate descriptions. The characters
of the various parts of the skeleton are first systematically described ;
and then the species are successively diagnosed, while a numbered
list of specimens is placed beneath each. Although numerous new
facts are recorded, it would still be premature to say more concern-
ing the affinities of Zoxodon than has already been said by previous
observers. We now want to know more of Nesodon and its ancestors,
which are found in Patagonia, before the relationships of this strange
group of ungulates can be further discussed.

Fossiu OSTRICH IN CHINA

Axsout 1857, a remarkable fossil egg was discovered at Malinowka,
Government of Cherson, 8. Russia, which though now destroyed
and lost, was seen by Prof. A. Brandt of Charkow and described by
him in the Bulletin of the St Petersburg Academy in 1873.
Nathusius examined some of the fragments microscopically, and
declared that they indicated a very close relationship with the
common ostrich. The egg as a whole, however, had a cubic con-
tents of upwards of 2075 c.cm., while the largest known egg of
the ostrich has only two-thirds this capacity. The microscopical
structure being very characteristic of the group he referred the egg
to a new genus and species Struthiolithus chersonensis. No bones
of the bird that left behind the egg are known, but ostrich remains
have been described from the Pliocene of the Sivalik Hills and the
lower Pliocene of Samos. The fragments of the Cherson egg are
still preserved in St. Petersburg Museum. Considerable interest is
now attached therefore to a paper by Mr C. R. Eastman, which

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 293

forms number 7 of the thirty-second volume of the Bulletin of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, in which is
described and figured an entire and perfect specimen of an ostrich
egg which was found a few years ago by a Chinese farmer at Yao
Kuan Chuang, district of Hsi Ning, about fifty miles south south-
west from Kalgan. The find consisted of two specimens, one of
which was broken, and is perfectly well authenticated by the Rev.
Wm. P. Sprague, who visited the spot in company with the man
who found them and secured the unbroken specimen, which is now
in the Harvard Museum. According to Mr Sprague’s account,
corroborated by references to Richthofen’s China, the deposit from
which the egg came was Loess. The egg itself presents almost
exactly the same appearance as the Russian egg, of which a plaster
cast is preserved, and in the opinion of Mr Eastman it may be con-
sidered at present to belong to the same bird. The cubic contents
of the Chinese egg is 1896°90 ccm. The occurrence of fossil
ostrich remains in the Loess of such widely separated regions as
Northern China and Russia has a direct bearing upon the distribu-
tion of Struthious birds, and gives rise to some important inferences
by Mr Eastman, regarding the past history of Ratite birds in
general.

THe Nortres or BIRpDs

MANY a wanderer in the country has wished that he could identify
the various birds that he hears singing on the hedges or calling in
the fields. Those who live in the country often know the call, but
can only identify the bird by its local name. Mr Charles Louis
Hett of Brigg has produced a small octavo volume, handy for the
pocket, which is to be obtained for half-a-crown of Messrs Jackson,
Market Place, Brigg, which gives these notes and calls arranged in
alphabetical order, most of which give a fair idea of the various
sounds produced. Further than this, Mr Hett has also given a list
of the popular local and old-fashioned names of British birds, under
each of which the notes are repeated, and closes his little volume
with a list of the scientific names of all birds accepted as British by
the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1883. Equipped therefore
with this volume, the bird lover may identify, with a certain ap-
proach to accuracy, many of the birds met with in his rambles, and
what is of greater importance, may, now he has a basis to go upon,
try and record more accurately the delusive and fugitive calls of
many of the species.

LirE CONDITIONS OF THE OYSTER

TuE following conclusions of the Committee appointed by the British
Association to report on the elucidation of the life conditions of the

294 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

oyster under normal and abnormal environment, including the effect
of sewage matters and pathogenic organisms, drawn up by Professor
Herdman, Professor Boyce, and Dr Kohn, are, we think, of sufficient
interest to the public to repeat here in full.

1. There are several distinct kinds of greenness in oysters.
Some of these, such as the green Marennes oysters and those of
some rivers on the Essex coast, are healthy; while others, such as
some Falmouth oysters containing copper and some American
oysters re-bedded on our coast and which have the pale-green
leucocytosis we described in the last report, are not in a healthy
state.

2. Some forms of greenness (eg., the leucocytosis) are certainly
associated with the presence of a greatly-increased amount of copper
in the oyster, while other forms of greenness (¢g., the Marennes)
have no connection with copper, but depend upon the presence of a
special pigment Marennin, which may contain a certain amount of
iron.

3. We see no reason to think that the iron in the latter case is
taken in through the surface epithelium of the gills and palps ; but
regard it, like the rest of the iron in the body, as a product of
ordinary digestion and absorption in the alimentary canal and
liver,

4. We do not find that there is any excessive amount of iron
in the green Marennes oyster compared with the colourless oyster ;
nor do the green parts (gills, palps, &c.) of the Marennes oyster
contain either absolutely or relatively to the colourless parts (mantle,
&c.) more iron than colourless oysters. We therefore conclude that
there is no connection between the green colour of the Huitres de
Marennes and the iron they may contain.

5. On the other hand, we do find by quantitative analysis that
there is more copper in the green American oyster than in the
colourless one; and more proportionately in the greener parts than
in those that are less green. We therefore conclude that their
green colour is due to copper. We also find a greater quantity of
iron in these green American oysters than in the colourless; but
this excess is, proportionately, considerably less than that .of the
copper.

6. In the Falmouth oysters containing an excessive amount of
copper, we find that much of the copper is certainly mechanically
attached to the surface of the body, and is in a form insoluble in
water, probably as a basic carbonate. In addition to this, however,
the Falmouth oyster may contain a much larger amount of copper
in its tissues than does the normal colourless oyster. In these
Falmouth oysters the cause of the green colour may be the same as
in the green American oysters.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 295

7. The Colon group of bacilli is frequently found in shellfish,
as sold in towns, and especially in the oyster; but we have no evi-
dence that it occurs in Mollusca living in pure sea-water. The
natural inference that the presence of the Colon bacillus invariably
indicates sewage contamination must, however, not be considered
established without further investigation.

8. The Colon group may be separated into two divisions—(1)
those giving the typical reactions of the Colon bacillus, and (2) those
giving corresponding negative reactions, and so approaching the
typhoid type; but in no case was an organism giving all the reac-
tions of the B. typhosus isolated. It ought to be remembered, how-
ever, that our samples of oysters, although of various kinds and
from different sources, were in no case, so far as we are aware,
derived from a bed known to be contaminated or suspected of
typhoid.

9. Consequently, as the result of our investigations, and the
consideration of much evidence, both from the oyster-growers’ and
the public health officers’ point of view, we beg to recommend :—

(a) That the necessary steps should be taken to induce the
oyster trade to remove any possible suspicion of sewage contamina-
tion from the beds and layings from which oysters are supplied to
the market. This could obviously be effected in one of two ways,
either (1) by restrictive legislation and the licensing of beds only
after due inspection by the officials of a Government department, or
(2) by the formation of an association amongst the oyster-growers
and dealers themselves, which should provide for the due periodic
examination of the grounds, stores and stock, by independent
properly-qualified inspectors. Scientific assistance and advice
given by such independent inspectors would go far to improve the
condition of the oyster beds and layings, to reassure the public,
and to elevate the oyster industry to the important position which
it should oceupy.

(6) Oysters imported from abroad (Holland, France, or America)
should be consigned to a member of the “ Oyster Association,’ who
should be compelled by the regulations to have his foreign oysters
as carefully inspected and certificated as those from his home layings.
A large proportion of the imported oysters are, however, deposited
in our waters for such a period before going to market that the fact
of their having originally come from abroad may be ignored. If
this period of quarantine were imposed upon all foreign oysters, a
great part of the difficulty as to inspection and certification would
be removed.

(c) The grounds from which mussels, cockles and periwinkles
are gathered should be periodically examined by scientific inspectors
in the same manner as the oyster beds. The duty of providing for

296 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

this inspection might well, we should suggest, be assumed by the
various Sea Fisheries Committees around the coast.

THE METHOD OF FEEDING OF H#ZLIX HORTENSIS

Mr E. Ratuay publishes an interesting article on the method of
feeding of Helix hortensis, in the third part of Vol. viii. of the
Zeuschrift fiir Planzenkrankheiten.

' The author had noticed on the smooth bark of ash-trees certain
undulating patterns, in the immediate neighbourhood of which, or
at their extremities, were individuals of Helix hortensis. Myr Rathay
therefore felt that the patterns must be accounted for by the snail’s
method of feeding.

To make certain of the fact, he took some bits of ash-bark on
which no patterns had been traced, set them in an upright position
so as to keep them fresh in the water, put a Helix on each, and
covered them over with a glass bell. The very next day, these bits
of bark showed traces of undulating patterns.

In consequence of this experiment, the author’s attention was
drawn to other smooth-barked trees, and he recognised the same
patterns on Salia caprea L., S. amygdalina L., Alnus incana C., &e.

These traces were noticed on the trunks to the height of 7 to
9 metres, and the snail that was observed to be at work, produced
them by slowly advancing his body and swaying his head alterna-
tively to right and left.

One might suppose that the gasteropod fed himself thus by
gnawing the bark of the tree, but it is nothing of the kind; he
attacks the spots where the bark is powdered with a small alga,
Pleurococcus vulgaris, Menegh., and scarcely touches the outer skin
of the bark.

In fact, in the excrement of Helix hortensis are found the cells
of Plewrococcus almost intact.

In accordance with the experiments detailed in the note and
after the employment of various appropriate reagents, it 1s recog-
nised, not only by microscopic examination, but by chemical experi-
ment, that the cells of Plewrococcus have been evacuated intact with
their chlorophyl.

The author’s conclusions are as follows :—

1. It is only on smooth barks sufficiently coated with alga that
the undulating patterns can be detected.

2. It can easily be observed, especially on the older trees, that
Helix hortensis does not eat the outer skin of the bark and scarcely
touches it.

3. The excrement of the same gasteropod, taken a great height
up the tree, is chiefly composed of cells of Plewrococeus with
very few fragments of peridermis. The extraordinary thing about

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 297

this is that these cells are evacuated apparently intact, not only
with their chlorophyl, but with the other substances that they
contain.

4. It has been noticed that Helix hortensis produces the same
patterns on the lattice work of a wooden fence covered with Plewro-
coccus vulgaris. <A figure of the pattern referred to will be found
reproduced in La Fewille des jeunes Naturalistes, September, from
which journal we take this uote.

ABNORMAL SHELLS OF PLANORBIS

THE abnormalities of our fresh-water snails will be no new fact to
bring before the notice of our readers, but attention may well be
directed to a paper by Mr A. G. Stubbs on abnormal specimens of
Pianorbis spirorbis from Tenby. The paper was read before the
Conchological Society, and is published in the October number of
their Journal. A good plate is provided, and the shells are seen to
be contorted in every direction, but mainly into that of a spiral,
some of these so much drawn out as to be nine or ten times the
height of the normal shell. Mr Stubbs accepts Mr J. W. Taylor’s
explanation as to the cause of this curious distortion :—* that when
the water [in this ditch] is nearly dried up, the efforts of the crea-
tures in forcing their way through the thick mud in which they are
sometimes left partially embedded, to again reach the water, may
easily cause an alteration in the direction of a new shell growth, if at
the time in course of formation.”

A REMARKABLE MARINE ORGANISM

AMONG a number of sponges from Ramésvaran Island, Gulf of
Manaar, sent to Dr Arthur Dendy for identification for the Madras
Museum, were some fifteen specimens of cushion-shaped masses of a
brown colour, from 13 mm. to 36 mm. in diameter, attached to
rock fragments. These masses are compact and tough in texture,
after preservation in spirit, like indiarubber, and there is a deal of
sand in the deeper layers. When cut in half vertically they show
strongly-marked, concentric lamellae, the effect of alternating bands
of flocculent (opaque) and transparent layers. The opaque layers
are connected together by a coarse network of radially ramifying
strands. In the transparent layers are seen, after careful examina-
tion, innumerable exceedingly slender unbranched threads, which
prove to be the cellulose sheaths of chains of short, rod-like
bacteria. Dr Dendy thinks that there are two possible views as to
the nature of Pontobolbos, as he calls this remarkable structure, and
these are (1) that the organism is entirely bacterial in origin, the

298 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

opaque layers and network being due to the formation of slime or
jelly by the bacteria themselves, or (2) that it is due to symbiosis
between the bacteria and some gigantic rhizopod, the protoplasm of
which is seen in the floceulent layers and network. After discuss-
ing these two views, Dr Dendy calls attention to the marvellously
close resemblance of Pontobolbos to the enigmatical fossils Stromato-
poridae. The paper appeared in the Linnean Society’s Journal,
volume twenty-six.

‘BueGs’ as Foop

Mr G,. W. Kirkatpy, who has been devoting his attention for some
time to the systematic description of the Rhynchota, has written a
short note to the Hntomologists’ Monthly Magazine (p. 173) on
arrangements which have been made for the importation into this
country both of imagines and ova of Notonecta and Corixa in large
quantities for the food of insectivorous birds, game, fish, and others
with peculiar tastes. It has long been known that the natives
of parts of Mexico eat the perfect insects with relish, and that the
sale of cakes made of the ova is fairly extensive. The species to
be imported, according to Mr Kirkaldy, are Notonecta americana,
Fabr., and Coriza mercenaria, Say. The ova are called by the
Mexicans ‘ Axayacatl’ or ‘waterface’ and are made into cakes
with the addition of meal. These are eaten au naturel or with
ereen chilies. If cooked without meal they are called ‘ ahuanhtli’
or ‘ water wheat, have the appearance of fish roe, have a delicate
flavour, and are not disdained at fashionable tables. Virlet d’ Aoust
indeed compared them to caviare. Mr Kirkaldy, however, cannot
speak highly of them as a relish, his were stale and tasted of
sulphuretted hydrogen and decayed animal substances. The perfect
insects, moreover, had a distinct ‘buggy’ flavour. Still one can
educate one’s palate, and there are some who revel in the pope’s
nose of a goose despite its taste of cockroach. The C. mercenaria
are imported by the ton, and each ton is imputed to contain 250
millions of insects. We will not dine with Mr Kirkaldy.

THE RELATIONSHIPS OF BUTTERFLIES

READERS of Natural Science will recall Mr A. Radcliffe Grote’s
papers at the beginning of the present year (vol. xu. pp. 15-26,
87-99) on the classification of butterflies according to the wine-
neuration. His main contention was the separation of the Papil-
ionidae from all the other butterflies on account of the presence of
a short vein (ix.) next to the inner margin of the forewing, this
vein being absent in all the other families. In a recent paper
entitled “ Specialisations of the Lepidopterous Wing; the Pieri-
Nymphalidae,” in the Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. (vol. xxxvii. pp. 17-

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 200

44, pls. i.-i11.), Mr Grote considers in detail the neuration in certain
genera of the “ Whites” and the “ Brush-footed butterflies,” which
he believes to be rather closely related to each other.

Meanwhile Dr K. Jordan has published a study of butterfly-
feelers (“ Contributions to the Morphology of the Lepidoptera ;
the Antennae of Butterflies,’ Wov. Zoolog., vol. v. pp. 374-415, pls.
xiv., xv.) which has led him in many respects to conclusions at vari-
ance with those of Mr Grote. From the amount of scaling on the
feelers, and the arrangement of grooves with sensations on the ventral
surface of their segments, he associates the Nymphalidae and Papilion-
idae together as the most highly specialised butterflies. In the Nym-
phalidae there are two ventral grooves on each segment, in the
Papilionidae either two or one; the latter condition occurring in the
Parnassinae, but their single groove apparently representing one of the
lateral grooves in the Papilios. Among the other families, there
are either no ventral grooves (Hesperiidae, Lycaenidae), or one
(Erycinidae, some Pieridae), or three (other Pieridae).

Dr Jordan’s valuable research will be welcomed by all students
of the Lepidoptera, and no one can doubt that such characters as he
indicates must be taken into account in the discussion of affinities.
At the same time, a comparison of his results with those of Mr
Grote raises the question whether it is advisable to erect a phylo-
genetic classification on facts relating only to one set of organs. We
are constantly receiving fresh light as new structures are studied,
and several modifications of current arrangements seem to be sup-
ported by converging lines of evidence. For instance pupal struc-
ture (Chapman), wing neuration (Grote), and antennal characters
(Jordan) all combine to indicate that the Hesperiidae and Lycaenidae
must be regarded as the most primitive families. On the other
hand, Mr Grote’s association of the Pieridae with the Nymphalidae
and their allies, while supported by the pupal characters elucidated
by Dr Chapman, is, as we have seen, contradicted by the feelers as
interpreted by Dr Jordan.

It is of interest to note that Mr Grote and Dr Jordan, in these
two papers, agree in restoring to the Pieridae the abnormal West
African insect Pseudopontia (or Gonophlebia) paradoxa, which Dr
Butler and others have been inclined to regard as a moth. Both its
wing-neuration and antennal structure prove it to be an abnormal
pierid butterfly.

AN ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY

In the same volume of the Novitates Zoologicae (pp. 435-455) Dr
Jordan replies to some aspersions cast on the work of himself and
Mr W. Rothschild, by the late Professor Eimer in his recently pub-
lished “ Orthogenesis der Schmetterlinge.” Dr Jordan is apparently

300 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

in agreement with several of Eimer’s conclusions—the inheritance of
acquired characters and the small influence of natural selection in
the origin of species. His trenchant criticisms of the statements
and reasonings by which Eimer supported his conclusions are there-
fore all the more weighty.

Tue ORIGIN OF DIATOMACEOUS EARTHS IN NEW JERSEY

THE lacustrine sedimentary deposits of Weequahick Lake, Newark,
New Jersey, have been long considered as fresh water deposits of
diatomacee, Professor Arthur M. Edwards has been recently
studying these deposits as represented in the valley of the river
Passaic, and in the clay there, which is three feet thick, has found
a mixture of marine and fresh water diatoms. He also finds
numerous kettle-holes and deposits of a peaty matter all of which
contain the diatomaceous earth. From this he concludes “ that the
whole country in North America, and most likely in Europe also,
was covered by a fresh-water sea, derived from the melting ice at
the period when icebergs made their appearance, and that the
temperature of this sea was O° C. (32° F.), because that is the
temperature most congenial to the bacillarias; and the diatoma-
ceous clays described above were laid down as fresh-water deposits
from this sea during the iceberg period.” The paper forms pp.
103-107 of a Society which is apparently ashamed of its name, for
that nowhere appears on the excerpt.

THE PERSISTENCE OF SPECIFIC FORMS

In the above paper is a remark that all the forms noted are of the
same kind as are found in various parts of the world; while in a
brief note by the same author, and published so long ago as March
1897 in the American Monthly Microscopical Journal, we read
with reference to some “Tuscarora” soundings: “The same forms
are to be found in the Neocene of California whenever it has been
examined, from Crescent City in Del Norte county on the north
to a spot about forty miles south of the southern limit in Southern
California, that is to say into Mexico. They are the same in the
infusorial earth of the Atlantic Coast of North America, and like-
wise in South America when it has been detected at Payta and
Mejillones in Peru. In North America it is known as Miocene
territory and is seen at Atlantic City in New Jersey, at Richmond
in Virginia, at various points in Maryland, as at Nottingham, and
at Tampa Bay in Florida. It is likewise known at Oran in Africa,
at Moron in Spain, at Mors in Denmark, at Catanisetta in Sicily, at
Simbirsk in Russia, and at Senz Peter in Hungary. Besides, it is
known at Netanai in Japan and Oamaru in New Zealand.”

“ And what does this bring us to? We have to compare the

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 301

forms of Bacillaria, Rhizopoda and Foraminifera of these different
localities and we find them essentially the same in all. We have
also to compare the forms of Bacillaria, Rhizopoda and Foraminifera
of the soundings in the Pacitic and Atlantic oceans and we find
them the same. Can we not say that the strata are the same in
composition chemically and the same in organic forms ?”

“JT think they are. And can we separate the Neocene from the
recent soundings in any respect? I do not think so.... We
cannot distinguish Neocene Bacillaria, Rhizopoda or Foraminifera
from recent which are living now. Although the strata in New
Zealand have been placed in the Cretaceous, and at Simbirsk in the
lower Eocene, we must expect to see them bearing like forms to the
recent, and which live more on the bottom of the ocean and are in
every inlet along the coast.” Much of this has been said before,
but it will well bear repetition.

A TipAL CRANNOG AT DUMBARTON

AN undoubted crannog of a remarkable type was found recently by
the well-known archaeologist, Mr W. A. Donnelly. It is the first
of such structures found in tidal waters. The discovery has been
inspected by Drs Anderson and Munro, and the latter after making
a thorough investigation of the site, declared that “it was the most
curious, puzzling, and interesting find of the kind he had met with
in all his long experience, and, so far as he knew, unique.” Mr
H. J. Dukinfield Astley, who communicated this find to the
Athenaeum (Sept. 10), says that Mr Donnelly, with the help of the
Helensburgh Naturalist and Antiquarian Society, has thoroughly
investigated the spot with a rich reward. The crannog is 1000
yards east of the Castle Rock of Dumbarton, and about 2000 yards
from Dunglass Castle, below high-water mark, and about 50 yards
from the river at low tide; when the tide is in it is submerged from
3-12 feet. The approach is from the north. The circuit of the
crannog is 184 feet. The piles in the outer circle are of oak, which
below the mud surface is still quite fresh; the transverse beams
and pavements inside are of wood of the consistency of cheese—
these are of willow, alder, and oak; the smaller branches are of fir,
birch, and hazel, with bracken, moss, and chips. The stones in the
outer circle and along the causeway leading to the dwelling-place
seem to be placed in a methodical order, most of the boulders being
about a lift for a man. ‘The refuse-mound extends for about 12
feet outside for the greater part of the circuit, and in this the flint
and bone implements have been chiefly discovered, while near the
crannog itself a canoe, 37 feet long and 40 inches beam, dry ends
of an oak tree, was also found.

As regards its construction—of stones, wooden piles and pave-

302 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

ments-—shape, and the finding of canoe alongside, this crannog
differs in no way from other well-known ones in Ireland and else-
where ; but in two respects it is absolutely unique: (1) as was
stated above, in being situated on the shores of a tidal river; and
(2) in the fact that, so far at any rate, none but implements of flint
and bone have been discovered. This would throw its occupation
back at least to the Neolithic period, whereas crannogs are usually
associated with the Bronze Age, eg., the British lake village at
Glastonbury yielded beautiful specimens of bronze fibulae and other
articles. Details as to further finds will, therefore, be eagerly
awaited by archaeologists.

AUSTRALIAN INITIATION CEREMONIES

Licut is gradually being let into the remarkable ceremonies of
initiation that the young Australian has to pass through before he
is admitted to the secrets of the tribe and regarded as a full member
of it. Much has been published by the Horn Expedition, and by
a recent Government publication, but Professor Baldwin Spencer and
Mr F. J. Gillen have now given us the full details of these interest-
ing ceremonies as performed by the Arunta tribe of Central Australia.
Mr Gillen is a Sub-Protector of the aborigines, and so has special
opportunities of observing, and much of what was glossed over by
the earlier observers is now carefully related and explained. Ex-
cepting, perhaps, one tribe, the Wotjo-balluk of the Wimmera
district, Victoria, every Australian native has to undergo these
ceremonies. In the case of the tribes inhabiting the east and
south-eastern coastal districts of the continent, the ceremonies
appear to be entirely distinct from those of the tribes of the central
area, amongst whom they are very elaborate and spread over a long
series of years, the first taking place at about the age of ten or
twelve, whilst the final and most impressive one is not passed
through until the black fellow has reached the age of at least
twenty-five or even thirty. The ceremonies described in the 7rans-
actions of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. x. part 2, are four in
number, and are (1) the Enchichichika and Alkirakiwuma, or
painting and throwing the boy up; (2) Lartna or circumcision ; (3)
Ariltha or subincision ; and (4) Engwurra or fire ceremony. One of
the most noticeable features of the Arunta ceremonies is the absence
of the knocking out of the teeth, but no doubt to-day much of the
ceremony in various tribes has lost its old significance, and degener-
ated or developed along different lines as the tribes separated from
their original common centre.

The Australian aborigines also form the subject of a paper by
Mr Oliphant Smeaton this month in the Westminster Review, who
deals with their curious legends.

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 303

NATURAL GAS IN SUSSEX

So long ago as 1875 Mr Henry Willett noticed the discovery of an
inflammable natural gas while conducting the Netherfield Boring.
In 1895 another discovery was made while boring for water at the
new Heathfield Hotel, in the parish of Waldron, East Sussex.
Here, at a depth of 228 feet, the foreman noticed that the water in
the bore was “ boiling,” and on applying a candle the gas caught fire
and burnt “to about the height of a man.” The third discovery
was made in August 1896, formed the subject of a paper
in our August number, and is now fully described by Mr
Charles Dawson and Dr J. T. Hewitt in the Quarterly Journal of
the Geological Society for August 1898. About 100 yards from the
hotel, in a cutting, the London and Brighton Railway Company,
desiring better water supply for their engine tank, put down a
6-inch bore. Gas was noticed for some time, but when the bore
had reached 312 feet from the level of the permanent way, the
rush was so pronounced that on a match being applied a flame shot
up, which was extinguished with difficulty by damp cloths. The
gas continued to increase in volume, but as the bore failed to supply
the necessary water, it was abandoned at 377 feet. The tubes were
then withdrawn, with the exception of the last, to which an iron
cap was screwed with an 43-inch bend and stop-cock. A con-
tinuous escape for eighteen months has occurred with a pressure of
15 lbs. to a square inch in March and one of 20 lbs. on June 11
this year. Analyses were made by Mr S. H. Woodhead, which
gave :—

Oxygen , : ; : 18
Higher hydrocarbons. : 5'5
Carbon monoxide , : 4-0
Marsh gas . : : ; ace
100°0
and by Mr Hewitt, which gave :—
Methane (CH,) . : : 91°9
Hydrogen (H,) . ; 0:2
Nitrogen (N,) ‘ ; 0°9
100°0

The lowest part of the bore seemed to be in the Purbeck strata,
which are known to contain a little bituminous matter. But it
seems more likely that the gas comes from the underlying Kim-
meridge clay, which was richer in petroleum the lower it was
penetrated by the Sub-Wealden Boring in 1875.

304 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

THE Mount Rarnsow GOoLp-FIELD, QUEENSLAND

THE basalt capping of the flat-topped and steep-sloped hills of the
Mount Rainbow gold-fields in Queensland rest upon a sediment of
wash of 2 or 3 feet of rounded and subangular pebbles and boulders
of granite, quartzite, and other rocks of the Gympic formation,
cemented in a grit of quartz, felspar, hornblende, and mica grains,
overlaid by a white tenaceous, horizontally bedded, clayey sand.
This latter deposit is often 10-15 feet in thickness, and rests on a
horizontal floor of granite. This wash averages gold to the amount
of 1 oz 11 dwts. 18 grs. per ton, and the cost for crushing is
12s. 6d. per ton, as against £1 per quartz.’ Much useless material
has to be crushed, owing to the hardness of the cement. The gold
occurs in rounded or flattened water worn grains, and is all
obtained from the lowest 2 or 3 inches of wash, and the uppermost
2 or 3 inches of decomposed granite floor. A full account of the
geology will be found in No. 126 of the Geological Survey
publications.

VircHow’s LECTURE

As the Saturday Review reminds us, the selection of Professor
Virchow as this year’s Huxley lecturer was a quaint method of
doing honour to Huxley's memory. The lecture itself was a
brilliant statement of the growth of the cellular views of pathology
and their influence on medical work,—an eminently suitable subject
with which to associate Huxley's name. Virchow sketched the
growth of theories regarding vitalism and the gradual development
of the cellular theory. He insisted in its corollary that the organism
is not an individual but a social mechanism. He referred to the
appheation of the cellular theory to pathology due to his own work,
which was an indirect outcome of the biological principle omnis
cellula e cellula. This principle also explains heredity, while it over-
throws some of the most elaborately constructed theories as to the
hereditary nature of some diseases. Modern theories of malaria, anti-
septic surgery and artificial immunization against diseases are also con-
sequences of the theory of cellular pathology. In the early part of
the lecture Virchow paid a warm tribute to Huxley, admiration for
whom he said “is deeply rooted within me.” But later on there
came an unnecessary reminder of former controversy by the remark
that “ Huxley had no hesitation in filling the gaps which Darwin
had left in his argument,” and by a reservation that “whatever
opinion one may hold as to the origin of mankind,” so that Virchow
now, as in 1895, is still opposed to the application of evolution
to man.

551.77 305
593.12
563.12

I

The probable depths of the Gault Sea as indicated
by its Rhizopodal Fauna

HEN we consider the evidences of variability in the forms of
foraminifera, and their power of adaptation to limited
amounts of change in their environment, it may seem futile to
attempt to attach much value to these organisms, as indices of the
bathymetrical and other conditions of the deposit in which they are
found. Whilst recognising this power of adaptation, however, we
must not lose sight of the fact that marked changes are visible in
the aspect of assemblages of foraminifera. For example, when we
pass from material which has been laid down in clear and deep
water in proximity to limestone cliffs, to other, and it may be,
adjacent, and contemporary deposits, subjected to inroads of muddy
and decomposing organic material, we shall probably find that,
whereas in the former case the species are well-developed and thick-
shelled, in the latter case the foraminifera will be thin-shelled and
starved, or perhaps with tests formed, of necessity, of the minute
sand-grains of the deposit upon which they lived. A case in point
is afforded by the limestones and black clays of the Rhaetic of
Wedmore Hill in Somerset (1).

The copious records of foraminifera from known depths,
made by the Challenger and many other important dredging and
sounding cruises, supply us with a tangible basis for the comparison
of types of foraminifera which are found in both recent and fossil
accumulations.

In consequence of the nature of the sea bottom, its temperature
and depth being to some extent interdependent, we may gather
many interesting facts by a due consideration of all these points.

In the present instance those species from each zone of the
Gault (2) have been taken, which occur also in recent deposits, where
their known depths have been accurately recorded. These depths
have been carefully averaged for each species selected, and the total
mean depth for all the species in each distinct zone of the Gault has
been taken as the probable depth of its sea bottom, In cases
where there is a preponderance of common and well-developed
forms, the evidence of such is considered, to the subordination of
occasional examples, which may have been introduced into the

<

306 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

deposit by the action of currents. In obtaining the data from the
recent species attention has been especially paid to evidence of depth
at which the particular species occurs most frequently, and where it
attains its best development.

The material on which these calculations are based cannot
afford a complete comparison on account of the number of Gault
forms which are quite unknown in recent deposits, but this not-
withstanding, an approximation to the truth may perhaps be
obtained.

The noteworthy and important groups of foraminifera found in
the Gault, and which are not exactly represented in our recent
faunas are— —

(1) The strongly costate Nodosariae ;

(2) The complanate and limbate Frondiculariae ;

(3) The sulcated and limbate Vaginulinae ;

(4) The remarkably developed and attached Ramulinae, the
allied genus Vitriwebbina ;

(5) And the limbate, reticulate, and spinose Pulvinulinae.

The comparatively large size and redundant growth of these
forms indicates favourable conditions for development, in which a
high bottom temperature and a sufficiency of calcareous material
dissolved in the water would form important factors. Another
possibly important condition was the accumulation of marine shells
over which this part of the Benthos of the Gault Sea was able
to wander, and amongst which it could shelter. In the case of the
Ramulinae and Vitriwebbinae these curious recent organisms
attached themselves to the shells of the mollusea.

Although marked changes are observable in the character of the
deposits forming the Gault series in Kent, where they consist of
green-sands, clays, and marls, it is somewhat remarkable that the
actual rhizopodal fauna does not greatly vary; and so far as one
can judge from the results now before us, the depths were not
subject to so much oscillation as the lithological character of the
beds might at first sight seem to demand. They are all more or less
comparable with deposits forming in the moderately deep seas of the
present day : they are probably represented by the green, blue, and
red muds and the green-sands for the Lower Gault ; and by the semi-
pelagic or terrigeno-globigerinw ooze (the meeting ground of the
terrigenous and the pelagic deposits) for the marls of the Upper Gault.

In connection with the subject it may be remarked that some
years ago Professor T. Rupert Jones stated, in a note on an annelid
bed at Westwell Leacon (3) that his colleague, Professor W. Kitchin
Parker, believed the Gault Sea to have been 100 fathoms.

F. G. Hilton Price believes the Gault Sea not to have exceeded
100 fathoms in depth, and probably much shallower (4).

1898] PROBABLE DEPTHS OF THE GAULT SEA 307

In his book “ The building of the British Isles” (5), A. J. Jukes-
Browne says with regard to this question, “The clays of the Lower
Gault seem to have been deposited in a shallow sea of 50 to 70
fathoms deep, which is about the depth of the sea between England
and Ireland, while the fossils of the Upper Gault of Folkestone
indicate a depth of 100 fathoms and upwards.” From the foramini-
feral data for each zone of the Folkestone Gault to be referred to
subsequently, we obtain a mean depth for the Lower Gault (Zones
I.-VII. of Price) of 830 fathoms. In a similar way the Upper
Gault (Zones [X.-XIII.) gives a mean depth of 866 fathoms.

The following are the zones with their separate results and
points of interest :—

Zone I. The Green-sand seam at the base of the Gault——This is a
dark-coloured argillaceous green-sand. The included fossils are much
rolled and worn, and this particular deposit appears to have been
subjected to the prolonged action of currents. The depth obtained
by the evidence of the foraminifera of this bed appears somewhat
great, but can be accounted for by the. fact of there being a later
foraminiferal fauna present, besides the assemblage of glauconite casts.
This mixed fauna also appears again in Zone XII. of the Gault
(formerly referred to as Zone XI. green-sand seam).

For Zone I. basal bed a possible depth of 750 fathoms is
obtained.

At this horizon a single example of Hormosina globulifera was
found, and although usually occurring at greater depths, it is inter-
esting to note that Dr Goés records it from a depth nearly corre-
sponding with the determination given above.

The samples of green-sand collected during the voyage of the
‘Challenger’ were taken from depths less than 900 fathoms, the
average being 449 fathoms. With regard to the hydrographical
distribution of green muds and sands, Messrs Murray and Renard
observe in the volume on “ Deep Sea Deposits,’ p. 240, that they
“ would appear to form an interrupted band along many continental
shores at the upper edge of the continental slope.”

The usual sequence of the shallow to the deeper parts of the
areas occupied by terrigenous deposits is in the order of green-sand
(where conditions for its formation are favourable), green mud and
blue mud. In the case of the Gault this was followed by a semi-
pelagic deposit forming the grey marls of the Upper Gault.

From the samples of green-sand obtained by the ‘ Challenger,
one may refer, for comparison, to the green-sand, Station IV.,
between Cape St Vincent and Gibraltar, depth 600 fathoms.

Zone I. 5 feet above the base—A dark clay, greenish when wet,
bluish when dry.

This is probably equivalent to the modern fine glauconitic muds,

308 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

In this clay there is a fair quantity of minute glauconite grains,
found only in the finest washings. The foraminifera yield evidence
of slightly shallower conditions than the preceding, which, however,
is probably placed at too great an estimation, since the foraminifera
obtained from the green-sand seam, as previously pointed out, are not
numerous enough to be representative,

The depth for this deposit is 700 fathoms. For comparison, one
may refer, as a typical green mud of similar depth, to ‘ Challenger,
Station No. 163 F., off Sydney, depth 650 fathoms.

Zone II,—The samples taken from this zone were clays of a
dark green colour.

The residua yielded a fair quantity of glauconite, and the pre-
sumably pelagic Globigerina cretacea was met with in some frequency.
In their general character these clays are comparable with the green
muds.

The depth of these samples works out at 820 fathoms.

Zone III—The clay of this zone is of a pale brown or fawn
colour, and is quite distinct in appearance from the rest of the Gault.
Glauconite is extremely rare, and appears to be entirely absent in
the modern red muds, with which this clay may perhaps be com-
pared. The comparison, however, is not much more than one of
similarity of colouration in its present condition, for much of the
colour in modern red muds is due to ochreous matter, whilst that of
the Gault of this zone is due to carbonate of iron with some ochre-
ous staining. It is, however, not very probable that it could have
originally been a blue mud, since this would have resulted, as with
some other samples of the Gault, in the infilling of the foraminiferal
shells with pyrites instead of carbonate of iron, of which we here
have evidence. This carbonate of iron is found in some quantity
disseminated through the clay as minute casts of organisms; and
there are alsc concretionary bands of the same material running
through the bed. This concretionary iron band is perforated
throughout with what are apparently annelid borings, and this has
been noticed by Mr Hilton Price (5), who drew attention to it in
1876 in connection with a similar annelid bed which Professor
Rupert Jones had described (3) from Westwell Leacon in Kent, and
locally known as ‘ Harper. This bed Professor Jones found in the
“upper part of the lowest third of the Gault” at that locality ; and
he compared it with a bluish-grey mud with annelids found forty
miles S.E. of No-Sima Lighthouse, Japan, at a depth of 1875
fathoms. Professor Jones has been good enough to give me a speci-
men of the annelid rock from Westwell Leacon, and I find it com-
parable with a similar bed which I found some years ago in the
Gault at Godstone. All three specimens probably occur at about
the same horizon of the Gault and are equivalent to Zone III. at

1898] PROBABLE DEPTHS OF THE GAULT SEA 309

Folkestone. The specimens from Westwell Leacon and Godstone
are still clays, with no colouration, the tubular infillings being bluish
grey, whilst the Folkestone specimen is a clay ironstone.

It is noteworthy of Zone III. at Folkestone, that owing to the
absence of pyritous infilling of the foraminiferal shells, they are
much paler in colour than is usual with Gault specimens of
foraminifera. :

The conditions in this zone seem to have been favourable for
the crustacea, and by their abundance this bed is known to collectors
of fossils as the ‘ Crab bed.’ At this horizon Ostracoda are especially
abundant. Globigerina cretacea also forms a fairly large proportion
of the washings.

From the evidence of the foraminifera, the depth of this deposit
was 1180 fathoms.

The character of the clay makes it appear to have been originally
a red mud of a semipelagic nature.

Zone IV.—The clay of this zone is greenish grey. The foramini-
fera are very minute, owing to the prevalence of muddy matter, and
the scarcity of dissolved calcareous material.

This clay is probably represented in modern deposits by blue
mud rather than green mud, since glauconite, although present, is
only in a small proportion in the washings.

The depth determined for this zone is 840 fathoms.

Zone V.—A_ grey-blue clay spotted with lighter markings.
The washings contained a large proportion of Globigerina eretacea,
Sphaeroidina bulloides also being found.

This deposit seems originally to have been a blue mud, from
the quantity of pyrites found infilling the foraminiferal shells and
elsewhere, and from the small quantity of glauconite present.

The depth determined by the foraminifera is 750 fathoms.

Zone VI—This is a mottled blue-grey clay. There is much
pyritous material as in Zone V. The deposit appears to be equiva-
lent to the blue muds.

The probable depth is 790 fathoms.

Zone VII.—A dark blue-green clay, which from the scarcity of
glauconite and the presence of pyrites, must have originally been a
blue mud. This and the next zone above seems to have been formed
under conditions particularly favourable for the existence of the
redundantly grown Pulvinulina spinulifera.

The depth for this zone is 810 fathoms.

Zone VIII.—A grey clay, with a little glauconite in the fine
washings. This also can be classed with the blue muds. The ferric
carbonate casts become scarcer from Zone III. upward, and are
entirely absent in this zone, so far as I have observed, but they
again recur in the next and succeeding zones.

310 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

The evidence of the foraminifera points to 700 fathoms for the
depth of this deposit.

Zone IX,—A dark blue-grey marl. Globigerina cretacea is found
in some abundance, and from theuce through the succeeding zones
increases in quantity until near the top of the Gault. The deposit,
compared with recent accumulations, might be termed a grey terri-
genous ooze,

The foraminifera indicate a depth of 910 fathoms.

Zone X—A pale green-grey marl. This zone perhaps more
nearly foreshadows conditions which obtained in the Chalk-marl
than any of the others. The proportion of calcareous matter is very
large (as much as 457); at 45 ft. from the top—in Zone XI. it
was 367%; the Chalk-marl of Eastwear Bay at 10 ft. above the
‘Chloritic’ marl gave 674% of calcareous matter. The conditions
existent then in Zone X. must have been favourable for calcareous
shelled organisms. Here particularly we obtain a great variety
of the strong shelled and costate forms of the genera Nodosaria,
Frondicularia, Marginulina, and Vaginulina ; and it was from this
zone more especially that the redundant and abnormal forms described
in my systematic papers (see Part X. Foraminifera of the Gault of
Folkestone) were obtained. This deposit may be classed with those
of modern date as a grey terrigenous ooze, and had a probable depth
of 900 fathoms.

Zone XI.—This bed, measured up to the base of the green-sand
seam, is a pale grey marl. Globigerina cretacea considerably increases
in abundance, and attains its maximum profusion at 45 ft. to 25
ft. below the top of the Gault, as well as in the next zone at 20 ft.
from the top.

This bed can be compared with a grey terrigenous ooze, and
appears to have been deposited in 870 fathoms.

Zone XIT.—A glauconite-marl. A noteworthy point about this
deposit is that the glauconite casts have been formed at a less depth
than that at which the associated foraminifera lived ; for the foramini-
feral tests seen intermingled with the glauconite casts in the wash-
ings undoubtedly belong to a later period than the originals of the
casts themselves; these remarks also apply to the microzoic fauna of
the green-sand seam of Zone I.

This deposit is to some extent comparable with the glauconite
muds, and its depth is indicated as 820 fathoms.

Zone XITI.—A pale grey marl, perhaps to be compared with the
grey terrigenous oozes of modern deposits.

The foraminifera indicate a depth of 850 fathoms.

It is here necessary to refer to a few points in explanation of
the evidence afforded by the foraminifera alone, as regards the depeh
of sea in which these organisms lived.

1898] PROBABLE DEPTHS OF THE GAULT SEA 311

It has already been pointed out that those authors who have
expressed any opinion as to the depth of the Gault Sea have not
given anything like the depths shown by these results based upon a
systematic inquiry into the distribution of the foraminifera through-
out the Gault at Folkestone (2). Previous authors, with the exception
of Professors Parker and Jones, have based their results upon data
afforded by a consideration of the groups of the mollusca, crustacea,
and other of the larger organisms. These higher groups from
modern deposits have, in many cases, only been specially dredged
from moderately shallow depths. Although the bathymetrical range
of these larger forms is in most cases rather limited to the shallower
parts of the ocean, it appears to me extremely probable that current
action, of which there is abundant proof throughout the Gault at
Folkestone, has there operated in bringing together assemblages of
testaceous remains from the higher continental slope on which they
flourished, to greater depths where these accumulations took place.
It is more reasonable to imagine the removal of the shallow forms
to deeper areas than to suppose that the finer muds with foramini-
fera-could be brought into shallower waters.

The presence of phosphatic nodules, so abundant in the Gault,
by no means indicates shallow water. That these are due to currents,
and by the changes of temperature consequent on their inter-
mingling, has been clearly shown by Murray and Renard (“ Deep Sea
Deposits,” p. 397), who state that phosphatic concretions “may be
found in all terrigenous deposits, and also along the edge of the
abyssal zone in deposits of a pelagic type, which, however, from
their nearness to land, still contain terrigenous elements.’ These
authors also point out (p. 396) “that phosphatic nodules are
apparently more abundant in the deposits along coasts where there
are great and rapid changes of temperature, arising from the meeting
of-cold and warm currents, as, for instance, off the Cape of Good
Hope and off the eastern coast of North America. It seems highly
probable that in these places large numbers of pelagic organisms are
frequently killed by these changes of temperature, and may in some
instances form a considerable layer of decomposing matter on the
bottom of the ocean.”

That current action played an important part during the deposi-
tion of the Gault is, therefore, not only proved by the numerous
lines of phosphatic concretions found at certain intervals, but also
by the presence of green-sand seams and scattered glauconite grains
found throughout the formations,

The depths here given for each zone of the Gault are merely
recorded for what they may be worth; for after all it is a result

1 Professor Rupert Jones has already expressed to me his belief that the calculation
made many years ago by him and his colleague Parker is probably of far less depth than
it should be,

Bale NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

obtained from a consideration of only a small proportion of the
rhizopodal fauna,—that which is represented in our modern seas.

”

SUMMARY OF DETAILS RESPECTING THE GAULT AND ITS DEPTHS.

§ A F Average
ie es > = Possible Equivalent in A
Horizon. Nature of Deposit. Denese Bepostie: aoe
Zone I, (Green-sand Dark argillaceous green-
seam). sand. Green-sand. 750
I, (5 ft. above
the base). Dark green clay. Green mud. 700
Il. 29 ” ” ” ” 820
Ill. Pale brown clay. Red mud. 1180
DV: Green-erey clay. Blue mud. 840
V. Grey-blue clay. vat) es 750
WANE Mottled blue-grey clay. at balers 790
Vil. Dark blue-green clay. AAT 810
VIII. Grey clay. ” ” 700
TX, Dark blue-grey marl. Grey terrigenous ooze. 910
X. Pale green-grey marl. 5 Sy $6 900
XCis Pale grey marl. BS 7% a 870
XII. Glauconite marl. Glauconite mud. 820
XIII. Pale grey marl. Grey terrigenous ooze. 830

FREDERICK CHAPMAN.
111 Oaxkuitt Roan,
PuTNeEY, 8. W.

LITERATURE REFERRED TO.

. Chapman, F.—‘‘On Rhaetic Foraminifera from Wedmore, in Somerset.” Ann. and

Mag. Nat, Hist., ser. 6, vol. xvi., 1895, pp. 305-329.

. Chapman, F.—‘‘ The Foraminifera of the Gault of Folkestone.” Part 1, Journ. R.

Micr. Soc. for 1891 ; Parts 2 and 3, zbid., 1892; Part 4, 1893; Parts 5, 6 and 7,
1894 ; Parts 8 and 9, 1896; Part 10, 1898.

Jones, T. R.—‘‘ Note on an Annelid Bed in the Gault of Kent.” Geol. Mag., 1876,
pp. 117, 118.

Price, F. G. Hilton. —‘‘ On the Probable Depth of the Gault Sea.” Proc. Geol. Assoc.,
vol. iv., 1876, pp. 269-278.

Jukes-Browne, A. J.—‘‘ The Building of the British Isles.” 1892, p. 257.

. Price, F. G. Hilton.—‘‘ Note onan Annelid Bed in the Gault of Kent.” Geol. Mag.,

1876, pp. 190, 191.

598.3 3138
591.156

II
The Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard (Otes tarda)

ie reviewing the history of the gular pouch of the Great Bustard
we have of necessity to trace the history of the explanation of
two very different phenomena, which at last resolve themselves into
complementary halves of a common whole. ‘The first of these deals
with the fact now known to all ornithologists, that several different
species of Bustard have the power of inflating the neck to an enor-
mous degree, at intervals during that period when, as the poet has
it, “faney, lightly turns to thoughts of love.” It is one of the
many methods of ‘showing off’ to be found in such abundance
amongst birds. At least three different versions have been given to
explain how this inflation is brought about. The second, as already
hinted, is linked with that of the first. It concerns what is the
main theme of this paper,—the Gular Pouch. The very existence
of such a structure has been denied by some, by others it has been
held to be a receptacle for water, food, and air, Those who subscribed
to this latter view, for the most part connected it more or less
definitely, with the curious love displays just referred to, and knew
something of the habits of the living birds, which the others did not.
The aim of the present paper is to give a sketch of these various
conflicting interpretations and to draw attention to one or two minor
points around which some doubt still seems to hover.
The earliest known indication of the possession of this faculty
of inflating the neck by the Great Bustard dates back as far as 1681.
This we owe to Sir Thomas Browne!: he remarks that “as a Turkey
hath an odde large substance without, so had this [Otis tarda]
within the inside of the skinne.” Here however we have nothing
more than a bare statement drawing attention to the fact that the
neck of this species of Bustard differed from that of birds generally
in this respect, and we are left to imagine that it is a constant
character possibly possessed by both sexes in common. Some half
century later a real contribution to our knowledge of the subject
was made, which was destined to become the subject of much
animated discussion. It concerns the gular pouch. This we owe
to Dr James Douglas, a British anatomist. The first mention of
this was made by Albin in 1740, for Douglas it seems did not

1 The quotations from the earlier writers are taken for the most part from Pro-
fessor Newton’s valuable article in the bis for 1862.

314 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

announce his discovery during his lifetime. Albin’s reference runs
as follows: “ Dr Douglas has observed in the Male [of the Great
Bustard | two Stomachs, one for the Food and the other a Reservatory
for Water to supply them, they feeding in dry Heaths remote from
Ponds and Rivers.” <A fuller account was given by Edwards in
1747. This also deals with the discovery of Douglas, and repeats
the interpretation originally given, of the use of the pouch as a
receptacle for water. “Its capacity,” he says, “is full seven Wine
Pints.” It is further stated to be wanting in the Hen.

M. Gauthier de la Peyronie, in his “Voyages de Pallas” (15a)
says of the Great Bustard :—“ Cet animal a un petit trou sous la
langue, qui sert d’ouverture & une bourse aqueuse, qui est de la
grosseur d’un oeuf doie.” That the Great Bustard—and probably
also other species—possessed a gular pouch which was used as a
receptacle for water seems by this time to have been pretty gener-
ally believed. Thus in 1781, Daines Barrington tells us of “a
gentleman long resident at Morocco, where they frequently fly
their hawks at bustards, hath also informed me that the cock
makes use of this reservoir of liquor against these assailants, and
commonly thus baffles them.” In the following year (1782) Bloch
gave an account and figure of this pouch. Heremarks: “ Bey diesem
grossem Vogel * * * siehet man einen Sack unter der Haut am
Halse, dessen Oefnung unter der Zunge sichtbar ist... . Er ist
weit, war bey einem alten Hahn, den ich untersuchte ein Fusslang,
und erstreckte sich von der Kehle bis an die Brust.” He then goes on
to remark, “dass nur die Mannchen allein mit diesem Sack versehen
waren, so widerspricht diesem meine Erfahrung; denn ich habe ihn
auch bey einen Weibchen gefunden.” This is the first statement of
its occurrence in the female, and one, we may remark, which has
never yet been verified,

Naumann in 1834 gives the results of his observations on this
* subject. After describing the general position of the pouch, and its
opening under the tongue, he goes on to remark that “ Er hat, wenn
er mit Luft oder Wasser angefiillt ist, oft eine einfache, sehr lang-
gezogene Eigestalt ; gewohnlicher noch ist er aber am Eingange
enge; dann eiformig erweitert und in der Mitte seiner Lange am
weitesten ; nachher wieder sehr verengert; dann wieder in Eiform,
aber kiirzer und nicht so stark wie oben erweitert und wie ein
spitzes Ei geschlossen. . . . Er fasst eine ziemliche Menge Wasser,
doch lange keine 8 Pfund, und man vermuthet, wiewohl ohne
Grund, er sei ein anlicher Wasserbehalter wie der des Kameels, um
Vorrath trinken zu kénnen; aber warum war er denn dem
Weibchen nicht auch gegeben?! Wasser fand ich tiberhaupt darin
nur sehr wenig, nicht einmal einen Essloéffel voll, vielmehr ihn
meistens ganz leer, nur ein Mal einige Grassamen, welche zufallig

18983] GULAR POUCH OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 315

hinein gerathen zu sein schienen. Er scheint mir tiberhaupt mehr
ein Luftals Wasserbehilter zu sein. Sein Zweck bleibt vor der
Hand ein Rathsel, wie er dies schon lange war.”

