PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Biological Society of Washington.

WITH THE ADDRESSES READ ON THE OCCASION OF THE

DARWIN MEMORIAL MEETING,
May 12, 1882.

PUBLISHED WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITTTTION.

Volume I.

November 19, 1880, to May 26, 1882.

WASHINGTON:

PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.

18S2.

V 9^^

k

\

PUBLICATION COMMIHEE.

G. BROWN GOODE.
RICHARD RATHBUN.
LESTER F. WARD.

, ./I ^

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

This volume of Proceedings is published in obedience to the
vote of the Society, passed May 26, 1882. The Biological Soci-
ety OF Washington was organized December 3, 1880, and at the
time of its summer adjournment, in 1882, carries upon its roll the
names of one hundred and thirty-nine active members, one hon-
orary member, and twenty corresponding members. It has held
thirty-one regular meetings, three special meetings, and one field
meeting. At its regular meetings fifty-four communications have
been presented, nearly all of which, except informal verbal com-
munications, have already been published, as is indicated in the
bibliographical foot notes. It has inaugurated and, in conjunction
with the Anthropological Society, carried on a course of eight
popular scientific lectures, four of which were delivered in its
special behalf, and all of which were delivered by its members.

The meetings of the Society have always been held in rooms
provided by the courtesy of the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution ; the first fifteen in the Regents' Room of the Smith-
sonian Institution ; the sixteenth to the twenty-fourth in the
Archive Room of the National Museum'; the subsequent meetings
in the Lecture Room of the Museum.

In preparing the proceedings of the Society for publication, the
Secretaries have omitted the record of the election of members
from the minutes of the several meetings, the information there
contained being presented in a much more convenient form in the
" List of Members."

i I H-S-l

LIST

Council and Officers

or TUB

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1882.

COUNCIL.

THEODORE GILL, President.

TARLETON H. BEAN. RICHARD RATHBUN.

JOHN W. CHICKERING, Jr. ROBERT RIDGWAY.

G. BROWN GOODE. CHARLES V. RILEY.

JEROME H. KIDDER. HENRY ULKE.

OTIS T. MASON. GEORGE VASEY.

D. WEBSTER PRENTISS. LESTER F. WARD.

OFFICERS.

PRESIDENT.

THEODORE GILL.

VICE PRESIDENTS.

CHARLES V. RILEY. LESTER F. WARD.

JOHN W. CHICKERING, Jr. HENRY ULKE.

SECRETARIES.

G. BROWN GOODE. RICHARD RATHBUN.

TREASURER.

ROBERT RIDGWAY.

LIST OF MEMBERS

OF THE

BIOLOGICAL SOCmTY OF WASHINGTON.

Da*e of Election.
i88i,Jan. 14.

1882, Mar. 31.

1881, April 8.

1882, April 28.

1881, Feb. 25.
l88i,Feb. 25.

1882, Jan. 6.

1882, April 14.
18S2, Jan. 6,

JXJL.Y 1, 188S.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

Baird, Spencer Fullerton, M. D., LL. D., M. N. A. S.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Director of the
U. S. National Museum. U. S. Commissioner of Fish and
Fisheries. Sinitlisonian Instihition, and 144J Massachuseiti
Avenue N. W.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

Agassiz, Alexander, A.B., S. B., M. N. A. S. Curator of
the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge. Cam-
bridge, Masiachitsetts.

Allen, Jo^l Asaph, M. N. A. S. Assistant in Ornithology
in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge. Cam-
bridi^e, Massachusetts.

Brewer, William Henry, Ph. D., M. N. A. S. Professor
of Agricuhure in the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College,
New Haven. Nexo Haven, Connecticut.

Brewster, William, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Brooks, William Keith, Ph. D. Associate Professor of
Biology and Director of the Marine Laboratory of Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore. Baltimore, Maryland.

CoLLETT, Robert, Docent and Assistant in the Zoological
Museum of the University of Christiania. Christ ia:tia,
Norway.

Derby, Orville Adelbert, M. S., Chief of the Geological
Survey of Brazil. Rio de yaneiro, Brazil,

Farlow, William Gilson, A. M., M. D., M. N. A. S.
Professor of Cryptogamic Botany in Harvard University.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

10

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Date of Election.
i88i,Mar. ii.

1882, Jan. 6.