John I{unter apparently made a dissection of this pouch. He
did not, however, subscribe to the prevalent opinion that it served
as a receptacle for water, on the contrary he candidly expresses that
he does not know what its use may be. He describes it as ‘‘a large
bag, as large as the thick part of one’s arm: it terminates in a
blind pouch below, but has an opening into it at the upper end
from the mouth. This aperture will admit three or four fingers’;
it is under the tongue, and the fraenum linguae seems to enter it;
and it seems to have a sphincter. What the use of this is I don’t
know."

None of the writers so far quoted seem to have connected this
pouch with the phenomena of sexual display, probably because they
had never witnessed the remarkable evolutions and contortions of
this bird during its moments of ecstatic frenzy.

The credit of this interpretation perhaps belongs to Schneider.
It seems, however, that he had never examined this pouch for him-
self, but relied on the accuracy of the observations of those more
fortunate who had. Commenting upon Bloch’s statement, which
evidently much puzzled him, that the pouch was found in both
sexes, he says :—‘“ Si mas solus saceo gulari gaudet, potest tum in
amore eum forte inflare, ut collum intumescat. Contra si femina
eundem habet, quod vix credo, alium tum eidem usum excogitare
debemus.” It is possible, however, that Schneider is indebted to
the Emperor Friedrich the II. for the suggestion that the pouch may
be occasionally and voluntarily inflated. Inasmuch as the latter,
acquainted only with the external phenomena, drew attention to the
““orossum collum’ possessed by both sexes of the Great Bustard,
and especially the males ‘ tempore coitis.’”

(Quite another rendering was given as an explanation of this
curious inflation of the neck by Degland (4), who writes :—‘“Je
dois 4 mon honorable confrére, le docteur Dorin, de Chalons-sur-
Marne, la connaissance d’un fait assez curieux et que je ne dois pas
omettre. <A l’époque des amours, il se développe dans le lieu méme
ou sinserent les moustaches, une sorte de fanon, formé par une masse
de tissu cellulaire graisseux, lache, dont le volume est considérable,
puisqu’il atteint et dépasse le poids d’un kilogramme. Cette sorte de
fanon, qui occupe la partie antérieure et latérale du cou, est formée
de deux masses qui se réunissent sur la ligne médiane a partir de la
naissance des barbes jusqu’au bas du collier. C’est au moyen de
muscles fauciers assez développés que l’oiseau peut imprimer des
mouvements 4 cette masse, et par conséquent relever ou abaisser les

1 The spaced type is mine,

316 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

plumes allongées qui s’y implantent. A la fin de juillet, elle com-
mence a s/affaisser, les plumes tombent, se renouvellent, si bien
quwavant la fin de septembre il ne reste plus rien de cette grande
masse de tissu cellulaire.” Owen, a year previously, had dissected a
specimen, said to have been a male,! apparently for this purpose, and
found “no trace of a gular pouch,” thus so far confirming Degland:
Mitchell, Yarrell, and later, Professor Newton, all searched carefully
for this pouch, and failed to find it ; neither could they discover any
opening under the tongue. The latter thus describes his search :—
“We cleared the skin away from the entire neck. . . . The neck
was entirely clothed with cellular tissues in a most remarkable
manner ; they were very delicate, and so close to the skin, that even
when we grazed the roots of the feathers we occasionally cut them.
On the blowpipe being inserted into one of the apertures thus made,
a small bubble was immediately raised, which increased on greater
power, being applied so as to form a considerable bag, perhaps three
inches long,... it was plain... that none of these bags existed of
themselves, but were the result of the membranes being forcibly
ruptured by the pressure of the air.”

Thus, then, at this time, so far as English ornithologists were
concerned, the case for the existence of a gular pouch in the Bustard
had fallen through for lack of evidence. There seemed to be no
other way of explaining the facts advanced by the older writers than
that of supposing the‘ pouch’ which they saw was artificial, caused by
the rupture of cellular tissues. Unless indeed it was, as some sug-
gested possible, present in some individuals, but not in others. ‘That
the specimens dissected in England, says Professor Newton (14), “were
not all young, undeveloped birds, is also clear ; but if any further evi-
dence on this point is required, I would refer to the beautiful picture
by Mr Wolf (fig. 1), which was drawn from an individual in our
Zoological Gardens,—an individual afterwards the subject of one of
the examinations here mentioned, though of which is not certain.
No one who looks at that picture ... can for a moment doubt
that the original was a truly adult, mature, and fully developed bird.

Dr Cullen (3), inspired by Professor Newton’s article (14),
published the results of an examination of two males procured by
him in Kustendjie, Bulgaria. In both of these a pouch wag found,
the largest of which he figured. The “ opening under the tongue,”
he writes, “is large enough to admit readily the little finger, and is
surrounded by what has all the appearance of a sphineter-muscle . . .
the pouch extended as far down as the furcular bone, enveloped
closely throughout by a thin muscular covering exactly analogous in
structure to the cremaster or platysma hyoides. The structure of the
sac . . . is certainly not composed of cellular tissue as stated by

1 Garrod suggested that this was probably a female.

18983) - GULAR POUCH OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 317

Degland; but... is a separate and distinct, though delicate
bladder. . . . After describing the very extraordinary evolutions of
this bird during periods of display, and the great inflation of the neck
with which they are accompanied, he goes to remark that “ All these
facts would certainly seem to favour the idea that the pouch is
intended to contain air, and that by the action of the muscular tissue
. covering it conjointly with that of the sphincter at the mouth, the
Bustard may thereby be assisted . . . in producing the peculiar
sound (resembling ‘ ook’), which is only to be heard during the time
when the pouch is most developed. . . .”

Fic, 1.—The display of the Great Bustard, Otis tarda (after Wolf ),
From Newton’s ‘ Dict. of Birds.”

These two preparations afterwards came into the possession of
the Royal College of Surgeons, and were described by Sir William
Flower (6). The larger of the two sacs when empty measured
nine inches in length, and when moderately distended with water
was found to hold three imperial pints.

“Both of the sacks,’ he writes, “had within them a few short
pieces of grass and leaves. There appears to be no glandular struc-
tures connected with the walls; indeed, the whole character of the
sack points to its being a simple reservoir, probably for fluid, more
analogous to the submandibular pouch of the Pelican than to anything
else in the class Aves. But in the absence of fuller information as
to the economy and habits of the bird, I refrain from speculating
upon the purpose of this singular and apparently inconstant organ.”

With Dr Cullen’s investigations and their confirmation by Pro-

fessor Flower the existence of a pouch at least in some individuals
was placed beyond cavil.

318 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

In 1868 Dr Murie, then Prosector of the Zoological Society,
published his “Observations on the presence and function of the
Gular Pouch in Otis kori and Otis australis.’ His remarks con-
cerning the former were based upon the examination of a specimen
which had recently died in the Gardens. In this, a distinct opening
was found under the tongue leading into a small pouch “ three
inches in length and about an inch in transverse diameter.” As |
touching the latter, his observations were based entirely on a bird
then living in the Society’s Gardens. Of this he writes that he was
pleased to find what he thinks “may be termed an exaggerated
example of this organ in the Australian Bustard.” He continues :
“ This ‘ showing off’ which is. . . a most extraordinary sight, may
best be comprehended by a study of the accompanying sketch
(fig. 2) drawn from nature during one of those paroxysmal periods
of excitement.”

Fic. 2.—The display of the Australian Bustard, Hupodotis [Otis] australis (after Murie).
[This block was reproduced from a photograph of a coloured lithograph, and is
unfortunately not very clear. |

“The premonitory symptoms observable when the Bustard is
about to exhibit himself in the pride of lust... is a slight
swelling of the inframandibular portion of the throat, while the
head is thrown upwards. Immediately afterwards the neck swells
and the feathers of the lower parts concomitantly bulge out and
descend gradually downwards in the form of a bag, oftentimes nearly
reaching the ground. |

1898) GULAR POUCH OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 319

“ Tf the paroxysm is a strong one, then the tail is shot upwards
and forwards over the back, the rectrices coming almost in contact
with the neck.

“In this peculiar attitude, with bloated neck, hanging baggy
chest, elevated tail, and stiff stilt-like legs, the creature struts about
in a somewhat waddling manner, the elongated pouch swaying
to and fro.’ The feathers of the throat start out on end; those of

Fic. 3.—The oesophagus, trachea, and gular pouch of a specimen of Ofis tarda, seen from the
side. The crop is here drawn as in the actual preparation, projecting backwards, and
not forwards as usual. (After Garrod.)

the depending sac are also raised, but less upright. While all this
has taken place the bird seems to have gulped in air, or rather,
with partly opened gape, to have taken a long, deep and forced
inspiration.

“The acme of inspiratory effort and strange attitude attained,
the Bustard begins to snap the mandibles together in a loud manner
and utter a series of cooing sounds for a short interval of time.
Usually and more frequently he struts towards the female Bustards
in a most dignified manner, or oblivious as to sex, totters up to any
of the birds in the same enclosure.”

Some years later (in 1873) the mouth of this identical Bustard
was examined by Professor Garrod—Dr Murie’s successor to the
Prosectorship,—with a view to finding a sublingual orifice such as
obtains in 0. tarda. There was no trace of any such orifice. This

1 The spaced type is mine.

320 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

led Garrod “to doubt the correctness of Dr Murie’s inference, that
because the neck of Hupodotis australis becomes distended much
during the sexual season, therefore there isa gular pouch.” The next
year this bird died and was dissected by Garrod. As a result, “ there
was no gular pouch. There was no sublingual orifice. ... How
unsafe therefore is it to infer that because the neck distends and
depends during the ‘ show-off, there must be a sublingual pouch.
It is quite possible that two effects, very similar in appearance, in
closely allied birds, may be the result of different mechanisms.” <A
careful investigation showed that the cause of the inflation of the

Fic. 4.—The oesophagus and trachea of the specimen Hupodotis australis here described.
The oesophagus is much dilated, and, like that of the Pouter Pigeon, can be distended
with air by the living bird. No trace of a pouch or crop is to be seen (after Garrod),

neck in this case was due to a highly extensible oesophagus. “ Be-
fore dissection, by filling its cavity with air, the lower portion of
the dilated oesophagus protruded downwards considerably in front of
the symphysis furculae, and formed the depending portion of the sac
which was so conspicuous in the living animal.” The two woodcuts
(figs. 3 and 4) kindly lent by Mr Sclater for the present paper, are
taken from Garrod’s original paper.

Fig, 5 represents a dissection which the writer has just made of
the gular pouch of an adult male till recently living in the Gardens
of the Zoological Society ; and which will shortly be exhibited in

1898] GULAR POUCH OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 321

Fic. 5.—Dissection of the right side of the neck of the Great Bustard, Otis tarda, to show the
hour-glass-shaped gular pouch. [Drawn by H. Grinvold from the specimen in the British
Museum.] C. Crop; H. Hyoid; Oe. Oesophagus ; P. Pouch; 7. Trachea; V. Vascular
tissue, investing the upper part of the pouch.

Soe NATURAL SCIENCE [November

the Bird Gallery of the British Museum (Natural History). There is
no need to describe in detail its form, capacity, and so forth ; par-
ticulars of this kind will have been gathered already from the
preceding pages. I might, however, remark that the sublingual
aperture in my specimen was not | -shaped but circular showing a
hole large enough to admit the finger. Possibly this was due to
relaxation of the muscles. After removal of the head and_ neck,
the pouch was filled with spirit till it overflowed, the whole was
then plunged into 70 per cent. spirit and left for some days. It
was then taken out, and the skin from one side removed (fig. 4).
Underlying was a mass of fatty tissue more or less completely
investing the pouch. Along the anterior aspect of the neck, from
the throat downwards, this is engorged with blood. The pouch was
loosely attached to this investiture by delicate strands of fibrous
tissue. The constriction in this pouch probably corresponds with
that described by Naumann, and occurs at the lower part of the
neck where it bends between the furcula, between the arms of which
the expanded terminal portion is received.

In conclusion I would point out :—(1) That the characteristic
‘ show-off’ of the adult male Otis tarda ever takes place without
the aid of a gular pouch, is exceedingly improbable. But that this
pouch is present throughout the year is another question, and is a
point which has yet to be settled. It was not found in the specimen
from which Wolf’s beautiful drawing was taken, nor in numerous
other cases in which it was carefully searched for. In the specimen
lately dissected by myself, it was, as is shown in the illustration
(fig. 5), very large. But this bird died in May, in the middle of
its period of functional activity ; (2) There is no evidence to show
that it is ever present in the female; (3) The belief that this sac
is ever used as a receptable for water must now be regarded as
utterly exploded; (4) It is not homologous with the ‘air-sacks’
proper, belonging neither to the pulmonary nor to the naso-pharyn-
geal system. Bizvura lobata seems to be the only other bird
besides the Bustards possessing a precisely similar structure.

W. .P. PYCRABT:

BritisH Musrtum (NAtTuRAL History),
S. KEnsINGToN, LoNDON.

: REFERENCES.

1. Albin.—Nat. Hist. Birds, iii. p. 36. 1740.

2. Bloch.—Schrift. der Berlinsch. Geselisch., iii. pp. 376-7, tab. 8. 1782,

3. Cullen, W. H.—‘‘ On the Gular Pouch of the Male Bustard (Otis tarda, Linn.).”
Proc. Zool. Soc., vol. i., ser. 2, p. 148. 18652

4. Degland.—Orn, Eur., ii. p. 73. 1849.

. Edwards.—Nat. Hist. Birds, ii. tab. 73. 1747,

6. Flower, W. H.—‘‘On the Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard.”” Proc. Zool. Soc., p.
747. 1865.

or

1898] GULAR POUCH OF THE GREAT BUSTARD 323

7. Gadow, H.—Article ‘‘ Air-sacks,” in A. Newton, Dictionary of Birds. 1896.
8. Garrod, A. H.—‘‘On the ‘ Showing-eff’ of the Australian Bustard (Eupodotis aus-
tralis).” Proc. Zool. Soc, 1874. P. 471-3. 1874,
9. Garrod, A. H.—‘‘ Further Note on the Mechanism of the ‘ Show-off’ in Bustards.”’
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, P. 673, 1874.
10. Meckel.—Traité Général d’anat. Comp. viii. p. 236.
11. Murie, J.—‘‘ Observations concerning presence and function of the Gular Pouch in
Otis kori, and O. australis. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, P. 471. Pl. xxxvi. 1868.
12. Murie, J.—‘‘ Note in the Sublingual Aperture and Sphincter of the Gular Pouch in
Otis tarda. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, P. 140. 1869,
13. Naumann.—Naturgesch. der Vogel Deutschl., vii. pp. 10, 20-21. 1834,
14. Newton, A.—‘‘On the supposed Gular Pouch of the Male Bustard (Otis tarda,
Linn.).” Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862. Pp. 107,127. 1862.
15. Owen.—Article ‘‘ Birds ” in Todd’s Cyclopaedia Anat. and Physiology.
15a Peyronie.— Voyages de M. P.S. Pallas, iv. p. 309. 1793,
16, Schneider.—(Reliqua Librorum Friderici II. Imperatoris, &c.) 1788. i, p. 34.
17, Tristam.—Ornith. N. Africa, Jbis. Vol. i., ser. 1, p. 285, 1859.
18. Yarrell.—Trans. Linn. Soc. xxi., pp. 159, p. 160. 1853.

599.31 . 324
569.31
591.9(8)

III
An Existing Ground-Sloth in Patagonia ?

ANY times I have heard allusions to a mysterious: quadruped

which is said to exist in the interior of the territory of

Santa Cruz, living in burrows hollowed out in the soil, and usually

only coming out at night. According to the reports of the Indians,

it is a strange creature, with long claws and a terrifying appearance,

impossible to kill because it has a body impenetrable alike to fire-
arms and missiles. :

It is several years since the late Ramon Lista, a traveller and
geographer well known to the world of science, told both myself,
my brother Charles, and several other persons—and _ had, I believe,
even printed the statement in one of his works—that he had seen
the mysterious quadruped in question. He came across it one day
during one of his journeys in the interior of the territory of Santa
Cruz, but in spite of all his efforts he was unable to capture it.
Several shots failed to stop the animal, which soon disappeared in
the brushwood ; all search for its recovery being useless.

Lista retained a perfect recollection of the impression this
encounter made upon him. According to him the animal was a
pangolin (Janis), almost the same as the Indian one, both in size
and in general aspect, except that in place of scales, it showed the
body to be covered with a reddish grey hair. He was sure that if
it were not a pangolin, it was certainly an edentate nearly allied
to it.

In spite of the authority of Lista, who, besides being a learned
traveller, was also a skilled observer, I have always considered that
he was mistaken, the victim of an illusion. Still, although I have
several times tried to find out what animal might have given him
the illusion of the pangolin, I was never able to guess.

It was not an illusion. Although extremely rare and almost
extinct, the mysterious animal exists, with the sole difference, that
instead of being a pangolin, it is the last representative of a group

1 Translated from a pamphlet entitled ‘‘ Premicre Notice sur le Neomylodon listai,
un Représentant vivant des anciens Edentés Gravigrades fossiles de ]’Argentina,” by
Florentino Ameghino, separately published by the author in the city of La Plata, Argen-
tine Republic, August 1898. We have already noticed this important discovery (p. 288),

but it is one of so much interest to zoologists that no apology is needed for directing
further attention to the subject by reproducing the complete article.

Nov.] AN EXISTING GROUND-SLOTH IN PATAGONIA 325

which was believed to be quite extinct, a gravigrade edentate related
to Mylodon and Pseudolestodon.

The gravigrade edentates are reckoned among the oldest mammals
which appeared upon the earth. The most ancient traces of them
have been observed below the Guaranian Formation, with gigantic
Dinosaurs, in the variegated sandstones of Patagonia, which are
referred to the Lower Cretaceous. They become more numerous in
the Pyrotherium beds of the Guaranian, develop gradually, and
attain their greatest diversity during the Upper Eocene (Santa Cruz
Formation). Thenceforward their variety decreases, but their size
gradually increases, until in the Pampean they are represented by
a certain number of gigantic forms, such as Megatheriwm, Lestodon,
Mylodon, etc. Rare fragments in a bad state of preservation have
been found even in the Post-Pampean deposits, but no one had
supposed that they still had living representatives.

Some of the Pampean genera show a very curious character :
the body was protected on all sides by an incredible number of small
irregular ossicles, which it is supposed were developed in the thick-
ness of the skin, and thus became covered with a horny or scaly
epidermis. The genera showing this peculiarity are Mylodon, Pseudo-
lestodon, and Glossotherium. The other genera, such as Megatheriwm,
Lestodon, and Scelidotherium, do not show any trace of it. Besides
in the Pampean Formation these ossicles are met with in the Arau-
canian Formation of Monte Hermoso and Catamarca, and also in the
Entrerios Formation ; but no trace of them has been found in the
Santacruzian, where the gravigrade edentates are so abundant, or in
the earlier formations. We conclude from this that the character in
question is not primitive, but acquired secondarily at a relatively
modern period.

These ossicles, comparable to large coffee berries, differ slightly
in shape and size according to the genera. In Glossotheriwm they
are large and flattened; in Mylodon they are smaller, irregular,
elliptical, trapezoidal, or rhomboidal, with one side more convex or
keeled, their diameter varying from one to two centimetres, though
sometimes less. Their surface, more especially on the flattest side,
shows some tiny depressions and perforations, and reticular tracery
well seen under the magnifying glass. Their aspect is so character-
istic that when one has once seen them they are recognised immedi-
ately without any danger of being mistaken.

Lately, several little ossicles have been brought to me from
Southern Patagonia, and I have been asked to what animal they
could belong. What was my surprise on seeing in my hand these
ossicles in a fresh state, and, notwithstanding that, absolutely simi-
lar to the fossil dermal ossicles of the genus Mylodon, except only
that they are of smaller size, varying from 9 to 13 or 14 mm.

326 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

across. I have carefully studied these little bones from every point
of view without being able to discern any essential difference from
those found in a fossil state.

These ossicles were taken from a skin which was unfortunately
incomplete, and without any trace of the extremities. The skin,
which was found on the surface of the ground, and showed signs of
being exposed for several months to the action of the air, is in part
diseoloured. It has a thickness of about 2 centimetres, and is so
tough that it is necessary to employ an axe or a saw in order to cut it.
The thickest part of the skin is filled by the little ossicles referred to,
pressed one against the other, presenting on the inner surface of the
skin an arrangement similar to the pavement of a street. The
exterior surface shows a continuous epidermis, not scaly, covered
with coarse hair, hard and stiff, having a length of 4 to 5 centi-
metres and a reddish tint turning towards grey.

The skin indeed belongs to the pangolin which Lista saw living.
This unfortunate traveller lost his life, like Crévaux, in his attempt
to explore the Pilcomayo, and until the present time he is the only
civilised person who has seen the mysterious edentate of Southern
Patagonia alive ; and to attach his name appropriately to the dis-
covery, I call this surviving representative of the family Mylodon-
tidae Meomylodon listat,

Now that there are certain proofs of its existence, we hope that
the hunt for it will not be delayed, and that before long we may
be able to present to the scientific world a detailed description of
this last representative of a group which has of old played a pre-
ponderating part in the terrestrial faunas which have succeeded each
other on South American soil, FLORENTINO AMEGHINO.

550.1 327
560

LY.
The Imperfection of the Geological Record

T is now many years since Darwin first directed the special
attention of biologists to the imperfection of the geological
record. It was he who first satisfactorily marshalled the facts which
prove that the discoverable fossils in the rocks can only give a
very limited idea of the plants and animals which have tenanted
the globe at different periods in its past history. -He pointed out
how small a portion of the earth had been geologically explored,
and how small a percentage of known types of life had sufficient
hard parts to be preserved in a fossilised state. He emphasised the
fact that the number both of specimens and of species preserved in
our museums, is absolutely as nothing compared with the number of
generations which must have passed away even during a single
geological formation. He also observed “ that, owing to subsidence
being almost necessary for the accumulation of deposits rich in
fossil species of many kinds, and thick enough to outlast future
degradation, great intervals of time must have elapsed between
most of our successive formations; that there has probably been
more extinction during the periods of subsidence, and more variation
during the periods of elevation, and during the latter the record
will have been least perfectly kept ; that each single formation has
not been continuously deposited” ; that, indeed, in every area of the
earth’s surface there are incalculable periods of geological time
unrepresented in the records of the rocks.

’ We may, in fact, without exaggeration declare that every item of
knowledge we possess concerning extinct plants and animals depends
upon a chapter of accidents. Firstly, the organism must find its
way into water where sediment is being deposited and there escape
all the dangers of being eaten ; or it must be accidentally entombed
in blown sand or a volcanic accumulation on land. Secondly, this
sediment, if it eventually happens to enter into the composition of
a land area, must escape the all-prevalent denudation (or destruc-
tion and removal by atmospheric and aqueous agencies) continually
in progress. Thirdly, the skeleton of the buried organism must
resist the solvent action of any waters which may percolate through
the rock. Lastly, man must accidentally excavate at the precise
spot where entombment took place, and someone must be at hand,

328 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

capable of appreciating the fossil and preserving it for study when
discovered.

The importance of remembering these considerations when
speculating on biological subjects has recently been illustrated once
more by the discovery of a new Upper Silurian fish-fauna in the
south of Scotland. As already mentioned in Natural Science
(vol, xiii, p. 157) this remarkable assemblage of fishes or fish-like
organisms has been found by the Geological Survey at the top of
the Silurian formations of Lanarkshire; and some preliminary
notes by Dr Traquair announce that a complete memoir on the
subject will shortly appear. Now, scattered and abraded fragments
of similar organisms have been known for nearly sixty years in a
thin stratum, termed the Ludlow Bone-bed, in the Upper Silurian of
Herefordshire and adjoining counties. Fossils of the same kind
have been collected for nearly half a century in an Upper Silurian
limestone in the island of Oesel, in the Baltic Sea. Traces of them
also occur in Galicia, Pennsylvania, and New Brunswick; and a
few years ago similar fragments were sent to me by the Geological
Survey of Canada from another locality in Newfoundland. How-
ever, notwithstanding this proof of the very wide distribution of the
late Silurian fish-fauna in question, we have had to wait for the
accidental discovery of a thin stratum in Lanarkshire to obtain even
a faint idea of the strange types of life represented by the familiar
scales and other exoskeletal fragments.

Although it is now nearly forty years since Darwin’s “ Origin
of Species” first appeared, his lament at the hopelessness of testing
all the principles of organic evolution by reference to the “ records
of the rocks” might indeed be appropriately renewed at the present
day. The discovery of new fossils in all parts of the world has pro-
gressed at an astounding fate in the interval; and we are beginning
to perceive feebly some of the laws which govern their succession
and distribution. The biologist who is prone to glance through
palaeontological text-books, however, and utilise them in his specula-
tions, cannot be too frequently warned of the imperfection of our
knowledge and the danger of trusting to negative evidence.

To understand the importance of this warning at the end of
nineteenth-century science, it is only necessary to consider the case
of some of the most striking and philosophically valuable vertebrate
animals, .

Firstly, there is the remarkably early Devonian organism
Palacospondylus gunni, frequently referred to in these pages.
Whether it is a primaeval lamprey or not, it is the single known
representative of its group, and implies the former existence of a
great race of which we are acquainted with no other member. This
fossil occurs in the Caithness flagstones, which were deposited in a

1898] IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 329

lake in the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone period, and have been
worked for commercial purposes from time immemorial. — Fossil
fishes have been known and collected from them for more than
seventy years. Every exposure has been searched by expert collec-
tors, whether in the cliffs or in quarries. Yet, Palaecospondylus has
only been found in one very thin stratum in a single quarry, where
it occurs, not as a rarity, but in countless numbers. It seems as if
a shoal of the species had been accidentally destroyed and suddenly
covered up; and it is a fortunate accident that a small quarry has
been opened at the precise spot.

Our knowledge of the earliest shark-like fishes exhibiting the
most primitive type of paired fins is almost equally scanty.
Cladoselache, in a state fit for accurate scientific study, has hitherto
been met with only in a flagstone at. the base of the Carboniferous
formations in Ohio, U.S.A. Teeth of the same kind have been
known for many years from several parts of the northern hemi-
sphere; but the complete fish has only been discovered in Ohio
within the last decade, and even now the skeleton of the head and
vertebral axis remains practically unknown.

In some instances the old Palaeozoic forms of fish-life which
withdrew to the comparatively peaceful realms of rivers and fresh-
water lakes after the vigorous period of their race was past, and
survived until the present day, were thus entirely lost to geological
records. For example, three detached teeth from the English
oolites and scarcely more from corresponding rocks in Colorado, are
the sole known traces of the Dipnoan fishes between their world-
wide distribution at the dawn of the Mesozoic era and the scattered
remnants which still survive in the fresh-waters of South America,
Africa, and Queensland. Similarly, there is no doubt that Polypterus
and Calamoichthys existing in the fresh-waters of tropical Africa,
are the direct and little-altered descendants of some of the Palaeozoic
fringe-finned ganoids; but we have still not found even a trace of
them in the Mesozoic or Tertiary strata in any part of the world.
They must have lived somewhere, but the geological record, so far
as explored, is too imperfect to afford a clue to their whereabouts
and history.

The case of the Amphibia or Batrachia is still more remarkable ;
though perhaps they, too, have been fresh-water animals since the
Palaeozoic era. It is definitely proved that some of the early lung-
breathers belonged to this class ; for traces of gill-arches are occasion-
ally observed in young individuals, showing that they breathed by
gills in their immature state (Branchiosaurus, Archegosaurus). It is
also certain that these primitive Amphibia were the dominant type
of vertebrate life from their appearance until the middle part of the
Permian period. In early Mesozoic times, however, they suddenly

330 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

disappear from the records of the rocks; and practically nothing is
known of them until the early Tertiaries, when the various genera
and families are almost identical with those surviving at the present
day. The only satisfactory specimen of intermediate date is a solitary
skeleton (Hylacobatrachus) from the Wealden of Bernissart, Belgium,
which seems to represent an animal with persistent gills related to
the existing Proteus and Menobranchus.

The story of the early mammals is almost similar. In rocks
dating back to the close of the Palaeozoic and the dawn of the Mesozoic
period, there are abundant remains of the Anomodont reptiles or
Theromora, which make an extremely close approach in their skeleton
to the warm-blooded quadrupeds which we term mammals. They
are found in South Africa, India, Russia, Switzerland, Scotland, North
America, and South America. They must thus have been almost
world-wide in their distribution. It is also clear that many of them
attained a very large size. In all the regions mentioned, however,
they completely disappear above the Trias; and the only known
Mesozoic fossils which can be referred to the Mammalia are some
fragments of animals no larger than rats from the Jurassic of England
and the Jurassic and Cretaceous of North America. It seems, indeed,
as if the mammals were evolved in some region of the southern
hemisphere which is either now submerged or not yet geologically
explored; for they suddenly appear in great numbers and variety
at the base of the Eocene Tertiary both in Europe and North
America, which must be the result of migration on the re-arrange-
ment of land and sea. It is very curious that notwithstanding the
numerous examinations of the Mesozoic and Tertiary strata of Austral-
asia and South America during the last half-century, not a single clue to
the solution of the problem has hitherto been obtained. As suggested
by Mr Lydekker in a recent issue of the Zransactions of the Geo-
logical Society of South Africa, it is extremely probable that we must
turn to a geological exploration of the Dark Continent for the next
important advance in our knowledge of the subject.

Our ignorance of the early land-mammals is strange, but the
want of all knowledge of the ancestors of the marine mammals—
whales, porpoises, and sea-cows—is still stranger. It is well known
that at present all the great Mesozoic marine reptiles of the orders
Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, and Mosasauria or Pythonomorpha, seem
to disappear suddenly at the top of the Cretaceous formations; while
the marine mammals of the orders Cetacea and Sirenia take their
place as suddenly towards the top of the Eocene strata. This
happens not only in Europe and North America, but also in
Australasia, perhaps likewise in South America. Now, we are
well acquainted with marine deposits, both of littoral and deep
water origin, of intermediate age in many parts of the world.

1898) JMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 331

Presumably, therefore, if the marine mammals are derived from
terrestrial quadrupeds, as seems probable, we ought to find fossil
records of their partially evolved ancestors in some of these de-
posits. As a matter of fact, we have hitherto found nothing.
The earliest known Cetaceans and Sirenians are more nearly like
normal land-mammals than the later and existing genera of the
same orders; but the approximation is only very slight. They
are completely differentiated on their earliest appearance, and the
geological record, so far as explored, affords no clue whatever to
their origin and affinities. It is, of course, possible that these
aquatic animals originated during the Mesozoic period in some
land-locked sheet of water or lake, of which the sediments have
been destroyed or not yet discovered. Some American palaeontol-
ogists think it very probable that the seals originated in this way
at an early Tertiary period in North America, where there were
already great lakes. It may therefore be that the history of the
other marine mammals is similar.

Not only is our ignorance deep and absolute in respect to many
of these most fundamental problems: it also progresses very slowly
even in some instances where enlightenment begins. Consider the
case of the ancestral birds. Of the all-important Archaeopteryx we
still have only two good specimens from one formation and locality;
and we know nothing more of the great race to which it belongs.
Of the Cretaceous toothed birds, which have now been known for
more than a quarter of a century, the only satisfactory specimens
hitherto discovered are a few from one formation in one region of
North America.

Again, our knowledge of the history of the elephants has scarcely
progressed (except in minute details) since Falconer left the subject
at the time when Darwin first referred to it. They can be traced
back to a certain point in the Miocene period, where Dinotherium
seems to be an ancestor of the order in the Old World; but there
our genealogy stops. Of Dinotherium itself we know very little
accurately beyond the teeth; while of its origin and ancestry we
can still not recognise a trace among the mammals of earlier date.

Within the last quarter of a century enormous progress has
indeed been made in discovering links in the chain of life and in
determining the facts of distribution at different periods. The
working out of the Tertiary mammals in North America, for
example, has opened up a new era in Biology and Geology. But
most of the animals discovered and named are known only by a
few fragments, which do not reveal even a tolerably complete
skeleton. There is very little material for detailed comparison ;
and only in a few instances is it possible to study individual and
local variations. There are very few even of the best known species

gon NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

of fossil vertebrates which could be described in ample detail,
without any assumptions based on the theoretical association of
fragments.

Another point worth remembering is this. At the present
time all the groups of organisms which are at or near the culmina-
tion of their race—are, in fact, dominant types—are represented
by numerous genera and almost innumerable species. It is only
necessary to think for a moment of such characteristically modern
groups as the herring-like fishes, the lizards, the perching birds, and
the rats and mice. When, however, we turn to lists of fossils,
especially of vertebrate fossils, we note conspicuous poverty in the
number of genera and species representing each group even at the
period of its maximum development. The reason is not to be
sought in the diffidence of palaeontologists to emphasise variations
by the multiplication of names: it is solely this, that the geological
record preserves only an insignificant proportion of the organisms
which have lived even under the most favourable circumstances for
burial after death. A, Smrra Woopwarb.

612.8

ie)
oo
oo

v

Artificial Formation of a Rudimentary Nervous
System

ee my work “Lrorigine des individus et la construction de
Yorganisme par les conditions internes”! I put forth a
mechanical theory of organisation according to which the internal
order of beings and their embryological evolution was supposed to
be the result of nutritive conditions solely. I admitted the principles
regarding inheritance as a consequence of present causes proposed
by Delage, and supported his statement with many arguments, but
I have of late been induced to consider the whole question from a
rather different point of view. ‘There are, in my opinion, no germin-
ative plasma and no mysterious principles in the pronucleus, the
composition of which cannot have been modified by the mutilations
endured by certain organs of its progenitors. The Monads, the
Protists of early geological times, evolved into superior mammals
without their having any tendency, marvellous property, germinative
plasma or catalytic excitants of glandular origin within themselves.

The internal and external conditions, that is, the agents of pro-
gress in the mechanism of nourishment, have doubtless been the
efficient causes of an evolution still more astonishing than that of
human ovules. Moreover, the study of cellular genealogy, grafts,
regeneration, monsters and atavisms obtained by a diminution of
nutrition, etc., has demonstrated that there is naught but mechanism
more or less obscure and complicated. But the supreme question
concerning the origin and functions of the nervous system will be
forever a source of impossibilities and embarrassment.

I. There are no essential differences in the vibrations of more or
less viscous liquids be they organic or inorganic, «for instance :
gelatine with glycerine, Limax mucus dissolved in acetic acid,
albumen of ege, water, mercury or neuroplasm.

II. ‘The question concerning the origin and functions of the
nervous system might be considered as a mechanical problem requir-
ing a laborious solution.

Experiments and comparisons.—Pour in a plate a small
quantity of mercury whose fluidity has previously been diminished
by the addition of a slight proportion of lead: this will serve the

1 Sociedad Cientifica ‘‘ Antonio Alzate.” 1898,

334 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

purpose of a kind of neuroplasma and receive whatever shape you
intend to impress on it, viz., that of a multipolar cell (fig. 17), a
cylindrical conductor (fig. 5), etc. Its vibrations may be obtained
by the action of azotic or chromic acid, or by means of a small rod
or an ant’s leg. The vibrations can be verified by fixing a small
paper lever on the surface of the liquid, or by receiving a luminous
ray reflected on a screen.

Some incidents of nervous transmission are rendered evident by
a differential manometer of caoutchouce full of water,

Diagrams illustrating Experiments on Artificial Nerves. For explanation see the text,

(«) Nervous vibration in general.—1. The rubbing of a nerve
of mercury with a soft feather is enough to make it vibrate.

It is, therefore, probable that a very slight mechanical or
chemical action (e.g. light) would be able to shake the band axis that
is, in general, carefully isolated in the middle of a mixture of fats
and albuminous matters. The impressionability of liquids is ex-
ceedingly delicate. Milne-Edwards* has in the experiments per-

1 Physiologie et Anatomie Comparée, Vol. xii., p. 523; Jamin, Cours de physique
de l’Ecole Polytechnique. Paris, 1803.

1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 335

formed by Savart at the College de France seen the shape of some

liquid veins change abruptly under the influence of musical notes

entirely inappreciable to the ear, that were played at the Luxembourg.
2. The figures below are most interesting :

Velocity of light ; 300,000,000 metres a second.
” electricity 180,000,000

x sound : 331 ‘
ie liquid waves ! 10 *
s nervous vibrations(Lobster) 8 is (Frédéricq)

“1 ne faut pas confondre la pulsation, larrivée d’une onde, avec
le mouvement de la circulation luicméme; on ne peut trop le
répéter : unda non est materia progrediens, sed forma materiae
progredientis: aussi Czermak a prouvé, par des recherches trés exactes
(sphygmographe a miroir), que tandis que le mouvement du sang
diminue de vitesse & mesure qu’on se rapproche des capillaires, la
vitesse de propagation de l’onde pulsative va au contraire en aug-
mentant du centre a la périphérie. Onimus a insisté sur ces
caractéres de Vonde pulsative.” (Etudes sur les tracés obtenus
par le sphygmographe. Journal d’anatomie, 1866.) ”

It is then extremely probable that a nervous vibration is nothing
more than a molecular one, the velocity of which varies in accord-
ance with its conditions, though it never amounts to more than
thirty or ninety metres per second. Here are some other proofs:

3. I modified Secchi’s classical experiment? of pouring a few
drops of alcohol on a thin bed of water, by substituting for the
former a mixture of alcohol and castor oil, and adding to the water
a considerable quantity of linseed oil. Under these conditions a
strong agitation takes place. In like manner Longet provoked some
local convulsions by touching the motor nerves with alcohol.

4. In most cases mechanical excitation affords real and genuine
success, and the excitability of the Helix nerves can only be
evideuced by means of mechanical and physical irritants. (Milne-
Edwards.)

In some animals diverse concretions are present, which oscillate
at the least agitation of the external fluid, and increase the mechanic
vibration endured by the auditive nervous terminations, rather than
translate any currents endowed with a mysterious nature.®

I have made a small apparatus tending to demonstrate the in-
fluence exercised by otoliths on the vibrations of mercury, It con-

?Marey. Mouvements des ondes liquides dans les tubes élastiques. Jowrnal de
physique, 1875, Vol. ix., p. 257.

* Kiiss et Duval. Cours de physiologie, Paris, 1879, p. 259.

* L’unité des forces physiques, Paris, 1874, p. 73.

4 Traité de physiologie, Paris, 1869, Vol. iii., p. 209.

° Béclard. Traité de physiologie, p. 961.
®Chatin. Les organes des sens, p. 301.

336 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

sists of a drum full of water, having some artificial otoliths prepared
after Ray’s method * (fig. 16).

It is quite surprising that the study of auditive phenomena, or
more properly speaking, that of the vibrations of auditive nervous
terminations, has not already suggested the explanation of the im-
portant facts connected with innervation.

5. Compression abolishes the function of the natural nerve as
well as that of the nerve of mnercury, but the aforesaid function may
be re-established when compression has not disorganised its anatomical
elements deeply or divided the thread of mercury (fig. 6). Richet
says” that an analogy between blood circulation and nervous con-
ductibility might be established: “ Quand on applique une pince sur
une artére, on interrompt le cours du sang, qui se rétablit dés qu’on
enléve la pince.”

The facts regarding transmission of electricity, heat, etc., are
completely different.

6. If this or that excitation provokes this or that sensibility, it
probably takes rise not in the nature of the nerve itself, but in its
connections with these or those centres. (Richet.)

7. The wave increases in bulk as a sort of avalanche in the
course of its progress through the nerve (Pfltiger) and the thread of
mercury (fig. 7). The phenomena may easily be observed by fixing
several equidistant levers, so that they may rest on the metallic
surface lightly (fig. 3).

8. The variations consequent on temperature are probably due
to the variations of density of the band axis in the formula

d

for whenever d increases e cools and v diminishes; and may also
be due to the duration afforded to the continuance of the muscle’s
latent excitation (Marey), or to the discharge of carbon dioxide.

9. Richet regarded negative variation of carbon dioxide as a
testimony to the nerve’s mechanical vibration.? They both have nearly
the same amount of velocity. Dr R. Jofre, Director of the Laboratory
of Medical Electricity, reminds me of similar and considerable
modifications of current taking place in microphones, as a sequence
to the mechanical vibrations and insignificant stirrings occasioned
by an insect’s walk for instance.

“La surface inférieure du lobe sensitif de la Dionée attrape-
mouches est ¢lectro-négative par rapport a la surface supérieure, au
moment ou la feuille est irritée: au bout d'une demi-seconde, la sur-

1 Carpenter. The Microscope and its Revelations. London, 1868, p. 775.

* Richet. La vibration nerveuse. Revue Scientifique, Juillet 1 Décembre 1882, p, 99.
3 Milne-Edwards, l.c., Vol. xiii., p. 5.

1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 337

face supérieure devient & son tour électro-négative et reste ainsi
pendant quelque temps.” *

10. Excitants work either by disorganising the nervous textures
or by a subtraction of water, that is, either by mechanical acts of
disassociation or else by a modification in the density of the axis-
band, or even of the neuroplasma itself. The influence exercised by
interstitial water on the excitability of nerves appears to be quite
evident, the mere fact of a nerve’s desiccation rendering it inexcit-
able, though it is susceptible of recovering its physical and physio-
logical properties when it has retaken by imbibition the quantity of
water necessary for the discharge of its functions. Morphia may
perhaps work by modifying the state of hydration of the neuro-
plasm. It is likewise possible that the blood’s circulation and its
state of concentration have an indirect influence on the velocity of
nervous transmission. (Experimental studies of Mosso.)

11. Most acids work as excitants if apphed to nerves. This
point being settled, I can further state that a similar result is to be
obtained by applying to the point of an artificial nerve of mercury
and lead a little chromic or azotic acid, either concentrated or
diluted. This also produces: (a) Contraction and tumultuous
movements. (b) Production of waves, by discharge of nitrogen
dioxide. This is certainly one of the most weighty demonstrations
of my theory.

The neuroplasm, the axis-band in general, ought to vibrate
under the influence of acids, because the chemical action practised
by the latter on albuminous matters must originate the shocks and
vibrations attendant on the subtraction of water, discharge of carbon
dioxide, ete.

It is needless to observe that the movements of the artificial
nerve of mercury and lead can be explained by the action of gas.
when the chromic acid is applied. The bioxide of nitrogen slowly
issuing from the bottom of some drops of nitric acid (1 in 10 of
water), placed on the surface of the metal, begins to whirl round,
after the manner of infusoria, or to produce some amoeboid move-
ments that are extremely curious.”

12. Physiologists are all of opinion that bile is one of the
nerve’s excitants.

In certain parts of the nervous system the continual vibrations
observed may be due to the excitant action of oxygenated blood, by
a discharge of carbon dioxide.

13. Rough excitations have the power of effecting the nerve's
vibrations, while slow and gradual excitations are unable, in spite of

1 Revue Scientifique, Juillet ’ Décembre 1882, p. 735. ’
2 Note the amoeboid movements that Biitschli observed in foams and Préaubert im
globular rays. ‘‘La vie mode de mouvement.” Paris, 1898.

DA

338 NATURAL SCIENCE _ [November

their force, to bring the wave forth. (Experiments of Du Bois-Ray-
mond on the destruction of a nerve by a current of increasing
intensity.) It is exactly the same with the nerve of mercury: rub
it roughly with a piece of feather and this excitation will soon be
answered, but it will remain dumb whenever you rub it slowly and
gradually with a cloth.

_ 14. There is transmissibility of the excito-motory vibration fis
a natural or artificial nerve to another when the latter was not in
its normal state connected with the former. Their activity can be
brought about by means of a stimulus, after every communication
between this organ and the centre of innervation has been completely
interrupted. (Fig. 5.)

15. It may be objected that the equilibrium of a liquid is not
to be altered by such slight vibrations as those that impress the
human auditive nerve. Audition would then be impossible. More-
over, the telephone of mercury is established precisely on the principle
according to which the transmission of vibrations is effected by means
of mercury, and we here repeat that the liquid veins of Savart were
modified at the College de France by some music performed at the
Luxembourg, that was entirely inappreciable to the ear.

16. The stamens of the Centawreae shrink. up in their whole
length whenever they are submitted to a mechanical excitation, on
account of some laws similar to those that rule the contraction of
muscles in higher animals.

Electricity affects Sensitives too if discharged in sparks, but it
seems to have no influence whatever when it works by continuous
currents. It acts in the same manner on nerves. .

The sensibility exhibited by the leaves of Drosera is such, that
an object placed on them and weighing some 000008 ger. merely, is
enough to determine their immediate motion.?

17. Mr Kiihne has succeeded in the construction of a kind of
artificial muscle by stuffing a fragment of Hydrophilus’ intestine?
with the semi-fluid protoplasm of a certain Myxomycetes. This
apparatus was affected by electricity as well as if it had been a real
muscle. There is not a special force, therefore, but only a liquid
capable of vibration.

(b) Muscular vibration —I cannot dwell long on the ire sorta
question of muscular vibration without wandering too far from the
principal object of the present paper.

The theory of muscular waves as conceived by Marey and Weber
has been fully confirmed by the experiments below :

1. Fix a tube of caoutchouc of small diameter by one of its

1 Claus, Traité de Zoologie. 1884, y
? Lubbock. _ La vie des plantes, p: 6
3 With nerves and muscles !

1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 339

extremities and tie it by the other to a weight that can easily slide
on a polished surface. At the vibration of the tube, that must be
stretched beforehand, the weight is drawn by a quantity equiva-
lent to the extent of the vibration. (Figs. 13 and 14.)

2. By previously stretching a tube it may be induced to
vibrate if connected in a point on its middle with a large
globule of mercury (nervous termination), the vibrations of which
start those of the tube; the locomotion of the weight along the
table is the issue of all this. (Figs. 13 and 14.)

This experiment may be considered as a difficult one on account
of the computations indispensable to determine the degree of length
of the tube and that of the weight which it must attract.

Perhaps the vibration of a muscle is due to the discharges of
carbonic oxide.

(c) Acceleration of the pulsatile wave as observed by Landois
in elastic tubes previously filled with water.—This too is easily
observed in threads of mercury and serves to elucidate the question
concerning certain reflexes that are simply the result of several suc-
cessive excitations (ejaculation). A. L. HERRERA.

Mexico, May 1st, 1898.

(To be continued.)

340

SOME NEW BOOKS

THE BACKBONED ANIMALS

A CLASSIFICATION OF VERTEBRATA, RECENT AND Extinct. By Hans Gadow. 8vo,
pp. xvii+82. London: A. & C, Black, 1898. Price, 3s. 6d. net.

Tus is a valuable and convenient handbook for the use of students
attending lectures on the vertebrate animals. It can also be used as
a notebook, being printed on one side of the paper only.

Dr Gadow defines the Vertebrata as “bilateral symmetrical
animals with segmentally arranged mesoderm, with a central solid
axis (Chorda dorsalis, extending through the whole length of the
body, from head to tail, hence holochordate), dorsally of which lies the
tubular central nervous system, ventrally the gut; the respiratory
organs arise from the anterior portion of the gut.” He then proceeds
to define the ‘sub-phyla’ and smaller divisions with commendable
brevity and conciseness. As he remarks, there is no reason to
enumerate any but the fundamental characters. “For instance, ‘the
possession of visceral arches, one pair of which is modified into jaws,’
is a quite sufficient diagnosis of the Gnathostomata. The presence of
an anterior and a posterior pair of limbs is probably quite as essential
and peculiar a feature. There are not, and can never have been,
paired-limbed vertebrata without visceral-arch jaws; consequently,
wherever the converse is the case, we feel certain that the absence of
limbs is a secondarily produced feature.” Dr Gadow also lays special
stress on skeletal characters, not merely on account of their supreme
importance, but also because the vast array of extinct animals can
only be treated as skeletons. As he well observes, “we do not know
that the Palaeozoic Fishes did possess an entirely venous heart, nor
has it yet been shown that the embryos of Dinosaurs were surrounded
by an amnion ; but we feel nevertheless certain, because of the laws of
correlation which comparative anatomy allows us to deduct from the
study of recent creatures. On the other hand, it is quite possible, even
most likely, that the Triassic Pseudosuchia had no copulatory organ,
and therefore this feature cannot be admitted into the diagnosis of
Crocodilia, at least not if they are to comprise the Pseudo-, Para-, and
Eusuchia.” Finally, the author is to be commended for his selection
of generic names. The book is “meant to be used by the present
generation,” and hence he employs those names under which the whole
story of vertebrate anatomy and zoology has been written, ignoring
certain recent papers which are rather literary essays than contribu-
tions to knowledge.

Dr Gadow recognises two sub-phyla of Vertebrata, namely the

November 1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 341

Acrania (represented by the lancelets) and the Craniota (all other
known vertebrates). Of the latter there are three super-classes,
Cyclostomata, Hypostomata, and Gnathostomata. The Cyclostomata
are arranged in the usual manner. The Hypostomata (new term) are
the extinct Ostracodermi of Cope. The Gnathostomata comprise the
classes Ichthyes, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. The
Ichthyes are again subdivided into the sub-classes of Pisces and
Dipnoi, and our present knowledge of extinct fishes is specially taken
into account in arranging the minor groups, among which ‘ Ganoidei’
survives no longer, except in a footnote. The arrangement of the
Amphibia depends chiefly upon Cope, Boulenger, and Zittel. The
Reptilia are grouped in eleven sub-classes, of which seven are extinct.
The classification of the Aves is based very largely.on the author’s
own researches, while that of the Mammalia corresponds closely with
that of Flower and Huxley.

The authorship of the names of the larger divisions is usually
mentioned, and the student is helped occasionally by the addition of
synonymous terms. The author’s researches, however, into the
literature of the subject do not appear to have always extended to the
original sources, and hence several errors which ought to be corrected
in a future edition, Among other terms for which a wrong author-
ship is given, we may enumerate Antiarcha, Teleostomi, Pareiosauri,
Dinosauria, and Mesosauri. The equivalent terms, also, are not
invariably exact; for instance, the Marsupialia are not precisely the
Metatheria of Huxley, but merely the specialised surviving repre-
sentatives of that sub-class. Moreover, we disapprove of the use of
one and the same ordinal term (Lepospondyli) in two distinct classes,
and the corresponding wide separation of two such closely related
genera as Keraterpeton and Hyloplesion. The arrangement of the
teptilian orders appears to us very unnatural, the closely-related
Crocodilia and Dinosauria being separated by the Chelonia, while the
latter again are divorced from the Theromorpha and Plesiosauria, their
undoubtedly nearest allies. Recent discoveries in Palaeontology seem
to have rendered the Chelonian orders Thecophora and Athecae un-
tenable. We also object to one theory of the quadrate bone being
stated dogmatically as a fact in the definition of the Mammalia. For
actual errors in the diagnosis, however, we have looked almost
in vain. There is nothing more seriously incorrect than the state-
ment that all Cetacean teeth are destitute of enamel, or that Squalodon
has only one-rooted teeth. The index of proper names, too, is
admirably done, most terms having their derivation appended.

At the end of his work Dr Gadow adds a useful chapter on the
geographical distribution of the Vertebrata, with a table showing the
approximate number of the known recent species. He also gives
a fanciful though striking calculation to show how some groups
are still in the ascendant while others are distinctly declining. The
little volume is, indeed, a welcome addition to the biological student’s
library, and it deserves the wide circulation which its author's
eminence is likely to ensure for it. A. S. W.

342 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

SoLItaARY WASPS

Tue Instincrs AND Hasrrs oF THE SOLITARY Wasps. By George W. Peckham and
Elizabeth G. Peckham. §8vo, pp. 245; 14 plates (2 colonred). Wisconsin Geo-
logical and Natural History Survey Bulletin No. 2. Scientific Series No 1.
1898.

In discussing the problem of Instinct, Darwin wrote, “If it can be
shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty
in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations
of instinct to any extent that was profitable.” This sentence might
well serve as the text for the charming book before us, and seems to
have been ever present in the minds of our authors during many
hours spent in the sweat of the brow, in trying postures, and under a
blazing sun in ‘the successful endeavour to learn something from the
Solitary Wasps haunting a garden in Wisconsin. The result of their
toils may be given in their concluding words :—“ The general impres-
sion that remains with us as a result of our study of these activities
is that their complexity and perfection have been greatly over-
estimated. We have found them in all stages of development, and
are convinced that they have passed through many degrees, from the
simple to the complex, by the action of natural selection. Indeed,
we find in them beautiful examples of the survival of the fittest.”
This is a striking contrast to Fabre’s remark that had Darwin
known the results of his latest observations on the stinging
habits of Solitary Wasps, he would have frankly avowed his in-
ability to make instinct enter the mould of his formula. Mr and Mrs
Peckham show conclusively that the popular belief that these wasps
sting their prey for the purpose of paralysing but not killing, in
order that a fresh and not putrid supply of food may be at hand for
the offspring is far from correct. Great stress has been laid upon this
hitherto accepted belief by Eimer, Romanes, and others, and in view
of its wide acceptance among zoologists and the general public it is
worth giving a brief outline of the results of our authors’ observations
on this phenomenon. Out of forty-five species of Solitary Wasps
observed by them about one-third kill their prey outright. Of the
remainder there is not a single species in which the sting is given
with invariable accuracy ; in fact, they scarcely sting twice alike since
the victims of the same wasp may be killed at once, or may live from
one day to six weeks, or even ultimately recover; and this even after
treatment by the most skilled surgeons in the hymenopteron world.
It is thus at once evident that the sting is not invariably thrust with
unfailing accuracy into the nerve centres, and, further, that dead meat
is quite as acceptable to the larvae as living flesh—as indeed was
fully proved by actual observation. It is of great interest to find that
the poison of the wasp’s sting has a great paralysing power when in-
troduced into the body of the victim at any point, so that the prey is
rendered helpless without the necessity of a complete knowledge of
invertebrate anatomy on the part of the wasp. Thus, a leg was
broken off a small cray fish, and a Polistes fusca made to thrust its
sting into the exposed end of the stump, with the result that the cray
fish was instantly paralysed and died after a few hours. Similar
results followed from causing a Polistes to sting a large spider in

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 343

various parts of the body remote from the nerve centres, which can
therefore only have been affected by the diffusion of the poison.

A pang of regret is almost inevitable as one relegates this well-
known zoological fairy-story to the ever increasing category of arm-
chair fiction. But any such feelings are more than compensated by
the marvellous wealth of observations now put before us. It is diffi-
cult to determine on which to dwell in the present notice. We select
a few of those bearing on the reputed ‘sense of direction’ in wasps.
It is here shown by numerous instances that these insects do un-
doubtedly make a careful study of the locality in which they have
made their nests, and that a comparatively slight disturbance of the
immediate surroundings at once causes them to be at fault. For
example, “ Aporus fasciatus entirely lost her way when we broke off
the leaf that covered her nest, but found it without trouble when the
missing object was replaced.” We might quote many more instances
of the same character. We may perhaps be allowed to confirm this
opinion by an observation of our own. Some five years ago we
chanced upon a nest of Vespa sylvestris built in an old tin at the
bottom of a ditch; while the wasps were in full work the tin was
moved about three yards on to the bank of the ditch; all the wasps
that were within the nest at the time of removal noticed as soon as
they came to the exit from the.nest that their position had been
changed, and instead of at once flying off they stood on the edge of
the tin for some moments, then took short flights to and fro, gradually
increasing their range until they extended to the ditch, the old familiar
spot, when they went straight away. It is only necessary to consult
the pages of the memoir under notice to be convinced that among
wasps, at anyrate, there is no such thing as ‘sense of direction,’ but
that their ‘homing’ powers are the result of preliminary survey and
subsequent memory.

Of the many wonderful devices and signs of intelligence observed,
the most astounding is that related of Ammophila urnaria. Many
individuals of this species were carefully watched making their
burrows, catching and stinging their caterpillars, conveying them to
the subterranean larder and closing the aperture with lumps of earth,
small stones, etc., in order to conceal it from the marauding red ants.
As among ourselves so too here some individuals are slovenly and
careless in their work, others bestow upon it all the assiduous care of
the artist. Of these the last one, already remarkable for her perfect
workmanship, reached an excellence that is almost incredible were it
not supported by such reliable testimony as that of Mr and Mrs
Peckham, and further substantiated by an independent observation by
Dr 8. W. Williston on another individual elsewhere. This wasp
having stored her nest proceeded to fill it up with grains of fine dirt,
and “picking up a small pebble in her mandibles used it as a hammer
in pounding them down with rapid strokes, thus making the spot as
hard and firm as the surrounding surface.. Before we could recover
from our astonishment at this performance she had dropped her stone
and was bringing more earth. We threw ourselves down on. the
eround that not a motion might be lost, and in a moment we saw her
pick up the pebble and again pound the earth into place with it,
hammering now here and now there until all was level.” Such an

344 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

operation as this is nothing less than the intelligent use of a tool, a
phenomenon which is well-nigh unexampled even among the higher
mammals.

Throughout the whole memoir there occur records of observations
of the greatest interest,—for example the part taken by the males of
the genus 7rypoaylon in guarding the nest from parasites during con-
struction ; the deterrent effect of the odour of a bug upon a spider ;
the readiness of some wasps to steal the victims of their sisters, and
their unwillingness to accept spiders offered to them by the observers ;
while hardly less interesting are the not infrequent mentions of
apparent failure of instinct. Eight primary instincts are recognised
as the result of these very complete observations, viz.—stinging ;
taking a particular kind of food; method of attacking and capturing
prey; method of carrying prey ; preparing nest and then capturing
prey, or the reverse ; mode of taking prey into the nest ; general style
or locality of nest; spinning or not spinning of a cocoon, and
its specific form when made. Variations showing an appreciative
adaptation to slight changes of environment are regarded as acts of
intelligence.

The work is an excellent example of the value of systematic and
painstaking records compiled in the field, and has a healthy outdoor
flavour about it. It should be of immense use to many of our Natural
History Societies as a model to the zealous amateur of the way in
which he may by the careful study of the habits of animals haunting
his own paddock or garden contribute to the storehouses of our know-
ledge facts which help to elucidate some of the most difficult and
abstruse problems in bionomics. O, Ek

ALCOHOLISM

Tue TEMPERANCE QUESTION FROM A BroLocicaAL STANDPOINT. By G. Archdall Reid,
M.B. The Medical Magazine, June and July 1898. 26 pp.

In the case of a treatise written from a profoundly scientific point of
view, fault might be found with the use of the word “Temperance” in
the title. As it stands the title suggests a scientific discussion as to
moderation in all respects; but the treatise itself is only concerned
with moderation in one particular case—in regard to the use of alcohol.
So in a scientific discussion the author starts by using a term in its
popular sense.

This is not intended as a captious criticism. In a scientific dis-
cussion exactitude in terminology is an absolute necessity. Much of
the trouble and half the disagreement shewn in such discussions
arise from the fact that it is not always easy to understand whether a
writer uses a term in its literal or in its popular sense. So that care
in this matter is most essential. In a notice in these pages of a
previous work by Mr Reid, it was pointed out that he used the term
‘evolution’ in two senses. He has in the present case profited by
the criticism so far as to admit this, and to state in which sense he
now employs it.

To come to the question at issue. In regard to Alcoholism Mr
Reid puts forward the following as his surmises and arguments :—

1. That acquired characters are not transmissible.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 345

2. That the craving for alcohol is innate in the human race, and is
not an acquired character.

3. That human beings differ in the degree in which they possess
this craving—that there are the more alcoholically inclined and the
less so. But if a man with a great alcoholic craving is able to satisfy
this craving with drink, even to his own injury, or is prevented by
prohibition measures from satisfying it, his offspring will not in the
one case be the more drunken, or in the other case the more sober:
they will only inherit the innate craving which he possessed.

4. That the-peoples who have had the most experience of alcohol are
the least inclined to excessive indulgence therein.

5. That this result has been brought about because alcohol is such
a rank poison that it has effectually and constantly killed off the
individuals of the nations who were most prone to excessive indulgence,
and so left the field free for the breeding of those who were less
aleoholically inclined.

It is hoped that this statement does full justice to the position
which Mr Reid takes up. It is a very extraordinary position, with a
maximum of surmise and a minimum of proof. It suggests a case of
a man seeing a flash of lightning and subsequently a house in ruins
jumping to the conclusion that the former was the cause of the latter,
because such events have been known to occur, without being able to
show (1) that the lightning did strike the house ; (2) that the house
was not in ruins before.

Because the main argument of Mr Reid is that savages have drunk
themselves to death. And considering the raw, much adulterated
liquid fire with which Christian traders have taken so much pains to
supply them, there is not much wonder thereat. But to conclude
therefore that the nations of Southern Europe have become temperate
because all the alcoholically inclined individuals have been killed off by
drink is most rash. What warrant is there for such an assumption in
our own case? for, according to Mr Reid, we are.in the stage of
alcoholism that the southern peoples were in long years ago. But
what do we see ?—that the most alcoholically inclined, the labourers
and artizans, breed in about the proportion of 3 to 1 in regard to the
less alcoholically inclined remainder of the population. Wherefore,
according to Mr. Reid, we should be getting a more drunken nation
with every generation.

This is one of the missing links in Mr Reid’s chain of evidence.
For in order to prove that alcoholic over-indulgence is an eliminator
of the unfit, he must shew that it is so deadly a habit as to kill off its
votaries before they have been able to produce as many offspring as the
rest of the population. This he does not do. He actually admits
that among women alcoholism is not manifest till late in life. But
for the purposes of elimination it does not matter in the least if a
woman who has passed the procreative period kill herself off in five
years with drink, or live to be ninety in soberness. And so with the
agricultural labourer,—he may kill himself with drink at forty-five; but
if he has at that age, as is not infrequent, added some twelve or fifteen
children to the next generation, he has done more to propagate his
kind than has the sober professional man who lives to be seventy and
has five children.

346 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

I may mention in this case a rather instructive lesson learnt from
the growing of crops of Datura tatula for medicinal purposes.
Among the plants there are two marked varieties—(1) The respect-
able class who most fulfil the purpose for which they are grown, by
producing most leaf and stalk per acre ; (2) The waster class, whose
sole object in life seems to be to produce seed. Now if the indi-
viduals of the two classes were numerically equal in one generation,
and seed were saved equally from the whole, class 2 would far out-
number class 1 in the subsequent generation because of its greater
fecundity. But class 2 has a worse character than this—it not only
produces more seed but it makes sure to ripen that seed the earlier,
so that when the crop is cut there is far more ripe seed of class 2
than there is of class 1. Wherefore class 1 should in a few years have
almost disappeared to vanishing point.

But artificial selection is far more ruthless than any form of
natural selection, so called. We go through the crop with thorough-
ness to destroy the plants of class 2, so that there may be no seed
from them for the next generation. And yet partly perhaps owing
to the immensely greater fecundity of the wasters, partly perhaps
to an innate tendency of the respectable class to become wasters, in
spite of several years’ ruthless efforts at extermination, the individuals
of the waster class are as numerous as ever. No alcoholic selection
would be as vigorous as that. A fortiori it would fail even more
lamentably.

If Mr Reid could free himself from the fetish of natural selection,
and could bring himself to think that acquired characters are in-
herited, though he may not know how, then he would find himself
able to account for the increased sobriety of the nations who have
longest known alcohol. Such account would take the following
form — that familiarity breeds contempt, and that an acquired
character of restraint is inherited until it becomes a second habit
performed quite unconsciously.

It is well known that if an individual be introduced to an un-
accustomed pleasure he rushes thereat for a while, possibly overdoes
it, and then becomes satiated. Instances are all around us. And
what is possible for the individual is possible for the race: it may be
alcoholically satiated.

As regards the acquired character of restraint, Mr Reid doubts its
existence. He puts it in the other way, that the craving is less.
Here it is said the craving is the same but the power of restraint is
greater. The difference is important. If two cycles of equal weight
are started at the top of a hill the tendency to run away is equal in
both. But if one be fitted with a brake its running away propensities
are checked ; not because the craving to run away is less, but because
the brake power—the restraint—is greater. And that is the case with
man and alcohol. The sober individual and his parents before him
have exercised restraint until it has become a second habit—per-
formed with as little consciousness as walking.

And there is a case strictly analogous, in the acquired restraint
which man habitually and often unconsciously uses over his bodily
functions. In the case of the urinary organs such restraint is the
cause of many diseases and frequently of death, wherefore, according to

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 347

Mr Reid, the less restraining portion of the population should be in
the majority through elimination, of those practising restraint. But,
in spite of any such elimination man, compared to other animals, has
advanced enormously in regard to the acquired character of functional
restraint.

But Mr Reid says “if acquired characters are transmissible, pro-
hibition is undoubtedly right.” That cannot be endorsed; because if
there were prohibition there would be no training in the exercise of
personal restraint, the power to exercise restraint in necessary cases
would be lost, and the last state would be worse than the first.

It is impossible to touch more than the fringe of sueh a question
as alcoholism. But one thing may be said—the best forms of temper-
ance legislation would be—(1) rigidly carried out enactments against
food and drink adulteration ; (2) nationalization of education.

5. 8. BUCKMAN.

RADIATION

Rapiarion. By H. H. Francis Hyndman, with a preface by Prof. Sylvanus P.
Thompson. pp. xviii+307. London: Swan Sonnenschein. 1898. i

RapiaTIon links together the principal branches of Physics. It is on
this account difficult to obtain a connected view of the subject by a
perusal of the ordinary text-books. Mr Hyndman’s treatise is, there-
fore, very welcome. After a brief introduction mainly on wave-
motion the author discusses vibrations in matter, in the ether, and
lastly, those vibrations such as the Cathode, Rontgen Rays, etc., the
nature of which is not yet definitely known. The advanced student
will find the book useful, both intrinsically and on account of the
copious list of references; whilst it is sufficiently elementary to be
intelligible to a larger class of readers with but a slight knowledge of
Physics. A few slips have been noticed. The explanation of the
sound of organ-pipes and other wind-instruments given on p. 20 is
not correct; there is little motion of translation in such instruments,
as anyone, who has tried to sound a horn by blowing down it, knows.
Again, on p. 130, possibly owing to an error of copying, ‘ biaxial’ has
been substituted for ‘ uniaxial.’ It is certain uniaxial crystals which
rotate the plane of polarisation when polarised light is transmitted
parallel to the optic axis. These small blemishes do not detract from
the merits of this interesting book.

THE LIBRARY OF THE DRESDEN MUSEUM

Dr A. B. MEYER has caused to be compiled a Catalog der Handbiblio-
thek des Koniglichen Zoologischen und Anthropologisch-Ethnograph-
ischen Museums in Dresden, alphabetical and systematic. The volume
is an octavo of xxiv., 288 pages, and is issued by the Museum. The
entries are brief and recognisable, though not bibliographic, and the
serials and publications of academies fall into one alphabet with the
authors. The subject indexes should be of much use to readers, especi-
ally the ethnographical, which is arranged under countries.

348 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

LITERATURE OF RUSSIAN GEOLOGY

WE are glad to note that Dr Nikitin’s “ Russkaya gheologhicheskaya
biblioteka” for 1896 [dated 1897] reached England 1st September.
Like all records this valuable publication grows in bulk year by year,
with, of course, a corresponding difficulty of compilation. This diffi-
culty has now proved insuperable to Dr Nikitin and his collaborator,
Miss Marie Tzvetaev, and the work will in future be continued by a
special committee of the members of the Commission of the Geological
Committee of St Petersburg, of whose publications this biography
forms a part. The compiler records 577 papers in the geology of
Russia, which, if in Russian, are given a translation of title and brief
abstract in French, and if in any other language, are similarly dealt
with in Russian.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCIENTIFIC SERIALS

A NEW edition of Dr Carrington Bolton’s invaluable Catalogue of
Scientific Periodicals has just been issued by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion. Part I. of the alphabetical catalogue is a reprint from the plates
of the first edition, with the necessary changes to bring the titles down
to date. Part II. contains additions that could not be made to the
plates of Part I., together with about 3600 new titles. 8600 periodi-
cals are noted in this catalogue.

SCRAPS FROM SERIALS

THE Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association tor August are de-
voted to a sketch of the geology of the Birmingham district by Pro-
fessors Lapworth and Watts and Mr W. J. Harrison. The Association,
it will be remembered, visited the district this summer, and this
modestly-named sketch is 103 pages long, and is fully illustrated by
photographs and horizontal sections, and is really a masterly account
of the geology of the Midlands. The following list of contents will
give some idea of its value :—Physiography ; Geology ; Archaean rocks
of Malvern, Wrekin, Barnt Green, Caldecote, and Charnwood;
Cambrian System of Wrekin, Malvern, Nuneaton, and Lower Lickey ;
Silurian System of Malvern, Abberley, the central area, Lower Lickey,
Walsall, Dudley, etc.; Carboniferous System of S. Staffordshire Coal-
field, Lower Lickey, E. Warwickshire and Severn Coal-fields ; Permian
System; Triassic System; Post-Triassic Formations; Petrology ;
Ancient Glaciers of the Midlands; and last, but not by any means
the least important, is a history of discovery in the Birmingham dis-
trict, a valuable adjunct to most unofficial work. The Geologists’
Association may well be proud of the interest shown in them by Pro-
fessor Lapworth and Watts. A new term ‘Charnian’ is proposed in
the paper (p. 335) by Prof. Watts for the Charnwood series.

No. xvi. of the Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New
Brunswick contains a portrait and life of Dr James Robb by Dr L.
W. Bailey. Dr Robb published as early as 1841 a paper on the geology
of New Brunswick in the Reports of the British Association, and fol-
lowed it up in 1850 with a report on the agricultural capabilities of
the province, to which he appended a geological map. He died in

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 349

1861. Mr 8. W. Kain has a paper on New Brunswick earthquakes.
Mr John Moser deals with the mosses, Philip Cox with the batrachia,
W. F. Ganong with the natural history and physiography, and G. F.
Matthew describes recent discoveries in the San John Group. A
bibliography of scientific publications relating to New Brunswick is
contributed by S. W. Kain.

No. 30 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society contains a paper by H. W. Ridley on the birds in the Botanic
Gardens, Singapore, one by the same author on plants of the genus
Peliosanthes of the Malay Peninsula, and yet another on the White
Snake of the Salangor Caves, Coluber taeniwrus. Some valuable papers
on Malay Magic, Folk Lore, the game of Chap Ji Ki, and the oldest
Malay MS. now extant, make up a substantial and creditable journal.

The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey have started
a series of Bulletins. No. 1 is by Filibert Roth, special agent of the
United States Department of Agriculture, and is on the forestry con-
ditions of Northern Wisconsin. There isa map. No. 2, by Geo. W.
and Elizabeth G. Peckham, is entitled “ Instincts and habits of Solitary
Wasps,” and is a volume of 245 pp., and 14 plates. We hope to refer
to these again later.

These Bulletins are to form three series—Scientific, Economic, and
Educational. Mr Roth’s paper belongs to the second series, and is to
be followed by one on the building stones of Wisconsin by E. R.
Buckley; the wasp paper belongs to the first series, and is to be
followed by Geology of the Pre-Cambrian igneous rocks of the Fox
River Valley by 8. Weidman ; the three first papers in the Educa-
tional series will be Collie’s Physiography of Southern Wisconsin,
Salisbury’s Physical Geography and Geology of the dells of the Wis-
consin and the Devil's Lake, and Cheney’s forest trees of Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Survey was only established in 1897, and is under the
direction of Mr. E. A. Birge, Madison, Wis.

The Boletim de Museu Paraense for June contains a plan of the
Museum of Para and attached Botanical Gardens, with a description
by Dr E. Goeldi. Dr J. Huber contributes materials for an Ama-
zonian flora, Dr C. F. Hartt continues his notes on some inedited
works of the Geological Commission of Brazil, and Dr Huber writes
on Vochysia Goeldii, a new species of the Ferrugineae. Photographs
of Hymenaca Courbaril, L. and Crudya Parivoa, De C., are also given.

The Naturalist for October contains an account of an ancient Lake-
dwelling at Sand-le-Mere, near Withernsea, EK. Yorkshire, by Thos.
Sheppard. The Rev. W. C. Hey gives a list of Bird names in use at
West Ayton, Yorkshire, and there are some interesting notes from
the Churchwarden’s accounts of Terrington concerning the killing of
polecats, which have been extracted by John Wright.

The Lrish Naturalist for October includes a paper by Dr C. J.
Patten, on the birds of Dublin Bay. In La Feuille des Jeunes
Naturalistes Fournier concludes his paper on the Jura Chain and
Eugene Simon concludes his revision of the genera of Humming-
birds. In the Journal of the Limerick Field Club, Part II., there is
a paper by Dr W. A. Foggerty on the Flora of the Limerick district.
As it is full of misprints and includes enough rarities of the Irish
flora to cause a pilgrimage, it is but fair to say that Dr Foggerty is

350 NATURAL SCIENCE ; [November 1898

only a compiler, and the authorship of the paper belongs to several
botanical members. The Halifax Naturalist for October contains a
sympathetic life of James Spencer, one of the band of workers
associated with the late Jas. W. Davis, Samuel Gibson, and others
at Halifax ; a continuation of Mr Crump’s Flora of Halifax, and other
papers.

FurtTHER LITERATURE RECEIVED

Tue Principles of Biology, Vol. i., Herbert Spencer: Williams & Norgate. Rela-
tions of the Oneonta, Ithaca, and. Portage Groups in Central New York; Crustaceans
from the Chemung Group of New York ; and Sphinctozoan Calcisponge from the Upper
Carboniferous of Nebraska: J. M. Clarke, extracts from serials. Mesenteries and
Siphonoglyphs in Metridium marginatum: G. H. Parker, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.
Harvard. Bol. Mus. Paraense for June. History of Mankind, Ratzel, Part 29:
Macmillan. Life History of Oyster, W. A. Herdman, Brit. Assoc. Truth about the
Game Laws, J. Connell: Humanitarian League. Zweckmissigkeit und Anpassung,
J. W. Sprengel: Fischer. Budll. Illinois State Lab., vol. v., art. 4 and 5. Contribu-
tions to the Morphology of the Lepidoptera ; Eimer’s researches on Eastern Papilios, by
K. Jordan: Novit. Zool. Catalogue der Handbibliothek des K. Zool. Anth.-Eth. Mus.
in Dresden. Beitriige zur Physiologie des Centralnervensystems, Part i., Hypnose der
Thiere, Max Verworn: Fischer. Bull. N. H. Soc. New Brunswick, No. xvi. Geology
of the Basalt Workings, Mt. Rainbow Gold Field; Queensland Minister of Mines.
Geological Observations in Ayrshire and other tracts, T. Mellard Reade. Dictionary
of Bird Notes, Chas. Louis Hett: Jackson, Brigg. The New Age,—Caleutta, for July.
Journ. Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, July. The Witness of Science to Linguistic
Anarchy, Lady Welby: privately printed. The living Organism, an introduction to
the problems of Biology, Alfred Earl: Macmillan. Eclipses of the Moon in India,
Robert Sewell, being a continuation of the ‘‘ Indian Calendar,” price 10s. 6d.: Swan
Sonnenschein. Report of the Marine Biologist for 1897, Dept. of Agriculture, Cape of
Good Hope ‘‘P.P., G. 53-98.” Grasses of New South Wales, J. H. Maiden: Minister
of Agriculture, N.S.Wales. L’Année biologique, Yves Delage, for 1896: Schleicher
Fréres. Sea Fisheries, Report on the Trawling Operations of H.M.C.S. ‘‘ Thetis”
under the direction of Frank Farnell, with a scientific report on the fishes by E. R.
Waite: New South Wales Government publications, No. 23571. Specializations of the
Lepidopterous wing, A. R. Grote: Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., xxxvii. Vegetation of Lord
Howe Island, J. H. Maiden: Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. Flora of Mt. Kosciusko,
J. H. Maiden: Misc. Publ. Dept. Agric., N.S.W., No. 241. Tendency of Religion,
Col. R. Elias: Chapman & Hall. Lectures on Mathematics, J. C. Lagrange: Open
Court Publ. Co., Chicago. Rep. and Trans. South Eastern Union of Scientific
Societies, for 1898. Ann. Progress Report of Geological Survey of Western Australia
for 1897.

Amer. Geol., Sept.; Amer. Nat., Sept.; Annot. Zool. Japan, vol. ii. pt. 2.;
L’Anthropologie, June-Aug. ; Bol. Naturalista, No. 8;' Botan. Gazette, Sept. ;
Feuille des jeunes Nat., Oct.; Halifax Nat., Oct.; Irish Nat., Oct.; Journ. School.
Geogr., Sept.; Literary Digest, Sept. 10, 17, 24, Oct. 1; Naturae Novit., Sept., and
Index to 1897 ; Naturalist, Oct.; Nature, Sept. 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 13, 21; Nature
Notes, Oct.; Naturen, Sept.; Photogram, Oct.; Plant World, Sept.; Review of
Reviews, Sept.; Revue Mensuelle Bibl. Sci., Aug.; Revue Scient., Sept. 17, 24, Oct.
1, 8, 15; Rivista Ital. Sci. Nat., Sept.-Oct.: Rivista Quin. Psichol., fase. 8, 9, 10;
Scott. Med. Surg. Journ., Oct.; Science, Sept. 9, 16, 23, 30; Scientific Amer., Sept.
10, 17, 24, Oct. 1; Westminster Review, Sept. Oct.

351

OBITUARIES

GEORGE GREY
Born 1812. DiED 19TH SEPTEMBER 1898

Str GEORGE GREY was born at Lisbon, educated at Sandhurst, entered
the army in 1829, and became captain in 1855. Retiring from the
profession, he conducted two expeditions of discovery in the north-
west and west of Australia from 1837 to 1839, the results of his
travels appearing in 1841. His collections were worked out by J. E.
Gray, J. Gould, and Adam White. In 1841 he was appointed
Governor of South Australia, and in 1845 of New Zealand, to which
colony the rest of his life was devoted, with the exception of a period
of Governorship of Cape Colony, Sir George Grey’s valuable Colonial
services are too well known to need repetition here, but a few words
are necessary to emphasize his services to zoology, which were of no
ordinary kind. A deep friendship with Richard Owen led him to seize
every available opportunity for collecting the fauna of the lands he
visited, and his own inclination led him towards the music, folk lore,
and dialects of the native inhabitants. In a letter to Owen in 1849
he deplores the burning of his New Zealand home and the loss of a
complete skeleton of moa, three moa skulls, besides numerous other
bones, the skeleton of what was probably a Wotornis, and bones of a
quadruped. But with his characteristic courage, he adds, “I will
endeavour in the course of this summer to collect again.” The
Daily Chronicle for October 18 has, we are glad to see, started a
national memorial to this great public servant.

LOUIS, LAURENT: GABRIEL, DE,,MORTIELET
Born 29TH Avcust 1821. DIED SEPTEMBER 1898

It is noticeable that in nearly every field of intellectual research some
few enthusiastic observers and thinkers are alone the first tillers of
the new soil, often amidst troubles and disappointments. So in
Anthropology, an important division of Archaeological study, Mr G.
de Mortillet, following up the investigations of Mr Boucher de Perthes,
was one of the forward workers in this field of research. By his
co-operation in compiling and editing the “ Matériaux pour I’Histoire
positive et philosophique (primitive et naturelle) de lHomme,”
together with Trutat, Cartailhac, and others, he greatly aided the ad-
vancement of his favourite science, accumulating facts, and forming and
distributing useful generalisations as to the probable succession of the
various cave-dwellers in Central France and elsewhere. Taking as
the basis of his calculations the results of the examination of the caves
of Dordogne and neighbouring districts, and the comparison of the
animal remains, and the typical stone and bone implements, he sug-

352 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

gested that (1) Le Moustier cave is characteristic of the oldest stage
of the prehistoric occupancy in this region ; then (2) the deposits of
Solutré ; (3) the Aurignac cave ; and (+) that of La Madelaine.

Modifications of this chronological classification have been sug-
gested ; but, as planned by Mr G. de Mortillet, it has been useful to
the Archaeologists of Western Europe in describing their work and
grouping their materials. He followed this system in his steady
endeavour to advance the progress of his favourite science by organis-
ing Congresses of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology, arrang-
ing and superintending the Museum of Antiquities at St Germain
(1868), and helping to found the Anthropological School at Paris
(1875), of which he became professor.

Among his many writings in the “ Matériaux pour l’Histoire,” &c.,
and elsewhere, whether explicit or suggestive, we may refer to his
“Ta signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme ” (1866) and “Origine
de la Navigation et de Ja Péche” (1867): both full of useful informa-
tion in a clear and carefully ordinate form. His studies of mollusca,
the geology of Savoy, the pottery of Allobroges, as well as many con-
tributions on prehistoric peoples and conditions in the periodicals of
the day bear witness to his earnest work in his patriotic exposition of
the history of those who were the early inhabitants of his beloved
France.

He was born in 1821 at Meylan, and educated at Chambery and
Paris. He left France in 1849 to escape imprisonment for a socialistic
publication, retiring to Savoy and Switzerland, where he arranged the
museums of Annecy and Geneva. In 1856 he took scientific work in
Italy ; in 1864 he returned to Paris, and took up anthropological
studies as detailed above.

JaMEs Harpy, of Cockburnspath, died in October, aged eighty-four.
Dr Hardy was a student of Edinburgh University, and became con-
nected with the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Field Club in 1839, in
which year he first contributed to the Proceedings. He had been
secretary for many years to the Club, and as his knowledge was
encyclopaedic, north-country zoology and folk-lore have sustained a
great loss.

Among others whose deaths have been recently announced are :—Prof. RuDOLPH
Apamy, director of the ethnographical collection at the Hesse State Museum, Darm-
stadt, on January 14, aged 48; Prof. ANDREAS ARZRUNI, the well-known mineralo-
gist and chemist, in October ; James BEHRENS, the lepidopterologist, at San José, Cal.,
on March 6, aged 74 ; Eucento Berront, director of the Brescia Fisheries Station, on
August 5, aged 53; Dr ArNotp Grar, the morphologist, at Boston, on September 3,
aged 30; C. J. H. Gravennorst, editor of the Deutschen Ilustrirten Bienenzeitung ,
at Wilsnack, on August 24, aged 75; Hersert Lyon Jones, professor of biology at
Oberlin College, at Granville, Ohio, August 27, aged 32; Prof. BronisLaus Kotv.a,
the plant-geographer, by an avalanche near Frafoi, on August 19; Dr JosepH A. Lixt-
NER, the State entomologist of New York, at Albany, on May 5; Dietrich NASSE,
professor of surgery at Berlin University, at Pontresina, on September 1, aged 38;
Roman ORIOL, professor of mining at the Academy of Mines, Madrid, and editor of the
Revista Miniera ; JoHNsoN PeEtrTIT, the entomologist, at Grimsby, Canada, on Feb-
ruary 18 ; Dr H. PriscHoupr, the geologist and palaeontologist, formerly of the Real-
gymnasium of Meiningen, recently, by suicide; Dr GrampaTrisTa VALENZA, the
zoologist, at Pantelleria, on June 15 ; José VILLALONGA, the ironmaster, at Bilbao ; Dr
JAN DE WINDT, the geologist, drowned in Lake Tanganyika, on August 9, aged 22.

353

NEWS

Tue following appointments have recently been made :—C. A. Barber as
government botanist at Madras, in the room of the late M. A. Lawson; Dr
G. Bode as assistant in the Botanical Institute, Innsbriick University ; Dr
Arthur Borntriiger as director of the Agricultural Station at Palermo; Dr O,
Brefeld, of Miinster Academy, has been called to the University of Breslau ; Miss
Agnes M. Claypole as assistant in microscopy, histology, and embryology at
Cornell University ; E. A. Minchin, of Merton College, Oxford, to succeed Mr
Beddard as lecturer on biology at Guy’s Hospital; Dr Stephen Crowe and
Dr E.S. Pillsbury as assistants in bacteriology at the San Francisco College of
Physicians and Surgeons; Dr W. H. Dafert as director of the Agricultural
Chemical Station in Vienna; Mr R. A. Daly as instructor in physiography in
Harvard University ; Dr Vicenzo Diamare as first assistant in comparative
anatomy at Naples Universit ; 8. T. Dunny as secretary to the director of Kew
Gardens ; Stanley Flower of the King of Siam’s Museum at Bangkok, as superin-
tendent of the Cairo Zoological Gardens ; W. J. Gies as instructor in physiology
at Yale University ; Prof. Hofer of Munich as professor of geography in Wiirz-
burg University ; Wm. Jas. Hornaday of Buffalo as director of the Zoological
Gardens in New York, and John Alden Loring of Owego as his assistant ; Dr
Friedrich Katzer of the Para Museum as geologist to the Sarajevo Museum,
Bosnia ; Oskar Loew, of Tokio, as chemical plant-physiologist to the Dept. of
Agriculture at Washington ; Prof. Herbert Osborn, of Iowa Agricultural College,
to the chair of zoology at Ohio State University ; H. J. Patterson as director of
the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, vice R. H. Miller resigned ; A.
H. Phillips, as assistant-professor in mineralogy at Princeton University; Dr C. H.
Richardson as instructor in geology, and Dr H. 8S. Jennings (temporarily) in the
Dartmouth College, N.S. ; Dr Wilhelm Schimper, of Bonn, succeeds Dr Klebs as
professor of botany at Basle ; Dr Oswald Selliger, of Berlin, as professor of zoology
at Rostock University ; Dr Mark V. Slingerland, of Cornell, as state entomologist
of New York in the place of the late Dr J. A. Lintner ; Dr Ernest Stolley, of Kiel,
as geologist in the National Museum of Buenos Ayres ; Prof. C. H. Townsend as
biogeographer and systematic entomologist to the New Mexico Agricultural
College and Experiment Station, T. D. A. Cockerell professor of entomology, and
E. O. Wooten professor of botany there ; Dr C. O. Townsend, of Barnard College,
as botanist and plant pathologist for the State of Maryland ; Dr Voges, of Berlin,
as director of the Bacteriological Institute at Buenos Ayres; Prof. Volkens as
one of the custodians of the Botanic Gardens in Berlin; Dr Julius Nikolas
Wagner as professor of zoology in the University of St Petersburg; Dr Zukal
as professor of forestry at the High School for Agronomy in Vienna.

A replica of the Hon. John Collier’s portrait of Huxley has been presented to
the National Gallery by Mr Collier.

Str JoHN Murray has resigned the post of scientific member of the Fishery
Board for Scotland.

AccorDInG to Nature the vacancy at Kew caused by the appointment of Mr
Morris as Commissioner of Agriculture to the West Indies, will not be filled up.
It seems a pity that a good botanical post has been lost.

2B

354 NATURAL SCIENCE [ November

By a slip last month we recorded an item of news that belonged to last year.
Mr J. H. Collins was this year the recipient of the Bolitho Gold Medal.

Pror. G. 8. Morse has received from the Emperor of Japan the Order of the
Third Class of the Rising Sun “in recognition of your signal service while you
were in the faculty of science in the Imperial University of Tokio, and also in
opening in our country the way for zoological, ethnological, and anthropological
science, and in establishing the institutions for the same.”

_Pror. Dr Simon ScHWENDERER, Director of the botanical institute of the
Berlin University, has been made a knight of the order Pour le Merite, in the
class of Science and Art.

ProFEssor Knutu of Kiel started in October on a scientific expedition round
the world. According to the Botanisches Centralblatt, he will be away eight or ten
months, and will visit India, Java, China, Japan, Hawaii, and North America.

THE Hayden Memorial Geological Award for 1898 goes to Prof. Otto Martin
Torell, director of the Geological Survey of Sweden. It is conferred by the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and consists of a bronze medal and
the interest on the endowment funds.

Mr W. P. Pycrarr of the British Museum has been entrusted with the
examination and description of the embryology, pterylography, etc., of the
Megapodes and other birds, collected by the Willey Expedition.

Mr W. R. Oaitvie Grant of the British Museum, and Dr H. O. Forbes of
the Liverpool Museum, accompanied by a taxidermist, leave on the 28th October
for a scientific exploration of the Island of Socotra. They will remain there
about three months, and will make a general collection of the natural history of
the island. Among other interesting things to be looked for are supposed new
forms of a wild goat and a wild ass. Dr Forbes will no doubt get a few lessons
in turtle-riding.

WE understand that a paper left behind by the late Félix Bernard of Paris,
entitled “ Recherches ontogéniques et morphologique sur la coquille des Lamelli-
branches” will be published shortly in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. We
are extremely glad to find that some one is looking after the manuscripts of our
lamented friend.

THE Botanical Gazette states that Mr A. A. Heller has resigned his position
at the University of Minnesota, to devote himself entirely to collecting. Corre-
spondence having reference to the Exchange Bureau should therefore be addressed
to Prof. Conway Macinillan.

Dr Scuarrr and Mr Welch have, according to the Jrish Naturalist, made a pre-
liminary dredging trip to Lough Neagh, with interesting results. Dr Scharff and
Mr G. H. Carpenter made a preliminary exploration of Macgillicuddy’s Reeks in
September and hope to publish their results shortly in the above-named journal.

Str Dyce DuckwortH delivered the Harveian Oration at the College of
Physicians on October 18. Dr Wm. Ord will deliver the Bradshaw Lecture
on November 10. The Goulstonian Lectures for 1899 will be devoted to the
pathology of the thyroid gland, and will be delivered by Dr G. R. Murray. The
1899 Lumleian Lectures will be delivered by Dr Samuel Gee. The Croonian
Lecturer for 1899 is Prof. Bradbury, and for 1900 Dr F. W. Mott.—WNature.

Tue Biological Station of the University of Indiana will next year be in
Winona Park, Warsaw, Ind., eighteen miles from its present station in Vawter
Park. One hundred and five students, representing eight States, were present
this year, the session closing on August 18. The session consisted of two terms

1898] NEWS 355

of five weeks each. Courses were offered in elementary geology, embryology,
bacteriology, and botany. According to Science, thirteen instructors and assist-
ants attended to the wants of the students.

THE Thompson-Yates laboratories of physiology and pathology at University
College, Liverpool, were opened on October 8 by Lord Lister.

THE $500,000 given to the Medical College of Cornell caine from Colonel
Oliver H. Payne. This is for a building, his total gift being $1,500,000. Work
on the structure has already commenced and it is expected that the building will
be finished in 1899. Brown University benefits under the will of Rowland
Hazard of Peacedale, Rhode Island, to the amount of $100,000. Mr George A,
Gardner has given $20,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to be
added to the general endowment fund. Science also states that Dr D. K. Pearsons
of Chicago offers $50,000 to Fair Mount College, Wichita, Kans., provided
$150,000 can be raised.

Science states that the Library and Natural History Museum of New West-
minster, British Columbia, were totally destroyed by fire‘on September 11,

THE National Museum of Buenos Aires, which has for many years issued sub-
stantial contributions to Natural Science in its Anales, has just commenced a
smaller publication termed the Comunicaciones of the Museum, intended for the
prompt issue of small and preliminary communications. Except a short note on
anew plant (Prosopanche bonacinac) by C. Spegazzini, all the papers in the first
number are from the pen of the Director, Dr Carlos Berg.

Mr A. S. Woopwarb, of the British Museum, has this autumn visited some
of the Swiss Museums for the purpose of examining fossil fishes. He informs us
that, among others, he had the privilege of seeing the original collection left by
Agassiz in Neuchatel. Most of these are British specimens communicated to the
author of the ‘‘ Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles” by Murchison, Buckland,
Lady Gordon Cumming, and other coadjutors in his work. Among them are
several type specimens which are commonly supposed to have been lost. Among
Stonesfield fossils from Oxford there is the original and almost unique tooth of
Ceratodus phillipsi, named but not described by Agassiz. The original scute of
Phyllolepis concentricus, Ag., from the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Perthshire,
communicated by Murchison, is also there. Lady Gordon Cumming’s contribu-
tion from Tynet Burn includes several figured and described specimens, The
original supposed jaws named Plectrodus mirabilis, from the Ludlow Bone-bed,
figured in Murchison’s “ Siluria,” are also in this collection. It is unfortunate
that these valuable fossils cannot be transferred to some more appropriate resting-
place where they would be properly labelled and appreciated.

THE grants for scientific purposes at the British Association of interest to our
readers were as follows :—Geology Erratic Blocks, £15 ; Geological Photographs,
£10 ; British Carboniferous life-zones, £10 ; Irish Elk in the Isle of Man, £15 ;
Prehistoric Flora and Fauna in Canada, £30 ; Drift section at Moel Tryfan, £5 ;
Ty Newydd Caves, £40 ; Caves at Uphill, £30 ; Zoological Station, Naples, £100 ;
Biological Laboratory, Plymouth, £20 ; Index generum et specierum animalium,
£100 ; Migration of Birds, £15 ; Apparatus for keeping aquatic organisms under
definite physical conditions, £15 ; Plankton and physical conditions of English
Channel, £100; Exploration of Socotra, £35 ; Lake Village at Glastonbury,
£50 ; Ethnological Survey of Canada, £35 ; ‘ Anthropological Notes and Queries,’
new edition, £40 ; Age of Stone Circles, £20; Physiological Effects of Peptone, £30 ;
Electrical Changes accompanying Discharge of Respiratory Centres, £20; Influ-
ence of Drugs upon the Vascular Nervous System, £10 ; Histological Changes in
Nerve Cells, £20 ; Micro-Chemistry of Cells, £40 ; Histology of Suprarenal Cap-

356 NATURAL SCIENCE [November

sules, £20; Comparative Histology of Cerebral Cortex, £10; Fertilisation of Phaeo-
phyceae, £20; Assimilation in Plants, £20; Zoological and Botanical Publica-
tion, £5. A total amount of £1495 which appears to be the record amount. for
one year.

Tue fiftieth anniversary of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science was eminently successful ; 903 members attended. Dr Alpheus 8. Pack-
ard read a paper on “A Half-Century of Evolution, with Special Reference to
the Effects of Geological Changes on Animal Life,” a full report of which appears
in Science for Sept. 2.

Tue Report of the Second Triennial Conference of the Irish Field Club
Union, which took place July 7 to 13, is published in the Irish Naturalist for
September. The report is fully illustrated by Mr R. Welch’s beautiful photo-
graphs, and contains a general account, reports on Arachnida, Hymenoptera,
Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Mollusca, Botany, and Geology, by special-
ists in the various groups.

Tue Natural History Society of New Brunswick increased by thirty-seven
members last year, and this according to the Thirty-Sixth Annual Report is a
satisfactory state of things. We should like to see the list still higher, for the
Society publishes useful and valuable information concerning the province, and
maintains a Museum on which it spent 88 dollars in 1897 out of an income of
471. From the Bulletin of the Society we learn that the Fredericton Natural
History Society, which was founded in 1895, held nine meetings in the winter
1897-8, and through its efforts the schools of the city of Fredericton have been
supplied with sets of common minerals for class use, while the High School is
being fitted out with a set of minerals of New Brunswick, a very excellent edu-
cational effort. We also learn from the same source that Kings County Natural
History Society, which was founded in 1897, holds regular meetings the first
Saturday in each month, has fifty-two names on its roll, and is divided into five
sections—geology and mineralogy, botany, zoology, ornithology, and entomology
—much after the style of our own Croydon Microscopical Club and others, and
each section is in charge of a committee of three.

From the Annual Report of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
for 1897 we note that the income for the year was 1473 dollars, of which 654
were used for the publication of No. 30 of the Journal, while no less than 600
remain as balance. The membership has increased. No. 31 of the Journal is in
the printer’s hands, and the new map of the Malay Peninsula by Mr van Cuylen-
burg has been sent to Mr Edward Stanford for publication, and he hopes to have
it ready in February.

Tue British Mycological Society held in September a successful long excursion
in Dublin. The Jrish Naturalist will publish a full report.

THE Société de Spéléologie founded in 1895 has fully carried out its pro-
eramme. La Feuille des jeunes Naturalistes points out that the Society has sub-
sidised Mr Sidéridés’ work in Peloponesus, that of the Cévenot Club in Les
Causses, and the work of Viré, Chevrot, Bidot, Kiiss, Guérillot, and others in the
Jura, as well as some operations undertaken by Mr Voisin, to render accessible
the Grotte de Baume-les-Messieurs in the Jura. The Society has published
eleven Bulletins with a total of 496 pages, and ten Mémozres, all fully illustrated,
which form a valuable scientific record. There are now 220 members; the sub-
scription is only fifteen francs, and the Society is housed at 7 Rue des Grands-
Augustins, Paris.

Tue Department of Agriculture of the Cape of Good Hope has issued as “G.
53—’98” the “Report of the Marine Biologist for the year 1897” by Mr J. D.
F, Gilchrist. In the report for 1896 and in the present report reliable informa-

1898] NEWS 307

tion has been published relative to the fishing industry and fishing centres of the
Colony. The Colonial Government is now in a position to appreciate the value
of this important industry and the possibilities of its development, and to legis-
late on matter which may arise in regard to it. In order to satisfactory investi-
gate the fishing grounds one of the most modern types of steam vessels was
procured, together with a skilled crew, and they set to work with long lines,
nets, and trawl. So far it is found that there is within easy reach of Cape Town
an excellent trawling ground, rivalling the North Sea in productiveness, and
among other excellent fish, soles occur there abundantly, some of them turning
the scale at 8 and 9 lbs, from near St Helena Bay. The future work of the
“Pieter Faure” as the vessel is called will be the investigation of the Agulhas
Bank from Mossel Bay and Port Elizabeth, Knysna, Port Alfred and East
London. The scientific aspect of the work will be kept in sight (see Natural
Science, October, p. 228) but for the present more attention must be given to the
industry. Considerable opposition has been made to the operations of the steam
trawler, but it has been pointed out that Parliament was only experimenting at
present, that proper investigation would be made into the alleged disturbance of
spawn, and the fishing limits for ordinary fishermen, but that the store of food
available round the coast would certainly be exploited in a country clamouring
for cheap food, and that the interests of a large country would outweigh the
interests of a few individual fishermen. The report contains some valuable
charts, descriptions of a new Arnoglossus by Mr Boulenger, and a new genus of
gasteropoda Neptuneopsis gilchristt by Mr G. B. Sowerby, besides much other
statistical information.

THE general conference of the International Geodetic Association met at
Stuttgart on October 3. Among other matters a programme for a systematic
study of variations of latitude, involving the occupation of stations for a term of
years, was arranged. Two stations will be in the United States, one in Italy,
and one in Japan.

WE learn from the American Geologist that the International Mining Congress
will meet again in 1899 at Milwaukee. The meeting at Salt Lake City in July
had an attendance of about 200. One of the chief objects of the Congress is to
recommend amendments to the mining laws of the United States.

THE Second International Congress of Marine Fisheries was held at Dieppe
on September 2, under the presidency of Mr Perrier. There were four sections :
(1) For scientific research under Mathias Duval ; (2) Apparatus, preparation and
transport under Delamare-Debouteville ; technical education under J. E. Seigneur ;
(4) Fishery rules under Mr Roche. Numerous communications were made to
the Congress.

Tue Tenth Congress of Russian naturalists and physicians was held at Kiev
on September 3, under the presidency of Mr Bunge. Over 1500 members were
present.

Tue Fifth International Congress of Physiologists will be held at the Uni-
versity of Turin towards the end of September 1901.

Tue Library of the Millport Marine Biological Station has received a nearly
complete set of the “Challenger” publications.

Count Cart LAnpsBeEr@, the Bavarian orientalist, will be the leader of the
expedition projected by the Vienna Academy of Sciences, to Arabia. The Swedish
steamer ‘Gottfried’ took the party from Trieste towards the end of October.
Prof. Simony goes as botanist, Dr Kossmat as geologist. The chief objects of
the expedition are Sabaean inscriptions, pre-Arabic archaeology, and the Mahra
language. Dr Layn will go as physician.

358 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

WE learn from the Times that Dr A. G. Nathorst’s Swedish Arctic expedition
has returned safely to Troms6. The expedition was most successful, the natural
history of King Charles Land is now completely known, and some important
hints between the geology of Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen have been estab-
lished. Bear Island was surveyed and mapped by Lieut. Kjellstron and Dr
Hamberg, as also was King Charles Land, the former on a scale of 1:50,000, and
the latter of 1:100,000. Bell Sound was also mapped and the Greenland ice-pack
was touched at 78° 1’ N. lat., 4° 9’ W. long. The geology of White Island was
ascertained, and the island was found to be covered by an ice-cap from which
table bergs are constantly given off. Passing on to Charles XII. Island the
expedition visited Freuenberg Bay, Grey Hook, and Danes Island, after which a
circumnavigation of Spitzbergen and its surrounding islands was completed.
Large collections have been brought back.

WE learn from the Athenaewm that a new scientific expedition to Central Asia
is being furnished by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in Kasan. The
leadership of the expedition is entrusted to Prof. Sorolin, and all the other
members of the expedition are professors of the Kasan University. A prepara-
tory sum of 20,000 roubles has been granted towards the cost. The expedition
will shortly set out towards Nora, in Central Asia, where the members will
pursue geographical, ethnographical, and geological studies.

Auso that a Dutch deep-sea expedition, under the conduct of Prof. M. Weber,
of Amsterdam, is also to start from Holland during the present autumn. Its
range will be less extensive than that of the German deep-sea expedition, as it
will be limited to zoology, botany, and oceanography within the eastern part of
the East Indian Archipelago.

MesILLA PARK has started a science club, under the presidency of Mr C. M.
Barber.

BARNARD CouuEce, U.S.A., will shortly equip a botanical laboratory to be
named in memory of Prof. Emily L. Gregory. The Botanical Club have sub-
scribed 500 dollars as a nucleus to the fund.

Ir is proposed to erect a Biological Station in the Bermudas. Prof. C. L.
Bristol of New York University has gone there with a party of students.

AccorDINnG to the Times of Oct. 1, a specimen of the ‘takahe,’ the large rail
of New Zealand, Notornis mantelli, has recently been found, This bird was first
recognised by Owen in 1847 in a collection of bones sent home by Walter
Mantell, the types of which are in the British Museum. <A second specimen was
obtained from Middle Island by some sealers in 1849, and this was also acquired
by Mantell. In 1852 a third individual was killed on Secretary Island, the skin
of which was preserved. The remains of these two are preserved at the British
Museum. No further trace of the bird was seen till 1879, when one was caught
alive near Lake Te Anau by a hunter who killed it ; it was secured by a Mr
Connor, who sold the specimen in London in 1882 by auction for £110, and it is
now in Dresden. Fragments of a fifth specimen were found in 1884 also near
Lake Te Anau, and these went to Dunedin. The new find makes the sixth
recorded specimen of a species evidently rapidly approaching extinction.
Another and later letter to the Times stated that the writer could furnish
as many specimens as wanted,

AN interesting balloon ascent was made on Thursday, September 14, by Mr
Stanley Spencer and Dr Berson, who reached the altitude of 27,500 feet, only
some 1500 less than Coxwell and Glaisher’s record of 1862, They descended near
Romford after being up some four hours. At 25,000 feet the aeronauts had to
breathe compressed oxygen. Numerous observations were made, the results of
which are awaited with considerable interest.

359

CORRESPON DENCE

THE EVOLUTION OF HORNS

Mr J. T, CuNNINGHAMW’s article is too long for detailed criticism in the correspondence
columns of Natural Science, but perhaps I may be permitted to meet his remarks con-
cerning horns. I take it that the Neo-Darwinian theory of the evolution of horns is as
follows. Other things equal, when the hornless ancestors of horned ruminants first
began to fight by butting, those individuals best succeeded in the struggle which had
skulls most adapted for that mode of combat, 7.e. those which had the thickest and
toughest frontal bones. The next step, after the evolution of strong and solid frontal
bones, was the survival of such individuals as had bosses of bone where the impact of
the blows most fell. Lastly, the continual survival of those that had the bosses best
developed led in time to the evolution of antlers. In the Bovidae a casing of cornified
skin was evolved in addition to the bony projections.

Mr Cunningham asks, ‘‘ Firstly, why do the antlers only begin to develop when the
stag becomes mature. Secondly, why are they renewed every summer and drop off in
spring.” The answer appears to me simple. As he says, ‘‘ it is at least significant that
the males only fight when they begin to breed, and when mature only in the breeding
season.” It follows, since antlers are used only during the breeding season, that at all
other times, being very heavy and cumbersome, they are not only useless, but much
worse than useless. They are then causes of elimination only. Natural Selection
has, therefore, not only evolved antlers, but has also fixed the times of their appear-
ance. They are not needed by the immature stag, and therefore he has them not. They
are not needed by the mature stag after the breeding season and therefore he sheds
them, just as in cold climates animals shed their winter coats when the return of spring
renders these not only useless but worse than useless. The horns of the Bovidae being
much lighter are much less cumbersome than antlers, and for that reason are not shed.

Mr Cunningham attributes the evolution of horns to the stimulation of butting.
The primary objection to this is that which applies against all arguments for the trans-
mission of acquired traits, viz., that it is highly improbable that alterations in the soma
can affect the germ cell in such a manner that the parental modification is produced in
the descendant organism : in other words, it is highly improbable that the modification
which butting produces in the frontal bone of the stag can so affect his spermatozoon,
situated as it is far distant, that after long separation from the parent organism and
union with another germ it develops into an individual which has inborn the special
peculiarity the parent acquired. A priori the transmission of acquired characters seems
impossible, and the onus of proof therefore rests with the upholders of the Lamarckian
doctrine. Suffice it to say that the organic world has been ransacked, and no indubi-
table instance of such transmission has ever yet been proved. Moreover, there is a
special objection to Mr Cunningham’s theory concerning the evolution of horns, viz.
this, that horns do not grow under the stimulation of butting as he seems to imply.
Both in the young deer and the adult they complete their growth before the animal
begins to fight ; during the fighting season they do not increase a grain in weight. If
then use, 7.e. stimulation, does not cause their development in the individual, it cannot
of course have caused their evolution in the species. G. ARCHDALL Retr.

9 VicrorIA Roan, SouTHSEA.

VACCINATION

In the note in September’s Natural Science on the above subject, it is stated as proved
that vaccinia is merely attenuated small-pox. Prof. Crookshank, in his ‘‘ Bacteriology
and Infective Diseases,” fourth edition, 1896, in reference to experiments made to prove
the identity of the diseases, says: ‘‘ The results of these experiments have been very
generally misinterpreted, and claimed by some as conclusive evidence of the identity of
cow-pox and small-pox. Instead of the vesicle being regarded as the most attenuated
form of variola, the experimenters are said to have succeeded in producing cow-pox. It
is quite true that they produced phenomena indistinguishable from the phenomena of
an ordinary vaccination, but that does not mean that they produced the disease cow-
pox. The vesicle which followed the inoculation, whether papular or vesicular, was

360 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898

small-pox. Ceely, Badcock, Voigt, and others, succeeded in engrafting the cow with
small-pox, and when suitable lymph and suitable subjects were employed, the virus was
so attenuated that a benign vesicle resulted. Similar results were obtained by Sutton
and Dimsdale, and identical results by Adams, Guillou and Thiele, by inoculating the
human subject with variolous lymph without first engrafting the disease on the cow.
Vaccination with variola vaccine is simply a modification of the Suttonian system of
small-pox inoculation, only in the first remove the cow is substituted for the human
subject.” And, in the same connection, Prof. Crookshank adds: ‘‘Cow-pox has
never been converted into human small-pox, and, in their clinical history and epidemi-
ology, natural cow-pox and human small-~pox are so different, that the comparative
pathologist is no more prepared to admit their identity than he is prepared to admit the
identity of cow-pox and sheep-pox, or small-pox and cattle-plague.” Of course these
statements are not necessarily conclusive, but they are valuable in showing that, even
among those qualified by experience to form an opinion, the identity of the two diseases
in question is not regarded by all as proved.

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

In a special Antarctic number of the Scottish Geographical Magazine,
received just as we are going to press, Sir John Murray urges the
need of a British Antarctic Expedition. The importance of such an
expedition has been insisted upon more than once in these columns,
and we hope that Sir John Murray’s efforts will assist in impressing
the mind of the Government. Our maps are a feeble blank concern-
ing Antarctica, and the information we possess as to its fauna and
flora is inconspicuous. A few Cetacea, a few seals, and a handful
of birds are all that Mr Chumley can record, while as to the Inver-
tebrata, practically all we know was gained in a few dredgings by
the ‘“‘ Challenger,’ during the cruise from the Cape of Good Hope to
Australia. Dr Murray’s plea is not for a dash to the South Pole, but
for a “steady, continuous, laborious, hydrographical and topographi-
cal examination of the whole South Polar Area during several suc-
cessive years ” which “ would enrich almost every branch of
science, and would undoubtedly mark a great advance in the philo-
sophy of terrestrial physics.” He asks some of our wealthy citizens
to come forward with £100,000, which might be placed in the
hands of the President of the Royal Society.

NOTICE

To Conrrisurors.—All Communications to be addressed to the Eprror of NATURAL
ScIENCE, at 29 and 30 Bedford Street, London, W.C. Correspondence and Notes
intended for any particular month should be sent in not later than the 10th of the
preceding month.

To THE TRADE.—NATURAL Scrence is published on the 25th of each month ; all
advertisements should be in the Publishers’ hands not later than the 20th.

To ouR SUBSCRIBERS AND OTHERS.—There are now published TwELve VoLUMES
or Natura Science. Nos. 1, 8, 11, 12, 13, 20, 23, 24 being our oF PRINT, can only
be supplied in the set of first Four Volumes. All other Nos. can still be supplied at
ONE SHILLING each.

Price of Set of Vols. I., II., III., IV. . ; 2 ~ £2 110) 40
re a Sp NGAABRE AUIS YAGI. é ‘ i ergs a)
35 ee eee SV Ls : : : ; 21 “35105 0

JAN S 1899

NATURAL SCIENCE

A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress

No. 82—Vo.. XIJI—DECEMBER 1898

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BuBoNIC PLAGUE IN VIENNA

THE occurrence of fatal cases of plague in connection with the
Bacteriological Laboratory at the General Hospital in Vienna has
attracted much comment from the press, and is not without its
lessons. It may appear surprising to some that such incidents are
not of more frequent occurrence. As a matter of fact they are very
rare, and this for two reasons. The majority of pathogenic organisms
soon lose much of their virulence when cultivated for any length of
time outside the body ; some become harmless in a few days, others
not for weeks or months, while there are bacteria which seem to
retain their pathogenic powers almost indefinitely. In most cases
virulence may be restored by suitable passage through the animal
body. ‘The chief reason, however, for the rarity of accidents lies in
the routine precautions taken in the laboratory when dealing with
pathogenic organisms. Such precautions are the first lessons im-
pressed upon the student; for they are necessary, not only as a
safeguard to the experimenter, but in order to preserve the cultures
themselves from contamination. Carelessness shows itself at once
in impurity arising in the cultures, and although the carelessness
which leads to this is not necessarily the same carelessness which
contaminates the worker’s hands, yet both spring from the same
cause, and one is rarely present without the other. Cultivations are
carried out on moist media, and micro-organisms growing on such
media do not escape into the air and do not seem to constitute any
source of danger by inhalation. In the desiccated condition this is
not so, but cultures are usually discarded and destroyed before they
become dried up, and, moreover, drying is fatal to many kinds of
bacteria. In all laboratories the beginner acquires, or ought to
acquire, the technique necessary for the protection of himself and
his cultures by practice upon harmless organisms. Once acquired,
it becomes in time practically a reflex action, and the fear of infec-
tion is scarcely present to the mind.

Nevertheless there will always be reckless persons, and accidents
will at times occur. Some organisms are especially virulent and
dangerous to work with, for instance, the bacillus of glanders. Even

2C

362 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

typhoid fever is perhaps at times contracted in the laboratory, and
one fatal case of cholera has been definitely traced to this source.
Such instances are, however, so rare as to be of historic interest.
Laboratory infection is, in fact, a risk almost infinitesimal in com-
parison with the risks run in the post-mortem room or at the bedside,
or even in a crowded omnibus. It is the dog in the road who bites
you, not the dog you keep chained up in a cage. ‘The recent case
of plague at Vienna appears to have been due to carelessness on the
part of a drunken laboratory attendant, if, at least, we may trust the
accounts which have appeared in the daily press. The lamentable
deaths of the physician and nurse in attendance were due to direct
case to case infection. The drastic measures which were taken by
the authorities appear to have been completely successful in check-
ing the spread of the disease—a gratifying tribute to the efficacy of
modern sanitary precautions. The warning against carelessness in
dealing with pathogenic organisms is obvious and perhaps timely,
but we are far from agreeing with those who, in a moment of panic,
would raise an outcry against their study in the laboratory. The
good that must result and has resulted from these investigations far
outweighs such rare calamities as the recent plague cases in Vienna;
the occasional warning should only emphasize the need of prudence
and caution in research.

THE BorINGS AT FUNAFUTI

Two instalments of news have recently come to hand concerning
the coral-boring expeditions, whose plans were related in our July
number (vol. xiii. pp. 70, 71). Commander Sturdee’s bold ex-
periment of boring in the centre of the lagoon from the bows of his
ship (H.M.S. “ Porpoise”) was a remarkable success. He moored
his vessel so taut that it was possible to work the hydraulic
boring pipes without risk of their bending or breaking. Mr G. H.
Halligan, who was in immediate charge of the boring plant, reports
that the first bore reached a depth of 144 feet, the total depth of
the bore being 245 feet below the water level of the lagoon, the
depth of water to the bottom of the lagoon being 101 feet. The
first 80 feet below the bottom of the lagoon passed through sand,
composed of segments of Halimeda (a seaweed which secretes a
jointed stem of lime), and of fragments of shells. This gradually
changed into a coral gravel, the fragments being at first small but
getting larger at the deeper levels. At the bottom a mass of very
hard coral rock was met with, and had to be drilled with a steel chisel.
An attempt was then made to enlarge the hole with an under-
reamer ; but in the process the bore-hole became choked with coral
gravel, Efforts to drive the boring-pipes through this with an iron
‘monkey ’ were unsuccessful, and the hole was abandoned. Another

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 363

bore was then started 90 feet nearer the centre of the lagoon, in the
same depth of water. The time allotted did not permit the bore to
reach a greater depth than 113 feet, and the material was similar to
that in the other bore.

The deepening of the old bore, discontinued last year at a depth
of 698 feet, on the main island of Funafuti, at first proceeded
slowly, having been delayed by a temporary failure of water. The
party were landed by the London Missionary Society’s steamer, “John
Williams,” on June 20th last. As was anticipated, little difficulty
was experienced in re-driving the lining pipes into the old bore, and
washing out the sand and rubble which had choked the bore-hole.
Pipes were laid from the site of the old bore to some small water-
holes from which a supply of fresh water was obtained for the
boiler. By July 25th, the re-lining and cleaning of the old bore
having been successfully accomplished, boring was resumed, and
when the “ Porpoise” finally left on September 6, a depth of 987
feet had been reached. The bore last year terminated in soft
dolomite limestone at 698 feet, but below this is a hard rock, so
hard that the portion of the bore-hole which penetrates it no longer
needs to be lined with iron pipes, a condition which facilitates the
work of boring.

Mr A. E. Finckh reports that this hard rock is largely composed
of corals and shells. At a depth of 840 feet on the ocean face of
the reef there is a strongly marked shelf, as shown by the soundings
of Captain A. Mostyn Field of H.M.S. “ Penguin,” and it is con-
sidered that this shelf, at the 140 fathoms level, marks the down-
ward limit of the coral formation. The fact that coral rock occurs
far below this depth strongly suggests that subsidence must have
taken place.

Mr Finckh has conducted successful experiments on the rate of
growth of the various reef-forming animals and plants. In con-
junction with Mr Halligan he has accomplished some satisfactory
exploration of the deep-sea reefs. They have also levelled accu-
rately several lines of section across the atoll, and fixed large and
permanent datum-marks for the benefit of future observers. These
will show whether the atoll is undergoing elevation or subsidence,
and whether it is growing seawards or not. The boring was to con-
tinue and Mr Finckh was to go on with his observations until the
middle of November. The diamonds, however, had almost run out.

We are indebted for this information to our correspondent, Mr
C. Hedley. The results, so far as one can judge, are compatible with
Darwin’s theory ; but we must wait until the cores, already brought
to Sydney by Mr Halligan and Foreman Symons have been subjected
to thorough microscopic and chemical examination. Until this has
been done no opinion can be offered as to the conclusions, but we

564 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

can all unite in praising the perseverance of our Sydney friends and
the bold conception of Commander Sturdee, and in congratulating
them on their truly remarkable success. —

THE BABEL OF TERMINOLOGY

“THe Witness of Science to Linguistic Anarchy” is the startling
title of a sixty-four page pamphlet compiled by Lady Welby and
printed for private circulation. By collecting from different scien-
tific writings a number of passages in which technical terms are
used in different senses, or in which such varying use is criticised,
she aims at showing: first, that the language employed by scientific
authors lacks that very consistency and precision which we have a
right to expect; secondly, that concerted action ought to be taken
with the view of securing a general consensus in usage. The
extracts, chiefly from Nature, Science, and Natural Science, are
sorted under the headings: General, Physics, Biology, and [Taxo-
nomic | Nomenclature. These quotations, she believes, to constitute
“evidence of an almost incredible state of things in the scientific
world.”

Incredible though it may appear to “a humble layman,” as
Lady Welby terms herself, the situation is painfully familiar to
every worker in science; and there must be many who agree with
us that it is like to go on to the end of the chapter, despite every
well-meant effort towards reform. For, what are the causes of this
lawlessness? They are mainly two, and those two are very distinct
in kind. The first, in the words of a great master of language, is
“pure ignorance, madam!” Setting aside the half-educated
dabblers in science, how many of us there are who are sometimes
impelled just a little out of our depth. Ne sutor ultra crepidam, is
admirable advice more easily given than followed. This cause is
one for which remedies are conceivable. We might, for instance,
make publication a penal offence, only permissible to those who
had passed the severest examination, and we might burn in the
market-place all writings unlicensed by an international censorship
which should have absolute control over every new term proposed.
We do not say that these remedies are practicable, and we fancy
that even Lady Welby will not admit them to be desirable; but
the facts of history permit us to imagine them. ‘The second cause
is one that lies at the heart of the whole matter, and must persist
so long as scientific investigation continues; it is, in fact, the
advance of science itself, and for it the only conceivable cure is
absolute stagnation, which is no cure at all. The widening of
knowledge renders it impossible for a term or a name to have
precisely the same connotation to-day as it had twenty years ago.
A new species may involve the rediagnosis of its genus; a fresh

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 365

observation may necessitate a modified definition. A term that
was in use when knowledge was vague and general must be re-
stricted or abandoned as knowledge becomes more detailed and
accurate. One man will restrict the meaning of the old word,
another will propose a new word; and the number of new terms
proposed will vary in proportion to the number of investigators.
Each approaches the problem from a different standpoint ; and who
shall decide which conception is the correct one, which term is the
best ?

Scientific terminology is, and always must be, in a state of flux.
Scientific language is, in this respect, just like any other language.
And its evolution is subject to the same laws as govern, not merely
all language, but most other mutable things. Whatever those laws
may be, we cannot admit with Lady Welby “that in all other
directions the first condition of human advance has been the
implicit conviction that such advance was possible—and was
imperative.” Take Lady Welby’s own instance, the alphabet.
Which alphabet? In Europe alone there are at least seven
alphabets in use, and each of those has many ways of writing its
constituent letters. In our own islands the same letters express
different sounds according as one is writing Welsh, Gaelic, or
English. Even here uniformity is a delusion: in language it is
a vain hope. Whether we wish it or no, change will take place,
new terms will be proposed, and the fittest will survive.

We would not appear to undervalue the labours of Lady Welby.
Those who care to write to her at Denton Manor, Grantham, for a
copy of her pamphlet will find it instructive reading. If she will
continue her task, and will bring together the passages in which
modern scientific terms were originally proposed or subsequently
modified, she will render greater service to the cause she has at
heart than by the republication of mere querulous criticism. And
if towards the second edition that Lady Welby promises we might
add a final suggestion, we would write across the blank pages, so
thoughtfully provided, the one word, “ Index.”

THE AUTHORSHIP OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ty our review of Professor W. W. Watts’ “Geology for Beginners ”
(p. 422) attention is drawn to the figures of fossils said (with some in-
accuracy) to have been “ prepared for ” Zittel’s “ Grundziige,” and to
the fact that no reference is made to the original source of those
figures, many of which are certainly not to be ascribed to Professor
Von Zittel himself, though the student might be led to suppose
that they were. Such are Walcott’s restoration of a section across
Calymene senaria, here wrongly assigned to Triarthrus becki ; Holm’s
restoration of Olenellus kjerulfi ; Owen’s picture of the pearly nautilus

366 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

in its bisected shell; Henry Woodward’s restoration of Pterygotus
anglicus. We think it right to remark specially on this feature,
because it is an instance of a habit far too common with writers of
text-books. Let us look at a few other recent cases. Professor
W. B. Scott, in his “Introduction to Geology,” favourably noticed
by us last April, has copied Dr Traquair’s first (1888) restoration
of Pterichthys from Bashford Dean’s “ Fishes, Recent and Fossil,”
and has marked it “From Dean after Smith Woodward.” The
same legend is attached to Dean’s own faulty attempt at a restora-
tion of Dipterus, and we can only hope that Smith Woodward feels
complimented. Parker & Haswell’s “ Text-book of Zoology ” teems
with similar errors. Ray Lankester’s figures of the head shield of
Cephalaspis and Traquair’s restorations of Pterichthys are marked
“ From the Brit. Mus. Cat. of Fossil Fishes,” although the writer of
that Catalogue was careful in both cases to acknowledge the author-
ship of the figures. Similarly Traquair’s restorations of Palaeonascus
macropomus and Platysomus striatus are marked ‘ From Nicholson
and Lydekker,” in spite of those authors having expressly noted the
figures as “after Traquair.” So, too, a restored outline of the bones
of the shoulder-girdle of Plesiosaurus is said to be “after Zittel,”
who all in vain had taken care to state that it was “nach Owen.”
Then comes Mr Beddard with his book on birds, reviewed by us
this month, and assigns to Andrews the authorship of Ameghino’s
figures of the skull and pelvis of Phororhacos inflatus, simply
because Andrews copied those figures (with due acknowledgment)
in his paper in Zhe Jbis. Examples crowd to our hand, especially
in books by lesser writers, but we have only room for one more
scapegoat. Last year Professor A. Issel published a ‘‘ Compendio
di Geologia.” In this Huxley’s old (1862) restoration of Holopty-
chius is attributed to “ Traquair,” while Pander’s ancient restoration
of Asterolepis ornata is marked “ Pterichthys (Traquair).” As this
was published by Pander in 1858, we should imagine that Dr
Traquair was then a schoolboy.

Now is not this a parlous state of affairs, evincing what the
costermonger described as “a very careless handling of the truth”
by a class of men whose studies are supposed to lead them to a
special reverence for truth and accuracy? To depict an elaborate
dissection or to construct a restored figure of an extinct animal, is
just as much an embodiment of the results of original research as
pages of written description. The attribution of such figures to the
last text-book writer that has happened to copy them is an act of
scandalous injustice to those to whose patient research the said
figures are due. The purchase of clichés or of permission to photo-
graph woodcuts is a purely commercial affair, and it matters not at
all from whose work a restoration was last copied. In any case, if

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 367

an advertisement has to be given, it need not be in the form of an
untruth. The student wishes, we presume, to be directed to the
original source of the figure and not to be sent on a wild-goose-
chase from text-book to text-book. On the latter principle the
whole of “ Hamlet” might be attributed to writers in the daily
press.

We can put the point quite clearly to the gentlemen referred to
above. How would they like to see the results of their own original
researches placed to the credit of any author that chanced to quote
them? Or how would they like to have the obsolete ideas of older
authors fathered on them? At the least they would denounce such
action as a gross injustice, and they might say that it contravened
the most elementary notions of morality.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN NATIONAL MUSEUMS

WE have so often urged the advantage of having a permanent photo-
graphic establishment connected with our museums, that we welcome
the address recently delivered to the Royal Photographic Society by
its President. All the more do we welcome it, seeing that the
President is the Earl of Crawford, who, as one of the Trustees of
the British Museum, speaks with knowledge of the need and of the
practicability of supplying it without any additional cost to the
nation. Berlin and Munich, he pointed out, have shown that a
photographic department can issue the finest work, can be of in-
calculable value to institutions in all parts of the world, and yet can
be self-supporting. He pleaded forcibly that some such establish-
ment should be attached to the British Museum.

In this connection it is satisfactory to learn that at least one
small step in the desired direction is being taken at the Natural
History Museum. A studio for the use of photographers is being
built, and when this is completed it will be possible for investigators
to photograph the specimens in the collection under better conditions
of lighting and of quiet than are now attainable. We do not, how-
ever, learn that it is contemplated to attach a photographer to the
establishment, or even to train an attendant as operator. The chief
use to which the studio will be put will be the photography of speci-
mens for the illustration of the Museum catalogues. Those who
wish to utilise the accommodation for other scientific purposes will,
whether they be connected with the Museum or no, still have to
import their own apparatus and their own photographer at an ex-
pense which weighs heavily upon most students of natural history,
and seriously hinders the proper illustration of scientific papers.
However, the wedge is being slowly driven in; we must be grateful,
and we live in hope.

368 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

THE FRANK BUCKLAND COLLECTION

AMoNG other matters that cannot but prove interesting reading to
the authorities at South Kensington Museum, the Report of the
Select Committee recently issued contains the following paragraph :—

“We recommend that the Museum of Fish Culture should be
abolished. Previous recommendations to this effect have been made.
Phe Secretary and the Director both agree that it should be removed,
and it has already been offered to two public bodies, being rejected by
both. The fact is that this collection is dangerous owing to the large
amount of alcohol in which the fish are stored; it is obsolete, not
having been revised or increased for several years ; and it does not
carry out its obligations under the testamentary conditions of Pro-
fessor Buckland’s will. It occupies a good deal of space. Opinion
being unanimous, we hope that this collection may disappear without
delay.”

The state of things is no doubt disgraceful, but the remedy
proposed seemed too severe to many naturalists, and among others
to the Piscatorial Society, which appointed a committee, consisting
of Dr C. S. Patterson, Mr G. J. Chatterton, and Mr C. E. Walker, to
investigate the matter. The following report was unanimously
adopted by the Society :—

“The committee inspected the collection, which they found in a
deplorable condition, and quite inadequate to carry out the testator’s
intentions, evidently owing to absolute neglect since it was taken
over. There being no catalogue it is impossible to determine how
much of the original collection still exists. The purchased additions
apparently consist of something less than two dozen specimens, the
majority of which have no direct bearing upon British fish industries.
A large amount of the space allotted to the exhibit is taken up by
objects which, however interesting in themselves, have no connection
with either fish or fisheries. Your committee fully endorse the
opinion of the Select Committee of the House of Commons as to the
danger arising from the specimens preserved in spirits, as the build-
ing is entirely unsuited for the storage of such exhibits, but fail to
see the point of the objection as regards the Buckland bequest, inas-
much as the majority of the fish in alcohol belong to the Day collec-
tion, which is not in any way an industrial exhibit, and should be
placed in the Natural History Museum. As regards the testator’s
intention to provide a consulting and reference room for his fellow-
countrymen, whether interested in sea or river fisheries, your com-
mittee are of opinion that such an educational centre is urgently
needed, and that the collection in question, although inadequate
through neglect, is capable of being brought up to date and of taking
the place contemplated for it by the donor. Subject to Mrs Buck-
land’s life interest a sum of £5000 was bequeathed to the Director
and Assistant-Director of the South Kensington Museum in trust for
the British nation to provide lectures on fish culture in connection
with this unique series of specimens. Your committee, however, have

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 369

failed to ascertain what has been done with this money. All that
they know is that no such lectureship exists, despite the statement ot
Mr George Bompas in his ‘Life of Frank Buckland,’ published in
1885, that after the death of Mrs Buckland ‘£5000 was given to
found a lectureship. Your committee have read with regret the
recommendation of the Select Committee . . . [quoted above].

“Tn face of this recommendation the matter is urgent, and your
committee are of opinion that steps should be taken at once to avert
such a calamity as the extinction of this collection would prove to be.
With this object they advise that the whole of the facts of the case
be made public through the instrumentality of the Press, and, if
necessary, by the question being raised in the House of Commons.”

We agree that the destruction of the collection and the ignor-
ing of Frank Buckland’s intentions would be matter for great
regret. Could not the Marine Biological Association take the
matter up ?

New Museum BvuILpINGs AT LIVERPOOL

On July 1, Sir William Bower Forwood, Chairman of the Library,
Museum, and Arts Committee of the City Council, laid the founda-
tion stone of the new Technical School and the extension of the
Museum Buildings at Liverpool. The present museum buildings
stand on a plateau sloping abruptly towards the west. By exca-
vating the slope, which consists of Permian rock, down to the level
of Byrom Street, sufficient accommodation, three storeys in height,
will be provided for the Technical Schools, while the Museum
galleries will be carried forward on their present level over the
Schools. The architect of the new building is Mr E. W. Mountford
of London. The extension of the Museum will be 90 feet above
the level of Byrom Street, and will measure from N. to 8. 162
feet, and from E. to W. 190 feet. The galleries, of horseshoe
shape, will be continuous with those in the existing building, and
will not be divided in any part of their course by walls or parti-
tions. They will be 420 feet long and 33 feet wide ; the lower, to
contain the invertebrates, will be 19 feet high and lighted from the
side ; the upper, to contain the vertebrates, will be 27 feet high and
lighted from the roof. There will be new and well-appointed
laboratories for the Director and his assistants, as well as new
administrative offices. The buildings will be of brick, faced with
Stancliffe stone from Darley Dale, Derbyshire. They will be
ventilated and heated by 4 miles of 3 in. pipes, discharging into
every room purified and warmed air to the amount of eight million
cubic feet per hour. The stairs are to be of stone, the floors of
concrete, and the roof chiefly of steel. These buildings will be, next
to St George’s Hall, the largest in the city and probably the finest
museum buildings in the United Kingdom outside London. It is

370 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

most cheering to see the attention now being paid to scientific and
technical education and to intellectual culture in the great commercial
city of Liverpool.

THE REDUCTION OF THE TEETH AMONG MAMMALS

THE professors and lecturers in our Agricultural and Veterinary
Colleges have many opportunities of making substantial contribu-
tions to biology. They deal with a series of problems which the
student of organisms uninfluenced by artificial surroundings can
rarely hope to find within his range. They observe changes in the
structure and function of organs which they are able to correlate
with known factors in the process of domestication or cultivation of
the animals or plants they happen to study. They also have
facilities for embryological research among the vertebrates, far ex-
ceeding those obtainable under any other circumstances. We who
are interested in the purely theoretical questions of biology thus
welcome with peculiar gratification any contribution from a naturalist
who has taken full advantage of these favourable conditions, and
enlivened the dull routine of teaching with comparatively broad
generalisations.

One such contribution is contained in the seventy-ninth annual
Programm of the Royal Wurtemberg Agricultural Academy at
Hohenheim, dated 1897, but received from the author, Professor
W. Branco, a few weeks ago. Professor Branco is the distinguished
palaeontologist who succeeded Quenstedt in the University of
Tiibingen, but was unfortunately compelled by ill-health to relin-
quish the duties of the professorship after too brief service. Having
now happily recovered, he devotes his energies to the Academy of
Hohenheim, and his unusually wide sympathies in biology still
stand him in good stead. A short time ago he published a descrip-
tion of some peculiar teeth, almost human in shape, from the Upper
Eocene or Lower Miocene ‘ Bohnerz’ of Wurtemberg (Jahresh.
Vereins fir vaterl. Naturk. Wirttemb., 1898, pp. 1-140, pls. i.-ii1.).
He now follows this memoir by the present contribution, which
discusses the nature and origin of the reduction of the dentition
among mammals in general.

After some preliminary considerations and a broad outline of
the facts, Prof. Branco applies the knowledge he has obtained in the
course of his professorial duties. He points out that one principal
cause of the reduction of the teeth is the shortening of the jaws.
Among domesticated animals this shortening is shown to be due to
at least two causes. It happens when the food requires compara-
tively little mastication ; animals of any particular race fed upon
soft food produce short-faced descendants, while others of the same
race continually fed upon hard food always retain longer jaws and

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 371

face, also more slender limbs. Continual in-breeding tends to keep
the jaws and face elongated and the limbs slender; while the
frequent accession of new blood has precisely the reverse effect. In
connection with this Prof. Branco ingeniously remarks, that in early
Tertiary times, when there were much fewer mammals than in later
times, in-breeding must have been comparatively common and may
thus account for the universal long jaws and numerous teeth
characteristic of all genera of the period.

A second cause of the reduction of the mammalian dentition is
the preponderating growth of one or more of its components ; such
as the excessive development of the canines in Sus, and of the last
molar in Phacochoerus.

As already long recognised, teeth also disappear when their
function is lost. Hence the loss of the upper incisors in ruminants
and most of the incisors in elephants, when the tongue and the trunk
respectively usurp their functions. Hence also the loss of canines
when effective weapons in the form of horns appear.

Finally, it follows from these considerations that changes in the
mode of life and feeding have always been most potent factors, not
only in modifying the individual teeth, but also in tending towards
their reduction in number and the preponderating development of a
few.

A New PERIPATUS

A Goop deal was said about the Peripatidae in the pages of Natural
Science in connection with the publication of the fifth volume of the
Cambridge Natural History, and in the series of short articles giving
the opinions of various experts on the classification and constitution
of the Arthropoda. Since that time the literature of this interest-
ing family has been enriched by several papers, by far the most
important of which is Dr Willey’s memoir on the species he procured
in New Britain (see Natwral Science, vol. xiii. p. 280). New Britain
is an island lying off the east coast of Papua and forming part of
the Austro-Malaysian sub-region of the Australian Region of Sclater
and Wallace. Hitherto no member of this group had been dis-
covered in this area, although several species have long been known
from the adjacent sub-regions of Australia and New Zealand. One
species too has been recorded from Sumatra; but some authorities,
including Dr Willey, seriously doubt the accuracy of this locality
on the grounds that this alleged Sumatran species is apparently
generically identical with the Neotropical members of the family.
Other zoologists, on the contrary, not unmindful of such facts as
the distribution of the existing species of tapirs in the large Malay
islands and in tropical America, are not quite so sceptical and see

1 Vol. viii. pp. 122, 215, and 285; vol. x. pp. 97 and 264.

372 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

nothing particularly unusual in the existence of close relationship
between a Sumatran and Brazilian species. Now if Dr Willey’s
Peripatus had proved to belong to the same type as the Sumatran and
American species, then presumptive evidence in favour of the correct-
ness of the localityassigned to P. swmatranus, would have been supplied.
This, however, is not the case. Nor is it a particularly surprising fact,
considering the great faunistic differences that obtain between
Sumatra and New Britain with regard to many groups of animals,
especially those, like the Peripatidae, with very limited means of dis-
persal. More surprising is it on zoogeographical grounds that the New
Britain species also presents no near affinity with the species that
are met with in Australia and New Zealand, seeing that the latter
are congeneric. So, too, is it equally distinct from the last remain-
ing type, namely, that which inhabits 8. Africa. The great interest
attaching to this species lies in fact in the circumstance that it
occupies an isolated position and is distinguishable from the rest of
its allies in exactly the same way that they are distinguishable from
each other, that is to say in external structural characters, in details
of internal anatomy and in the mode of development of the embryo.
And since the other previously known types had been designated by
generic names, there was no other course open to Dr Willey than
to assign a name to his new species. Unfortunately, he prefers, for
unstated, but no doubt excellent reasons so far as they go, to
regard the sections of Peripatidae as merely of sub-generic impor-
tance-——unfortunately, because in nine cases out of ten, such titles
always assume the higher rank, and no doubt Paraperipatus will
follow its destiny. The result is that this new form rejoices in the
sixteen-syllabled title of Peripatus (Paraperipatus) novacbritanniae.
Regarding these divisions for the moment as genera, we now have
the following: Peripatus, Neotropical Region and Sumatra; Peri-
patopsis, S. Africa; Peripatoides, Australia and New Zealand; and
Paraperipatus, New Britain. The characters in which these genera
resemble and differ from each other are usefully summarised in
tabular form on p. 37 of Dr Willey’s memoir.

A NEW PALAEOZOIC SPONGE

Dr J. M. CLarKE of Albany has sent us a paper contributed by him
to the American Geologist (vol. xx. pp. 387-392, pl. xxiii, Dee.
1897), on “ A Sphinectozoan Calcisponge from the Upper Carboni-
ferous of Eastern Nebraska.” The new sponge, to which Dr Clarke
has given the name Amblysiphonella prosseri, is nearly cylindrical in
form and about 100 mm. (4 inches) in length. It is built up of a
vertical series of chambers or segments, and a central cloacal
tube extends throughout its length. The interior wall, the
transverse septa roofing the chambers, and the cloacal walls, are

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 373

directly traversed by canals. The chambers are also irregularly
divided by thin, apparently non-perforate, partitions. The walls
are now of crystalline calcite of secondary origin and- nothing is
known of their original characters.

This sponge is closely allied to forms from the Productus lime-
stone of the Salt Range, India, and from the province of Asturias,
Spain. So far as mode of growth is concerned, these Carboniferous
Calcisponges resemble the similarly segmented sponge genera
Barroisia, Thalamopora, Tremacystia, &c., from the Lower and Upper
Greensand, but no true comparison is possible until the minute
nature of the wall in the palaeozoic forms has been ascertained.
If this should prove to be spicular in character, there can hardly be
any further doubt of their relationship to the Cretaceous genera
referred to. These latter have recently been placed with the
Sycons by Dr Rauff, but their true systematic position is not
yet fully established. It should be remembered that the segmented
mode of growth is not limited to the Pharetron Calcisponges ; it is
also well shown in the Jurassic Hexactinellid genus, Casearia of
Quenstedt.

BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE

WE have received several publications which are of interest to the
agriculturist abroad. From New South Wales comes a “ Manual of
the Grasses” of the colony, issued by the Government botanist, Mr
J. H. Maiden. It is a praiseworthy attempt to bring the native
grasses before the farmer and botanist, not only for purposes of
identification, but as a guide for their cultivation and improve-
ment. New South Wales has, according to present knowledge,
about 200 indigenous species included in 56 genera, and of each
of these the author gives an adequate botanical description (in
English), with references to figures previously published, and in
addition any information he has been able to gather on the
value as fodder and other uses. There are also notes on habitat
and geographical range in the Continent. Of some of the species
useful figures, including habit and floral dissections, are given.

Mr Maiden also sends a pamphlet on the vegetation of Lord
Howe Island, to which he paid a short visit at the beginning of
the year. His collections have resulted in several additions to the
flora of this little island, which, as at present known, includes 217
indigenous species of flowering plants and ferns, with 20 introduced
ones. The chief difficulty with which the farmer has to contend is
the wind ; it is said to be no uncommon thing for it to blow strongly
for three months at a stretch. The wind-break question is therefore
an important one, and every patch of cultivation is protected by belts
of indigenous or planted trees.

374 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

A contribution towards a Flora of Mount Kosciusko, also by
Mr Maiden, is an account of an expedition of a few days to the
highest mountain in Australia, 7328 feet or more above sea-level.
It includes a list of the plants found at different altitudes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sends a couple of pam-
phlets issued by Dr Hart Merriam, chief of the Biological
Survey. One, entitled “Life Zones and Crop Zones of the
United States,’ is invaluable to the farmer. It embodies the
results of ten years’ study of geographical distribution applied
to practical agriculture. North America is divisible into seven
transcontinental belts or life-zones and a much larger number of
minor areas, each of which, up to the northern limit of profitable
agriculture, are adapted to the needs of particular kinds or varieties
of cultivated crops. A coloured map shows the distribution and
limits of the zones, while the text contains lists of the varieties of
cereals, fruits and other crops, which may be profitably grown in
each area. Dr Merriam expresses the hope that his report will
serve to emphasize the extreme wastefulness of indiscriminate
experimentation, by which hundreds of thousands of dollars are
thrown away each year in futile attempts to make crops grow
in areas totally unfitted for their cultivation. It also suggests
alternatives where, owing to increased competition or diminished
demands, the farmer receives an inadequate return for his labour.
For instance, in northern New York and elsewhere, where dairying
is an almost exclusive but unprofitable industry, the land is shown
to be adapted for sugar-beet, or several excellent varieties of wheat
and other crops to which little or no attention is now given. The
second bulletin, by Prof. C. S. Plumb, is a special instance on the
same lines. It deals with the geographic distribution of cereals,
and indicates what varieties may be grown with profit in each area.

THE RHONE BEAVERS

THESE unfortunate animals decrease each year by reason of chase
and flood. Mr Galien Mingaud writes in the Revue Scientifique
that no less than nine of these rodents were captured during 1897
in the delta of the Camargue, at the junction of the Rhone with the
Gardon. The beaver goes up this latter river as far as Pont-du-
Gard. Two years ago Mr Mingaud addressed a note to public
officers and to naturalists at large, asking for the protection and
preservation of this animal. He proposed that the riparian owners
should turn their attention to ‘ castoriculture’ as a source of revenue,
and thus enrich themselves while preserving the stock. Fortunately
the old prize of 15 francs a head for all beavers killed, which was
promoted in 1855, was suppressed in 1891 on the urgent represen-
tations of Mr Valéry Mayet. Since 1890, Mr Mingaud has kept a

1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 375

record of all deaths which came to his knowledge, and he finds it
average 8 to 10 a year. As he points out, Washington has estab-
lished a colony of beavers in the National Park, and it is a complete
success. The animals are kept to a woody valley through which
runs a small water-course, and they there construct their dams and
tunnels, quite familiarised to the occasioned presence of man, who
can watch their daily life and works unheeded. He hopes that
France will similarly protect the few last beavers remaining in the
Camargue delta, and we cordially echo his sentiments.

A. T. MASTERMAN ‘ON THE DIPLOCHORDA’

SOME preliminary notes by Mr Masterman in the Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for 1896, and also in the Zoologischer
Anzeiger, paved the way for a more detailed paper of great interest
in the Quarterly Journal for Microscopical Science (vol. xl., 1898).
The paper is divided into two parts—(1) on the structure of
Actinotrocha, and (2) on that of Cephalodiscus. As the result of an
exhaustive study of Actinotrocha (the curious larval form of Phoronis)
by means of sections, Mr Masterman comes to the conclusion that
the close similarity in structure to the three members of the group
now commonly called Hemichorda points to a genetic connection, but
that Phoronis and Cephalodiscus should be considered as constituting
a distinct sub-division of the Chordata, for which the name of Diplo-
chorda is proposed, owing to the possession by its members of paired
lateral notochords. Balanoglossus is supposed to represent a later
phylogenetic stage, in which these lateral notochords have fused in the
median line. As there are certain animals which have always been
objects of disagreement on account of their generalized types and the
doubtful nature of their genetic relationships, so, too, there have
always been certain organs or structures around which controversy
has continually raged; the notochord is one of these, as students
of the literature of Balanoglossus are well aware. If Mr Masterman’s
views are correct, and the paired structures he describes both in
Actinotrocha and in Cephalodiscus are really of notochordal value, he
has established a fact of the greatest scientific interest and phylo-
genetic importance, and we cannot but think he has made out a very
good case for the homology. The figures on plates 25 and 26 are, we
think, especially instructive, but they are nevertheless not universally
regarded as convincing. Mr 8S. F. Harmer, whose views on the noto-
chord of Cephalodiscus have been expressed in the Zoologischer Anzeiger
(vol. xx., p. 342), while fully agreeing with Mr Masterman as to the
relation of Phoronis with Balanoglossus, does not admit the homologies
with Cephalodiscus, on which the main argument depends. Mr
Masterman claims to show that the structure described by Mr Harmer
as the notochord in Cephalodiscus is really the subneural gland, and

376 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 1898

that lateral notochords, similar to those in Actinofrocha, are found in
addition. The subneural gland, according to our author, is the same
structure as that in Ascidians, and probably corresponds to the hypo-
physis in Vertebrata and the proboscis-vesicle (‘ Herzblase’ of Spengel)
in Balanoglossus. Mr Harmer puts the contrary view very fairly and
clearly, but he is evidently at a loss to explain the alleged lateral
‘notochords, if they are not what our author believes them to be. We
hope that Mr Masterman will be able, in the absence of ontogenetic
proof of origin (for Cephalodiscus), to bring more exact histological
evidence to bear upon this vexed question, and to prove his point
more completely.

Meanwhile, he has already done much in convincing us of the
relationship between Phoronis and Balanoglossus, by comparison with
Actinotrocha, and we are encouraged to hope for further light upon
those matters which remain doubtful.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

ONncE again Natural Science changes its address, and this time, not
the address only, but the editorial staff. The reasons for this were
given at length in our October number. They need not be repeated
here; but we cannot omit to thank the numerous friends who have,
since then, extended to us sympathy, both publicly and privately.
We trust that all our subscribers, readers, and contributors will con-
tinue to support Natural Science, which, we have every reason to
believe, will continue to deserve their support. There will be no
change in the policy of the Review, no break in continuity, and no
lowering of the standard hitherto set before it. But those who wish
well to the future of this journal, should remember that it lies with
them to see that it has a future. Editors cannot edit unless there
are contributions of articles, notes, and news; publishers cannot
publish if every reader reads the copy of a friend or of a library.
Send at once your contributions and your subscriptions for
Volume XIV. to the new editorial and publishing offices, The
address is—-Mr Young J. Pentland, 11 Teviot Place, Edinburgh.

And now the type-writer ceases for a moment to click, but the
hands remain on the key-board. The days may have been anxious
and the nights weary, but the work has brought us many interests
and many friends, and it is hard to withdraw from it. Yet the
last word must be written, and we write it with its oldest and fullest
meaning——“ Good-bye.”

570.1 377

I

Mr Herbert Spencer’s Biology '

HAT strikes one most forcibly on reading the ‘ Principles of
Biology” in this new and enlarged edition is the extra-
ordinary range and grasp of its author, the piercing keenness of his
eye for essentials, his fertility in invention and the bold sweep
of his logical method. In these days of increasingly straitened
specialism it is well that we should feel the influence of a thinker
whose powers of generalization have seldom been equalled and
perhaps never surpassed. In no narrow or carping spirit should
we approach the work of one who has done so much for the cause
of evolution. We may set our queries against this or that matter
of detail, or may enter a protest against the acceptance, without
more conclusive proof, of certain broader principles; but we should
not dwell on minor defects nor allow more grave differences of
opinion to blind us to the gift which Mr Herbert Spencer placed in
our hands thirty-four years ago, and has borrowed for awhile that he
may return it to us with added weight.

The phrase ‘added weight’ is perhaps ambiguous. The volume
of the work is materially increased, and new sections of much
interest have been added. But though the intellectual weight has
also been augmented, it is an open question whether it would not
have’ been wiser to leave intact a treatise of such unique historical
importance and value, relegating corrections and additions to notes
and appendices. With all the labour and care Mr Spencer has
expended on it during the last two years, it cannot be said that,
having due reference to the contemporary state of knowledge in
each case, the revised volume of 1898 holds the same position as
the original work of 1864.

The scheme and method of the Principles of Biology and the
manner in which Mr Spencer develops his subject are presumably
so familiar as to render anything more than the briefest summary
unnecessary. Starting in Part I. with the Data of Biology, the com-
position and properties of organic matter, the actions of external
forces on it, its reactions to these forces, and its characteristic modes
of metabolism, are severally discussed, and the conception of Life,

1 «The Principles of Biology,” by Herbert Spencer, vol. i, Revised and Enlarged
Edition. 8vo, xii+706 pp. London: Williams & Norgate. 1898. Price 18s,
2D

378 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

as involving the continuous adjustment of internal relations to
external relations, is developed. To this part a new chapter on the
Dynamic Element in Life is added.

After an indication of the scope of biology, the inductions of
the science are considered in Part II. Generalizations as to
growth, development, adaptation, genesis, heredity, and variation,
ave formulated and illustrated ; the classification and distribution of
organisms are considered, and the foundations are thus laid for the
erection of an aetiological superstructure. The special-creation
hypothesis is contrasted with that of evolution; the arguments for
the latter are marshalled; and the causes of evolution discussed.
Internal and external factors are distinguished ; and the phenomena
are explained as due to the joint action of (1) direct equilibration
through the inheritance of acquired modifications, and (2) indirect
equilibration through the survival of the fittest in the process
termed by Darwin ‘natural selection. A concluding chapter
on Recent Criticisms and Hypotheses, in which any inherent
tendency to evolution along predetermined lines is rejected, brings
the volume to a conclusion, save for Appendices, amongst which
are the Contemporary Review articles on the Inadequacy of
Natural Selection.

In the additional matter of the present edition Mr Herbert
Spencer would probably lay most stress on the chapter which deals
with the Dynamic Element in Life, and on the arguments in favour
of direct equilibration through the inheritance of acquired modifica-
tions. While other additions, such as those on protoplasm, on
metabolism, on nuclear changes, on embryological development, and
on classification, serve mainly (for there are original suggestions) to
bring the work into line with modern biological conclusions, the
supplementary discussion of the Dynamic Element in Life is in
touch with the author’s distinctive philosophical tenets, and the
arguments for direct equilibration are adduced in support of
biological conclusions which Myr Spencer regards as of extreme
importance. It seems desirable therefore to direct attention
specially to these -points.

After leading up to a conception of Life as the definite com-
bination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive,
in correspondence with external co-existences and sequences, and
after urging that the degree of life varies as the degree of corre-
spondence, Mr Spencer briefly indicates certain vital processes which
remain outside the conception as thus formulated, and contends
that all cases “exhibit that principle of activity which constitutes
the essential element in the conception of life.” This he terms the
dynamic element in life; and he asks whether it is inherent in
organic matter or is something superadded. The notion of a super-

1898] Mk HERBERT SPENCERS BIOLOGY 379

added vital principle is rejected. To the questions: Is there one
kind of vital principle for all kinds of organisms, or is there a
separate form for each? How are we to conceive the genesis of a
superadded vital principle ? Under what form does it exist in the
dessicated rotifer ?—to these questions the answers show that the
alleged existence neither has been nor can be conceived. In attempt-
ing, on the other hand, to realize the dynamic element as “inherent in
the substances of the organisms displaying it, we meet with difficul-
ties different in kind but scarcely less in degree. The processes
which go on in living things are incomprehensible as results of any
physical actions known to us.” “ What then,” he asks, “are we to
say—what are we to think? Simply that in this direction, as in
all other directions, our explanations finally bring us face to face
with the inexplicable. The ultimate reality behind this manifesta-
tion, as behind all other manifestations, transcends conception.”

One must not forget, in reading the chapter on the Dynamic
Element in Life, that it forms part of a work which is itself only a
part of a System of Philosophy. In Biology as a science it is ques-
tionable whether reference to the Ultimate Reality, and to noumenal
as contrasted with phenomenal causation, is advisable. Phenomenal
causation, as an explanation of natural occurrences, involves the
reference of an event to a group of antecedent conditions of which
it is the outcome. Noumenal causation, as an explanation of the
totality of natural phenomena, involves their reference to an under-
lying raison @étre. The one deals with a chain of antecedents and
sequents the ends of which, and its manner of support, are beyond
the range of our mental vision as men of science. Of the other we
can at best know or assume that it is. The phenomenal universe
presents us with, or rather is, a series of data. Science explains
their connections, and leaves to philosophy a discussion of their
noumenal origin. But since Mr Spencer here treats Biology as part
of a System of Philosophy the ascription of phenomena to their
noumenal origin is not out of place, though one would have thought
that a reference to “ First Principles” should have sufficed.

And one cannot but think that Mr Spencer’s treatment of the
subject may render him liable to some misconception. On the first
page of the “ Principles of Biology” there stands now, as there stood
in 1863, the assertion that “the properties of substances though
destroyed to sense by combination, are not destroyed in reality. It
follows from the persistence of force, that the properties of a com-
pound are resultants of the properties of its components—result-
ants in which the properties of the components are severally in full
action though mutually obscured.” Further on we are told (in sections
added to the present edition) that living matter “ originated, as we
must assume, during a long stage of progressive cooling,” in which

380 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

occurred “the formation of molecules more and more heterogeneous.”
The inference which may fairly be drawn is, that the properties of
living substance are the resultants of the properties of its components.
But at first sight this does not seem to square well with the asser-
tion that “the processes which go on in living things are incompre-
hensible as the results of any physical actions known to us.” One
can picture how certain folk will gloat and “ chortle in their joy”
over this confession, for such it will almost inevitably be regarded.
But it is not likely that Mr Spencer is here, in so vital a matter,
false to the evolution he has done so much to elucidate. The two
seemingly contradictory statements are not really contradictory ; they
are made in different connections; the one in reference to pheno-
menal causation, the other to noumenal causation—to an underlying
“ principle of activity.”

The simple statement of fact is that the phenomena of life are
data suc generis, and must as such be accepted by science. Just as
when oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water, new data for
science emerge, so, when protoplasm was evolved, new data emerged
which it is the business of science to study. In both cases we
believe that the results are due to the operation of natural laws, that
is to say, can, with adequate knowledge, be described in terms of
antecedence and sequence. But in both cases the results, which we
endeavour thus to formulate, are the outcome of principles of activity,
the mode of operation of which is inexplicable. We formulate the
laws of evolution in terms of antecedence and sequence; we also
refer these laws to an underlying cause the noumenal mode of action
of which is inexplicable. This, if I interpret him rightly, is Mr
Spencer’s meaning. ‘

The use of the phrase ‘dynamic element in life’ is also open
to misconstruction. A dynamic element, as understood by science,
is a link in the phenomenal chain, and is expressed in terms of
the inter-relation of the parts of a material system, and of actu-
ally observed attractions and repulsions. But it is customary for
physicists to introduce at the outset of their discourse detinitions
of force as the cause or raison d’étre of motion. These are now com-
monly regarded as a pious tribute to the noumenal, like grace before
meat, and independent of physics in its strictly scientific aspect.
But since such a definition of force not infrequently stands in the
fore front of a treatise on dynamics, it may be regarded, noumenal
though it be, as a dynamical postulate. It is in this noumenal sense
that the term ‘dynamic’ is used in Mr Spencer’s phrase. It is,
we are told, a “ principle of activity.” And unless the reader is
careful to note the distinction, Mr Spencer’s position will be open
to misconstruction. Vitalism is a philosophical conception; and
the controversy which is suggested by the term is largely due to the

1898] MR HERBERT SPENCERS BIOLOGY 381

failure of the controversialists to distinguish carefully between
noumenal and phenomenal causation.

The question may now be asked whether Mr Spencer is well-
advised in attempting to comprise under one definition of life (1)
certain fundamental attributes of living matter and (2) sundry com-
plex results of evolution. Is not the correspondence between life
and its circumstances rather the result of the interaction of vital
factors, under the influence of the environment, than a primary
characteristic of the vital factor itself? And if it be true that the
degree of life varies as the degree of correspondence (which is open
to question, since it is rather struggle than attainment which calls
forth most strenuous vital energy) it is surely aggregate results,
rather than fundamental properties, that we have in mind. If a
unit must be selected, the cell, not the metazoon or analogous
plant-complex, seems to be the more appropriate. But it is per-
haps more profitable to fix attention, not on the variable unit, but
on the common substance—protoplasm ; to say that protoplasm has
certain specified metabolic or other properties, that the. processes
carried on in virtue of these properties are what we comprise under
the term life, and that evolution is the outcome under certain given
conditions.

If Mr Spencer reply that the outcome in evolution is itself a
fundamental attribute of life, it is difficult to see, in view of his
position with regard to the dynamic element, on what @ priori
ground he criticises the hypothesis of determinate evolution—the
orthogenesis of Eimer. To argue that the evidence of such de-
terminate evolution is insufficient is a perfectly legitimate scientific
position. But Mr Spencer goes further. He says: “The assertion
that evolution takes definitely-directed lines is accompanied by no
indication of the reasons why particular lines are followed rather
than others. In short, we are simply taken a step back, and for
further interpretation referred to a cause said to be adequate but
the operations of which we are to imagine as best we may.’ Ii,
however, we are to believe in a dynamic element .in life, itself
inexplicable, and if the outcome in evolution is in itself a funda-
mental attribute of life, it is difficult to see why the inexplicable
determinate tendency should not be part and parcel of the in-
explicable operation of the dynamic element. But if we regard
evolution as the result of the complex interaction of vital factors,
then we may fairly demand an explanation of the manner in which
such interaction can give rise to orthogenesis.

It would be unprofitable (even if space permitted) to discuss at
any length the pros and cons of what Mr Spencer terms direct
equilibration. He is deeply committed to the inheritance of ac-
quired modifications, and on this hinges much of his interpretation,

382 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

not only of biological, but also of psychological and sociological
phenomena. But though this must to some degree influence his
judgment, he is too honest and independent an enquirer into
truth to champion a cause on these grounds alone. The pendu-
lum of biological opinion tends to swing towards a negative
position in this matter; and it is a distinct gain that the arguments
in favour of the doctrine in question should be presented with all
the’ logical force and power of exposition which Mr Spencer has at
his command. And if there are many who still remain unconvinced,
this is not for want of fresh arguments but because they feel the
necessity for more facts.

Of the three lines of evidence on which Mr Spencer in large de-
gree relies, the first is co-adaptation of co-operative parts. But until
we know more accurately than we do at present what amount of co-
adjustment is effected in each case by individually-acquired
modifications, we lack important data for discussing the problem.
Probably its range is very considerable. The horse runs and leaps
with the added weight of his rider; and the work of all domestic
animals of draught and labour shows that their organization will
stand a strain far in excess of the normal. Granting that individual
coadjustment will in each generation do much (just how much
remains to be proved) it would seem that in the case of evolving
antlers the added weight will for long be within the limits of such
individual coadjustment. But it has been urged that the moditica-
tion of a structure may foster, though it may not cause, congenital
variations of like kind. For whereas other variations, since they
are out of harmony with the circumstances of life, will constantly
be eliminated in the struggle for existence, these are allowed free
play. In other words, congenital variations coincident in direction
with acquired modifications will be favoured. And there is no
necessity for them to be accurately simultaneous; individual co-
adjustment will make good the deficiencies of congenital co-
adaptation. In view of such considerations the argument from
coadaptation has little weight till we have fuller knowledge of
the range of coadjustment.

The second line of argument adduced by Mr Spencer is the pos-
session of unlike powers of discrimination by different parts of the
human skin. But here again we need more facts. It is assumed
that this discrimination is largely congenital. But we do not know
what proportion of it is individually acquired. We do know
that a comparatively short period of education in little-used areas
largely increases, is said to double, the power of discrimination.
And some psychologists contend that—as the term discrimination
implies—-what we are really dealing with is the special application
of the power of central perception, not an increased delicacy of

1898] MR HERBERT SPENCERS BIOLOGY 383

peripheral nerve-endings. There is no spot on the skin that is not
sensitive to the touch of a pencil-point. And we do not yet know
the limits within which education and practice may refine the appli-
cation of central powers of discrimination within little-used areas.
The facts which Mr Spencer adduces may be in large degree due to
individual experience ; discrimination being continually exercised in
the tongue and finger-tips, but seldom on the back or breast. We
need a broader basis of assured fact.

It may here be parenthetically noted that Mr Spencer’s conten-
tion that the nervous system is the result of direct equilibration is
difficult to square with the embryological discovery that the axis-
cylinders of the afferent spinal nerves take their origin in the nerve-
crest (which differentiates into the ganglia on the dorsal roots) and
grow outwards to their distribution in the skin or elsewhere.

A third line of evidence on which Mr Spencer relies is that
supplied by vestigial organs, which, he contends, must be due to
dwindling through disuse. But the explanation is beset with diffi-
culties. Is there any evidence that a structure really dwindles
through disuse in the course of individual life? Let us be sure of
this before we accept the argument that vestigial organs afford
evidence that this supposed dwindling is inherited. The assertion
may be hazarded that, in the individual life, what the evidence shows
is that, without due use, an organ does not reach its full functional
or structural development. If this be so, the question follows : How
is the mere absence of full development in the individual converted
through heredity into a positive dwindling of the organ in question ?
In our present state of ignorance we can only adopt the form used
by Mr Spencer and say: No reply.

It will be understood that the foregoing considerations are urged,
not in support of one hypothesis or in opposition to another, but in
advocacy of suspended judgment, of calm and impartial weighing of
evidence, and, above all, of further observation and experiment.
While the forces of battle are arrayed under the banners All-Suffi-
ciency of Natural Selection and Inheritance of Acquired Modifica-
tions, there are non-militant biological agriculturalists who till the
fields of observation and assert that they in truth provide the sinews
of war. It is to them that we must look for conclusive evidence
one way or the other.

We cannot part with Mr Spencer (only for a time it is hoped)
without again expressing sincere admiration for his genius and
gratitude for his self-sacrificing labours. C. Lioyp MorGay.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL.

612.8 384

II

Artificial Formation of a Rudimentary Nervous
System ?

(d@) Inhibition —Cl. Bernard’s theory of nervous interference,
can be corroborated by producing two excitations of an almost
equal intensity at the ends of a big thread of mercury and by
putting two halves of a tube of caoutchouc in the midst of the
thread’s surface. This tube performs the part of a heart, because
its halves alternately approach and part at the passage of the
waves. (Fig. 8.) Rest is doubtless the issue of the wave inter-
ference. (Action of the internal branch of the spinal.)

(e) Formation of the dilated parts of the nervous system
by means of wave interference. — The continual excitations
applied to both ends of the thread of mercury, originate the forma-
tion of a central dilatation. (Fig. 8’) It, then, seems probable that the
ganglions, plexus and dilated parts of the embryonic system, whose
consistence appears to be even softer than that of adults, are owing to
the continuous shocks of the vibrating waves that cause the unequal
distribution of nutritive materials or the movement and concentra-
tion of the already constituted parts. Now, if the consistence of the
neuroplasma increases, one may be sure that the construction of the
definitive dilated parts has been finally attained.

This is, in fact, an extremely important cause of differentiation
and consequently of progress. In higher animals the most con-
tinuous and intense sensations terminate in an excessive division of
the nervous elements confined to the neuroglia. I have dis-
covered that the consistence of the latter presents an exceptional
importance. For instance, if you wish to obtain a great number of
multipolar cells anastomosed almost in the same manner as those of
the gray substance, you have but to place on some lard any viscous
liquid (coloured albumen, saliva).2 Even the action of a terminal
resistance on a big thread of mercury (augmentation of consistence,
inclination, etc.) suffices to obtain the claviform or cerebriform
shape.

(f) On the action of moderating nerves. — These are

1 Continued from p. 339. The figures referred to are on p. 334.
2 Models of multipolar cells. Matwral Science, August 1898.

December 1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 385

probably traversed by some wave-currents endowed with a
celerity that gives them, in some measure, the means to oppose
themselves to the currents coming from the ganglia of the sym-
pathetic system as well as to those issuing from the viscera. Some
disordered movements of the heart, intestines, etc., are naturally the
result of the suppression of the action of the brain and medulla.
This theory ought to be applied in cases of vascular inhibitions.

(7) On the part performed by the medulla.— Les résultats
contradictoires de plusieurs physiologistes au sujet de la fonction des
cordons antérieurs et latéraux de la moelle, tenaient aux modes
divers d’excitation mis en usage. Vulpian a constaté qu il faut une
excitation trés énergique pour déterminer les contractions dans les
muscles recevant leur innervation des parties situées au dessous du
faisceau excité; que les attouchements, les piqtres, les grattages
superficiels ne produisent aucun résultat, mais qu’on met en jeu
Vexcitabilité de ces faisceaux en les pressant entre les mors-d’une
pince.”* That is, until a powerful wave is produced. It is just the
same with large masses of mercury, the vibrations of which cannot
be brought about by rubbing them with a soft feather, and much
less when the latter is protected by a cover.

“Ta substance grise de la moelle ne conduit point les impressions
sensitives par des voies anatomiquement préétablies, mais pour ainsi
dire d’une maniére indifférente. Les sections transversales peuvent
diviser la moelle epiniére dans une grande partie de leur épaisseur,
et dans un sens quelconque, sans interrompre la transmission des
impressions sensitives, & la condition qu'une petite partie de la
substance grise (une sorte de pont) ait été respecteé par l’incision.
L’animal conserve la possibilité de reconnaitre le point du corps
irrité.. Vulpian parlait d'une sorte d’empreinte originelle des
sensations. . . .”. The question is quite a simple one. The differ-
ences are only in the intensity of the vibration occasioned by the
variability of distance, degree of excitation, point on which it worked,
protecting envelopes, etc., and as a matter of course the excitations
are conveyed almost in the same manner and each of them reaches
certain points of the sensorium, however small the bridge of the
gray substance may be.

Make a sort of a medulla with mercury and insert some con-
ductors on its surface. (Fig. 10.) Some multipolar cells and con-
ductory threads are then to be disposed in its upper part, as in
Luy’s methods. A stronger excitation will then rise higher than a
weaker one and the elements placed at different heights will be
diversely effected. Each of these reacts on the motor threads, but
only in case it be sufficiently excited. (Fig. 10.) In this manner
the perception of simultaneous sensations and multiple reactions

1 Kiiss and Duval, l.c., p. 67.

386 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

are elucidated. For example: if you have a burning on your hand
and another on your foot, they will be directly followed by two
corresponding movements of retraction.

(h) Reflexes or reflected circulation (see fig. 11)—My
theory alone can explain the law about the symmetry of reflexes
(fig. 10), as well as those concerning intensity, irradiation and
generalisation: this means that as the mechanical excitation grows
stronger the vibration propagates itself more or less and produces a
more and more general reaction. The same explanation can prob-
ably be applied to the phenomena of eccentricity. Any associated
sensations, for instance the tickling, cough and nausea provoked in
the pharynx by the pressure of a strange body in the ear, are to be
explained by an excitation so strong as to radiate to the immediate
centres of reflection.

Association of ideas consists perhaps but in the fact of a suc-
cessive vibration; whenever some elements vibrate, such as stand
near are set in motion by them.

“ All our voluntary motions are in general associated, since we
cannot move a single muscle separately but must needs move a group
of them.” And why so? Because the vibrations of the anatomic
elements tend inevitably to radiate, notwithstanding inertia. This
is observed in capillaries of mercury when examined under the
microscope.

(<) Influence exercised by the mass.—Milne-Edwards says
that the stronger an animal is the more mass its nervous system
holds. This is made manifest in fig. 12.

(7) Persistence of impressions.—It is but natural that an
excitation endowed with some intensity should produce a vibration
that only dies away gradually. (Fig. 15.) Several optical delusions
are probably owing to this cause.

(k) Theory of sleep—The multipolar cells of the centres are
known to have amoeboid motions and to articulate and disarticulate
themselves (fig. 19) by the discharge of CO*(?). This is exhaled
in less proportion during sleep.

(1) Model applicable to a general conception of a nervous
system.—I constructed a model in mercury, of the circulation of
sensations and concomitant phenomena, modifying that (p. 48)
presented by Luys in his great work on the brain. The most
curious part of it all is that the vibrations provoked in the con-
ductors are only reflected with sufficient intensity on the cells
standing nearer the sensorium, and that they pass from thence to
the big interior cells. There seems therefore to be no complicated
mechanism whatever, everything appearing to result from a mere
question of strength and distance. (Fig. 20.)

(m) Evolution of the nervous system.—tThe following experi-

1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 387

ments need to be performed in a dark room, or at night, by illuminat-
ing the liquid with the somewhat oblique rays of a candle so as to
obtain a marked shadow. Fill a floating dish with water and pour
on its surface a small quantity of petroleum. (Fig. 21.) This forms
large drops, on the edges of which appear certain pseudopodia with
terminal spheres: these advance inwards originating therein several
curious phenomena which are of no consequence at present.

The drops of petroleum playing the part of the neuroplasma or
that of the nervous elements in evolution, project a distinct shadow
on the white ground of the dish. Water is the actor intrusted with
the all-important part of the neuroglia.

Some other liquids may likewise serve the purpose, since there
is nothing indispensable, except the question of their densities and
the indissolubility of the one in the other.

In fig. 21 there are five large masses of neuroplasm scarcely
differing from each other (young foetus). But when any waves are
produced in a single direction (acoustic impressions for instance) A
and B are divided (fig. 22) and six different elements result from
this mechanical division. Then, whenever the vibration continues
with increasing intensity, one of the drops lengthens, adhering by
one of its sides to the neuroglia or water, and finally constituting
a kind of myelocyte, undergoes tension in several directions and
sends the element ¢ forth. We now have eight drops instead of
the five primordial ones and a very small one, a little like the
nervous embryonic cells (fig. 23). Still the experimenter goes on
his task of differentiation and provokes many waves in two directions,
obtaining thirty-seven more or less deformed drops (fig. 24). To
close the experiment a new undulatory motion is provoked with a
thick pin in a single direction and some currents of bipolar, multi-
polar, apolar, and articulated cells are formed, some resembling
neuromata, while others are elliptical and have nuclei in them.
(Fig. 24.) Though these figures are transitory I believe that per-
manent ones could be obtained by employing a melted grease which
would preserve the shapes acquired by vibration as it cooled. The
vibration can be provoked either in the water or in the floating
drops of petroleum themselves.

Conclusions.—The origin of individuals and the construction of
the organism by internal conditions is an exceedingly probable
principle ; even the origin and functions of the nervous system may
generally be explained by vibrations, by waves running through
certain conductors of neuroplasma and modifying it mechanically
with regard to its shape, division, and connections. Every cause
influencing general nutrition will modify the physical and chemical
properties of the neuroplasma and of the neuroglia in whose bosom
it slowly performs its boundless evolution.

388 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

Haemorrhages, commotions and circulatory disturbances; changes
in the density and chemical composition of the blood, in the
fecundating principle of the nerve which excites and awakes it
just as the nitric or chromic acid set the mercury trembling; bile,
that is a great excito-motor ; inanition, inertia and fatigue ; all that
alters the compass of the vaso-motory systems or the nutrition of
the neuroglia or of the neuroplasma may conduct to idiotism or
frenzy.

There is a rise and fall also, an immense waste of nervous com-
plications resulting from a small, simple, mechanical event. Now,
when any shapeless, primordial masses of neuroplasma are for ever
vibrating and dividing themselves, be it by work, by exalted excita-
tions of the sensorial impressions, by innumerable congestions, or by
hunger, love, strife, meditation, millions of small, light, plastic, mov-
able cells issue, that are incessantly articulating and dislocating
themselves. Intellectual perfection could otherwise not be con-
ceived. Broca observed that when the faculty of speech was lost by
alterations of the frontal centre, it could be gradually recovered by a
development of the opposite hemisphere. In short, the evolution
of which the encephalon of man and animals is susceptible by means
of education, demonstrates that the systems and divisions of nervous
elements are not invariable, but perfectible and variable, and that
the neuroplasm keeps for a longer or lesser time the shapes ac-
quired, according to the degree of its density and vigour, several
circumstances, such as age, vivacity of first impressions or vibrations,
its repetition, and so forth, being at all times prevailing.

Physiologists evince an inveterate electro-mania in their exer-
tions to explain everything by the action of electricity, taking the
negative variation together with the fact of the existence of electric
fishes as a principle. Well, notwithstanding the minute investi-
gations of Du Bois Reymond and others, they have never been
able to explain anything by such means, not even the influence of
compression upon the nerve, or the muscle’s vibration. Besides,
Marey and Moreau have demonstrated that the electrical apparatus
of the Zorpedo works as a muscle and has almost muscular jerks ;
second, that the nerves with which it communicates do not carry the
electricity to this queer machine, having only the faculty to set it to
work. Moreau proves that when the prisms are treated with various
reagents the discharges are not modified, but that they come to a
stop when the former coagulate the albuminoid bodies, that is, soon
after the physical conditions of the phenomena are modified. I
suspect that nervous vibration has a mechanical action there, and
that electricity unfolds itself on account of some rubbing or vibrations
in the separating partitions of the 100,000 or 200,000 close-packed
prisms. Becquerel says it is enough to press a disc of cork on

1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 389

an orange and to separate it rudely afterwards to load it with a
considerable quantity of positive electricity.

I conceive the human organism, therefore, as a machine containing
some five or six litres of blood employed in appropriating to itself
the nutritious principles of food, absorbing oxygen, and carrying it
to the nerve to make it vibrate by discharges of carbon dioxide.

Yet, this machine being magnificent, it were suitable to imitate
it by means of some very sensitive springs (muscles) moved by the
vibrations of a great number of semi-liquid conductors (nerves) in
communication with proportionated deposits or centres.

The inheritance of nervous affections or that of the attributes of
genius may, by consequence, be easily explained. Whenever the
progenitors have a strong, healthy, and active protoplasma, the
nutrition of the embryonic neuroplasma of the descendants is
perfect. All will, in fact, be correlatively nourished, and the germs
united by molecular attraction will form a strong gastrula, a superb
neurochord, and later still the three fundamental embryonic brains.

Féré’s observation regarding the transmission of such nervous
affections, epilepsy and the lke, as manifest themselves so soon as
the general conditions of nutrition improve, can be elucidated thus,
and likewise the singular immunities of wise men as indicated by
foreign physiologists, and Chalumeau’s famous law.

A. L. HERRERA,
Mexico, May 1, 1898,

[It should be explained that Professor Herrera wrote this article
in a language with which he is unfamiliar, and that he has had no
opportunity of correcting the proofs.—Ep. Nat. Sci.]

595.78 390

Ill

The Neuration of Rhopalocera

IVEN the theory of evolution, structural characters of living
insects, whether embryological or imaginal, afford means of
classification according to the persistence among them of various
degrees of specialization from primaeval forms of structure, 2.e. the
links of continuity of specialization in any direction. The neura-
tion of the wings is a structural character common to all Lepidoptera
—a few apterous females excepted. Hepialides and Micropterygides,
perhaps the most ancient groups of Lepidoptera now existing, have
more wing nervures than any other group and associate the Lepi-
doptera with Trichoptera; series of gradations in modification of
neuration in different directions more or less connected (less con-
nected, perhaps, among ancient than recent groups), may be
observed everywhere among existing Lepidoptera; thus reduction in
the number of nervures, or alteration in the position of certain
nervures, connect generalized (ancient) and specialized (recent)
forms of neuration; as a matter of observation, I believe that,
nervures once lost, or the position altered, neither has ever been
regained—hence the different series of gradations.

Fore and hind wings corresponding, the neuration may be referred
to as follows :—Costa=upper margin. (1) Subcostal nervure. (2)
Radial system =nervure with branches. (3) Median system =
nervure with branches (nervules). (4) Cubital system = nervure
with branches (nervules). (5) Anal nervures=several simple
(unbranched) separate nervures.

In this paper I propose mainly to refer to the neuration of the
forewings, and possibly shall not enumerate all the nervures of the
wings to save unnecessary details.

Cossids, so far as I know, cannot be considered in any way
related to the Rhopalocera, except by connections too remote to
trace ; they retain a neuration relatively more ancient than that of
any group of Rhopalocera.

It may be instructive to compare the Cossid form of neuration
with the several more or less. definite forms representing several
groups of genera in the Rhopalocera, and I may here say that by the
term group I mean an assemblage of species which may be associated
upon a given pattern of wing neuration, or a distinctly connected
modification of the same. In a recent instructive paper upon the
“ Classification of the Day Butterflies,” published January and Feb-
ruary 1898 in Natural Science, Dr Radcliffe Grote has given details of

December 1898) ZHE NEURATION OF RHOPALOCERA 391

the modification of neuration to be observed in the different groups,
and I will briefly refer to some lines of specialization observed.
Group 1.—Generalized Hesperids (Hesperia) retain five-branched
radius in forewings, and three median nervules in very nearly the
ancestral position ; but a modification of the transverse ‘cell’ nervure
in the direction of the cubital system forms a three-branched cubitus
in forewings (ancestral form is two-branched as in Cossids). Among

a i
Australian Cossid.

specialized Hesperids (Pathesperia) one median nervule by incorpor-
ation with the radial system forms a six-branched radius in forewings,
the middle median nervule and the cell nervule in hindwings dis-
appear, and there is a tendency in the middle median nervule in fore-
wings to do likewise. (See Dr Grote’s figures; Nat. Sci., vol. xii.,
pls. i. and i1.).

The neuration of Lycaenids is similar to that of
Pierids, but not identical; in each group specialization
by reduction in the number of radial nervules in fore- LA
wings is observed, but there is this difference, viz.,
whereas among Lycaenids reduction occurs while the
median nervules retain their position and identity as S
such, the same specialization is observed among Pierids
after the incorporation of one of the median nervules
with the radial system. Whether it is possible to take eee
into consideration the relative position of the median ner- (Lycaenid).
vules in the forewings of Lycaenids and associate them with Hesperids
therefor, my personal observations are not sufficiently extensive to
justify an opinion. Certainly the position of the median nervules is
extremely alike in each group, and Dr Grote associates them,
having observed also the tendency among Lycaenids to lose the middle
median nervules in the same manner as do Hesperids. This, so far as

392 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

I know, has not been observed in any other group. The neuration of
Lycaenids is specialized compared with that of the generalized Hes-
perids, and sufficiently distinct from that of Pierids and allied groups
to warrant the conclusion that the latter are as far removed from
Lycaenids as they (Pierids, &c.) are from Hesperids. Lycaenids
and Pierids have attained a similar specialized form of neuration
independently and by different routes. Grote writes, “ Lycaeni-
Hesperidae meet upon a distinctive wing pattern, the Lycaenidae
differ in the main by the reduction of the radial branches.”
Group 2 (A).—Generalized Nymphalids, (Danainae, &c.) retain
five-branched radius, have distinct three-branched cubitus in fore-
wings, and retain the ‘discoidal cell’ trans-
verse vein of each wing. Anosia has
a structural ‘blotch’ (A) _ towards
the base of the cubital system, and a
rudimentary nervure (B) at the base of
the anal nervure in forewings. The latter
<A feature is observed in other groups, and
occurs frequently among the Heterocera.
Anosia has also a subcostal-radius con-
= nection in hindwings (C). Specialized
Nymphalids show a gradual loss of the
transverse ‘cell’ nervure of each
wing, complete loss being attained

2 (Apatura, Junonia, &c.) without in-
Anosia archippus corporation — of the median nervules
(Nymphalid). with the radius system of the forewings—

the two median nervules remain as such, attached
to the radius by a modified remnant
of the ‘ cell’ nervure. es
Satyrids may be associated by
descent with generalized Nymphalids;
the radius system is five- branched,
and the ‘ cell’ nervures are retained
throughout the group, the wing
pattern is distinctly nymphalid. The
Enodia hyperam- features A, B, C of Anosia are not iva
thus Junonia orithya
(Satyrid). observed among Satyrids. (Nymphalid).
Group 2 (B).—Generalized Pierids. Leuwcophasiaisisolatedamong .
the Rhopalocera in respect of the wing pattern, and the neuration
must be regarded as specialized, especially in regard to the arrange-
ment of the radial branches (five) of the forewings.. As a Pierid,
however, baving five-branched radial system, two median nervules,
and three-branched cubitus in forewings, Leucophasia affords a con-
nection between the generalized Nymphalid form of neuration, and

~

1898] THE NEURATION OF RHOPALOCERA 393
the next in sequence among the Pierids, viz. Huchloe, in which

incorporation of one of the median nervules with the radial system
of the forewings forms (as in Hesperids) a six-branched radius.

WS

Euchloe Leucophasia
cardamines sinapts.
(Pierids.)

Pieris daplidice.

Further specialization among Pierids is by reduction in the number

of radial nervules in the forewings, and the movement of the remain-

ing median nervule towards the radial system. The transverse

‘cell’ nervure is a permanent feature throughout the Pierid group.
Group 3.—Papilionids, The forewings have

five-branched radial system, four-branched cubitus,
only one median nervule remaining as such, a
transverse cubitus and connection near the base of
the wings, and two anal nervures. The hindwings
have a subcostal-radius connection, a very per-
sistent feature, which varies only so far as to
form larger or smaller ‘ cells’ in different genera.
One anal nervure only is typical of Papilionid
neuration. All other groups (7.e. Groups 1 and
2) have two anal nervures in the hindwings.

From these notes it will be seen that however
widely the specialized Rhopalocera may differ, u
the generalized forms of neuration have features Papilio machaon
in common—five-branched radius, two median (Eepiionia):
nervules as such, three-branched cubitus in forewings (Groups 1 and
2). Dr Grote believes it is “ uncertain” that the short anal nervure
of Papilionid forewings, is homologous with the rudimentary anal
nervure in the forewings of other groups, and conceives a separate
origin for Papilionids. In such groups of Heterocera as have two anal
nervures in the forewings, a rudimentary nervure is often present (see
Cossids), always at the base of that anal nervure farthest from the
cubital system. Comstock figures Megalopyge crispata, a ‘low’
moth which has an extension of the rudimentary nervure, a remnant
of a third anal nervure in the forewings. Most Rhopalocera have lost
one anal nervure (nearest the cubital system), a loss observed in many
Heterocera; Papilionids retain two, one of which has become rudi-
mentary in other groups of Rhopalocera (also in Cossids and many

25

394 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

Heterocera). Here also we may refer to the features A, B, C of Anosia
(evidently overlooked by Dr Grote); as already stated, these are
not to be observed among specialized Nymphalids. Now, the
cubitus-anal connection, short anal nervure of the forewings, and
subcostal-radius connection in the hindwings of Papilionids are
generalized features, homologous with the features A, B, C of Anosia,
modified and lost in other groups of Rhopalocera ; it is impossible to
regard them in any other light. In this respect then Papilionids
approach the generalized Nymphalids.
Reaction of modification appears to me to have caused different
lines of specialization of neuration in the Lepidoptera, consistent
with adequate support of the wing membrane, and the develop-
ment of wing area and shape; for example, it seems that modifi-
cation of neuration has been rapid in the case of Opostega
crepusculella, which is not highly specialized in wing area and
shape as compared with primeval Trichoptera-Lepidoptera, but
the neuration has been reduced to several simple (unbranched)
nervures. The area and shape of Rhopaloceran wings are, however,
more highly specialized, and the modification of neuration——particu-
larly of the forewings—has been less rapid. If we draw the line
separating primitive Rhopalocera from the mass of primaeval
Lepidoptera at Hesperids, then we have the fact that no
Rhopalocera possess the basal portion of the median nervures,
and this loss we may assume to be the point of separation
(granting, also, modification of hindwing neuration, which every-
where in the Lepidoptera has preceded that of the forewings).
Next we have noted the formation of three-branched cubitus
in the forewings, by the incorporation of one of the median
nervules with the cubital system in Hesperids and subsequent
specialization in the direction of Lycaenids. In another direction,
apparently at some distance from Hesperids, we note that a three-
branched cubitus is a fixed feature in the neuration of Nymphalids’
forewings, that no movement has taken place in the position of the
other median nervules, and very little subsequently among Nym-
phalids and Satyrids. But as the Pierids separated from the
Nymphalid-Pierid stem, the median nervules moved towards, and
one became incorporated with, the radial system. The cubitus
‘blotch’ and rudimentary anal nervure of the forewings and the
subcostal-radius connection in the hindwings of Anosia point to the
possession of the Papilionid cubitus-anal connection, two anal
nervures in the forewings, and a subcostal-radius connection in the
hindwings by those primaeval Rhopalocera from which the Nym-
phalid-Pierid groups originated; and another important fact is that
at this point two anal nervures in the hindwings were retained
(as in Hesperids). Next in sequence come the Papilionids, in
which movement of one of the (Nymphalid) median nervules forms

1898] THE NEURATION OF RHOPALOCERA 395

a four-branched cubitus in the forewings, the generalized cubitus-
anal connection, and the two anal nervures of the forewings being
retained, likewise the subcostal-radius connection of the hindwings.
One anal nervure only, however, is retained in the hindwings; that
is to say, one of those present in Nymphalid-Pierids has been lost.

My conclusion from a study of the neuration is that the distinct
separation of Papilionids in phylogeny from the other Rhopalocera
eannot hold good, and in this I join issue with Dr Grote.
Whether I have clearly demonstrated this in the above, I cannot
say; but the facts are distinctly in evidence that, however widely
the specialized forms differ, the generalized forms: of neuration
indicate a natural sequence in modification—the evolution of the
Papilionid form from a primaeval form such as is illustrated by
Cossids; and of this evolution the generalized Hesperids (1),
Nymphalid-Pierid (2), and finally generalized Papilionids represent
the surviving links in the continuity of specialization, a primary
modification of neuration antecedent to and quite apart from the
special modifications peculiar to the several groups.

I need only refer to Dr Chapman’s paper, “ Butterfly Pupae”
(Entom. Record and Journal of Variation, vol. vi. pp. 106 and 125),
to support my conclusions: “The lowest (ze. most ancient) forms
in all the families are really very close together.”——“ Pierid and
Nymphalid started together, shortly afterwards separating.” Nym-
phalid pupae are capable of lateral movement only, as are Pierids,
but have lost the ‘girth’ which is characteristic of the Pierid and
Papilionid method of pupation; Nymphalids, however, retain the
‘double nosehorn’ pupal structure of Papilionids (7c. a generalized
pupal character), Pierids having lost this particular pupal character.
The ‘ double nosehorn’ is surely corroborative of my conclusion that
the features A, B, C of Anosia are homologous with the Papilionid
cubitus-anal connection, short anal nervure in forewings, and sub-
costal-radius connection in hindwings, which establish affinity be-
tween the Nymphalid-Pierid and Papilionid groups.

If Papilionids be separated from Nymphalid-Pierids in the man-
ner proposed by Grote, then the neuration of Papilionids must be
regarded as isolated, highly specialized, and without surviving forms
connecting it with primaeval neuration from which it has been
derived. On the other hand, the “primary modification of
neuration” among primitive Rhopalocera shows the formation of
the three-branched ecubitus in forewings, with two anal nervures
in hindwings; then follows the formation of the four-branched
cubitus, with loss of one anal nervure in hindwings. This is
more in accord, I believe, with the evidence of development, and
supplies the connecting links between the primaeval neuration and
that of the highly specialized Papilionid. A. QUAIL,

PALMERSTON NortH, NEW ZEALAND.

575.1 396

IV

A Theory of Retrogression

[? is widely believed that the development of the individual is a

recapitulation of the life-history of the race. In other words,
it is believed that every individual begins life asa unicellular animal,
the germ, and then, in a very rapid indistinct fashion, represents, in
orderly succession, all its long line of ancestors, till in the end it
represents its parent. This recapitulation is not more wonderful and
mysterious than any other fact of biology. Imagine the primitive
world, in which only unicellular organisms were present. Suppose
that variations occurred amongst these, just as we know they occur
higher in the scale. Then we may well believe that such variations
as the following oecurred—that, when one cell divided into two, the
resulting cells did not separate, as normally happened, but remained
adherent. This variation, which, like other variations, would tend
to be transmitted, and which, if fortunate, would tend to cause the
ultimate survival of the organisms which possessed it, would be the
first step in the evolution of the multicellular from the unicellular
organism. The dual animal which resulted would reproduce by each
of its cells dividing into two, so that there would be four single
cells which would separate, so as again to form unicellular organisms,
But each unicellular organism would, in general, inherit the peculi-
arities and repeat the life-histories of its grandparent cells by divid-
ing into two adherent cells. A race of two-celled organisms would
thus be established. We may fairly believe that in time a second
variation, which also proved fortunate, occurred, whereby the four
erand-daughter cells also remained adherent until reproduction ; and
afterwards other variations of the lke nature, till an organism was
at length evolved which consisted of a multitude of cells adherent
for the common benefit. When this organism reproduced it would
be by one or more of its cells separating and dividing into two
adherent cells, these into four, and so on, till the parent organism
was represented. Ontogeny would thus necessarily recapitulate
phylogeny. This rule would still obtain when evolution proceeded
farther, and cells had become differentiated and specialised for the
performance of different functions. Every individual would still
begin as a single cell, the germ, and then, step by step, would repre-
sent ancestor after ancestor till, at last, he represented the last of
the race, the parent. The above view of heredity is necessary to
my argument, and apparently is opposed to other and more modern

December 1898] A THHORY OF RETROGRESSION 397

theories which at present seem to hold the field—for instance, Weis-
mann’s theory of Germinal Selection, or Mr Francis Galton’s theory
that so much of an individual is derived from this ancestor, so much
from that, and so much more from a third. Every one of these latter
theories ignores what seems to me the patent fact that the characters
of all the ancestors are not commingled in the final result, the
adult, but that during ontogeny each parent is represented in turn.
It is true that watching the development of an individual, we cannot
say that at such and such a point the great-grandparent ends and
the grandparent begins, that at this other point the grandparent
ends, and behold—the parent! The changes are too complex and
subtle, too swift and fleeting ; moreover, at every turn the variations
from his ancestry of the individual under observation strike in and
add to the apparent confusion.

_ It may be objected that the child during his development does
not represent exactly, nor even closely, any of his remote ancestors ;
and this objection would appear fatal to the above theory of heredity.
On the other hand any sufficient explanation of this vagueness of
representation will go far to establish, not only this theory, but also
that theory of retrogression which is the subject of this article, and
which—if it be a true theory—is in a humble way the complement
of the theory of evolution.

Oftspring, as we know, vary from their parents, and if they
vary, they must do so primarily in one of two ways. Either they
must revert to the ancestral type, and resemble it more than the
parent did, or else they must diverge from it still more than did
the parent. The former variation we term ‘atavistic, the latter we
may term ‘evolutionary,’ since it is on the lines of these latter varia-
tions that evolution proceeds. But of so-called atavistic variations,
_ there are also two kinds; one of which is really atavistic or reversion-
ary, whereas the other, though apparently atavistic, is actually evolu-
tionary. True reversion occurs only when the individual varies so
from his parent that, in his development, he does not recapitulate
the whole of the life-history of his race, but stops short at a point
reached by a more or less remote ancestor, whom in this way he
resembles more than he does his parent. False atavism occurs when
the individual, at an early stage of his existence, begins by recapitu-
lating the whole of the life-history of his race up to his parent, but
during a later stage retraces, or apparently retraces, some of the last
steps made by himself in his development and by the race in its
evolution, and thus, by a species of evolutionary variation, resembles
a more or less remote ancestor more than he does the parent.
Examples of this false kind of atavism are plentiful in nature.

The points here set forth are these. First, that development is
a recapitulation of evolution, in other words, that every individual

398 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

repeats, though very rapidly and indistinctly, the life-history of his
race, beginning with the unicellular organism and ending, in many
cases, with the parent. Secondly, that an individual may so vary
from his parent that he does not recapitulate the whole of the
phylogeny, and that this constitutes true atavism, true reversion.
Thirdly, that there is a false atavism, which is really evolution.
This occurs when an individual after reaching the full development
of his parent retraces some of the last steps of the ontogeny, and
so resembles an ancestor more than he does his parent. More need
not be said concerning the first proposition. As regards the third,
it has been said above that examples of false atavism are frequent.
From the nature of the case observation of it is difficult; for in
every individual this retracement of the ontogeny, this false atavism,
must be very slight—-so slight as usually to be mappreciable. There-
fore it is only by observing the retracement, not in an individual
but in a line of individuals, that it becomes plainly noticeable. It
is by taking advantage of such retracement that ‘Reversed Selection,’
as it has been termed, eliminates a structure which a change of
environment has rendered not only useless, but worse than useless,
more rapidly than would otherwise occur under the mere absence of
selection. For example, Natural Selection has resulted in the evolu-
tion of eyes. In animals dwelling in absolute darkness, e.g. certain
cave-dwellers, the eye has become not only useless, but worse than
useless, since it is an extremely prominent and tender, and therefore
vulnerable, part of the organism. In some such animals we observe
that the eye is better developed in the embryo than in the adult.
Clearly here the animal in its ontogeny retraces some of the steps it
has already made. Clearly also, if ontogeny be a recapitulation of
phylogeny, such retracement was made in the phylogeny as well. It
follows that when a structure, useless both to the embryo and the
adult, is better represented in the former than in the latter, it must
have undergone retrogression through the action of reversed selection,
and that during the phylogeny, after being useful; it became not only
useless, but worse than useless.

The second proposition, that an individual may so vary from his
parent as not to recapitulate the latter stages of the phylogeny, and
that this constitutes true atavism,is the main proposition of the
present thesis; but I have yet to prove that this atavism is the cause
of true retrogression. |

True atavism can seldom be observed in such of the higher
animals and plants as have been evolved under Natural Selection, not
because it does not occur, but simply because it is usually masked
and slight. It is masked because such complex beings seldom or
never retrogress in all their characters at once, and, therefore, such
reversion as may occur in this or that particular is associated with

1898] A THEORY OF RETROGRESSION 399

evolutionary variation in other particulars. It is slight because,
since such species have evolved but slowly, reversion to a not very
remote ancestor does not result in any appreciable change of type.
Thus, under ordinary circumstances, if a man reverted in any parti-
cular to an ancestor of a thousand years ago, no one would recognise
to what the change of type was due. Not only would the change
be too slight, but the observer would need to have a knowledge
of the ancestral form, and such knowledge is usually impossible.
Sometimes, however, recognisable reversion does occur even among
such beings. Thus a man may resemble the portrait of some far-
away ancestor, or again the progeny of an ordinary pair of horses
may exhibit the zebra-like stripes of a remote ancestor. It is not,
however, among complex beings, slowly evolved in every particular,
that we must seek our proofs. We must turn to plants and animals
that have undergone swift evolution in some one particular, and
this, so far as I know, occurs only under stringent Artificial Selec-
tion. For Natural Selection, having care for many characters, re-
sults in but slow evolution; but Artificial Selection, having care for
only one or only a few characters, results in much swifter evolution.
Supposing, then, we take any breed of domesticated animals or culti-
vated plants, and, after choosing the finest specimens, henceforward
breed indiscriminately from these and their descendants ; what then
happens? It is notorious that under such circumstances cessation
of selection is marked by a reversion towards the ancestral type, a re-
version swift in proportion to the swiftness of the antecedent evolution.
Thus, without continued stringent selection, the speed of race-horses
cannot be maintained; they tend to lose their special characters,
and revert to the ordinary horse. The same is true of all other
prize breeds. Again, careful breeding from ordinary horses readily
evolves a speedier race, for the offspring of ordinary horses in many
instances surpass the parents. But, in proportion to the success of
the breeder, further improvement grows continually more and more
difficult, till at length evolution practically reaches a standstill.
Improvement thereafter is very slow indeed. For this reason it is
now very difficult to improve our breed of race-horses. The off-
spring of a pair of the finest animals are in the great majority of
cases inferior to their parents, and, therefore, practically all that the
most stringent selection is now able to achieve is to preserve, not to
improve, the race. It is, therefore, plain that, owing to the increas-
ing tendency towards reversion, rapid evolution quickly slows down,
till, even in the presence of stringent selection, it practically ceases.

But perhaps the most striking proofs of the present theory are
furnished by certain cultivated plants (for instance the apple), which
are usually propagated by means of slips or suckers—that is, by
detached portions of the individual. Practically speaking, the most

400 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

favourable individual of a species has been chosen and multiplied
by means of slips, the rest of the species being eliminated ; and
in each new seminal generation the process has been repeated. Such
plants, therefore, have been evolved by a tremendously severe pro-
cess of selection, resulting in an evolution much more rapid than is
possible among animals or annual plants. But now supposing we
chose any one of these highly divergent varieties, and without
using any selection, bred from seed alone, what again would
happen? There is ample evidence leading us to believe that in the
vast majority of instances the variety would swiftly (that is, in a
very few generations) revert to something very like the wild stock
from which it originally descended, but not to the wild stock pre-
cisely, for, no doubt, while the cultivated species was undergoing
evolution in one direction, it was, under the changed conditions,
undergoing retrogression in other particulars, and in these the reverted
varieties would differ from the wild stock.

I need not dwell longer on the tendency such plants and
animals have towards retrogression. The facts are notorious. But
it seems to me that these facts are strongly adverse to all those
recent theories of heredity to which I have alluded, and which
suppose that each ancestor is not represented in turn during the
ontogeny, but that the characters of all or many of the ancestors
are commingled or are latent in the final result, the adult—Weis-
mann’s theory of germinal selection for instance, or Mr Galton’s
theory, which supposes that, on the average, one quarter of the
total heritage of an individual is derived from the parent, one-
eighth from the grandparent, one-sixteenth from the great grand-
parent, and so on. Were such theories true there could be no
retrogression except through reversed selection, for the more evolved
ancestors would for ever tend to make their influence felt. But
plainly retrogression occurs in the mere absence of selection.
Moreover, if it be true that the organic world has arisen through
the preservation and accentuation of favourable variations, and if
it also be true that ontogeny is a recapitulation of phylogeny, then
it seems to me that it must be further true that there is necessarily
a greater tendency towards retrogression than towards evolution.
For all atavistic variations must tend towards retrogression ; where-
as all evolutionary variations need not constitute extensions of
the previous evolution. They may result in divergencies in new
directions ; or may even constitute reversals of the previous evolu-
tion, as in those cases of which Reversed Selection takes advantage.
Given sufficient time, in the absence of selection, retrogression
must therefore necessarily ensue.

The rationale of retrogression, I take it, is as follows :—
Suppose, as regards any character which has undergone evolution,

1898] A THHORY OF RETROGRESSION 401

that A B C D represent a line of individuals; then if D reverts to
B, that is if D varies from his parent C in such a way that in his
ontogeny he represents the life-history of the race only up to the
point reached by B, omitting the additional characteristic of C,
it is evident from the point of view of heredity, that the series
becomes A B D; or rather it becomes A B, since in effect, D is B.
C then disappears completely and for ever from the series; and it
follows that, if the characters of C ever reappear in E, or any sub-
sequent member of the series, they must do so as a result of fresh
evolution, not as a result of reversion. It is necessary to emphasize
this point for on it my whole argument depends. If D, on the
other hand, varies in such a manner from C that after representing
C, that is after recapitulating the whole of the phylogeny he reverts
back to B, then C does not disappear from the series. C will still
be represented in the ontogeny, and, if his characteristics reappear
in any individual at the end of the ontogeny, that is in the adult,
it will be as a result, not of evolution, but of reversion. As I have
already indicated, it is on such cases as the latter that Reversed
Selection works. Thus, when during the phylogeny any character
becomes useless and selection ceases, retrogression eliminates it
with a speed which is proportionate to the speed of evolution.
But, if it becomes worse than useless, then an additional factor
steps in to hasten the elimination. Reversed Selection then takes
advantage of such apparently atavistic, but really evolutionary
variations as cause an individual, after he has represented his
parent, to revert back again to a remoter ancestor. Moreover
Reversed Selection not only preserves such individuals, but also
eliminates all such individuals as have the worse than useless
characters in a greater degree than their parent, and thus pre-
vents them from influencing posterity.

It would be well to illustrate the foregoing with a concrete
case. Suppose we plant seeds of those garden plants which I have
instanced as having undergone very swift evolution. In a great
number of cases the young plants revert towards the ancestral wild
type. Now I have enquired everywhere, and I have never heard
that the seeds of such a reverted plant, or of any of its descendants
have ever reproduced the cultivated type. This means that the
cultivated type has disappeared absolutely from the series. It will
never again be represented in the ontogeny, and could reappear
only as a consequence of fresh evolution, resulting from selection
as stringent as that by which the cultivated type was originally
evolved ; if it did reappear without fresh evolution it would be
because the reversion to the wild type had resulted not from true
atavism, not from a lapsing of the last steps of the ontogeny, but
from the false atavism on which Reversed Selection works. But,

402 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

since the retracement on which Reversed Selection works is
apparently always small in amount, it never seems to occur in
species that have been so rapidly evolved as these garden plants.
Their reversion, therefore, seems to be invariably due to true
atavism, there being apparently no room for Reversed Selection.
Here, then, is a strong proof, convincing proof as it seems to me,
that true atavism means a lapsing for good and all of the last steps
made in the phylogeny. ;

Two things are evident from the foregoing. First, that there is
on the average a greater tendency towards reversion than towards
evolution, that is, there is a greater tendency to revert towards the
ancestry than away from it, in other words, there is a greater
tendency to let lapse in the ontogeny the last steps made in the phylo-
geny than to add other steps to them. Secondly, the strength of
the tendency towards reversion is proportionate to the swiftness of
the antecedent evolution, and, therefore, species which have been
quickly evolved, tend to retrogress swiftly, whereas species, which
have been slowly evolved, tend to retrogress slowly. For this
reason it is that characters long established in the species are much
more stable than more recent characters, for, in the former case,
reversion, to be appreciable, must be to an extremely remote ancestor,
whereas in the latter, reversion to a much less remote ancestor
results in appreciable retrogression.

Suppose now a certain character in a line of individuals has
undergone evolution. Denote by the symbols A B C D E F, the
evolution of the character in successive individuals of the line, A
being the rudimentary character as it appeared in the first of the
line who had it, F the character when it reached its highest per-
fection. Suppose that cessation of selection occurs as regards this
character. Then F tends to be lapsed, and, when it is lapsed, E
reappears at the end of the ontogeny. But thereafter E also tends
to be lapsed, and D to reappear, and so on, till, in the continued
absence of selection, at length A reappears. But under the same
law A tends likewise to disappear, and then the character vanishes
utterly, and the race reverts to that ancestral condition when the
character did not exist. In this manner I take it do useless parts
disappear absolutely. Thus have disappeared, for instance, the
limbs of the snake. Thus have disappeared the eyes of some cave-
dwelling animals, and the many useless parts of parasites. Thus
have vanished innumerable useless parts in every plant and animal.

We are now in a position to consider the part played by
reversion in nature. Every complex individual, as we know, varies
in a thousand ways, great and small from its parent; but only here
and there is a variation useful. The useful variations, in proportion
to their usefulness, are preserved and, in succeeding generations, are

1898] A THEORY OF RETROGRESSION 403

accentuated by Natural Selection. The useless variations, the vast
majority, are planed away by reversion. Most of them being minute,
disappear in the next generation, but, even when they are com-
paratively great, a very few generations suffice to procure their
disappearance. Even should a series of individuals happen to vary
in such a manner that in each successive individual a useless char-
acter is more and more accentuated, yet, since the tendency towards
atavism is greater than towards evolution, a time surely comes
when, perhaps in a single generation, the whole of the evolutionary
variations lapse and the character vanishes, never to reappear,
except in the improbable event of fresh evolution of a like nature.
Again it sometimes happens that a change of environment renders
useless a structure which was formerly useful. Here also reversion
steps in and procures its elimination. Such a structure—say the
wing of a bird, the habits of which have ceased to be aérial—was
evolved by the superimposition in a long line of individuals of
favourable variation on favourable variation. These, when the
character becomes useless, are lapsed in orderly succession, the
most recent first, the more ancient later; till, at last, the structure
reverts to that most ancient condition when it did not exist. In
this manner it approximates continually to more and more ancient
forms, but only approximates. It never reproduces its proto-
types of the phylogeny exactly, for during the whole course of
evolution, reversion was at work, planing away everything which
was originally useless, or which became useless as the environment
changed. A complex organ such as a wing is, therefore, a product
not only of evolution but also of reversion. Evolution rough-
hews the organ, but reversion chisels its finer lines.
What is true of a complex organ is true in a yet greater degree of
every complex plant and animal. Such a being is a product not
only of evolution, but also of reversion. In it many structures,
useful during a remote period of the phylogeny, but useless later,
have disappeared utterly by reversion to that yet more ancient con-
dition when they had not come into existence. Others, in which
reversion is yet incomplete, still persist, and are known to us as
vestigial remains. It should, however, be noted that, when a
vestigial structure is more developed earlier in the ontogeny than
it is later, this indicates that its retrogression is due not only
to reversion- the result of true atavism, but to false reversion the
result of Reversed Selection. Such a structure must have become
not merely useless, but worse than useless during the phylogeny.
Every complex animal, therefore, in the successive stages of its
development does not represent exactly successive stages in the
evolution of its race. At each stage of the ontogeny are present
useless structures, or useless parts of structures, which have retro-

404 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

gressed backwards towards a more ancient order of things; and
at every stage of the ontogeny structures are absent, which were
present in the phylogeny because they were then useful, but which
since underwent complete retrogression, because they subsequently
became useless. Here, then, we have the explanation of the
fact that ontogeny is only a very vague recapitulation of
phylogeny. Doubtless if a higher animal, a man for instance,
lived during his ontogeny in a succession of environments similar
to those in which his race was evolved, his ontogeny would much
more exactly recapitulate the phylogeny than it actually does,
for in that case structures, which had been useful during the
phylogeny, would continue to be so during the ontogeny, and so
would be preserved. But consider how vastly different is the
environment, in which the embryo of man develops, from the en-
vironments in which his race evolved. The embryo develops in the
uterus, but its free prototypes struggled each for itself in a world
full of enemies, full of eliminating agencies. How many parts,
therefore, have become useless to the embryo, which were useful to
the prototypes! How vast is the field in which retrogression has
worked! Is it any wonder, then, that the ontogeny of man is only
a vague recapitulation of his phylogeny ?

Reversion, then, is the necessary complement of evolution, and
without it there could be no evolution, except of the simplest kind.
Without reversion there could be no planing away of the number-
less useless variations which occur during, and especially at the end
of the ontogeny, nor of all those structures, which, though useful
during some part of the phylogeny, became useless later. Without
reversion, therefore, a species would soon become so burdened with
useless variations and structures as to be incapable of existence.
Reversed Selection could not cause the elimination of all these
useless and burdensome characters; for no matter how burdensome,
and, therefore, worse than useless, they are in the aggregate, separ-
ately they are so little burdensome that Reversed Selection could
not act. It could not act on them in the aggregate, for this would
mean that in some individuals they would be present en masse,
whereas they would be absent en masse in others; and this, of course,
we know is not the case. Moreover Reversed Selection causes a
retracement, not a lapsing of characters. It therefore works at a
double disadvantage as compared with ordinary Natural Selection,
and, as a consequence, can effect comparatively little. No exten-
sive examples of such retracement are in fact known to us in
Nature. Again, without retrogression, the recapitulation of the
phylogeny in the ontogeny would be impossible, and, for this reason
once again, evolution would be impossible. _ For, were there no
retrogression, the prototypes of the phylogeny would necessarily be

1898] A THEORY OF RETROGRESSION 405

reproduced exactly in the ontogeny, and then the latter would be as
elaborate, and almost as lengthy as regards time, as the former.
Moreover, the prototypes of the phylogeny could not exist in the
enormously changed environment of the ontogeny. How, for in-
stance, could a gill-breathing animal, or any of the higher forms
which intervene between them and man, exist in the uterus, in
which alone can exist those dim representations of the phylogeny
that constitute man’s ontogeny ?

It is this great change of environment, this close protection of
the individual in the uterus and afterwards, which has rendered
possible the evolution of man and the other higher animals. Oppor-
tunity has thus been afforded for retrogression to plane away in-
numerable characters which had become useless. The ontogeny has
thereby been straightened, shortened, and simplified, and the evolu-
tion of new characters, useful in the new environment, has become
possible. Thus, for instance, have been rendered possible the higher
characters of man, for even after birth he is closely protected, and,
therefore, even in that portion of the ontogeny which intervenes
between the infant and the adult has there been much retrogression.
Consider how feeble and helpless is the infant after birth; but its
prototypes of the phylogeny fought for their own existences. The
infant can digest scarcely anything but milk, and its jaws are very
feeble. Its prototype must have had much wider powers of digestion.
Perhaps more remarkable than anything else is the retrogression of
instinct in man. I have dealt at length with this question else-
where, and have not space for it here; but consider how helpless
is the infant at birth, how extremely incapable, as compared to
young insects, for instance, of adapting itself, of its own initiative, to
the environment. Later on it acquires all kinds of knowledge and
ways of thinking and acting, which serve as a superior substitute
for instinct. But meanwhile the mother’s protection, which has
rendered possible this acquirement, has rendered useless also the
instincts of its prototypes, which have therefore lapsed. Hence the
retrogression of instinct in man. By it his mental ontogeny is
shortened and simplified, just as by the retrogression of bodily parts
his physical ontogeny is shortened.

In the foregoing I have spoken of characters lapsing in orderly
succession, the last first, the earlier later. But it seems to me
probable that earlier characters may sometimes lapse before the
later. This may happen when some parts of the phylogeny, and
consequently of the ontogeny, are not direct, but form a loop, so to
speak. The omission of the loop would straighten, and therefore
shorten, the ontogeny, and considering how condensed is the latter,
I believe this must often occur. G. ARCHDALL REID.

9 VicroriIA Roap SoutH, SouTHSEA,

589.61 406

sa
The Movement of Diatoms

(ee paper was suggested by a perusal of Robert Lauterborn’s

“ Untersuchungen tiber Bau, Kernteilung und Bewegung des
Diatomeen.” It would be impossible to do justice to a work in
which the letterpress occupies 165 quarto pages, within the limits
of a single article. The present communication, therefore, will deal
mainly with the movement of Diatoms, omitting, for the present,
any reference to the interesting chapters on the protoplasm and its
inclusions, and on nuclear and cell division—a portion of the work
well worth separate treatment. For ready comprehension, however,
the subject must be introduced by an account of the structure of
the frustule in Pinnularia and Surrirella.

Structure of the Frustule in Pinnularia major.—The general
appearance of Pinnularia is sufficiently well known to render any
special description superfluous. The chief features visible in a sur-
face view of the frustule, as shown in Plate III., Fig. 7, are (1) the
presence of a median longitudinal undulating line, the ‘ raphe,’ with
terminal and central nodes, and (2) a double row of transverse
markings, the so-called ‘striae’ or ‘costae. The true significance
of these structures is brought out clearly by Lauterborn.

The raphe had previously been interpreted by the majority of
investigators as an open cleft placing the interior of the cell in
direct communication with the surrounding medium, and Pfitzer
also sought to justify this view on various grounds. Flégel, however,
contended that the cleft was closed on its inner side by a thin
membrane. In order to settle this point Lauterborn carefully
examined empty frustules of Pinnularia major, and also transverse
sections (2-3 ~) of examples fixed with chromosmium and stained
with haematoxylin. One of these sections, from the region between
the central mass of protoplasm and the extremity of the cell, is
shown in Fig. 1. The cell-wall exhibits a marked thickening in
the neighbourhood of the raphe, which runs as a narrow angular
cleft from exterior to interior without any distinguishable trace of
an inner limiting membrane. The appearance of this cleft varies
considerably according to the position of the section in the series
(see Figs, 2 and 3), being at some points simply oblique, at others
variously bent, and this irregularity in shape explains why the aspect
of the raphe alters with a change of focus. In some sections (Fig. 3)

December 1898] THE MOVEMENT OF DIATOMS 407

the walls of the cleft approach one another very closely in such a
manner as to simulate the appearance of an internal closure. In
those examples in which the cleft, seen in transverse section, has an
angular course, O. Miiller considers it probable that the central
portion is closed during life by the middle lamina, in which case
two canals would persist, one running along the outer surface, the
other along the inner surface of the cell-wall, but Lauterborn
has not observed such a closure, nor does he consider its occurrence
probable. This is of some importance, since Miiller postulated the
presence of such canals in his theory of the movements of diatoms.

As to the transverse markings (Riefen) of the frustule, Lauter-
born’s results are entirely in agreement with those of Flogel, who had
previously described the appearances as being, in reality, chambers
hollowed out in the substance of the frustule, and communicating
by a tolerably wide opening with the interior of the cell. These
features are well shown in Fig. 1, where the plane of section passes
through four of these chambers, and Fig. 2, which is an outline
drawing of a section passing between two chambers in one valve of
the frustule. These drawings also illustrate the way in which the
two valves are united by the overlapping of their free edges.

The interior of the cell is lined during life by a layer of proto-
plasm, thinner laterally than elsewhere, and, in the middle of the
cell, forming a transverse bridge-like mass containing the nucleus.
On each side of this central portion the peripheral protoplasm
surrounds a large vacuole filled with cell-sap. This condition of
things suggested to Lauterborn a possible explanation of its meaning,
which, although purely hypothetical, is worth consideration.

The researches of O. Miiller have shown that the protoplasm of
Pinnularia is subjected to a very considerable osmotic pressure
(4 to 5 atmospheres), manifested with equal intensity in all direc-
tions. Now pressure in the direction of the lateral walls would
result in pressing the overlapping elements closer together, but
when exerted at right angles to this, in the direction of the raphe,
there would be a tendency to force the two halves of the frustule
apart, if the frictional resistance of the overlapping elements was
not sufficient to maintain equilibrium. But, as we have already
seen, on each side of the raphe internally a great number of
transverse chambers are placed one behind the other, and filled by
prolongations of the peripheral protoplasm that enter each chamber
by an opening about half the diameter of its internal cavity.
Lauterborn suggests that these chambers filled with abstricted
portions of the protoplasm might be imagined to act as so many
clamps (‘ Klammern ’) opposing a strong resistance to the force tending
to separate the two halves of the frustule, and so strengthening the
frictional resistance of the overlapping elements. He points out

+08 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

that this hypothesis would gain in probability if it could be
proved that the protoplasm was withdrawn from the chambers
when the two halves of the frustule parted from one another
during cell-division, a circumstance which he regards as by no
means improbable. Pfitzer does not consider the hypothesis
summarised above very probable, but believes that the chambers
with their very thin outer walls would probably relieve the osmotic
pressure; Lauterborn, however, seems justified in his contention
that the two functions in no way exclude one another.

Structure of the Frustule in Surrirella calcarata.—This
diatom is one of the largest and most beautiful fresh-water forms.
Examples measuring 0°3 mm. in length and 0°2 mm. in lateral
breadth were not uncommon, so that, under favourable conditions,
they could be readily perceived with the naked eye.

Seen in transverse section (Fig. 4) the outline is roughly
rectangular, with two sides (‘Gurtelseiten’) flattened, and the
other two (‘Schalenseiten’) more or less hollowed out on each
side of a median ridge or keel. At each corner is an outstanding
process (ala, ‘ Fliigel’). These processes vary in appearance with
the plane of section (see description of Plate) and three aspects are
shown in the figure, combining features exhibited by different
sections. The drawing also illustrates the complicated character
of the chromatophores, and their relation to the central bridge-like
mass of protoplasm containing the nucleus. When viewed in its
entirety, and with one of the lateral surfaces (flattened sides in
section) turned towards the observer, the diatom presents the
appearance of a more or less broad wedge, the median portion
occupied by the lobed chromatophores (superficial focus) and
flanked on each side by the alae which are now seen to consist
of a number of parallel transverse canals connected at their
extremities by a longitudinal canal, and separated from each other
by tolerably wide interspaces. In a surface view (‘Schalenseite ’)
the contour of the frustule is almost lanceolate with a median
longitudinal ridge produced at either end into a spur-like process,
the anterior one being the largest.

To return to the alae, Figure 5 shows a portion of one of these
wing-like processes viewed from the surface. Along the edge, for
its whole extent, passes a rather narrow canal (‘ Fliigelrandkanal’ or
‘ Fliigellangskanal’) a connection being established between this and
the interior of the cell by numerous short transverse canals.
Internally, these latter commence as tolerably wide tubes of rounded
section; towards the longitudinal canal (/c.), however, they steadily
diminish becoming more elliptical in section. The transverse canals
are separated from one another by U-shaped intermediate pieces,
formed of apposed portions of the cell-wall, whilst the spots where

1898] THE MOVEMENT OF DIATOMS 409

they remain separate give rise to the canals. Consequently, each of
these intermediate pieces forms a niche-like depression between two
projecting transverse canals and a corresponding piece of the
longitudinal canal. Lobular processes of the chromatophores pro-
ject into the transverse canals and are always enveloped by proto-
plasm, which passes from their extremities towards the outer wall
as a strand, usually undivided. These strands exhibit both longi-
tudinal and transverse fibrillation during life, and, as a rule, appear
to consist of five or six longitudinal rows of cellular compartments.

The longitudinal canal was described by Flogel as closed exter-
nally, but Lauterborn’s sections show that it is interrupted along its
outer edge by a very narrow cleft, thus placing the interior of the
cell in direct communication with the surrounding medium (Fig. 4).
This cleft is not only visible in sections through the frustule, but
can also be made out in a surface view when one of the alae is
viewed vertically, parallel to the direction of the transverse canals.
Yet another circumstance, not taken into account by Flogel, points
to a breach of continuity in the cell-wall at this spot. In the living
Surrirella, foreign bodies (eg. particles of Indian ink, sand, small
diatoms,) are readily observable adhering along the edges of the
alae, where they are moved briskly to and fro in the same manner as
along the raphe of Pinnularia, Navicula, etc., a circumstance very
difficult to explain if the cell-wall were in reality unbroken.

Most of the Swrrirella were infested externally by a small
alga belonging to the Cyanophyceae (Chroococcus sp.). The small
blue-green spherical cells always occurred in a definite situa-
tion, viz., in the niche-like intermediate pieces of the alae, only a
single alga being present, as a rule, in each cavity (Fig. 5 pa.).
More than once, examples of Swrrirella were noticed where all the
intermediate pieces of the alae sheltered these little lodgers. It is
pointed out that the advantage may well lie exclusively on the side
of the Chroococcus, a possible explanation being that the alga, seated
on the diatom in the very fine and easily disturbed mud, suffers less
interruption of the assimilative processes than if it were free in the
mud, because the diatoms, if buried by the movements of fishes or
creeping molluscs, soon work their way up again to the surface
and so to the light. In this connection it may be mentioned that
Gastrotricha, of the genera Chaetonotus and Ichthydiuwm, constantly
attach their eggs to the surface of large Surrirellae.

The Movement of Diatoms.——Various hypotheses have been
advanced to account for the characteristic movements more or less
familiar to every student of the Diatomaceae. Amongst earlier in-
vestigators, M. Schultze held that protoplasm, protruded through the
slit-like raphe, served to set the cell in motion, and this view was
maintained by Pfitzer and Engelmann. On the other hand Nageli,

2

410 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

Siebold, Dippel, Borscow, and particularly Mereschkowsky, regarded
the cell movement as the result of an osmotic phenomenon, supposing
water to be imbibed at the anterior end of the diatom and expelled
with greater force at the hinder extremity, the recoil serving to
propel the cell onwards.

Biitschli and Lauterborn worked together at the subject, and
the former published a preliminary account of their researches, which
was adversely criticised by O. Miiller. A reply from Lauterborn
drew a further communication from Miiller, and this is dealt with
in the work under consideration, where the Biitschli-Lauterborn
observations and inferences are given at length, with a detailed
criticism of Miiller’s objections and theory. ‘The observations de-
scribed and illustrated by Lauterborn first claim attention, and will
be best given as nearly as possible in his own words.

When large examples of Pinnularia are brought into a concen-
trated emulsion of Indian ink,! the majority of the diatoms present
at the first glance a very striking appearance, each being surrounded
by a broad, bright, and sharply defined border, within which the
smaller granules of Indian ink do not penetrate. In a surface view
this halo usually follows the contour of the frustule at a distance
equal to about half the width of the valve; but when the lateral
aspect of the diatom is turned towards the observer, this clear border
is seen to be interrupted in a symmetrical manner at both ends of
the cell, and also in the vicinity of both central nodes (Fig. 8); here
the granules of Indian ink approach close to the cell-wall.

The appearance just described is interpreted by Lauterborn as
pointing to the existence of an enveloping layer of hyaline jelly, so
remarkably transparent, and possessing a refractive index correspond-
ing so closely with that of the surrounding water, as to be com-
pletely invisible in clear water, even when examined with the best
lenses.” Miiller denied the general presence of a gelatinous envelope
in the sense advocated by Biitschli and Lauterborn, stating that the
clear border only appeared after a long sojourn in the Indian ink
emulsion, and that it was absent in the living but completely
motionless cell. He, however, subsequently admitted the existence
of a gelatinous envelope. In answer to Miiller’s objections on this
point, Lauterborn asserts that the hyaline border becomes visible as
soon as the diatoms are brought into the emulsion, and also states
that he has often seen Pinnulariae, surrounded by the transparent
envelope, remain for hours without the slightest movement.

The presence of a peculiar and characteristic streaming move-

1 Lauterborn recommends that the Indian ink should be rubbed up in the water in
which the diatoms have been cultivated, and also that specimens from old cultures

should not be employed in studying movement.
2 A gelatinous envelope of similar transparency has been observed in a pelagic form

of Cyclotella comta.

1898] THE MOVEMENT OF DIATOMS 411

ment in Pinnularia is next described, and will be found illustrated
in figs. 6 and 7. It can be seen to greatest advantage in a lateral
view of the diatom in Indian ink emulsion (fig. 6). Small granules
of Indian ink, set in motion in the region of the anterior! terminal
nodes, move outwards, and then flow, at some distance from the
surface of the cell, as far as the central node of the raphe. The
granules borne along by these anterior streams (gs.) are not closely
packed, and exhibit a more or less active independent move-
ment amongst themselves. Arrived at the middle of the cell the
streams of granules turn sharply towards the openings of the central
nodes, forming there larger or smaller accumulations, and from these
points arise granular threads (gt.) which always run obliquely back-
wards, forming an acute angle with the surface of the frustule. In
watching the formation of these granular filaments, Lauterborn ob-
serves that the process strongly suggests the forcible expulsion, by
fits and starts, from the central node, of a gelatinous thread, to.which
a single row of granules adheres. This view is strengthened by the
circumstance that the granules at the moment of union with the
thread at once lose their active molecular movement perceptible
whilst within range of the anterior streams of granules, also that
the granules are all moved backwards intermittently with the same
velocity, as the thread lengthens, suggesting the presence of a
common substratum binding all of them together. It often happens
that the series of granules is interrupted at some point, nevertheless
the direction and intensity of motion in the granules behind such a
gap correspond with those in front of it, and this circumstance
appears to offer additional evidence of the presence of a common
bond in the shape of a gelatinous thread, absolutely invisible in
clear water until brought into view by the adherence to it of foreign
bodies. These threads, which lengthen as the diatom moves onward,
may be five or six times as long as the frustule.

The phenomena described above are best observed when the
diatom is lying on its side, as in fig. 6 ; but in a surface view (fig. 7)
the streams of granules along the raphe on both sides of the frustule
can be demonstrated by altering the focus. Occasionally the granule
stream and thread on one side of a diatom move in the opposite
direction to those on the other side, so that the two streams
neutralise one another to a certain extent, and sometimes only one
granular thread is developed.

In a paper published in 1891 Biitschli considered it highly
probable that a causal connection existed between the backward
prolongation of the granule threads and the local movements of
the diatom, stating that both he and Lauterborn were disposed to

1 The terms ‘anterior’ and ‘ posterior’ are here used with reference to the direction
of movement of the diatom.

412 NATURAL SCIENCE {December

regard these movements as due to a copious production of adhesive
jelly ejected rapidly and with a certain force from the nodes of the
frustule. Whether the extremity of the gelatinous thread struck
the substratum on which the diatom rested or only encountered the
resistance of the water, the effect would be the same, viz., to drive
the cell in the opposite direction.

In opposition to this view O. Miiller explained the phenomena
as caused by a stream of cytoplasm propelled through the anterior
terminal nodes into the external cleft of the raphe (which, it will be
remembered, he supposed to be closed by a median lamina), and
there moved towards the centre, flowing back into the interior of
the cell through the canal of the central node. The stream, pro-
jecting laterally from the cleft, swept with it the suspended granules
in the neighbouring layer of water, bearing them towards the narrow
central canal. Here a congestion and accumulation of the cytoplasm
would occur and, as the effect of the stream on the granules ceased,
the latter would collect more or less, become agglutinated by the
dammed-up protoplasm, and subsequently displaced backwards. So,
according to Miiller, the thread originated, and as the cytoplasmic
stream moved intermittently, the thread would likewise elongate
intermittently, and appear as if ejected from the canal of the central
node. ‘The essential feature of Miiller’s hypothesis lies in the view
that the material extruded from the interior of the cell is true
protoplasm ; a view he still maintains in a later communication
noticed in a postscript to Lauterborn’s work.

Lauterborn argues at great length against the validity of such a
conclusion, pointing out first of all that the invisibility of the ex-
truded material under ordinary conditions militates against the
protoplasmic theory, since streaming protoplasm is always recog-
nisable as such without difficulty. It is true that Miiller cited
Schultze in support of the contention that under certain circum-
stances the presence of true plasma-streams might escape detection,
but in the special cases mentioned by Schultze (Gromia, Diflugia)
the contour of the pseudopodia was always clearly defined. Further,
it is necessary to remember that protoplasm, which when Schultze
wrote (1865) might be described as ‘ hyaline’ or ‘ structureless,’ is
so no longer, thanks to improved optical appliances, and there is no
ground for supposing that, in cases where granules are moved along
by the pseudopodia of rhizopods, the protoplasm ever resembles the
streaming substance in Pinnularia. Lauterborn also lays stress
upon the fact that the collections of cytoplasm normally occurring
at the poles of the Pinnularia cell exhibit a beautifully defined
reticular structure during life, and that it is in these regions that
Miiller’s streams of cytoplasm originate. To imagine that the
cytoplasm is completely changed in passing through the polar cleft

1898] THE MOVEMENT OF DIATOMS 413

to the exterior, so that no structural feature can then be detected even
by the best apochromatic objectives, would seem highly improbable
to say the least. The formation of the thread-like prolongations
originating at the central node would, on Miiller’s hypothesis,
appear to involve a considerable waste of living substance during
prolonged movements ;1 this could scarcely be brought into harmony
with the economy of a single cell, and no proof is given in support
of his assertion that the main streams of cytoplasm return to the
interior of the cell by way of the canal of the central node. On the
whole, according to Lauterborn, everything tends to show that the
main streams (gs.) consist throughout of jelly which is driven out
at the ends of the cell through the openings of the terminal nodes
(especially the ‘crescentic polar clefts’ of Miiller), moves in the
raphe towards the centre, and projects laterally over it to some
extent. The fact that larger fragments of Indian ink or granules of
carmine sunk in this jelly are carried in it along the raphe towards
the centre proves that the entire hyaline border is actually in motion
throughout, but the precise mode of formation of the gelatinous
threads and their relation to the rest of the streaming substance is
acknowledged to be obscure.

In contrast to the conditions existing in some species of the
genus Pinnularia, there are other diatoms, eg. Pinnularia oblonga
and members of the genera Navicula, Plewrosigma, and Nitzschia,
in which a gelatinous envelope and thread-like prolongations are
apparently wanting. In these, the small grains of Indian ink
come into contact with the siliceous frustule, and are often moved
actively about close to the raphe, as described by numerous ob-
servers. So far, the most careful examination has failed to show
anything projecting from the raphe, and it would therefore seem
that the substance which causes the movements of the foreign
bodies, moves within the fissures of the cell-wall, whether occurring
in the alae of Surrirella, the keel of Niétzschia, or elsewhere.
Lauterborn goes at length into the question whether a substance
streaming within a narrow cleft, and so touching the surrounding
medium only with a narrow linear portion of its surface, could
effect the locomotion of the entire cell, and concludes that a
sufficiently powerful force might be developed to overcome the
frictional resistance of the surrounding water, pointing out that
a somewhat similar principle (the so-called ‘hydraulic reaction ’)
has been successfully employed to propel large ships.

Owing to the impossibility of examining the substance presumed
to be streaming in the raphe, one cannot say whether it is proto-
plasm or a gelatinous material, and it must be conceded that the

1 Miiller has since suggested that these prolongations may consist of granules only
(smoke-streak appearance), but a connecting substance seems necessary in order to ex-
plain certain features observed by Lauterborn.

414 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

same mechanical effect would be produced in either case. Lauter-
born is content to describe it as a viscous substance, though he
apparently inclines to the belief that it corresponds to the jelly
already described in Pinnularia, and believes that corroborative
evidence for this view is furnished by an examination of Surrirella.
The structure of the alae in S. calcarata, with the arrangement of
the longitudinal and transverse canals have been already described.
The displacement of foreign bodies along the clefts in the longitudi-
nal canals has been long known, and it is pointed out that, although
the protoplasmic strands surrounding the chromatophores in the
transverse canals exhibit, in the living diatom, a well-marked
reticular structure, the contents of the longitudinal canals are
perfectly hyaline and can only be brought into view by staining.
Thionin and methyl violet were used, after which the substance in
question appeared as a granular contracted string, from which the
plasma of the transverse canals was generally separated.

With reference to the capability of diatoms to produce con-
siderable masses of jelly under certain circumstances, it is pointed
out that there are a considerable number of forms in which single
cells are united into colonies of variable shape by gelatinous
material (Eneyonema, Schizonema, Mastogloia, etc.). In other cases
the cells are borne upon long gelatinous stalks, as in Achnanthes and
Gomphonema, whilst, in auxospore formation, numerous diatoms,
generally free from jelly, are known to secrete it very profusely.
In places where diatoms are massed together, covering the mud on
which they rest with a brown scum, it is only necessary to take a
piece of the latter between the fingers in order to appreciate its
slimy nature, due to the production of jelly by the living cells. A
movement by the aid of a gelatinous material produced by the living
cell is not confined to the Diatomaceae, but is found in other forms,
both animal and vegetable. Desmids, eg. Closteriwm, secrete a gela-
tinous thread by the help of which the cells are able to raise them-
selves upon the glass walls of the culture vessels. In the form
mentioned, the thread emerges through pores at the extremity of
the cell, and can only be demonstrated by staining, or by the em-
ployment of an emulsion of Indian ink.

Again, in the case of Oscillaria, Lauterborn describes and figures
the adhesion of foreign bodies to, and their movement in spiral paths
along, the algal threads. As the Oscillaria moves forwards, a bright
streak appears at the hinder end (visible in Indian ink, or by stain-
ing) and lengthens as the Oscillaria advances; it is apparently to be
regarded as consisting of a jelly-like substance separated on the sur-
face of the algal thread and drawn backwards in a spiral manner.
A very similar mode of progression is also met with in the Gregarines ;
these, according to Schewiakoff, also produce a long glutinous track,

.

1898] THE MOVEMENT OF DIATOMS 415

which can be brought into view by the methods alluded to above.
His illustrations show how great is the resemblance to the corre-
sponding phenomena in the Desmidieae and Oscillaria.

In concluding the part of his work dealing with the move-
ment of diatoms, Lauterborn briefly criticises a theory advanced by
Hauptfleisch in 1895. In opposition to other observers Hauptfleisch
would locate the organ of locomotion in Pinnularia in protoplasmic
threads issuing from pores on the longitudinal edges of the diatom.
These pores, however, are apparently non-existent, and both Lauter-
born and Miiller agree in considering the protoplasmic threads to be
merely contracted portions of the plasmatic cell-body occupying the
inner chambers of the frustule.’

Methods of Collecting and Preserving Diatoms.—In
collecting, a spoon attached to a stick was employed for skimming the
brown diatomaceous ooze off the surface of the mud, whilst in the
case of forms occurring at greater depths, ég. Surrirella, a small
drag-net was found useful for bringing samples of mud to the surface.
This latter was placed with water in shallow glass vessels sheltered
from direct sunlight, and after resting for about twelve hours the
diatoms appeared in masses on the surface of the mud, whence they
were readily transferred by means of a pipette to the fixing-fluid.

Among fixing reagents, Flemming’s chromo-aceto-osmic acid, and
sublimate in either water or alcohol solutions, demonstrated the most
delicate structural features of the nucleus and cytoplasm during
division. Picro-sulphuric acid followed by a haematoxylin stain gave
excellent pictures of the chromatic elements of the nucleus. A 1/
osmic acid solution served, in unstained preparations, to bring out
the arrangement of the cytoplasm, the chromatophores, and other
inclusions in the cell. A 45°/ solution of iodic alcohol is recom-
mended for the study of the so-called ‘red granules’ of Biitschh,
which stain exceptionally well after fixing by this method.

Only large forms could be removed individually under the dis-
secting microscope and by means of a capillary tube; the smallest
forms were taken up in the mass by a pipette and at once placed in
a tube containing the fixing solution. Here they remained for about
fifteen minutes, after which, the fixing fluid being decanted off, they
were well washed in water, and afterwards passed, through alcohols of
increasing strength, into absolute alcohol, where they remained until
all the colouring matter of the chromatophores was extracted, and
any oil globules removed. The addition ofa drop or two of sulphuric
ether and the application of a moderate amount of heat facilitated
this process. Afterwards, the material was passed through alcohols
of decreasing strength into distilled water, in readiness for staining.

The most useful stain was a weak solution of Delafield’s haema-
toxylin, but it was necessary to control the process under the micro-
scope in order to prevent overstaining. Alum- and borax-carmine
were also tried, but with decidedly inferior results. Safranin was useful

1 OQ, Miiller, in a paper which I have not yet read (Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xv. (1897),
pp. 70-78), seems now to regard movement as taking place by means of currents of a mucila-
ginous substance projecting from the raphe. See Jour. Roy. Micro. Soc., 1897, p. 234.

416 : NATURAL SCIENCE [December 1898

for demonstrating the centrosome and nucleoli in specially prepared
material. When stained, the specimens were passed successively through
35%, 70%, 95%, and absolute alcohol into oil of cloves for clearing
purposes, and finally mounted in dammar. The alcohol baths must
be changed very gradually both when fixing and staining, otherwise
distortions of the protoplasm are certain to occur. Isolation of
the nucleus in Suwrrirella could be accomplished by placing the
stained specimen in dammar under a cover-glass provided with wax
feet and pressing this down until the frustule began to gape. Then,
by gently and persistently tapping the cover-glass with a needle, the
nucleus could often be completely freed for examination.

It was possible to stain the diatoms to a certain extent during life
in a very weak solution of methylene blue (1 in 100,000), in which
they would live for days. If transferred from this to a stronger so-
lution (0-017), some of the cell contents were stained in a very
characteristic manner; but so soon as the nucleus began to take up
the stain, it was a sure sign that the vitality of the cell was on the
wane, although the diatom might continue to move slowly for a time.
In no case was observation of living specimens omitted, for a whole
succession of phenomena could only be adequately studied in this
way, and such observations possess special value for checking the re-
sults obtained after the use of reagents. A Seibert apochromatic
objective of 2 mm. focal length was usually employed, in combination
with a No. 12 ocular, giving a magnification of about 1200.

Town Museum, LEICESTER. F. R. Row ey.

LITERATURE REFERRED TO

Borscow. —‘‘ Die Siisswasser-Bacillariaceen des siidwestlichen Russlands.” 1873.

Biitschli, 0.— ‘‘ Mitteilungen iiber die Bewegung der Diatomeen.” Verhandl. Natur-
hist.-med. Vereins Heidelberg. N.¥. Bd. iv., 5 Heft (1891).

Dippel, L.—‘‘ Beitrage zur Kenntnis der in den Soolwissern von Kreuznach lebenden
Diatomeen, sowie iiber Structur, Wachstum und Bewegung der Diatomeen iiber-
haupt.” Kreuznach, Voigtlander. 1870.

Engelmann, Th. W.—‘‘ Uber die Bewegungen der Oscillarien und Diatomeen.” Botan.
Zeitung. 37 Jahrg. (1879), p. 49.

Flégel.—‘‘ Researches on the Structure of the Cell-walls of Diatoms.” Journ. Roy.
Micro. Soc. 1883.
Hauptfleisch, P.—‘‘ Die Auxosporenbildung von Brebissonia Boeckii Grunow.” ‘* Die
Ortsbewegung der Bacillariaceen.” Mittetl. naturwiss. Vereines New-Vorpommern

u. Rigen. Jahrg. xxvii. (1895).

Lauterborn, R.—‘‘ Zur Frage nach der Ortsbewegung der Diatomeen.” er. Deutschen
Bot. Gesellschaft. Bd. xii. (1894), p. 73.

——— ‘‘Untersuchungen iiber Bau, Kernteilung und Bewegung der Diatomeen.” Aus
dem Zoologischen Institut der Universitit Heidelberg. 1896.

Mereschkowsky, C.—‘‘ Beobachtungen iiber die Bewegungen der Diatomaceen und ihre
Ursache.” Botan. Zeitung. 38 Jahrg. (1880), pp. 529-540.

Miller, 0.—‘‘ Durchbrechungen der Zellwand in ihren Beziehungen zur Ortsbewegung
der Bacillariaceen.” Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesellschaft. Bd. vil., Heft 4 (1889),
pp. 169-180.

—_—— ‘Die Ortsbewegung der Bacillariaceen betreffend.” Op. cit. Bd. xi, (1893),
p. 571. Bad, xii. (1894), pp. 136-143. Bd. xiv. (1896), pp. 54-64, 111-128,

Pfitzer, E.—‘‘ Untersuchungen iiber Bau und Entwickelung der Bacillariaceen (Diato-
maceen).” Bot. Abhandl. a. d. Gebiet d. Morpho. und Physiol. herausg., von
J. Hanstein. 2 Heft. Bonn, 1871.

Schewiakoff, W.—Uber die Ursache der fortschreitenden Bewegung der Gregarinen.
Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. Bad. lviii. (1894), p. 340.

Schultze, M.—‘‘ Die Bewegung der Diatomeen.” Archiv. mikroskop. Anat. Bad, i.
(1865), p. 374.

Siebold, C. Th. v.—‘‘ Uber einzellige Pflanzen und Tiere.” Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. -Bd. i.
(1849), p. 270.

417

SOME NEW BOOKS

THE HYPNOTISING OF ANIMALS

BEITRAGE ZUR PHYSIOLOGIE DES CENTRALNERVENSYSTEMS I. DIE SOGENANNTE Hyp-
NOSE DER THIEREN. By Max Verworn. 8vo, pp. iv+92, with 18 text-figures.
Jena: G. Fischer, 1898. Price M. 2.50.

PROFESSOR VERWORN is to be congratulated upon the production of
the above work. The subject-matter is one of very great interest;
it is set forth im such lucid and agreeable style as to make the book
excellent reading, whilst the method of treatment adopted by the
author gives the treatise a high value, and renders it an experimental
contribution to the physiology of the nervous system based upon
original lines. This will be made clear by a short sketch of the scope
and aim of the work.

The so-called ‘hypnosis’ of animals is a well-known state of
immobility resembling on superficial examination the condition of
hypnotic trance which can be produced in man. A dissimilarity
between the ‘state’ in lower animals and that in the hypnotised
human subject is however present at the very outset, the means
of production being different in the two cases. In man those mental
states which are implied by the term ‘suggestion’ play an important
part as precursors of the condition ; but in lower animals the essential
agency is the maintenance of the body by external force in an
abnormal position. Examples are given in the book of the state
of immobility into which animals of very different types may fall
under these conditions. The original part of the work is the demon-
stration by Professor Verworn that the immobile state in these
animals has two prominent characteristics which are significant of
the physiological factors concerned in its production. These are, first
a special form of activity in the muscles, and, secondly, a peculiar
condition of inactivity of the cerebral hemispheres.

With regard to the muscles the author shows that persistent
reflex tonus is present, and is most marked in such groups of
muscles as the animal would utilise for regaining its normal posi-
tion of bodily equilibrium. If, for example, the state has been
caused in the guinea-pig by keeping it upon its back, then the
muscles concerned are those the animal employs for turning into
the customary attitude. When held by force in the abnormal
position the animal vainly contracts these muscles for this pur-
pose, and the immobile state commences with the sudden cessation
of the nervous outflow from the higher centres producing these
vain efforts; this is immediately succeeded by a set tonus of the mus-
cular groups especially those involved in the previous efforts. If the
restraint has been such as to affect one group more than others,
then the subsequent tonicity or ‘contracture’ is particularly pro-
minent in this group. The state thus differs from sleep in the
disposition of the limbs, trunk, head, eyes, &e., which may be made to

418 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

assume all manner of different appearances by appropriate previ-
ous manipulation, so that the attitude can be of a most bizarre
kind. During the continuance of the immobile state the organs
of sensation, peripheral and central, show no evidence of any alter-
ation, and the animal thus appears to be conscious of the various
sensations produced by external impressions, but if these are suffi-
ciently intense to evoke an efferent discharge from the cerebral
hemispheres, the state at once ends and recovery takes place. This
recovery is shown to be ushered in by augmented contractions of those
muscular groups which are in the state of more pronounced contrac-
ture; at first these are ineffectual to alter the position of the whole
body, but with their repetition the contracture subsides and the alter-
ation is effected. The author has not been able to confirm Danil-
ewsky’s observation that during the state reflex excitability is lowered ;
he regards the previous evidence of such lowering as due to the
peculiar condition of the muscles, which owing to contracture are
incapable of adequate response to central nervous discharge. Lowered
reflex excitability only occurs when an animal has been manipulated
many times in rapid succession, in which case central fatigue mani-
fests itself and the contracture is correspondingly diminished. It will
be seen from the foregoing description that the characteristic condition
of the muscles, 7.e. tonicity, disproves the existence of any inhibition
of lower neuro-muscular mechanisms during the state; on the con-
trary, the lower centres—cerebellum, medulla, &c., being released from
cerebral control, now discharge a continuous stream of nervous im-
pulses such as occurs in the decerebrate mammal, and this produces
the marked decerebrate rigidity described by Sherrington, Horsley,
and others.

With regard to the second factor in the production of the state, it
is shown that the cessation of the discharge of impulses from the
cerebral cortex is a complete one. Such complete cessation must
exist when the cerebral hemispheres have been previously removed ;
in such animals the immobile state can be produced with great ease,
and is always of a most prolonged type, whilst the stimulating agencies
necessary to produce recovery, have to be of an intense character. In
the intact animal the author considers that the sudden cessation of
cerebral discharge cannot be explained as due to the lack of stimu-
lation of the motor areas existing in the cerebral cortex since the
physiological avenues for sensation are unaffected. He believes that
the paralysis of these centres is brought about by a sudden inhibition
due to the activity of special parts of the nervous system or to special
conditions of the centres themselves. His conception of such condi-
tions is set forth at some length in the concluding chapters of the
work, and is framed upon the lines of Hering’s well-known views of
the physiological states of activity and repose.

The whole work affords most striking instances of the opposite
roles to be assigned to cerebral and to lower centres respectively,
hence, its perusal may be confidently recommended to all those whose
special interests lie in physiology or neurology. But apart from the
obvious scientific value of the book, the earlier chapters contain a de-
scription of phenomena which will enable those interested in hypnotism
to realise what the so-called hypnotic state of an animal is like, and

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 419

how it can be produced. A further interest is given by the excellent
account of the observations and views of other writers upon the
subject, from Pater Kircher who described the eaperimentum mirabile
in 1646 down to the present day, and the value of this is enhanced
by the well-selected woodcuts with which the account is illustrated.
The whole forms a work which fully sustains the well-merited reputa-
tion Professor Verworn has derived from his previous publications.
FRANCIS GOTCH.

Mr BEDDARD ON BIRDS

Tue STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF Birps. By Frank E. Beddard, 8vo, pp.
xx+548. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1898. Price 21s.

THIS volume comes to us as a promise long delayed, and conjures
up visions of men whom many of us have never seen, but who yet live
in their works, and will live, as long as ornitholgy, in its deepest and
truest sense, continues to be studied amongst us. It represents three
occupants of the Prosectorial Chair of the Zoological Society of
London. It was begun by Garrod, and contemplated by Forbes, but
before either could come within a measureable distance of its. com-
pletion they were summoned by death, and another entered into their
labours. It was for Mr Beddard, the present Prosector, to realise
what they had always hoped to do, and than him a more fitting
person could not be found. Perhaps the highest praise we can give
will be to say that the result is worthy of all three, and that it would
have met with the entire approval of either of his predecessors.

Although the work of Garrod and Forbes has been largely drawn
upon, Mr Beddard has incorporated the essence of all that is best
of his own work and that of his contemporaries.

He divides his book into two parts—(1) General Structure; (2)
Classification. Under the first head, among other subjects, he deals
with the coelom, convolutions of the intestines, and the syrinx in a
full and able manner, and these pages will be found to contain a
vast amount of most valuable matter. It surprises us, however, to
find that no figure is given of the passerine syrinx.

The possession of feathers, an ambiens muscle, and an oil-gland are
the characters enumerated by Mr Beddard as peculiarly avian, the
two last having been acquired within the class. About the first and
last of these no one has ever expressed any doubt, but there are many
who have regarded the ambiens as reptilian in origin. The absence
of an oil-gland, it is pointed out, may be a primitive and not pseudo-
primitive character. The Struthiones are defined as birds in which the
gland is absent, though a page or two further on it is stated to be
present in Apteryx, and correctly so. The primitive feathering of
birds Mr Beddard thinks was in the form of downs. “The persist-
ence of downs, therefore, in this hypothesis is so far a primitive
character, and the greater the persistence the more primitive the
bird.” We certainly doubt whether this is not proving too much.
If this is true, then the Anseres, Accipitres, Charadrii, and Kalli, for
example, would be more primitive than the Pico-passeres, or the
Struthiones and Galli. Again “the fact that the contour feathers are
frequently preceded by downs” is not convincing proof that this was
the primitive covering of birds. Inasmuch as the down-feathers

420 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

which precede the contour-feathers are quite distinct from those
which form the down-feathers proper. The former in the ducks,
the fowls, megapodes, and tinamous, for instance, probably much
more nearly represent the primitive clothing, and are in the nature
of semiplumae, which as Garrod and the present writer have shown,
are degenerate contour-feathers. We incline to agree with Gadow
and to hold that the absence of down-feathers is primitive.

The presence of teeth is undoubtedly primitive. “ Arrested dental
papillae” are instanced as occurring In Phytotoma rara and in the
merganser. The present writer has figured and drawn attention to
similar structures in the tinamou and Opisthocomus.

In describing the skull, no mention is made of the parasphenoid.
We are told that the “ base of the brain-case is protected by a large
basitemporal which has sometimes (e.g. Apteryx) a long rostrum in
front.” For sometimes ‘always’ should surely be substituted.
The description of the hyoid is unintelligible. As regards the pelvis,
we entirely agree with Mr Beddard in favouring the view that the
pelvis of Aves most nearly resembles that of the dinosaurs. We
further agree with him in regarding the pectineal process as the
equivalent of the forwardly directed process of the dinosaurian pubis,
and the backward process as the homologue of the pubis proper in
the two groups.

The classification of birds is a subject of peculiar difficulty, and
no two ornithologists can be persuaded to think alike on this matter.
Its importance in Mr Beddard’s estimation can be gathered from the
fact that he has devoted two-thirds of his book to this question. And
in these pages will be found some extremely valuable and helpful
suggestions, which will afford food for reflection for a long time to
come. He divides the class into two sub-classes, ‘Ornithurae’ and
‘Saururae,’ corresponding to the Neornithes and Archaeornithes of
Gadow. The Ornithurae are further divided into ‘ Anomalogonatae’
and ‘ Homalogonatae.’ But it is unfortunate that nowhere is the
latter group defined or are its boundaries fixed. As to the arrange-
ment of the sub-orders we will only say that we should have pre-
ferred to see the Tubinares placed next the Sphenisci, the Tinami
near the Galli, and the Accipitres nearer the Steganopodes and
Herodiones.

Space forbids discussion of this book at greater length. Some
room must be left wherein to protest against any suspicion of captious
criticism or querulous fault-finding. Whatever statements we have
taken exception to have been selected not as an instance of many
such, but as blemishes to be removed should a second edition be
called for, which is highly probable. Those who have occasion to use
this book most will learn soonest to find out its sterling value, and
such will best appreciate the fairness of our remarks. W. P. P.

“Q THOU WONDROUS MOTHER-AGE!”

THE WONDERFUL CENTURY: ITS SUCCESSES AND ITs FartureEs. By Alfred Russel
Wallace. 8vo, pp. xii+400, with 12 folding tables and frontispiece portrait.
London : Sonnenschein. 1898. Price 7s. 6d.

THIS book is an appreciation of the nineteenth century, an attempt to

look at it in its relations to the whole history of man as it will appear

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 421

to the historian of the future. The successes have been in an in-
creased knowledge of the facts and governing principles of the world
around us, and in the application of them to our benefit. The failures
have lain chiefly in the field of social economy, in which the advance
has been incommensurate with that in the region of physics.

The striking feature of the century has “been the discovery and
application of scientific and mechanical principles entirely unknown
to previous ages ; discoveries comparable to the invention of fire, of
writing, of geometry, or of printing; applications that have revolu-
tionised the mode of life of nearly all the world, bringing changes both
wide and deep where change had been unknown for centuries, or even
for millennia. Chief among these are the means of communication by
railways, steamships, the electric telegraph, and the telephone. Then
come modes of lighting, friction matches, gas light, and electric light.
The knowledge of light itself, and its action on matter, with “the
marvellous applications to photography, the Rontgen rays and spec-
trum analysis, by which last our knowledge of the distant universe
has been so enormously extended in so many directions. Minor
mechanical inventions of a novel order are the phonograph, the type-
writer, and the cycle. Among scientific theories, whose practical
application, though not always so direct or obvious, has profoundly
altered our ways “of thought, or given us fresh mastery over matter,
Mr Wallace notes the following :—The doctrine of the conservation
ot energy; the molecular theory of gases; the atomic theory as the
foundation of modern chemistry ; the uses of dust; a knowledge of
meteors and the meteoritic theory of the universe (the latter perhaps
not so generally accepted as to have a right to rank in the present
category); the hypothesis of a glacial epoch (in which also Mr
Wallace goes further than many admit); the vaster conception of
the antiquity of man; the cell theory and the theory of recapitula-
tion in embryology (where, likewise, a hint of recent criticism would
not have been misplaced); the germ-theory of disease and the func-
tion of leucocytes, from which conceptions Mr Wallace, not quite
fairly, separates antiseptic surgery ; the use of anaesthetics : and the
acceptance of the theory of organic evolution, an acceptance due
chiefly to the labours of Darwin, whose “work will always be con-
sidered as one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of the eens
achievements of the nineteenth century.”

This first half, or rather, less than half, of the book is a walt
balanced and thoroughly interesting review, making its chief appeal
to the ordinary intelligent reader. It might have been written, per-
haps not quite so well, by any competent man of science. The second
section of the book, dealing with the failures of the century, could
have been written only by Mr Wallace. As an expression of the con-
victions of an eminent naturalist and thinker on many of the most
important problems of our day, it has a value by virtue of that personal
element, and demands the attention of all, whether they agree with
‘ its opinions or no. The list opens curiously with a strong statement
of the case for phrenology, the neglect of which is regarded as one
of the chief failures; the chapter undoubtedly provokes one to a re-
consideration of the subject. Of similar nature is the opposition to
hypnotism and physical research, so prevalent among scientific men.

422 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

It is true that exposure of charlatan after charlatan has raised a
serious prejudice against such truth as does lie in these obscure
branches of knowledge, while the sensational appeal they make to the
unbalanced mind of the uneducated must always lead the scientific
investigator to approach them with a caution and scepticism greater
even than that which he rightly applies to all subjects of his study.
But to write this down as a failure is to go too far. Much has been
attempted and accomplished by trained observers and professional
medical men, while mention at least should have been made of the
establishment of the entirely new science of psychology, from the
critical and experimental study of which far more promising results
have already been derived than from the not always edifying exhibi-
tions of mediums and clairvoyants. To judge from the fact that a
quarter of the book is devoted to it, vaccination is the subject on
which Mr Wallace feels most strongly. The opponents of this opera-
tion can hardly say that it was accepted and enforced with unthinking
speed ; moreover, improvements have been and are constantly being
made, and we can hardly regard the statistics here collected as appli-
cable to the vaccination of the future. The concluding chapters deal
with militarism, the treatment of criminals, concentration of capital
with its corresponding increase of absolute poverty, followed by the
deterioration of those brought under its influence, and the spoliation
of the products of the earth, such as forests, coal, and the fertile soil.
That in these respects our century is no better, and often far worse
than its predecessors, is too generally admitted to need emphasis here.
But, whether or no the remedies to be adopted are those suggested by
Mr Wallace, we venture to believe that remedies are being sought for
most earnestly by an increasing number of men and women, and that
even the nineteenth century may claim more than is here allowed
to it. Arbitration has made progress, the treatment of criminals has
improved, co-operation has become more general, schools of forestry
are held to be essential, even the much-abused Indian Government
has constructed irrigation works that will be the wonder of ages to
come, and, as Sir William Crookes lately told us, the chemist is
prepared to refertilise our worn-out soil.

Let us not be too pessimistic. No advantage is ever gained without
a corresponding disadvantage, and we cannot look for advance in all
directions at once. The evils that we all deplore have been caused
by those very benefits that we give thanks for, and a recognition of
the evil is the first step towards its removal. As an honest attempt
to look things straight in the face, Mr Wallace’s book deserves a
welcome from men of all opinions.

GEOLOGY MADE EASY

GEOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. By W. W. Watts. 8vo, pp. xviiit+352, with 310 illustra-

tions. London: Macmillan & Co. 1898. Price 2s. 6d.
TuIs is one of the best introductions to Geology that we have ever
seen. Most books of the kind are ship-wrecked on a syllabus ; but
Mr Watts, though planning his work on the lines of the revised
syllabus of the Science and Art Department, has managed to steer
safely through its narrow passages without sacrificing breadth of view
or originality of treatment.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS — 423

Two features of the book are prominent. One, for which the
author expresses indebtedness to the late Prof. Green, is a constant
appeal to actual observation and experiment, the value of which in so
practical a science as geology can hardly be overrated. The other,
which is indeed the natural corollary of the former, is the introduction
of numerous photographs of actual sections and views of geological
interest. For this Mr Watts has peculiar facilities, as secretary to the
British Association Committee for collecting and preserving such
photographs. On the whole these photographs are well selected, and
add greatly to the attractiveness of the book. But nearly all of them
suffer from the printing, and there are many which we have found in
actual use to be unintelligible to the student. Figures 13 and 19,
purporting to show Crinoidal and Wenlock Limestone, might be
almost anything, so great is the reduction. Figures 18, 60, 88, 104,
154, 155, 296, 297, 301, are among those that would have been more
effective as pen-and-ink line-drawings, such as the excellent fig. 53.
The introduction of cross-country sections is to be commended; but
the compression of a section across the Snowdon range or the ancient
rocks of Pembrokeshire into three inches does not make its unravel-
ment either easy or pleasurable. We rejoice to see that the very clear
woodcuts of De la Beche are still available. As for the figures
borrowed from Zittel and distinguished by (Z), Mr Watts doubtless
knows who the true authors of most of them were and has suppressed
the intelligence after due consideration. We allude to this because
there is a lamentable tendency on the part of text-book writers to
copy figures from other text-books, and to give credit to the copyist or
compiler rather than to the original author. Thus the student is led
in a mazy round and not to the fountain-head.

In style and arrangement the work is remarkably clear. General
or doubtful statements receive their necessary qualification, so often
omitted in elementary text-books. Errors there may be, but they
are not very serious. One fault should be remedied in a future
edition ; that is the introduction of technical terms in the legends to
figures, without any explanation in the text, or without cross-reference
to such explanation if given on a later page. Ice-tables, for instance,
should either have been explained, or they should not have had a
half-page illustration devoted to them.

The book is a fitting celebration of Mr Watts’ appointment to
an assistant-professorship at Mason College, Birmingham. On its
appearance, both the author and the beginner in geology are to be
congratulated.

THE AFFINITIES OF ANIMALS

L’ANATOMIE COMPAREE DES ANIMAUX BaskE suR L’EMBRYOLOGIE. Par Louis Roule.
8vo, pp. xxvi+1972, with 1202 figures. Paris: Masson et Cie. 1898. Price
48 francs.
Mr Rovte is Professor at the University of Toulouse and is well
known by his works “Embryologie générale” and ‘“ Embryologie
comparée,” to which the two bulky tomes before us form a natural
sequel. The object of the book is not to give either a systematic
summary of the whole animal kingdom, a detailed account of its
numerous variations of structure, or even an elaborate discussion of

424 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

selected types, but rather to show the relationships of animals and
thus to manifest evolution in the Animal Kinedom. As the chief
guide in determining those relationships, Prof. Roule takes em-
bryology, although palaeontology and comparative morphology and
histology are not rejected.

The Animal Kingdom is divided into sixteen branches, dealt with
in the following order: Sareodic Protozoa, Ciliate Protozoa, Mesozoa,
Spongida, Hydrozoa, Seyphozoa, Plathelminthes, Nemathelminthes,
Trochozoa (Rotifera; Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Phoronidea, Sipunculidea ;
Mollusca; Archiannelida, Hirudinea, Chaetopoda; Pseudannelida=
Sternaspids & KEchiurians), Arthropoda, Chaetoenatha, Peripatida,
Echinoderma, Enteropneusta, Tunicata, Vertebrata. Each of these
branches is dealt with under the following heads: General considera-
tions and relations to other branches ; Distribution in nature ; General
organisation, first of the embryo, then of the adult ; Comparative
account of the different body systems, as manifested in the various
Classes of the Branch ; Principles of classification, division into Classes,
and mutual relations of the Classes; Bibliography. The second
volume ends with two indices, the first to the zoological names, the
second to the anatomical terms. There is no general chapter dealing
with the Animal Kingdom as a whole, or with the classification
adopted, since that was given in the previous works referred to
above.

Seeing that the subject is one of such obscurity, and open to so
wide diversity of opinion, it hardly seems worth while pointing out
the paths along which we should not care to follow our professorial
eulde. That he has made the attempt, and that Messrs Masson have
published it, is alone a reason for gratitude. For the book, though
somewhat wordy, and occasionally less clear than we are accustomed
to from a Frenchman, furnishes a series of very readable accounts
with many suggestions of interest. Without casting any slur ‘on
embryological research, we must confess to some distrust in those
who place quite as much reliance on it as does Prof. Roule. But taking
it at his valuation, we fail to see how it lends support to the view
that the Nautiloidea are ancestral to the Ammonoidea and the ad-
mittedly dibranchiate forms ; for their embryology shows clearly that
the Nautiloidea have lost an important structure, the protoconch, once
possessed by them and still possessed by the other orders. We also
venture to think that the known facts in the embryology of recent
echinoderms afford no proof whatever that the five-rayed ancestor,
which the holothurians must have had in common with the other
classes, was less developed than many cystids. Prof. Roule’s ‘hypo-
thetical Pentazodn’ is not the most ancestral form that is shadowed
forth to us, either by embryology or by palaeontology.

Special praise is due to the illustrations, which have nearly all
been drawn for the work, under Prof. Roule’s direction, by Mr L.
Jammes, in a style that is at once original and effective. We must,
however, protest against the picture on p. 1275, purporting to repre-
sent living crinoids, “dans un fond rocheux de convention” (penny
peep-show convention). Attached to one of these marvellous rocks,
by a stem far too short in proportion to-its arms, is a Pentacrinus ;
how it is fixed one cannot tell, but certainly not by the cirri, as

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 425

undoubtedly it would be in life. Below it, on a bottom that is
apparently muddy, is a Holopus, which certainly ought to have been
attached to the rocks, though not on the same page as the Pentacrinus,
of which genus there appear to be other specimens, wildly waving
about on a vertical precipice in the background. Fortunately, this is
the only picture of the kind. The printing of the book is excellent,
but the type and paper used have made the volumes rather too portly
for comfort. With the works of the two Perriers, of Delage and
Hérouard, of Blanchard with his corps of specialists, and of Roule,
our friends across the Channel suffer from no lack of home-made
text-books. And on this they are distinctly to be congratulated.

PLANT LIFE

PuaNtT Lire CoNSIDERED WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ForRM AND Function. By
Charles Reid Barnes, Professor of Plant Physiology in Chicago University. 12mo,
pp. X+428, with 415 text-figures. Holt: New York, 1898. Price $1.12.

WE have nothing but praise for this excellent introduction to the
study of plants. The author describes it as an attempt to exhibit
the variety and progressive complexity of the vegetative body; to
discuss the more important functions ; to explain the unity of plan
in both the structure and action of the reproductive organs; and
finally to give an outline of the more striking ways in which plants
adapt themselves to the world about them. It is meant to supple-
ment genuine and regular work in the laboratory. There are four
parts: Part I. The vegetative body, traces the increase in morphologi-
cal differentiation from the unicellular organism to the seed-plant, and
then discusses the general structure of root, shoot, stem, and leaves.
As regards the terms primary and secondary, we note that the former
is used to express the original root developed from the egg, the latter
being applied to adventitious roots wherever developed. Part II.
Physiology, deals with the general facts of the physiology of the
individual, namely, maintenance of form, nutrition, growth, and move-
ment. Reproduction is treated separately, under the headings vege-
tative and sexual, in Part III. Part IV. Ecology, contains chapters
dealing with forms of vegetation in relation to different sets of con-
ditions; Mesophytes, or the ordinary land plants with which dwellers
in fertile temperate climates are acquainted; Xerophytes, or plants
adapted to dry conditions ; Hydrophytes, or those adapted to a more
or less aquatic life. This part also comprises chapters on symbiosis,
the relations of plants to animals, and the protection and distribution
of spores and seeds. There are several useful appendices, including
directions for a course of laboratory work, and for collecting and
preserving material, with lists of apparatus, reagents, and reference
books. An important feature of the volume is the great number
of excellent figures, with an unusually full explanation in each case.

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL StuDY OF PLANTS
PRACTICAL PLANT PHystoLocy : an Introduction to original research for students and
teachers of Science, Medicine, Agriculture, and Forestry, By Dr W. Detmer.
Translated from the second German edition by S. A. Moor. 8vo, pp. xx +556, with
184 illustrations. London: Sonnenschein & Co, 1898. Price 12s.
Yet another botanical hand-book translated from the German! The

translator’s desire in undertaking this work is to promote the teaching
2G

426 NATURAL SCIENCE "c [Decemttict

of plant physiology in England, where he thinks it is seriously retarded
by the lack of suitable books. He admits the excellence of Francis
Darwin’s “ Practical Physiology of Plants,” but seems to think that an
English work on more advanced and comprehensive lines is needed.

Prof. Detmer’s “ Praktikum ” covers nearly the whole field of ex-
perimental plant physiology in the widest sense, ranging from the
rheotropism of Myxomycetes to the breaking stress of bast fibres, and
from unpalatability with snails to emulsion figures simulating proto-
plasm. Yet the whole does not strike one-as being, in the highest
sense, a book—an expression of a personality—as does the “ Experi-
mental Physiologie” of Sachs, or even the “ Praktikum” of Prof.
Strasburger ; but it has rather markedly the air of being pieced to-
gether. It is indeed an encyclopaedia of methods, which have been
carefully overhauled—an immense piece of work—by the author. It
seems as if it ought to be very valuable as a work of reference, yet one
is not quite sure what class of student will refer to it. It is no doubt
really intended for the small number of advanced students who are
about to undertake research on the physiology of plants, and so gives
an account of the stock methods of investigation.

The experiments are grouped, in logical sequence, into five sections,
viz., the Food of Plants, the Molecular Forces in Plants, the Metabolic
Processes in the Plant, Movements of Growth, and Movements of
Irritation. The successive experiments are not categorically limited,
but are linked together by theoretical and expository paragraphs, so
that the book can be read continuously ; but this involves so much
additional space that in many experiments small details have to be
omitted, the neglect of which will prevent the experiment being suc-
cessful on first trial.

The second German edition (1895) is nearly one-third longer than
the first edition (1888), has been largely re-written, and contains a
short appendix on recent views on the ascent of water.

The weakest section in the present edition is that on the applica-
tion of the polariscope. It is said to be ‘ very instructive’ to investi-
gate the phenomena exhibited in polarised light by starch grains
(which, however, should be mounted in Canada balsam for this
purpose, not in water); but surely, beyond the pretty effects, the
student learns nothing from his observation but the fact that starch
grains are anisotropic. This may be due to a remote crystalline
structure or to internal tensions. The latter hypothesis is not men-
tioned though it might easily have been illustrated experimentally.
As a further obscurity, ‘gypsplattchen’ has been translated in the
English edition as ‘plates of gypsum’ (p. 115). This should of
course be plates of selenite, which have special optical properties.

The most complete sections are those on Respiration, which have
been considerably expanded, and to which Prof. Detmer and his
pupils have contributed original work.

The English edition is translated without alteration or addition
from the second German one. There is something to be said for
retaining unchanged the appendix, which gives an annotated list of
the German dealers in, or makers of, the scientific apparatus described
in the book ; but a patriotic editor might have indicated where some
of the articles could be obtained in this country. It is not necessary

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 427

to send to Germany for klinostats and polar planimeters any more
than for platinum crucibles and india-rubber tubing.

The translator has done his work excellently, and we are but
rarely reminded of the German original. We note, however, a few
errors. The English of ‘plasmolytische gemacht’ is ‘ plasmolysed,’
not ‘rendered plasmolytic’ (p. 145). On p. 43, 1. 19, ‘layer’ would
be intelligible while ‘meniscus’ is not, though the German is
‘Meniscus.’ On p. 424, 1. 16, ‘favourable’ is found where ‘un-
favourable’ is meant.

The abundant matter of this compendious book is conveniently
arranged, and the translation of it will be welcomed by the propor-
tionally increasing number of those among even serious botanical
students, who are unable to use such a work in the original.

THE ORGANISM AS UNIT

PROBLEMS OF BroLocy. By George Sandeman. 8vo, pp. viii+218. London:
Swan Sonnenschein. 1896.

Tue Living Orcanism: An Introduction to the Problems of Biology. By Alfred
Earl. 8vo, pp. xiv+272. London: Macmillan & Co. 1898. Price 6s.

THESE two books appear to have similar aims and to arrive at much
the same ultimate conclusion, or absence of conclusion, and yet they
stand in strong contrast to each other. Mr Earl’s book is nicely
printed and bound; it is written in an easy style, has all the clear-
ness that can be imparted by division into chapters with many sub-
divisions and running: headlines, uses italics where appropriate, and
is furnished with a full table of contents and with an index. Mr
Sandeman’s book is needlessly repellent in type and binding; its
style has an individuality that is strongly marked, but far from
attractive or lucid ; the chapters and the paragraphs are of weary-
ing length ; there is no analysis of contents, and no index. Never-
theless, we set Mr Sandeman’s book above Mr Earl’s: it is more
interesting, more critical, and more suggestive. If the author
would rewrite it with more feeling for the dulness of his readers,
if he would be guided by the example of Mr Earl, and if he
would temper his biological erudition to the ignorance of the
philosopher, his philosophical jargon to the simplicity of the
biologist, we should recommend both parties to read his second
edition. We dare not recommend the perusal of the first, except
to those superior beings who have mastered “Sordello” and
“ Bygmester Solness.”

For both of these writers a theory of the unity of the organism
forms the chief object of biological enquiry. Each of them is at pains
to tell us in what this unity does not consist; but, as is natural,
neither of them can formulate a clear conception of what it is. Mr
Earl lays stress on the impossibility of conceiving the organism apart
from its environment; they may be expressed in terms of subject
and object, and constitute “a dual manifestation of a single reality.”
Mr Sandeman dallies with ‘feeling’ as that which gives unity to the
organism, but presently rejects it and falls back on the barren con-
ception of ‘character,’ which, he says, “is the identity in difference

428 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

of concrete individuals, and is the familiar expression for the whole
of a system,” that is to say, a pure abstraction. To us the most
fruitful conception appears to be that of ‘memory’; in other words,
the tendency to repeat the same action or process under similar, or
almost similar, conditions. What, if any, may be the ultimate physical
cause that causes a given readjustment of molecules in any one mass
of protoplasm to be repeated rather than replaced by another adjust-
ment, we do not know. But if this tendency, not unknown in the
inorganic world, be admitted for protoplasm, then at least we have a
phenomenal foundation for theories of specific segregation, individu-
ality, and heredity.

Mr Sandeman’s critical artillery is levelled at the three postulates
of biology :— (1) “that the qualities of the individual are separate
constituent elements of which the organism is the total sum”; (2)
that “all the qualities of the organism and all its stages are the mani-
festation of, and are related to, one another only through an agent or
system of agents within the known body”; (3) that “everything
organic exists only by reason of, and is to be explained only in rela-
tion to, some special external use which it now has, or which a similar
structure has had in former times.” The demolition, from a philo-
sophical standpoint, of various biological theories is well worth reading
by practical naturalists. Mr Earl’s book should also be read by them,
for it is to be feared that in our modern schools of science hardly
enough attention is paid to the logic and fundamental conceptions of
the subject. “The dissection of typical organisms is not necessarily
an intellectual exercise.” HeAS B:

DIET AND BLOOD

NaturaAu Hyciene; or, Healthy Blood the essential condition of Good Health, and how
to attain it. By H. Lahmann, M.D. Translated by Dr H. Biittner. 8vo, pp.
vili+254. 5 plates. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1898. Price 4s. 6d.

Dr LAHMANN is a vegetarian and an enthusiast; his book has passed
through many editions in Germany, and has been translated into other
tongues ; now for the first time it appears in English. The author is
able to show a considerable amount of scientific reason for the faith
that is in him, which may be epitomised in three propositions :—(1)
that ordinary diet is deficient quantitatively and qualitatively in the
mineral salts required by the human body ; (2) that we consume far
too much sodium chloride ; and (3) that we take in water to excess.
The truth of at least the first two of these propositions is incontro-
vertible, and Dr Lahmann deserves credit for calling attention to
them. On this basis he builds his doctrine of “dietetic dysaemia,”
and proceeds to expound a new pathology for most of the ills that
flesh is heir to—from short sight to difficult labour. In our opinion,
he falls into the error of pushing his doctrine to unwarrantable ex-
tremes—the fate of most enthusiasts. No intelligent person can fail
to admit the force of certain of his contentions, and no sane pathologist
can repress a smile at others. The book is worth reading, and is likely
to do much more good than harm.

1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 429

INTRODUCTIONS TO CHEMISTRY

CHEMISTRY FOR ScHOOLS: an Introduction to the Practical Study of Chemistry. By
C. Haughton Gill. Tenth Edition. Revised and enlarged by D. Hamilton
Jackson. Crown 8yo, pp. x+356, with 105 figs. London: "Stanford. 1898.
Price 4s. 6d.

THE ORGANIZED SCIENCE SERIES. First Stage. Inorganic Chemistry (Practical). By
F. Beddow. 8vo, pp. vili+166, 37 figs. London: Clive. 1898. Price 1s.

Or the making of elementary text-books of chemistry there appears
to be no end. We have recently received copies of the above works,
and although it scarcely enters into our province to review them
critically, we may say that they both appear to be very clearly written,
and to be well adapted to the requirements of the student. Neither
of them differs very startlingly from others of the kind. Perhaps of
the two the smaller book shows more originality of treatment. We
are glad to see that, even in so elementary a book, at least thirty
pages are devoted to quantitative experiments. In “ Chemistry for
Schools,” the five-page chapter on Crystalline Systems is quite in-
adequate, and in parts unintelligible. It is time that text-books of
chemistry contained really clear and detailed expositions of at least
the elementary principles of crystallography.

L’ANNEE BIOLOGIQUE,

WE welcome the second volume of this excellent ‘ Biological Record,’
even though it be issued some twenty months after the last of the
publications with which it professes to deal. In regard to accuracy of
quotation and comprehensiveness, it is an improvement on the first
volume, noticed in Natural Science for August 1897. As we said
before, absolute completeness is hardly to be hoped for, and certainly
is not attained by Professor Delage and his collaborators. For in-
stance, although most of the appropriate papers that appeared in our
own pages during 1896 are indexed, we see no reference to Miss
Newbigin’s valuable contribution on the pigments of animals ; or does
this not come under ‘ Biology’? However, there is a list (in itself
useful) of nearly 900 periodicals said to have been consulted in the
preparation of the volume. The abstracts, so far as we have checked
them, seem done with intelligence and accuracy; critical remarks are,
as a rule, inserted between square brackets. At the beginning of each
subject an attempt is made to give a general view of advance in that
field, and in certain cases this has led to the publication of elaborate
essays. Such are that on phagocytosis in the animal kingdom, by J.
Cantacuzene, with preface by E. Metchnikoff, and that on marine
zoogeography, by G. Pruvot. The publishers are Schleicher Freres,
15 Rue des Saints-Peéres, Paris, and the price is 20 francs.

VARIA

WE have received from Messrs Friedliinder & Son, of Berlin, a copy
of Naturae Novitates for 1897. This valuable record is issued in parts
twice a month; and finally indexed, bound, and sold for four marks,
at the middle of the succeeding year. It is a record of all books that
appear dealing with Natural History and the exact Sciences, and is
invaluable in its fortnightly form for ready reference, as well as in

430 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 1898

its annual form for general reference. Naturae Novitates provides
moreover a regular and important collection of Personalia as regards
appointments and deaths.

THE second part of vol. i. of the Records of the Botanical Survey
of India contains a paper on the results of Lieut. E. Pottinger’s
journey through Myitkyina, Burmah. There is a complete lst of
the phanerogams and vascular cryptograms and a map. Many
orchids are recorded.

THE re-issue of Stanford’s “Compendium of Geography” will be
completed in 1899. Vol. i, by Geo. C. Chisholm, is complete, and
contains the birth of the mainland of Europe. Vol. ii. will include
the British Isles, Scandinavia, Denmark, and the Low Countries, and
is already advanced. Other volumes, to contain Central and South
America, are in the hands of Sir Clements Markham and A. H.
Keane.

THE Annual Progress Report of the Geological Survey of Western
Australia for 1897 has just reached us, in the contorted and un-
manageable condition usual with these official publications. The
report consists of 66 pages and no less than seven valuable maps
(Northampton, Peak Hills, Horseshoe Diggings, Bunbury, Kanowna,
Coolgardie, and Artesian Bores in the vicinity of Perth), all of which
have accompanying text.

Our interesting contemporary Zhe Journal of School Geography
includes among the varied contents of its October number an illus-
trated article by G. K. Gilbert on the “ Origin of the Physical Features
of the United States,” reprinted from the National Geographic
Magazine for July. There is also a useful note by A. J. Herbertson,
defining the various terms Britain, Great Britain, England, Xe.

FURTHER LITERATURE RECEIVED.

Aids in Practical Geology, Cole: Griffin, London. Text-book of Botany, Vines :
Sonnenschein, London. Text-book of Mineralogy, Dana: Wiley, New York. Cytologie
expérimentale, Labbé: Carre & Naud, Paris. Allgemeine Biologie, I., Protoplasma,
Kassowitz: Perles, Wien. Pflanzen-geographie, Schimper: Fischer, Jena. From
Matter to Man, Dewar: Chapman & Hall, London.

Studies from Yale Psychol. Lab., vol. v. Report Australian Museum, 1897. Corn-
wall County Council, Report Fisheries. Study of the development of the Tuatara,
Denby: Proc. Roy. Soc. Relations between marine animal and vegetable life, Vernon :
Mitt. Zool. Stat. Neapel. Birds from Sierra Nevada de Sta Marta, Bangs: Proc. Biol.
oc., Washington. Ruins of Xkichmook, Thompson: Field Columbian Mus. Publ., 28.
Half-century of Evolution, Packard: Proc. Amer, Assoc. Report on Chillagoe mining
district, Jack: Geol. Surv., Queensland. Relations between Hybrid and Parent forms
of Echinoid. Larvae, Vernon: Phil. Trans.

Amer. Geol., Jan., Feb., March, Nov. ; Amer. Journ. Sci., Oct. ; Amer. month.
Micr. Journ., Sept., Oct. ; Amer. Nat., Oct. ; Bolletino del Naturalista, 10; Botan.
Gazette, Oct. ; Feuille des jeunes Nat., Nov. ; Irish Nat., Nov., Oct. ; Scot., Geogr.
Mag., Nov.; Timehri, XII., 1; Trans. Perthshire Soc., II., 6 ; Victorian Nat., Sept. and
Oct. ; Westminster Rev., Nov. ; Journ. Conchol., Oct. (vol. ix., No. 4; Journ.
School. Geogr., Oct., Nov. ; Knowledge, Nov. ; Literary Digest, Oct., 8, 15, 22, 29,
Nov. 5; Naturae Novit, Oct., No. 18, 19, 20; Naturaleza (Mexico) (2) IL., III. ;
Naturalist, Nov. ; Nature, Oct. 20, 27, Nov. 3, 10, 17 ; Nature Notes, Nov. ; Naturen,
Oct.-Nov. ; Proc. R. Soc. Victoria, XI., 1; Plant World, Oct.; Psychol. Rev., Nov. ;
Review of Reviews, Oct., Nov. ; Revue Scient., Oct. 22, 29, Nov. 5, 12, 19; Riv. Ital.
Se. Nat., Nov.-Dec.; Science, Oct. 7, 21, 28, Nov. 4, 11; Scientific Amer,, Oct. 8, 15,
22, 29, Nov. 5, 12; Scot. Med. and Surg. Journ., Novy.

431

OBITUARIES

JAMER SPENCER, the geologist and palaeobotanist, died on 9th July at
Akroydon, Yorkshire. He was born 27th April 1834 at Luddenden,
and for a time worked in a brickyard. He was “discovered” by
Colonel Akroyd about 1853, and by him given a post as porter in
his warehouse, from which position he speedily rose to that of cashier,
remaining in Colonel Akroyd’s firm until he retired in 1886. He was
connected with the Haley Hill Literary and Scientific Society, the
Halifax Scientific Society, and the Ovenden Naturalists’ Society in
many ways, and did a great deal to spread a knowledge of geology
among his fellows. Spencer became actively associated with the
late Professor Williamson about 1878, and was an important helper
in the “Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures.” A full account of his
life and work appears, by Mr W. B. Crump, in the Halifax Naturalist
for October.

Dr JoHN EDWARD TIERNEY AITCHISON, the well-known botanist and
explorer, died on September 50, at Kew, aged sixty-three years. He
was born in India in 1835, took his degrees in medicine and surgery
at Edinburgh and entered the Bengal medical’ service in 1858, re-
tiring in 1888. He paid especial attention to the botany of India,
publishing his first paper in 1863 on the plants of the Jhelum
district, with notes of considerable economic value. In 1869 he
issued a catalogue of the flora of the Punjab and Sindh, and in 1878
he accompanied Roberts’ expedition to the Kuram, acting as botanist.
He made immense collections, which were worked out at Kew,
the results appearing in the Linnean Society’s publication. He
obtained not less than 15,000 specimens from the Thal and Peiwarkotal
districts in one expedition, and 10,000 on another occasion when he
acted as naturalist to the Afghan Delimitation Commission. His labours
led him over almost the whole of North-west India, Afghanistan,
Baluchistan, Persia, and Russian Turkestan, and he was a botanist
who had a keen idea of other things than mere dried plants. He
has left much material which we hope will be worked out. We
are indebted for these notes to a sympathetic article, by Mr Botting
Hemsley, in Nature.

Luie1 LoMBARDINI, Professor of the Anatomy of Domestic Vertebrates
at the Veterinary School of Pisa, died at that place on 27th June,
having been born at Poggibonsi on 11th April 1831.

The deaths have also been announced of :—W. G. ATHERSTONE, who worked and
wrote on the geology of South Africa between 1856 and 1874; on 1st September, at
Hobart, Tasmania, the well-known Australian conchologist, C. E. BEDDOME; on 5th
August, Prof. EucEn1o Brerront, director of the fishery station at Brescia, aged 53 ;
J. Crocg, professor of pathology in the University of Brussels; GIUSEPPE GIBELLI,
professor of botany and director of the Botanical Garden at Turin, on 16th September ;
on 25th September, Dr A. LAsarp, at Nizza, aged 74; Don FRANcIScO COELLO DE
PortTuGAL, president of the Geographical Society of Madrid; Hrtnrich THEODOR
RicuTeR, lately director of the School of Mines at Freiburg; MicueLE STEFANO DE
Rosst, the seismologist ; on 3lst May, at Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., the botanist,
EDWARD TATNALL, aged 80.

432

NEWS

The following appointments have recently been made :—Miss Catherine A.
Raisin, D.Sc., the well-known petrologist, to be Vice-Principal of Bedford College
for Women, London ; C. B. Crampton, M.B. of the University of Edinburgh, to be
assistant-keeper in oe geological department of the Manchester Museum, in suc-

cession to H. Bolton ; Prof. 0, Chun to be professor of zoology at Leipzig ; Prof.~
W. Kiikenthal to pe professor of zoology at Breslau ; Dr Conrad Keller of the»

Polytechnicum, Ziirich, to be full professor of zoology ; Dr H. E. Ziegler, of Frei-

burg, i/B, to be professor of phylogeny at Jena; Dr C. A. Kofoid to be assistant,

professor of zoology at the University of Illinois; Wallace Craig to be assistant
in the State Laboratory of Natural History at the [linois Biological Station ;
E. B. Forbes to be field-entomologist of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural
History ; J. H. M‘Gregor to be assistant in zoology at Columbia University, New
York ; G. M. Holman as assistant in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology ; Dr B. Moore, of University College Hospital, to be professor of
physiology in the Yale Medical School; Dr Albert Matthews to be assistant-
professor of physiology at Tufts College ; Dr Simon Flexner to be professor of
pathological anatomy at Johns Hopkins University ; Dr Joseph Priestly to be
teacher of hygiene in the British Institute of Preventive Medicine ; Dr J. P.
Hylan to be assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois; Albert
Gaillard to be director of the Lloyd Herbarium at Angers ; C. W. Young to be
assistant in botany at the University of Illinois; James Pollock, Hamilton Timber-
lake, and Julia W. Snow to be instructors in botany at the University of Michigan ;
F. O. Grover, of Harvard, to be instructor in botany at Oberlin College, Goel
Ohio. . ) [= UF al
V vA

Dr FREDRIK WILHELM cone ArmscHoue has resigned the professorship
of botany at Lund University.

Pror. E. B. WiLson, of Columbia University, has recently recovered from a
serious illness, and will spend next year in travel and research abroad.

Pror. FLINDERS PETRIE has presented to the Museum of Anatomy and Anthro-
pology at Cambridge, nineteen cases of skulls and bones from his excavations at
Hieraconopolis. These include remains of the prehistoric and earliest dynastic
races in Egypt.

Lorp WALSINGHAM, High Steward of the University of Cambridge, has offered
a second medal, in bronze, for specially meritorious essays in biology which do not
obtain the Walsingham gold medal.

THE University of Sydney is to be affiliated to that of Cambridge, and students
in arts or science who have pursued a certain course at Sydney will be admitted
to the usual privileges of affiliated students.

DuRING the absence of W. H. R. Rivers with Prof. Haddon’s Expedition, the
course in experimental psychology at University College, London, is being
directed by Mr E. T. Dickson.

Pror, J. W. TRAILL is to be director of the Cruickshank Botanical Garden at
Aberdeen University.

Mr Briges 8. CUNNINGHAM, of Cincinnati, has given $60,000 towards the
erection of a building for biology and physics at Cincinnati University.

WE learn from Sczence that the U.S. Fish Commissioner has presented Cornell
University with a collection of fresh-water and salt-water fishes, numbering
between four and five hundred thousand specimens. The collection, in so far as

AOD

December 1898] NEWS 433

it consists of living fishes, will be of great value not only to the zoological depart-
ment, but also to the College of Forestry, in which a course in pisciculture and
venery is to be introduced. Duplicates of this collection are to be presented to
other institutions.

Provost Harrison, of the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected
president of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy, in succession to the late Dr
William Pepper.

Tue British Institute of Preventive Medicine has recently assigned a large
laboratory at Chelsea to research and teaching in technical bacteriology ; it will
be named the Hansen Laboratory and be under the direction of Dr G. Harris
Morris. The formal opening of the Institute will take place early next year.

AccorDING to Science, the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of
Natural ‘Sciences have received from Alaska nearly 13,000 specimens, secured
near Point Barrow by an expedition under the management of E. A. M‘Ilhenny
of Louisiana, fitted out and conducted by N. G. Buxton of Ohio and W. E.
Snyder of Wisconsin. The zoological and botanical specimens go to the
Academy, the ethnological to the University.

Mr Aran Owsron of Yokohama has recently sent to this country a
magnificent collection of hexactinellid sponges from the seas of Japan. Most of
these have been purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum, but a fair
number have gone to Oxford. Among the specimens are many studied by
Professor Ijima for the monograph that he is writing on the group.

Mr Mrcwaen Laxkrn’s donation of a large Liassie Ichthyosaurus to the British
Museum, already announced in these pages, has necessitated a considerable re-
arrangement of the existing collection. We understand that the old cases are to
be removed, while the fine slabs containing these fossils will be simply covered
with glass and exhibited upon the wall. Space is to be gained by raising a
number of the specimens above the top of the present wall-cases.

Dr JonatHan HurcuHinson, whose educational museum at Haslemere is well
known, is starting a similar establishment at his native town of Selby in York-
shire. The building has already made considerable progress.

On October 5, a new natural history museum was opened at King Williams
Town, Cape Colony.

Tue U.S. Department of Agriculture has sent Mr M. A. Carleton to Russia to
study cereals.

Tue New York Botanical Gardens makes rapid progress. ‘The museum build-
ing is complete up to the second storey, the skeleton of the whole being in place.
The planting of the border will, says Science, be completed during the autumn.
This will be about two miles long, and will contain some three hundred and fifty
varieties of trees and shrubs.

A rirrH International Congress of Hydrology, Chinatology, and Geology was
held at Liittich from September 25 to October 3.

Tue Sixth International Otological Congress will be held in London at the
Hall of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, from August 8th to 12th
of next year. The last meeting of the Congress was held three years ago at
Florence, under the presidency of Professor Grazzi.

Tur International Conference on the Bibliography of Scientific Literature
met at Burlington House, London, in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries on
October 11-13. It was attended by the following delegates :—Austria, Professors
L. Boltzmann and E, Weiss ; Belgium, Chevalier Descamps and Messrs P. Otlet
and H. La Fontaine ; France, Prof. G. Darboux, Dr J. Deniker, and Mr E.
Mascart ; Germany, Prof. Klein of Géttingen; Hungary, Drs A. Heller and

434 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

T. Duka ; Japan, Prof. E. Yamaguchi; Mexico, Senor Don Francisco del Paso y
Troncoso ; Netherlands, Prof. D. J. Korteweg; Norway, Dr J. Brunchorst ;
Sweden, Dr E. W. Dahlgren ; Switzerland, Drs J. H. Graf and J. Bernoulli ;
United Kingdom, Sir John Gorst, Professors M. Foster, A. W. Riicker, and
H. Armstrong, Sir Norman Lockyer and Dr L. Mond ; United States, Dr C.
Adler ; Cape Colony, Mr R. Trimen ; India, Lieut.-General Sir R. Strachey and
Dr W. T. Blanford; Natal, Sir Walter Peace; New Zealand, Hon. W. P.
Reeves ; Queensland, Hon. Sir Horace Tozer. The chief decisions were: that
the catalogue be published in the double form of cards and books; that
geography be limited to mathematical and physical, excluding political and
general geography ; that a separate schedule be provided for each of the following
branches of science,—Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology, Physics, Crystal-
lography, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology (including Petrology), Geography,
Palaeontology, Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Physiology, (including Pharmacology
and Experimental Pathology), Bacteriology, Psychology, Anthropology ; that
Italian should be added to the list of languages not requiring translation, the
others being English, French, German, and Latin. The following were appointed
a Provisional International Committee :— Professors Armstrong, Descamps,
Foster, Poincare, Riicker, Waldeyer, and Weiss, and Dr 8S. P. Langley ; the
delegates were requested to organise local committees in their respective
countries, to discuss matters connected with the catalogue, and to report within
six months to the committee just mentioned; and this committee is to
fraine a report not later than July 31, 1899. As regards future working, there is
to be a Central Bureau with a Director, and as many Regional Bureaux as can be
persuaded to act; these are the workers. But there are to be International
Conventions held in 1905, 1910, and every tenth year afterwards, to reconsider
and, if necessary, revise the rules now drawn up. There is also to be an
International Council, which shall meet in London once in three years at least ;
this is to be the supreme authority over the Central Bureau. It is recommended
that the International Council shall appoint for each science included in the
catalogue five persons to form an International Committee of Referees, so far as
possible representative of the constituent regions. It shall be the duty of the
director of the Central Bureau to consult the appropriate committee or com-
mittees, by correspondence or otherwise, on all questions of classification not
provided for by the catalogue regulations; or, in cases of doubt, as to the
meaning of those regulations. There are a good many more cumbrous rules, but
those we have last quoted are about enough to wreck any scheme less difficult and
less enormous than the present one. It is to be hoped that the director will not
do his “ duty,” but go ahead.

THE Royal Society has awarded its medals as follows :—Copley Medal, Sir
William Huggins ; Royal Medals, Rev. John Kerr and Mr Walter Gardiner ;
Rumford Medal, Prof. Oliver Lodge ; Davy Medal, Prof. Johannes Wislicenus ;
Darwin Medal, Prof. Karl Pearson.

GENERAL regret is felt that Sir John Evans should have found it necessary to
resign the treasurership of the Royal Society. Regret has also been expressed
that the Council should not have found a more eminent man of science than Mr
A. B. Kempe, the mathematician, to succeed him.

THE Mineralogical Society, at its anniversary meeting on November 15,
elected the following officers for the ensuing year :—Prof. A. H. Church, president ;
Prof. G. D. Liveing and Dr Hugo Miiller, vice-presidents.

THE late Mrs Stainton has bequeathed to the Entomological Society, London,
such entomological works from her husband’s library as were not already in its
possession. Many of these are old and scarce.

1898] NEWS 435

Tue Geologists’ Association, London, opened its session on Friday, November
4th, with a remarkably successful conversazione in the Library at University
College. The following were among the numerous exhibits :—Specimens illus-
trating the artificial production of the structure of gneissose rocks by the defor-
mation of heterogeneous masses of clay, and photographs of similar structures in
the gneissose rocks of the Lizard Peninsula ; by the president, J. J. H. Teall. A
fine series of Russian and Indian ammonites ; by Prof. J. F. Blake. Specimens
and micro-sections of rocks collected in Russia during the visit of the International
Congress ; by the secretary of the Association, P. Emary. Illustrations of the
modes of occurrence of magnetic iron ore at Gellivara and other localities in Lap-
land ; by D. A. Louis. Apatite and associated rocks from Canada ; by Rev. Prof.
T. G. Bonney. Granites and gneisses from the Vosges and Switzerland ; by Miss
C. A. Raisin. A beautiful set of photomicrographs of recent and fossil foramini-
fera ; by H. W. Burrows and R. Holland. Collections of pebbles illustrating the
constitution and sources of origin of high-level gravels in S. and E. of England ;
by A. E. Salter. Remains of mammoth, red deer and Bos primigenius dredged
from the Dogger Bank, as well as other interesting specimens ; by W. F. Gwinnell.
A remarkable series of palaeolithic implements from West Wickham, Kent ; by
A. 8. Kennard. Skiagrams of fossil starfish from the Devonian of Germany, said
to show structures invisible on the surface of the stone, but the originals were not
brought for comparison ; by Upfield Green. Specimens, drawings and plaster
easts of Petalocrinus, the paddle-armed Silurian crinoid ; by F. A. Bather. A
fine siluroid fish from late Tertiary oil-shales of Taubaté in the Province of Sao
Paulo, Brazil ; by J. N. Tervet. Jaws of a new dinosaur found by J. David in the
Rhaetic of Glamorganshire, which jaws, we are told, will speedily chaw up cer-
tain guesses of an eminent palaeoherpetologist ; by E. T. Newton. Sir Archibald
Geikie exhibited some of the new survey maps, in which many improvements
have been made possible by the improved topography of the new ordnance maps ;
also beautiful collotype plates which will illustrate the forthcoming memoir on
the Silurian rocks of Scotland, by Peach and Horne, with petrographical notes by
Teall. Many other exhibits and an enthusiastic crowd bore witness to the energy
of this useful Association, and of its secretary, Mr Emary, whose address is 12
Alwyne Square, Canonbury, London, N.

THE Society for the Protection of Birds announces that it has now a number
of beautiful lantern-slides ready to lend to any of its members who may be able
to arrange for an illustrated lecture on birds and their protection. Application
for these should be made direct to the Secretary, 326 High Holborn, London, W.C.

Tue Report and Transactions of the South Eastern Union of Scientific Socie-
ties containing the proceedings at the Third Annual Congress held at Croydon,
June 2nd, 3rd and 4th 1898, is to hand. It contains :—Places of meeting and
presidents, officers for 1898-9, rules, list of affiliated societies with names of
delegates, secretaries, &c., report of delegates’ meeting, secretary’s report, balance
sheet, photographic secretary’s report, lantern-slide scheme, postal magazine club,
reception and exhibits, botanical research committee, referees, annual address,
and the various papers read before the Congress. We have already given the
titles of these, and have published two of them ; the paper on Dene-holes, by C.
Dawson, has also been published in the Geological Magazine. This should surely
have been mentioned in the report. Here, however, Mr Dawson’s paper on
Natural Gas is embellished by two illustrations of the Heathfield flame, one of
which appeared in Black and White. The photographic secretary reports that a
set of seventy-eight lantern-slides illustrating the Greensand and Gault has been
got together, and may be borrowed by members, along with a written lecture on
the subject by H. E. Turner. It is proposed to form new sets dealing with (i)
Prehistoric man in 8.E. England ; (ii) English wildflowers, with special reference

436 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

to forms of capsules and their dehiscences ; (iii) Coast erosion in S.E. England ;
(iv) Marine organisms as transparent lantern-slides. Those willing to help this
excellent project should communicate with Mr H. E. Turner, 2 Bouverie Road
West, Folkestone. Another proposal is the formation of a postal magazine club,
whereby members will doubtless be made acquainted with at least the titles of
many magazines, but which will probably tend to lower the circulation of some
publications yet further. It is an example we scarcely wish to see followed.
The next Congress will be held in Rochester early in June 1899 under the
presidency of W. Whitaker.

Tue Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists’ Club opened its winter session on
October 12, with a paper by F. W. Fierke, its treasurer, on “ The ancient meres of
Holderness and their Contents.” Subsequent papers have been by J. Holling-
worth on “ Public Health,” by Rev. H. P. Slade on “ Our Water Supply.” Among
forthcoming items we note J. R. Boyle on “The organisation of an English
Manor,” and J. J. Marshall on “The Mosses of the East Riding.” It is satisfac-
tory to see how many papers are careful studies of local subjects rather than the
generalities so dear to many societies of the kind. The president is R. H. Philip ;
the secretary, T. Sheppard, 78 Sherburn Street, Hull.

RECENT papers read before the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club have
been by Dr Gustav Mann “On the Origin of Life,” and by Mr A. D. Darbishire
“On Natural Selection among Lepidoptera.” The Transactions of the Club are
now issued separately from the notices of meetings, and will be sent to life
members post free for one year for three shillings. No. 5, recently received,
contains a “ Preliminary note on changes in the gland cells of Drosera produced
by various food materials,” by Lily H. Huie, and a paper on “'Turpentining [7.e.
obtaining turpentine from trees] in the Southern States [of America],” by H. E.
Stapleton.

THE Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society have presented Dr H. C.
Sorby with his portrait, by Mrs M. L. Waller, in celebration of his fifty years’
connection with the society (1847-1897).

THE British Mycological Society held its second annual meeting in Dublin,
September 19-24. Excursions were made to Howth, Powerscourt, Brackenstown
near Swords, the woods of Avoca, Lucan, and Dunran. These resulted in an
addition of sixteen species to the fungus flora of Dublin and Wicklow ; a list
will appear in the December number of the Jvish Naturalist. Dr Plowright, pre-
sident for the current year, delivered an address, discussing certain fungi figured
in Cooke’s “Illustrations.” Papers were read by Messrs Wager, Crossland,
M‘Weeney, Soppitt, and Rea.

On Oct. 18, Dr John William Toore was elected president, and Dr W. J.
Smyly vice-president, of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland for the
ensuing year.

THE Naturalists’ Society of St Petersburg has erected a new biological
station on Lake Bologoy ; it is specially intended for the study of plant-
plankton.

THANKS to agitation begun by the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria, Wilson’s
Promontory in that Colony has been proclaimed a national park for the pre-
servation of native fauna. This Club is also doing its best to suppress the
ruthless destruction of the wattles (acacias) for the sake of their flowers. The
subject has also been taken up by the Australian Natives Association.

THE Scientific Alliance of New York consists of the Torrey Botanical Club,
the New York Microscopical Society, the New York Section of the American
Chemical Society, the New York Mineralogical Club, the American Mathemati-
cal Society, the Linnean Society of New York, and the New York Entomologi-

1898] NEWS 437

cal Society. It is to be hoped that some day the Alliance will have a building of
its own, for at present these societies have to meet at various buildings in the
city.

Tue fourth annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America, held at Boston,
under the presidency of Dr N. L. Britton, on August 19 and 20, was most success-
ful. Prof. L. M. Underwood was elected president for 1899. The address of
Prof. J. M. Coulter, the retiring president, was on “ The origin of Gymnosperms
and the Seed Habit,” and has already appeared in Science. The other papers
of interest to our readers were “On Sporogenesis in Arisaema,” by Prof. G. F.
Atkinson ; “Symbiotic Saprophytism,” by Prof. D. T. Macdougal ; “ Sporo-
genesis in Trillium,” by Prof. G. F. Atkinson ; “Structure and development of
the Centrosphere in Corallina,’ by Dr B. M. Davis; “ Relations between the
Forest Flora and Geological Formations in New Jersey,” by Dr Arthur Hol-
lick ; “ Notes on the Fertilisation of the white Pine,” by Miss M. C. Fergusson ;
“A Helianthus from Long Island,’ by Dr N. L. Britton ; “ Tetradformation in
Tsuga,” by W. A. Murrill ; and “A fossil moss from the State of Washington,”
by Mrs Britton and Dr Hollick.

Tue American Forestry Association, we learn from Science, held a meeting
from August 23 to 25, at Boston. Reports were presented by various States
as to the condition of the forestry movement. The most important feature of
the meeting was the discussion of the aims and objects of the newly-established
State College of Forestry at Cornell, by its director, Dr Fernow. Sczence promises
to print his address in full.

THe Commission appointed by the Colonial Office and the Royal Society to
investigate the mode of dissemination of malaria with a view to devising means
of preventing the terrible mortality which now takes place among Europeans
resident in tropical and sub-tropical climates will consist of Dr C. W. Daniels, of
the Colonial Medical Service, British Guiana ; Dr J. W. W. Stephens, formerly
Lawrence Student in Pathology and Bacteriology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital ;
and Dr R.S8. Christophers, of University College, Liverpool. Dr Daniels will
proceed at first to Calcutta, where he will acquaint himself practically with the
remarkable work which Surgeon-Major Ross, of the Indian Medical Service, is
carrying on into the relation of mosquitos to the dissemination of malaria. Drs
Stephens and Christophers will spend some time in Rome studying malaria.
Subsequently the Commissioners will meet at Blantyre, British Central Africa.

A Commission—consisting of Dr Thomas R. Fraser, F.R.S., Professor of Materia
Medica and Clinical Medicine at Edinburgh University (president) ; Dr Wright,
Professor of Pathology at the Army Medical School, Netley ; Dr Riiffer, who has
been for some time head of the Egyptian Sanitary Department at Cairo ; and
two officers of the Indian Civil Service, Mr J. P. Hewett, C.I.E., and Mr A.
Cumine, both of whom have had much to do with recent plague affairs in India—
has been appointed to report on the following matters concerning the plague in
India : (1) the origin of the different outbreaks ; (2) the manner in which the
disease is communicated ; (3) the effects of certain prophylactic and curative
serums that have been tried or recommended, The Commission reached Bombay
towards the end of November.

Mr E. W. L. Horr has been appointed by the Royal Dublin Society to make
researches over a period of five years on the life-history of the mackerel. A ship
is being fitted up as a floating laboratory at Berehaven which will be Mr Holt’s
headquarters.

Hampure has founded at Freihafen a station for the protection of plants
against injurious insects introduced from abroad, and against plant-disease
generally.

438 NATURAL SCIENCE [December

THE half-yearly report of the inspector for the eastern sea fisheries district
just issued, states that the fishing during this season has been much above the
average. The rigid enforcement of the regulation against taking undersized
shell fish has benefited the fishing-grounds. The chief offenders in this respect
are the lobster and whelk fishers, whose practice it has been to use undersized
crabs for bait. At one place alone the destruction of undersized edible crabs for
this purpose has been upwards of 3,000 in each day’s fishing, and the number of
‘unsizeable’ crabs destroyed along the Norfolk coast has been greater than the
whole number of ‘sizeable’ crabs landed. The wholesome effect of prosecutions
and convictions, and the increased efficiency of inspection during recent years, is
shown by the fact that “all the fishermen report that the ground contains more
small crabs than have ever been seen by them before.”

CanaDa is to have a floating biological station in the Gulf of St Lawrence for
at least five years, and the Government of the Dominion has appropriated £1400
for the purpose. The board of management consists of Prof. E. E. Prince,
director ; Professors D. P. Penhallow and E. W. MacBride, of McGill University ;
Prof. Ramsay Wright, of Toronto University ; Prof. L. W. Bailey, of the Uni-
versity of New Brunswick ; Prof. A. P. Knight, of Queen’s University ; and
Rev. V. A. Huart, of Laval University. For the first year the laboratory will be
on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, and will be moved annually. It is
hoped that active work may begin early in 1899.

Mr Grorce Murray, Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British
Museum, has organised an expedition for the study of intermediate ocean depths,
With the aid of the Royal Geographical Society, the Drapers’ Company, and the
Fishmongers’ Company, he chartered the ss. ‘“‘ Oceana,” which was fitted with
deep-sea gear by the Silvertown Telegraph Cable Company. Mr Murray is
accompanied by two of his colleagues, J. W. Gregory and V. H. Blackman, as well
as by Dr Sambon, J. E. 8. Moore, and Percy Highley, the last-mentioned acting
as artist. The steamer, after some delay from fogs, left the Thames on November
16, and proceeded directly to the west coast of Ireland, where work was begun at
the edge of the 100-fathom platform, about thirty miles west of Dingle Bay, It
was intended to steam slowly for about 10 degrees westward, making continuous
observations with a vertical chain of tow-nets, which would gradually be lowered
until, with a length of 2000 fathoms, the series would include 38 nets. Thus the
difference between the faunas of different depths in the same part of the ocean
can be estimated by comparing the contents of the nets. Experiments with
various forms of self-closing nets will be made for the sake of comparison,
Soundings and observations of temperatures will be taken, and there may be
opportunity for some deep-sea trawling.

A DETAILED natural history survey of the long sand-bank known as the North
Bull, in Dublin Bay, recently undertaken by Messrs Praeger and Halbert, is, says
the Irish Naturalist, turning out unexpectedly interesting from a zoological point
of view, as this apparently inhospitable spot has already yielded several additions
to the Irish fauna.

Mr Joun S. BupGert has started for the Gambia, under the instructions of
the Zoological Society of London, in order to gather information concerning the
larger mammals of the colony, and to make zoological collections, especially of
the fishes.

Tue following telegram has been received from Dr J. Stadling, who was sent
by the Swedish Geographical Society to search for Andrée. It is dated Irkutsk,
November 2 :—“ There being no telegraph in Siberia north of Irkutsk, I am
sending this note by messenger up the River Lena to that place for telegraphic
dispatch. We are now, on September 15, at the Lena delta, having been pursuing

1898] NEWS 439

our quest for news of Andrée since last April. We have got our row-boat ready,
and in this are now starting to cross from the Lena delta to the mouth of the
Olenek. If we arrive in safety we shall from thence proceed in sledges to
Chatauga, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the mouth of the Yenisei in our search.
The botanist who has accompanied us thus far is now returning via Irkutsk.”

Mr N. R. Harrineron and Dr Reid Hunt have returned to New York from
an expedition to the Nile Valley, where they went to obtain material for the study
of the life-history of Polypterus. The best fishing-ground was at Mansourah,
forty miles from the sea. The study of this was expected to throw light on the
relations of the Crossopterygian fishes to the Amphibia and the Dipnoi ; but
unfortunately no embryonic material was obtained. Excellent collections were,
however, made for other zoological purposes.

Mr CorNELIUS VANDERBILT will provide funds for a botanical expedition to
Porto Rico, to be undertaken by the New York Botanical Garden, under the
direction of Dr N. L. Britton. The expedition left towards the end of October,
and will collect for six months.

News comes from Argentina that Dr Santiago Roth, of the museum of La
Plata, has discovered a series of Mesozoic mammalian remains in the Territory of
Chubut. Palaeontologists will await with great interest his promised memoir on
the subject.

THE report of the progress of the Ordnance Survey up to March 31, 1898, has
been issued as a Parliamentary Blue-Book, which is thus summarised by The
Times. Dealing first with England and Wales, the report states that the publica-
tion of the revision of the cadastral survey on the 1-2,500 scale is proceeding as
rapidly as possible, the total area published being 9,236 square miles, of which
5,217 square miles have been published during the year. The revision has now
been taken up of all the counties of England and Wales which were surveyed
more than twenty yearsago. The publication of the revised maps on the 6in. scale
has been hitherto much retarded by the publication of the new maps on this
scale of London and the Tyneside towns. This latter work is, however, now
approaching completion, and more rapid progress is expected in future. The
total area on this scale published is 3,788 square miles, of which 3,609 square
miles have been published during the year. With regard to the revision of the
lin. map, which was sanctioned by the Treasury in 1893, the report states that
the field-work of the revision was begun in 1893, since when the whole of England
and Wales has been revised on the ground, with the exception of a few streets in
the midland counties and North Wales, which will be completed this year. Of a
total area of 58,527 square miles thus revised 14,643 have been revised during the
year. The revised maps of 28,305 square miles have been engraved and pub-
lished, 5,282 during the year. The general result to be obtained by the revision
is that in 1899 there will be available to the public for the first time a lin. out-
line map of the whole of the country, prepared on one uniform system, and with
its principal details nearly up to date. It is further stated that the revision of
the map in the scale of 4in. to the mile will follow on that of the lin. map, but
cannot proceed very rapidly until the latter has been completed. After giving
some details with regard to Scotland and Ireland, the report, in a summary and
tabular statement of progress for 1897-98, shows that, so far as the original surveys
of the United Kingdom are concerned, the town surveys for Great Britain and
Treland, the 1-2,500 maps for Great Britain, the 6in. maps, and the lin. maps
for Great Britain and Ireland have all been completed, while the hill engraving
for the new series lin. map of England and Wales is proceeding, 4,262 square
miles out of a total of 27,569 published on March 31, 1898, having been published
in 1897-98. Considerable work has also been accomplished in the way of
resurveying.

440 [December 1898

CORRESPON DENCE
THE CLASSIFICATION OF BUTTERFLIES

In brief reply to your note on page 298, vol. xiii., I would state that the parity of
specialisation in the feelers of the Papilionidae and Nymphalidae does not necessarily
authorise the association of the groups. I have not separated the Papilionides (Parnas-
siidae and Papilionidae) upon any characters of specialisation, but upon a fundamental
divergence in the structure of the wings, such a divergence as indicates, in my opinion,
a distinct phylogenetic line and is plainly available for taxonomic purposes. The gist
of my article in Nalwral Science and of that in the Proceedings of the American Philoso-
phical Society is, that parallel specialisations in any one organ do not authorise associa-
tion, since they have been independently acquired. Rank is a relative conception.
I do not claim that the Papilionides should outrank all the other butterflies, but I do
claim that they cannot be logically interpolated between any of the groups of the other
butterflies, a mode of classification as old as Roesel, revived by Bates, Distant, Scudder,
Reuter, and others. This interpolation cannot take place because the Papilionides
possess, in vein ix. of primaries, a morphological character unshared by all the other
butterflies, which again have in common a loop-like appendix to vein vii. at base
(vein viii.). This appendix fades out by disintegration in certain minor groups. It is
also shared by the more specialised and larger groups of the moths. The butterflies are
therefore probably dichotomous, and I expect the phylogeny of the Papilionides is to be
sought for in the Tineides. The two groups of diurnals have attained their character as
day fliers by different routes.

My criticism of Dr Jordan’s investigations is, that, valuable as they are as a con-
tribution to the morphology of the feelers, they are valueless for taxonomy and phylo-
geny. I do not regard the specialisations of the veining, which takes a parallel direction
so far as concerns the radius and its branches in the Lycaenidae and Pieridae, as any
warrant for the association of these families. And I must naturally object to having my
classification of the butterflies into two major groups, viz., Papilionides and Hesperiades,
criticised upon the basis of coincidences in specialisation of certain organs common to
both groups. The Papilionides possess an important part of an organ which the other
butterflies want. Specialisations come in afterwards, as when I show that the Parnas-
sians are more specialised than the Swallowtails, and that therefore we should com-
mence our lists with Apollo and kindred butterflies. A. RADCLIFFE GROTE.

RoreMER MusEum, HILpESHEIM, 7th November 1898.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

After this number NATURAL SCIENCE will be published by

Mr YOUNG J. PENTLAND,
11 Treviot PLacrt, EDINBURGH,

AND

38 WEST SMITHFIELD, LONDON, E.C.

Communications for Editor and Publisher should be sent to 11 Teviot
Place, Edinburgh.
London parcels may be sent to 38 West Smithfield,

441

INDEX

An Asterisk (*) indicates that a figure is given.

ABERDEEN UNIV., 67, 432
Actinotrocha, 375
Address, change of, 376
African Plants, 202
Agassiz, Alex., 212
Agricultural botany, 373
Agricultural Sci. at Oxford, 66
Agriculture in U.S., 225
Alaska, publications on, 61
‘** Albatross,” 86
Albatross protected, 144
Albian, 193
Alca impennis, 130
Alcoholism, 344
Alga parasitic on Ophiurids, 88
Algae, 33
Amblysiphonella, 372
Ameghino on Neomzylodon, 288, 324
American Assoc., 356
Forestry Assoc., 437
Mus. Nat. Hist., 68, 285
Rs N., land-shells, 16
Anatomy of Vertebrates, 127
Andrée’s Balloon, 134
Andrews, C. W., 147
Animal intelligence, 265
** Annot. Zool., Japan,” 138, 211
Antarctic Exploration, 144, 360
Anthropology in Madras and London, 11
Antrim County Guide, 209
Appointments—
Adametz, L., 283
Andrussoy, N., 66
Barber, C. A., 353
Behrens, J., 66
Beyer, Rudolf, 283
Blake, W. P., 283
Blanckenhorn, M., 66
Blochmann, F., 283
Bode, G., 353
Bolton, Herbert, 142
Borntraeger, A., 353
Brauer, F. M., 283
Brefeld, O., 353
Brick, Carl, 283
Brigham, W. T., 283
Celakovsky, L., 66
Chadwick, H. C., 66
Chun, C., 482
Claypole, Agnes M., 142, 353
Clements, F. G., 283
Craig, W., 432
Crampton, C. B., 432
Crowe, Stephen, 353
Cockerell, T. D. A., 353
Coghill, E. G., 66
Cori, C. J., 66

9

39

Appointments—continued—
Dafert, W. H., 353
Daly, R. A., 353
Darbishire, O. V., 283
Demoussy, 66
Diamare, V., 353
Dickson, E. T., 432
Dingler, H., 283
Dodge, Raymond, 142
Duggar, B. M., 283
Dunn, S. T., 353
Durand, E. I., 283
Fernow, B. E., 283
Fiori, A., 283
Fleischmann, A., 283
Flexner, 8., 432
Flower, Stanley, 353
Forbes, E. B., 432
Fritsch, Karl, 283
Gaillard, A., 4382
Genty, P. A., 66
Gies, W. J., 353
Grover, F. O., 4382
Haley, Gertrude, 66
Harper, R. A., 66
Harrison (Provost), 433
Hastings, G. T., 283
Hennesey, E. E., 142
Hofer, Prof., 353
Hoffmann, Franz, 283
Holland, J. H., 66
Holman, G. M., 482
Hornaday, W. J., 353
Hylan, J. P., 432
Jablonowski, J., 283
Jennings, H. S., 353
Judd, C. H., 142
Kamerling, Z., 66
Katharina, L., 283
Katzer, F., 353
Keller, C., 432
Kerschner, L., 283
Klebs, Geo., 283
Kofoid, C. A., 432
Kiikenthal, W., 432
Kornicke, F., 66
Kuckuck, P., 283
Lankester, E. Ray, 212
Lawrski, A., 66
Lenk, Hans, 283
Linton, And., 283
Loew, Oskar, 353
Loring, J. A., 353
M‘Gregor, Y. H., 432
Maltby, F. 8., 66
Matthews, A., 432
Miller, D. S., 142

442

Appointments—continued—
Miller, R. H., 353
Minchin, E. A., 353
Monson, H. J., 283
Moore, B., 432
Morris, D., 212
Morris, G. H., 488
Mrensbier, Dr, 285
Murrill, W. A., 283
Myers-Ward, C. F. 283
Niederle, L., 288
Noll, F., 66
O’Hara, C. C., 283
Osborn, Herbert, 353
Patterson, H. J., 353
Phillips, A. H., 3538
Pillsbury, E. S., 353
Pinchot, G., 283
Pocta, Ph., 283
Pogreboy, N. Th., 66
Pollock, J., 482
Porter, W. T., 66
Priestly, J., 432
Pruvot, G., 66
Raisin, C. A., 432
Reh, Ludwig, 283
Richardson, C. H., 353
Richter, A., 283
Ries, H., 66, 212
Ruge, G., 66
Schimper, A. F. W., 353
Seeliger, O., 353
Shear, C. L., 66
Slingerland, M. V., 353
Skiff, F. J. V., 283
Snow, J. W., 432
Stewart, C. H., 212
Stohr, Ph., 66
Stolley, E., 353
Thorndyke, E., 142
Torell, O. M., 66
Tornebohm, A. E., 66
Townsend, C. H., 353
Townsend, C. O., 353
Traill, J. W., 482
Vayssiere, A., 67
Vinezielt, John, 66
Voges, Dr, 353
Volkens, Prof., 355
Wagner, J. N., 353
Wandolleck, B., 66
Weberbauer, A., 283
Wiglesworth, L. W., 66
Woodworth, W. M‘M., 212
Wooten, E. O., 358
Young, C. W., 432
Ziegler, H. E., 432
Zograf, Dr, 283
Zukal, Dr, 353

Areschoug, F. W. C., 482

Arnoglossus, 229

Ascidians and Bipolarity, 150

Assumptions, 103

Aspidiotus, 15

Atkinson, G. F., 437

*Atkinson, E. C., on Rowing, 89

Atolls, 147 (see Funafuti)

Australian initiation ceremonies, 302

Australian Mus., 5

INDEX {1898

Authorship of illustrations, 365
Auxology, 153
** Avicula,”’ 59

BACTERIA, specific characters in, 1
Badgers in Yorkshire, 67
Balloon ascent to 27,500 ft., 358
Balloons, 134
Barnard Coll.. 358
Bather, F. A., 435; on Pentacrinus, 72 ;
on progress and provender, 215
Beavers, 374
Beddard, F. E., 353
Bees & flowers, 240
Berlin Academy, 284
,, Zool. Gard., 288
Bermuda Biol. Stat., 358
Bernard, F., papers, 354
Bernard, H. M., on annulate ancestry of
vertebrates, 17
Bibliographies—
Alaska, 61
Anthropology, 347
Anthrop. of Peru, 277
Belgian geology, 139
L’Année Biologique, 429
Mexican geology, 278
“ Naturae Novitates,” 429
Russian geology, 348
Scientific literature, 453
Scientific periodicals, 348
Westralian geology, 278
Bigods School of Science, 142
Biol. stations, 153, 161, 354, 357, 358,
436, 437, 438
Biology, at Bristol, 218
»» principles of, 377
Bipolarity, 150, 151
Birds of Cumberland, N.S.W., 205
,, of India, 59
,, Protection Soc., 435
,, notes of, 293
Birmingham and a University, 142
Black Kite, the, 87
Blake, J. F., 435
Buenos Aires Nat. Mus., 355
Bohemian Mus., 155
‘* Bol. Mus. Paraense,” 349
Bonney, T. G., 435
Borchgrevink exped., 71
Bolitho Medal, 287, 354
Botan. Gard., N.S. W., 288
Be ,, New York, 433
,, Morphology, 222
Soc., America, 437
text-books, Strassburger’s, 58
,, work, 31
Botriomyces, 279
Boule, M., 69
Bradshaw Lecture, 354
Branco, W., on teeth, 370
Bread out of air, 219
British Assoc., 69, 218, 286
e 5 grants, 355
., Inst. Preventive Medicine, 433
,, Med. Assoc., 286
,, Museum, 10, 67, 73, 212, 284,
367, 433
» Mycol. Soc., 356, 486

1898]

Bristol Mus., 68, 143
Britton, N. L., 437
Brown, Robert, portrait of, 67
Brown Univ., 355
Bubonic plague, 361
Bugs as food, 298
“Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc., New Bruns-
wick,” 348
** Bull. Wisconsin Geol. & N. H. Survey,”
349
Burrows, H. W., 435
*Bustard, Pouch of, 313
Butterflies, classification, 298, 440

CALAVERAS Skull, 12
Calman on Reproduction of Rotifera, 43
Camarasaurus, 68
Cambridge Univ., 432
Canadian Biol. Station, 438
Cape of Good Hope, Dept. Agric.,
Fisheries Report, 356
Carcinus, 221
Carleton, M.A., 433
‘*Catal. Mamm. Fors. Mus. La Plata,” 292
Catal. of Periodicals, 348
Cells, 115
Cenomanian, 193
Cephalodiscus, 375
Cephalopoda, Fossil, 137
Chapman on Depth of Gault Sea, 305
Charcot Monument, 284
Cheltenham, N. H. Soc., 69
Chemistry, 210
Chemistry of Leaf, 177
Chicago Univ., 67
Christmas Island, 147
Christophers, R. S., 437
Chromatin, 115
Chubut, Mesozoic Mammals, 439
Church, A. H., 434
Cicada, periodical, 227
Cincinnati Univ., 432
Circulatory System, 25
Clarke, H. L., on Zool. Jamaica, 161
», J. M., on fossil sponge, 372
Climate, effect of tropical, 3
Coccospheres, 79
Collections :—
Baye (ethnol), 68
Buckland (fish), 368
Connop (Brit. birds), 16
Cornell Univ. (fish), 432
Dixson (orchids), 288
Forwood (plants), 285
Hardie (fossils), 67
Jones (S. African Geology), 61
Lacoe (insects), 284
Lemoine (fossils), 284
Marsh (fossils), 144
Norman (marine), 67
Owston (Japanese sponges), 433
Stainton (entomol. books), 434
Sturtevant (capsicum), 80
Vaulx (skulls), 68
Whitlock (Brit. birds), 68
Collins, J. H., 354
Columbia Uniy., 142, 212
““ Comunicaciones ” of Buenos Aires Nat.
Mus., 355

INDEX

445

Congress Bibliography, 433; of chemists,
213; Hydrol., Climatol., Geol., 433 ;
marine fisheries, internat., 357 ; min-
ing, internat., 357 ; otological, 433 ; of
physiologists, 357 ; Intern. Zool., 259

Continents, 289

Coral-reef boring, 362

Corn-midges, and their enemies, 14

Cornell Coll. Forestry, 4387: Medical
Coll., 355; Univ., 67, 212, 482

Coulter, J. M., 437

Crannog at Dumbarton, 301

Croonian Lectures, 354

Cruickshank Botan. Garden, 67, 432

Cryptogams of Kent, 35

Cubomedusae, 206

Cunningham, B. S., bequest, 432

Cunningham, J. T., on Species, Sex and
Individual, 184, 233

Cyclamen, 159

Cycling for Women, 4

Dat, W. H., 69

Daniels, C. W., 437

Danish Biol. Station, 153

Dawson on Gas in Sussex, 109
Davis, B. M., 437

Deutschen Ornith. Gesell., 129.
Devry, Dr, 282
*Diatom Movement, 406
Diatomaceous Earth, 300

Dinosaur, new, 229

Diplochorda, 375

Directorship of Brit. Mus. (N. H.), 37
Distrib. of Land and Water, 289
Dodo, 76, 129

Down County Guide, 209

Dresden Mus., 129 ; and library, 347
Dysentery, 4

EDINBURGH Mus., 67
i, Univ., 212
Editor, wanted, 217 ; found, 289 ; future,
376
Edwards on Diatomaceous earth, 300
Egyptian Geol. Survey, 214
Eimer on Butterflies, 299
Elephantiasis, 4
Emary, P., 485
Entomological Soc., 434
+f Text-book, 123
Entomology, economic, 15
Erie, Lake, 142
Eskers of Ireland, 172, 243
Essex Field Club, 126
*Eupodotis australis, 313
Evans, Richard, 67
Evans, Sir J., 434
Evolution, 154, 396; of Horns, 349
Excretion, 26
Expeditions :—
Antarctic, 360
Borchgrevink (Antarctic), 71, 214
Britton (Porto Rico botany), 439
Budgett (Gambia), 438
Chun (German Deep Sea), 214
Grant and Forbes (Socotra), 354
Harrington and Hunt (Nile), 439
Hitchcock (Hawaii), 283

444

Expeditions —(continwed)—
Huguet (Algeria), 71
Knuth (World), 354
Landberg (Arabia), 357
Lerner (Arctic), 71
Murray (Deep Sea), 438
Murray and Blackman (Plankton), 79
Nathorst (Arctic), 358
Sorolin (Central Asia), 358
Stadling (Andrée search), 488
‘* Valdivia,” 214
Weber (Deep Sea), 358
Weber (Indian Archipelago), 214
Wellman (Arctic), 71

Farr Mount Couuece, 355

Fergusson, M. C., 437

Ferns of the World, 133

“* Feuille des jeunes Nat.,”’ 349

Field Columbian Mus., 8, 212

Field Nats. Club, Victoria, 286, 436

Field, H. H., on Foreign Money Orders,
72

Fisheries of Cape of Good Hope, 356 ;
N.S. Wales, 144 ; North Sea, 438

Fishes, fossil, discovery of Agassiz types,
355

Fitz Park Mus., 286

Fitzpatrick on Eskers of Ireland, 172, 243

Flat fish of South Africa, 228

Flora of Perthshire, 131

Flowers and Bees, 240

Flower, Sir W., 66, 73

Foraminifera, 226 ; of Gault, 305

Forbes, H. O., 354

Foreign Money Orders, 72

Forest trees, 276

Forestry in Edinburgh, 284

Form and Function, 223

Foster, Michael, 69

Fox, Howard, 287

Frame, D. P., 282

France, invertebrata of, 278

Fraser, T. R., 437

Fredericton Nat. Hist. Soc., 356

Freihafen plant-station, 437

Fritsch, Anton, 155

Funafuti, 68, 70, 362

Fungi, 32

GARDEN-MAKING, 204
Gardiner, W., 434
Gault Sea, 305
Geikie, Sir A., 156, 485; on Types of
Scenery, 77
Geogr. Soc., La Paz., 60
Geologists’ ‘Assoc., 2138, 348, 434
Geological Record, 327
3, Soc., S. Africa—Transactions,
61

», Soc., London, 69, 75
», Survey, India, 280; U. K., 156
Gilbert, G. K., 430
Giraffe, 144, 212
Gold from sea-water, 144
,, 1n basalt-wash, 304
*Gold Fish of Japan, 39
Goulstonian Lectures, 354
Grant, W. R. O., 354

INDEX

[1898

Greenland Geology, 230

Gregory, J. W., on Oceans and Conti-
nents, 289

Green, Upfield, 435

Grote, A. R., on Butterflies, 298, 440

Gwinnell, W. F., 435

Gwinet, Musée, 68

HAEMATINURIA, 4

‘* Halifax Naturalist,” 350

Hamburg, plant protection, 437

Hansen Laboratory, 433

Harmer, 8. F., on Cephalodiscus, 375

Hartog on Nuclear Reduction, 115

Haward, College Mus., 212

Haweian Oration, 354

Hayden Medal, 354

Headley on Bees and Flowers, 240

*Hedgehog with hairs, 156

Helix hortensis, method of feeding of,
296

Heller, A. A., 354

Henslow, G., on Scientific Proofs »v.
Assumptions, 103; on Variation, 72

Herbertson, A. J., 284, 430

Hercynian system, 290

Hereford Earthquake, 278

Herrera, A. L., on Multipolar Cells, 78 ;
on Protoplasm, 79; *on Artificial
Nerves, 333, 884

Hessian Fly, 14

Heterogyna penella, 160

Hieraconopolis, 432

Histology of Vertebrata, 128

Hitchcock, C. H., 283

Holland, R., 435

Ichthyosaurus from Warwick, 229
Illustrations, authorship, 365
India, Birds of, 59

Indian Archipelago, 214

Indiana Univ., Biol. Stat., 354
Individual, 184, 233

‘* Industria Agricola,” 60
Internat. Congresses, sce Congress
Intern. Geodetic Assoc., 357
Ireland, Eskers of, 172, 243

Irish Field Club Union, 356
‘Trish Nat.,” 349

Isopods, 85

JAMAICA, FISHERIES, 149
55 Zoological, 161
Johns Hopkins Marine Lab., 161
Jordan, K.,on Butterflies, 299; criticised,
440
se _ ourn. Essex Tech Lab.,” 211
», Limerick Field Club, ” 349
», School Geography,” 430
‘“}, Straits Branch R.A.S.,” 349
Jukes-Browne on Albian and Cenorranian,
193
‘* Tuvavische,” 13

cé

‘* KARNISCHE,” 13

Karpinsky, A., 69

Kea, 144

Keegan on Chemistry of Leaf, 177
Kennard, A. 8., 435

1898] INDEX 445

Kent, cryptogams of, 35

Kerr, Rev. J., 434

Keswick Mus., 285

Kew Gardens, 353.

King William’s Town Museum, 433

King’s County Nat. Hist. Soc., 356

Kirkaldy on bugs as food, 298
*Kishmouye on Gold-Fish of Japan, 39

on Grey Mullet, 253
Knuth, Prof., 354
Koch, Robert, iil

LAcAZE DuTuters, H. de, 70
‘* Ladinische,” 13
L. Bologoy biol. Stat., 436
La Plata Mus., 290
Leaf-hoppers, 15
Leaves, 177
Levallois-Perret Mus., 144
Lichens, 33
Limax maximus, 279
Limerick Field Club, 349
Limfjord, 153
Lincolnsh. Nat. Union, 212
Lista, Ramon, 324
Literature lists :—
Bustard, 322
Chromatin, 120
Diatoms, 416
Gault Foraminifera, 312
Rotifera, 50
Liveing, G. D., 434
Liverpool museums, ‘369
Lodge, O., 434
Loubat prizes, 142
Louis, D. A., 435
Lumleian Lectures, 354

MACKEREL, life-history, 437

Madagascar, protection of fossils in, 75

Malaria, 4 ; commission, 437

Mammals, mesozoic, 439 ; teeth, 370

Manchester Microscop. Soc., 286

Mus., 285

Maps, "England & Wales, 439

Marseilles, Fac. of Sci., 67

Maryland ‘Geol. Survey, 208

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, 355

Masterman, A. T., on Diplochorda, 375

Mauritius Mus., 76

Measurement, 136

‘*Mem. Soe. ‘ Antonio Alzate,’”’ 280

Merriam, (©. H., on Life zones, 374

Mesilla Park, 358

Metric System, 138; in Russia, 144

Mexican birds, 87 ; geology, 278

Migration, 153

Millport Biol. Stat., 357

Milvus migrans, 87

Mineralogical Soc., 434

Mingaud, G., on beavers, 374

Missouri Bot. Gard., 80

Monium, 220

** Monumental Records,” 60

More, Alex. G., 205

Morgan, C. Ll., on Spencer’s Biology, 377;
on Animal Intelligence, 265

Morphology, 222

Morse, E. S., 354

Mosses, 32
Mt. Rainbow gold-field, 304

*Movement of Diatoms, 406

Mueller, Ferd. von, 287
ap Fritz, life of, 284
an Hugo, 434
Mugil, 253

*Mullet fishery of Japan, 253

Multipolar Cells, 78
Murray, G., 438
- Sir John, 66, 353; on Antarctic,

360

Murrill, W. A., 437

Museums, 67, 68, 142-144, 212, 284, 285,
355, 433 ; see also under name

Museums’ Assoc. Proceedings, 56; at Shef-
field, 68, 143 ; by Sir W. Flower, 121;
centralisation of, 69

Mus., Para., 349

Mus. Pract. Geol., 75

Mus musculus, 154

Mystery of Matter, 220

NAtTuRAL Gas in Sussex, 109, 303, 435
Pa Hist. Museum, 10, 73, 212, 284,
367, 433
‘* Naturalist,” 349
Neomylodon listai, 288, 324

*Nerves, artificial, 333, 384

Nestor notabilis, 144
Netherfield boring, 110
Neuration of Rhopalocera, 390
New Brunswick Nat. Hist. Soc., 348, 356
New Westminster Library, 355
Newton, E. T., 435

New York Botan. Garden, 433
** Norische,” 13

North Bull, zoology, 438
Norwich Public Library, 218
Notornis, 358

Nottingham Mus., 68

‘“ Nuclear Reduction,” 115
Numerical investigation, 221

OBITUARIES :—
Adamy, Rudolph, 352
Aitchison, J. E. T., 431
Aplin, F. C., 282
Arzruni, Andreas, 352
Assmann, Aug., 65
Atherstone, W. G., 432
Atwood, Melville, 65
Aveling, E. B., 282
Balzan, Luigi, 282
Baur, Georg, 140
Becker, Victor, 65
Beddome, C. E., 431
Behrens, James, 352
Bernard, Félix, 281
Bettoni, E., 431
Blytt, A. G., 282
Bonsdorff, E. J., 282
Broechi, Paul, 141
Candiz, E., 282
Coello de Portugal, F., 431
Cohn, Ferd., 141
Conti, P., 282
Croeq, Y., 431
Crosse, J. C. H., 281

446

Obituaries—(continwed)—

Gallois, J., 65

Giacomini, C., 282

Gibelli, G., 431

Gordon, Samuel, 65

Graells, M. P., 65

Graf, Arnold, 352

Gravenhorst, C. J. H., 352

Gregor, Walter, 65

Grey, Sir George, 351

Grimes, G. E., 282

Hall, James, 212, 262

Hardy, James, 352

Hermann, C. W. A., 282

Hollick, A., 437

Holmes, E. M., on Botanical Work
wanting workers, 31

Holothurians, 151

Holt, E. W. L., 437

Homotaxis, 153

Horns, 359

Hovelacque, M. J. A., 64

Huggins, Sir W., 434

Hull, Sci. Field Nat. Club, 82, 436

Humber Mud, 82

Hume, W. F., 214

Hurst.C 2H. 162

Hutchinson, H. N., 139

Hutchinson, J., Museum, 433

Huxley, Lecture, 304 ; Memoirs, 52 ;
Memorial, Statue and Medal, 71 ;
Portrait of, 353

Anson, James, 65

Jemiller, Josef, 65

Jones, Herbert L., 352

Kellicott, D. 8., 65, 282

Kotula, Bronislaus, 352

Krauss, Ferd., 65

Krug, Leopold, 65

Lange, Johan, 282

Lasard, A., 431

Lintner, Jos. A., 352

Lombardini, L., 431

Lonsdale, E. H., 141

Lucy, W. C., 65

Man, E. H., 65

Maskell, W. M., 65

Marilaun, K. von, 141

Moebius, B., 282

Moniz, J. M., 282

Morrill, P., 282

Mortillet, L. L. G. de, 351

Nasse, Dietrich, 352

Noldeke, K., 65

Noualhier, M. J. M., 65

Oriol, Roman, 352

Patti, C. 8., 282

Paz Graells, M. de la, 65

Petit, Johnson, 352

Pomel, N. A., 281

Poitan, A., 282

Proéscholdt, H., 352

Richter, H. J., 431

Rossi, M. S., 431

Salvin, O., 63

Sievers, Gustav, 65

Spencer, Y., 431

Ssabanejev, L. P., 65

Stricker, Salomon, 65

INDEX

[1898

Obituaries—(continwed)—
Sturtevant, E. L., 282
Suringar, W. F. R., 282
Fatnall, E., 431
Valenza, Giamb., 352
Vander Meuten, H., 282
Villalonga, José, 352
Weissflog, Eugen, 65
Will, Conrad, 65
Wilson, E., 64
Winchilsea, Earl of, 282
Windt, Jan de, 352
Woodthorpe, R. G., 282

Observation, 136

Oddi, A. D., 87

Ophiurids and algae, 88

Ordnance Survey, 439

Oceans, 289

Ostrich, Fossil, 292

“Otis tarda, 318

Oxford Mus., 142

Oxford Univ. Jun. Sci. Club, 436 ; Con-
versazione, 69 ; Transactions, 60

Oysters, 293

PANAMA, age of, 152

Paper, quality of, 88

Para Mus., 280

Paraperipatus, 372

Paris Mus., 68, 212, 284
Partridges, 87

Patagonian skulls, 68

Pearson, K., 434

Peel, Lord, 283

Pelophila, 228

Pentacrinus (correction), 72
Pentland, Y. J., 376

Peripatus, 371

Persistence of species, 300

Peruvian anthropology, 277

Petrie, Flinders, 432

Phosphatic nodules, 81
Photography in museums, 367
Phyto-Plankton of Atlantic, 79
Piel Laboratory, 148
*Pinnularia Major, 406

Piracy in America, 76

Plague Commission, 437

Plague in Vienna, 361

Planorbis shells, 297

Plants, fossil, 273

Plants, protection of, 437
Pleurococeus and Helix, 296

Plumb, C. §S., on distribution of cereals

374

Polish Assoe., 213

Polypterus, 439

Pomona College, 142

Pontobolbos, 297

Pottinger, E., Burmese botany, 430
Prague Mus., 155
Preston Sci. Soc., 69
Pretoria Mus., 68

“* Proc. Geol. Assoe.,” 348
Progress and Provender, 215
Protection, see Plants,

Madagascar

Protoplasm, 79
Pruning-book, 204

Birds, and

1898]

Puerperal fever, 1
Pycraft, W. P., 354

* ,, on Pouch of Great Bustard, 313
Pyrocystis, 80

*QuAIL, A,, ON RHOPALOCERA, 390

RADIATION, 347
Radiography, 135
Raffles, Library and Mus., 7
Rainfall, 284
Raisin, C. A., 435
Rambestia Soc., 288
Reading College, 142
Recapitulation of development, 396
“Records of Botan. Sury., India,” 430
a) Austral an Manssacce ila
5, Geol. Survey, India, 280
Reid, A., on Evolution of Horns, 359 ;
on Retrogression, 396
Reproduction of Plants, 134
Reptiles in Brit. Mus., 433
Respiration, 25
Retrogression, Theory of, 396
Reviews :—
Acloque’s Faune de France, 278
Aguilar’s Bibl. Mexicana, 278
** Année Biologique,” 429
Bailey’s Garden-making, 204
Bailey’s Pruning-book, 204
Barnes’ Plant Life, 425
Beddard’s Birds, 419
Beddow’s Chemistry, 429
Blanford’s Birds of India, 59
Bolton’s Catal. Scientific Periodicals,
348
Brogi’s ‘‘ Avicula,”’ 59
Biisgen’s Waldbiiume, 276
Campion’s Secrets of the Poles, 151
Catal. Dresden Mus. Library, 347
Cheetham’s Chemistry, 210
Christ’s Farnkriuter, 133
Clark’s Geol. of Maryland, 208
Conant’s Cubomedusae, 206
Crick’s Cephalopoda, 137
Davison’s Hereford Earthquake, 278
Detmer’s Plant Physiology, 425
Dorsey’s Bibl. Anthrop. of Peru, 277
Earl’s Organism, 427
Flower’s Essays, 121
Gadow’s Vertebrata, 340
Gill’s Chemistry, 429
Goebel’s Organographie d. Pflanzen,
224
Hett’s Notes of Birds, 293
Hildebrandt on Ayclamen, 159
Huxley’s Memoirs, 52
Hyndman’s Radiation, 347
Thorndike’s Animal Intelligence, 265
Isenthal’s Radiography, 135
Lachambre on Andrée, 134
Lahmann’s Hygiene, 428
*Lauterborn’s Diatomeen, 406
Laver’s Essex Vertebrates, 126
Lupton’s Observations, 136
Maiden’s Grasses, ete., 373
Maitland’s Bibl. Westralia, 278
Merriam’s Crop Zones, 374
Minchin’s Ascons, 130

INDEX

447

Reviews—(continwed)—
Moebius’ Fortpflanzung der Gewachse,

134
Moffat’s Life of More, 205
“‘ Naturae Novitates,” 429
Nikitin’s Bibl. Russian Geology, 348
North’s Birdsof Cumberland, N.S. W.,
205
Oppel’s Anatomy of Vertebrates, 128
Osborn’s Rhinoceroses, 158
Packard’s Entomology, 128
Peckham’s Wasps, 342
Praeger’s County Down, 209
Reid’s Alcoholism, 344
Roth’s Catal. Mus. La Plata, 292
Roule’s Anatomie, 423
Sandeman’s Biology, 427
Sedgwick’s Zoology, 53
Seward’s Fossil Plants, 273
Spencer’s Biology, 377
Strassburger’s Text-book of Botany, 58
Verworn’s Hypnosis of Animals, 417
Wallace’s Wonderful Century, 420
Watts’ Geology, 422
Welby’s Linguistic Anarchy, 364
Wells’ Zoology, 138
Welwitsch’s Plants, 202
White’s Flora of Perthshire, 131
Wiedersheim’s Anatomy, 127
Willey’s Zool. Results, 210, 280
Rhabdospheres, 79
Rhinoceroses, 157
Rhone beavers, 374
*Rhopalocera, neuration, 590
Rhind Fungus, 227
‘*Rivista di Sci. biol.,” 139
Roentgen Rays, 135
Rolleston Prize, 67
Romanes Lecture, 77
Ross, Andrew, 148
Roth, S., 439
Rotifera, reproduction of, 43
Rowing, 89
*Rowley, F. R., on Diatoms, 406
R. Asiatic Soc., 349; Straits Branch,
356
. Coll, Phys. Ireland, 436
. Dublin Soe., 437
. Geol. Soc., Cornwall, 287
. Geogr. Soc., 71, 144
. Scottish Arbor. Soc., 284
Soc. Conversazione, 68 ; Medals, 434 ;
Treasureship, 434
. Soc., Victoria, 279, 286
Rueschlikon landslip, 144
Rugby School Soc., 69
Ruskin Mus., 68
Russian Geology, 348
Russian Nats. and Physicians, 357

by bd bd bod bd

=e)

Sr Perrerspurc NATURALISTS’ Soc., 436
Salmon, 149
Salter, A. E., 435
Sea Fisheries :-—
Carribean Sea, 149
Jamaica, 149
Jersey, 149
Lancashire, 148
North Sea, 438

448

Scale-Mosses, 32
Scarborough Mus., 67
Scenery and Poets, 77
Scientific Alliance, New York, 436
Scientific proof, 103
Scharff, Dr R., 354
Schwenderer, Simon, 354
Scudder, 8S. H., 70
Selborne Soc., 287
Selby Museum, 433
- Sex, 184, 233
*Sexual Characters of Bustard, 313
Sheffield Lit. and Phil. Soc., 436
Siberian ethnology, 68
Silurian fishes, 157
Slugs, 83
Small-pox, 145
Smyly, W. J., 436
Soc. de Spéléologie, 356
Soc. helvétique, 70
Soc. Protection of Birds, 435
Socotra, 354
Sorby, H. C., 436
S. African Mus., 284
S. E. Union Sci. Soc., 70, 485
Species, 184, 233, 300
Spencer, Herbert, 377
Spinal Cord, 24
Spicules of Sponges, 130
Sponges, 130; Japanese, 433 ; Palaeozoic,
372

Spongilla, 67
Stanford’s ‘‘ Compendium of Geography,”
430

Stephens, J. W. W., 437
Stereochemistry, 221
Streptococcus, 1
Struthiolithus chersonensis, 292
Styela, 150
Sub-Wealden boring, 110
Suess, Ed., 70
Suez Canal, 153
Sugar Cane, 224

*Surrirella calcarata, 408
Swiney Lectures, 284
Swiss Museums, 355
Sydney Univ., 432

TANGANYIKA, fauna, 288 ; Survey, 214
Tate, Thomas, 287

Tayler on Variations, 215

Teall, J./JJ H., 435

Teeth of Mammals, 370

Tenggerois of Java, the, 11
Terminology, 364

Tervet, J. N., 435

INDEX

[1898

Thompson- Yates, Lab., 355
Tomes, C. S., 66

Toore, J. W., 486

Torell, O. M., 354

*Toxodon, 290

Trias, nomenclature of, 12

Turin, fresh water aquarium at, 213
Turner, William (1507-1568), 284
Tute, J. S., 287

Types of fossil Cephalopoda, 137
Typhlocybinae, 15

U.S.A., Drpr. AcRric., 225, 433; Nat.
Herbarium, 285 ; National Museum,
212, 284, 433

Univ. Coll., Liverpool, 355

University for Birmingham, 142

““U” on Vaccination, 359

VACCINATION, 145, 359

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 439

Variations, 72, 215

Vertebrata, 340; annulate ancestry of,
17; anatomy, 127; histology, 128 ;
extinct, 230

Victoria Field Nats. Club, 286, 436

Vienna Plague, 361

Virchow’s Lecture, 304

Vitalism, 210, 221

Waits, HE. R., 144

Walker Prize, 70

Walsingham Medal, 432

Washington Mus., 144

Wasps, Solitary, 342

Welch, R., 354

W. Australia, Geol. Surv., 278, 430;
Water, 14

Whales at Brit. Mus., 10, 284

White, Buchanan, 131

Willey, A., on Peripatus, 371; Report
of Travels, 210

Wilson, E. B., 432

Wisconsin Survey, 349

Wislicenus, J., 434

Whitaker, W., 436

Woodward, A. S., on Imperfection of
Geol. Record, 327

Wright, Joseph, 283

YORKSHIRE, GEOL. Ponyt. Soc., 287;
Nat. Union, 213

ZITTEL, K. A. von., 70
Zoological Soc., 144
Zoology in Japan, 138

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NATURAL SCIENCE, VOL. XIII. PLATE III.

THE STRUCTURE OF DIATOMS, AFTER LAUTERBORN.

Fig. 1.—Transverse section through Pinnularia major in the region between the extremity of the cell
and the median mass of protoplasm (combination figure). Ch., chromatophore ; zc., chambers (‘ Riefen’)
on inner surface of cell-wall; 7., raphe; vac., vacuole.

Fig. 2.—Transverse section through one valve of the frustule of P. major. The section passes between two
of the chambers, so that the contour of the cell-wall is unbroken except at 7’, the raphe.

Fic. 5.—Traus\erse section through the raphe, from another section, showing an apparent closure of
the cleft internally.

Fie. 4.—Median transverse section through Surrirella caicarata (combination figure). At a, the
section passes through one of the intermediate pieces in the ala, ata,, it just encroaches upon one of the
transverse canals; @,, a,, two transverse canals bisected ; ch/., superficial lobular process of chromato-
phore; Zc., longitudinal canal; nw., nucleus.

Fic. 5.—Surface view of a portion of one of the alae of S. calcarata. Ch., process of chromatophore sur-
rounded by protoplasm ; /c., longitudinal canal; mp., intermediate piece; pa., unicellular alga; trc., trans-
verse canal.

Fie. 6.—Lateral view of Pinnularia major moving in an emulsion of Indian Ink.

Fig. 7.—Surface view of the same. Cn., central node; gs., anterior granule streams; gt., gelatinous
threads with adhering granules; 7., raphe; ¢v., terminal node.

Fic. 8.— Resting example of Pinnularia in concentrated emulsion of Indian ink (lateral view); ge.,
gelatinous envelope.

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=

aw SCIENCE

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 3
JULY 1898 | ie

SEC By

/ |: ies

Contents vi

PAGE |

Notes and Comments ; j : 5 3 ‘ F f 1 A

Specific Characters in Bacteria—The Effects of Tropical Climate—For the Lady Cyclist

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ATURAL
2. SCIENCE

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 1898

Contents

Notes and Comments g 2 « 145

Vaccination—Christmas Island—Notes on Sea-Fisheries—Steam-Trawling off Jamaica—
Ascidians and Bipolarity—Deep Atlantic Holothurians—Bipolarity with a Vengeance
—The Age of the Isthmus of Panama—-Migration and Homotaxis—Studies in
Auxology—aAn Evolving Species—The Royal Bohemian Museum, Prague (with Plate II.)
—The Geological Survey—New Silurian Fishes—Extinct Rhinoceroses—On Cyclamen
—tThe Female of Heterogyna

Zoological Jamaica. By Hubert Lyman Clark, Ph.D. : : . , + 2 216K
The Eskers of Ireland. (PartI.) By Thomas Fitzpatrick, LL.D. . cs 4 i G 172
‘The Chemistry of the Forest Leaf. By P. Q. Keegan, LL.D. . ; j A - See ei

The Species, the Sex, and the Individual. (PartI.) By J. T. Cunningham, M.A., F.Z.S. . . 184

‘The Delimitation of the Albian and Cenomanian in France. By A. J. Jukes-Browne, M.A.,F.G.S. 193

Some New Books B é : ‘ ; : : F : : iY Gaggg

Welwitsch’s African Plants: by W. P. Hiern—Garden-Making and The Pruning-Book: by
L. H. Bailey—Birds of Cumberland, N.S.W.: by A. J. North (H. A. Macpherson)—Life
of A. G. More: by C. B. Moffat (H. A. M.)—The Cubomedusae: by F. S. Conant (S. J.
Hickson)—Maryland Geological Survey: by W. B. Clark and others—Official Guides
to Down and Antrim: by R. L. Praeger and others—Vitalism—Scraps from Serials, &c.

News . a 5 - : ; 3 ‘ : ; 4 ; 212

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‘NATURAL
«me SCIENCE |

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
[2.9 1/ OCTOBER 1898

Contents

_ Notes and Comments y ; ‘ f i ; L y ibs

Wanted, an Editor—Biological Work at Bristol—Bread out of Air—Mysteries of Matter
. —Stereochemistry and Vitalism— Need of Numerical Investigations in Biology—
Morphology—Form and Function— Rind Fungus and Sugar Cane—Agricuiture in U.S.
—Recent Work on the Foraminifera—The Periodical Cicada—Larva of Pelophila—
‘Flat Fish of South Africa —Ichthyosaurus—A New Dinosaur—The Exhibition of
Extinct Vertebrata —Cretaceous Rocks in West Greenland —tTertiary and later
Geology of West Greenland.

The Species, the Sex, and the Individual. (Part II.) By J. T. Cunningham, M.A., F.Z.S.
Bees as the Development of EJOW OE. By F. W. Headley, F.Z.S. .

The Bakers of Ireland. (Part II.) By Thos. Fitzpatrick, LL.D.

a I i i a it Ni Mall ee oe tl ee eee a

The Grey Mullet Fishery in Japan. (Illustrated.) By K. Kishinouye

The Zoological Congress

James Hall
Animal Intelligence. By Professor C. Lloyd Morgan, F.G.S.
ae

Some New Books

Fossil Plants: by A. C. Seward—Bau und Leben unserer Waldbaume: by M. Biisgen—
Anthropology of Peru—-Faune de France: by A. Acloque—Bibliography of Mexican
Geology: by R. Aguilar—Bibliography of Westralian Geology—Hereford Earthquake :
by C. Davison—Scraps from Serials, &c.

Obituaries
N. A. Pomel—H. Crosse—F. Bernard—G. E, Grimes—Johan Lange, &c,

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Gaston Paris. By F. W. Bourdillon.
‘Ywain and Gawain’ and ‘Le Chevalier au Lion.’
By Jessie L. Weston.\
A Thirteenth Century Latin-French Glossary. By
G. B. Mathews and Frederic Spencer.
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Mauritian Creole.
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The Naturalist:

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BOTANY. ZOOLOGY. GEOLOGY.

Edited by Geo. H. CarrEnTER, B.Sc., and R,. ‘Lioyp — y
PRAEGER, B.A.

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J. Sollas, Prof. A. C. Haddon, Rev. H. Friend, W. ace "
de V. Kane, R. I. Pocock, T. Mellard Reade. Zi

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NATURAL |
»« SCIENCE |

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS

NOVEMBER 1808
12,941 ce

All Rights Reserved No. 81

Contents

A Classification of the Vertebrata : _ Hans Gadow—The raeehicte and Habits of otteaay
Wasps: by G. W. and Eliz. G. Peeckham—The Temperance Question from a Biological
Standpoint : by G. Archdall Reid—Radiation : by H. H. F. Hyndman—tThe Library of
the Dresden Museum—Bibliography of Russian Geology—Bibliography of Scientific
Serials—Scraps from Serials, &c.

. Obituaries

Sir George Grey Gabrist de Mortillet__James a Bitdy, &c.

_ News

Correspondence ¢
The Evolution of Horns: by &. Archdall Reid Vaccination : aes U.

PAGE
Notes and Comments : : : * : 3 ! ; .. 289
Found, an Editor—Oceans and Continents—/7oxodon (Illustrated)—Fossil Ostrich in China
—Notes of Birds—Life Conditions of Oyster—Method of Feeding of Helix hortensis—
Abnormal Skells of P/anorbis—Remarkable Marine Organism—" Bugs” as Food—
The Relationships of Butterflies—An Entomological Controversy—Origin of Diato-
maceous Earths in New Jersey—Persistence of Specific Forms—Tidal Crannog at
Dumbarton—Australian Initiation Ceremonies—Natural Gas in Sussex—Mount Rain- .
‘pow Goldfield—Virchow’s Lecture.
The probable depths of the Gault Sea as indicated by its Rhizopodal Fauna. By Frederick
Chapman, A.L.S., F.R.M.S. : : : ‘ 305
The Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda). (Illustrated.) By W. Pycraft, F.Z.S. 313
An Existing Ground Sloth in Patagonia. A translation of Dr Florentino Ameghino’s Pamphlet 324
\
The Imperfection of the Geological Record. By A. Smith Woodward, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 327
Artificial Formation of a Rudimentary Nervous System. (PartI.) (Illustrated.) By Professor
A. L. Herrera é : “3 2 A a c . 2 333
Some New Books r - 340

351

353
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NATURAL
“SCIENCE -

IQ,9Ll

A MONTHLY REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS

DECEMBER 1898

Contents

Notes and Comments . : 3 ° 7 { - 361

Bubonic Plague in Vienna—The Borings at Funafuti—The Babel of Terminology—The
Authorship of Illustrations—Photography in National Museums—tThe Frank Buckland
Collection—New Museum Buildings at Liverpool—The Reduction of the Teeth among
Mammals—A new Peripatus—A new Palaeozoic Sponge—Botany and Agriculture—
The Rhone Beavers—A. T. Masterman on the Diplochorda—Change of Address

Mr Herbert Spencer’s Biology. By Professor-C, Lloyd Morgan, F.G.S. r : 377

Artificial Formation of a Rudimentary Nervous System. (PartII.) By Professor A.L, Herrera . 384
The Neuration of Rhopalocera. (Illustrated.) By A. Quail ; ; : BTA . 890
A Theory of Retrogression. By G. Archdall Reid, M.B. ‘ : ‘ : : yf 396
The Movement of Diatoms. (Plate III.) By F. R. Rowley, F.R.M.S. é - 4 406

Some New Books “oe ts . ; : é u nu i ~ 417

‘The Hypnosis of Animals : by Max Verworn (F. Gotch)—The Structure and Classification
of Birds: by F. E. Beddard (W.P.P.)—The Wonderful Century: by A. Russel Wallace
—Geology for Beginners: by W. W. Watts—Anatomie Comparée: by L. Roule—
Plant Life: by ©. R. Barnes—Detmer’s Practical Plant Physiology: translated by
S. A. Moor (F.F.B.)—Problems of Biology: by G. Sandeman—The Living Organism:
by A. Earl (F.A.B.)—Natural Hygiene: by H. Lahmann—Chemistry for Schools: by
C. H. Gill, revised by D. H. Jackson—First Stage Inorganic Chemistry : by F. Beddow
—tL’Année Biologique—Varia

Obituaries 7 ° : < 2 - : ‘ 431
J. oeneon 32 1 Aitchison —Luigi Lombardini and others
Dada . f ; * : , : 3 é ; ; . 432

|, Correspondence : : ; - ‘ : , : . 440
The Classification be ihiartiies by A. Radcliffe Grote

Y nase to Vol. XIII. - ‘i i ; 3 iy Pe : 5 : 441

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