1882, Mar. 31.
1882, Jan. 6.

1881, April 8.

1882, Mar. 31.

1882, Mar. 31.
1882, Mar. 3.

1881, Feb. 25.

1882, Mar. 31.
1882, April 28.
1882, Mar. 3.

COURESPOXDING MEMBERS— Continued.

GiGLiOLi, Enrico Hillyer, Director of the Royal Zoologi-
cal Museum of Vertebrates, and Professor of Vertebrate
Zoology in the Royal Institute, Florence. Ji. Instittito de
Studi Superiori, Florence, Italy.

Gray, Asa, M. D., LL. D., M. N. A. S. Fisher Professor
of Natural History in Harvard University. Botanic Gar-
den, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Grimm, Oscar von. Ph. D., Professor of Natural History in
the Forest Academy, St. Petersburg. St. Petersbu7-g, Russia.

Hyatt, Alpiieus, S. B., M. N. A. S. Professor of Zoology
and Paleontology in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology. Custodian of the Boston Society of Natural History.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lawrence, George N., .^y East 21st St., New York City.

Morse, Edward S., M. N. A. S. Director of the Peabody
Academy of Science, Salem. Salem, Massachusetts.

Packard, Alpheus Spring, Jr., M. D., M. N. A. S. Pro-
fessor of Zoology and Geology in Brown University, Provi-
dence. Providence, Rhode Island.

Smith, Sidney Irving, Ph. B. Professor of Comparative
Anatomy in Yale College, New Haven. Ne%v Haven, Con-
necticut.

Velie, John \V., M. D. Secretaiy and Curator of the Chicago
Academy of Sciences. 26J Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illi-
nois.

Verrili., Addison Emory, A. M., S. B., M. N. A. S. Pro-
fessor of Zoology and Curator of the Zoological Collections
in Yale College, New Haven. Neiv Haven, Connectictit.

Watson, Sereno, Ph. D., M. N. A. S. Curator of the Her-
barium of Harvard University. Botanic Garden, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

Wilson, Edmund Beecher, Ph. D. Assistant in the Bio-
logical Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
Baltimore, Maryland.

LIST OP MEMBERS.

11

Date of Election.
Orig. Member.

i88i, Jan. 14.

1882, Mar. 3.
1881, Nov. II.

Orig. Member.

1881, Mar. 25.

1881, Nov. II.

1882, Mar. 17.

ACTIVE MEMBERS.*

AsHi'ORD, Francis Asbury, M. D. Dean of Faculty and
Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of the
University of Georgetown, i^^o A'ew York Avenue iV. VV.

Baker, Frank, M. D. Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy
and Prosector to the chair of Anatomy in the Medical De-
partment of Columbian University. Office of Light House
Board, and 326 C Street JV. W.

Barker, John Shepard, 7 ij H Street N. W.

Barnard, William Stecbins, S. B., Ph. D. Assistant in
the Entomological Division, U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture. 130J Q Street N. W.

Bean, Tarleton Hoffman, M. D. Curator, Dep'tof Fishes,
U. S. National Museum. National Museum, and 1404 S
Street N. W.

Bessels, Emil, M. D., Ph. D. 1441 Massachusetts Avenue
N. W.

Beyer, Henry G., M. D. Passed Assistant Surgeon, U. S.
Navy. Naval Hospital.

Billings, John Shaw, A. M., M. D. Surgeon and Brevet
Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Army. I^ibrarian of the Surgeon
General's Office. Surgeon Generals Office, and josy N
Street N. IV.

I88I,

Jan. 14.

Birney, Herman Hoffman, /go/ Harewood Avenue, Le
Droit Park.

1882,

Jan. 20.

Birney, Gen. William, /go/ Harewood Avenue, Le Droit
Park.

1882,

Feb. 17.

Blish, John Bell, Midshipman U. S. Navy, on duty in the
National Museum. Smithsonian Institution.

I88I,

Nov. II.

Bransford, John Francis, M. D. Passed Assistant Surgeon,
U.S.N., on duty at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian
Institution.

Orig.

Member.

Brown, James Templeman, Aid, U. S. National Museum.
National Museum, and /42s S Street N. IV.

* When not otherwise expressly stated, all addresses are in Washington. By the word
•Founder" are designated those who signed the call for the meeting for organization
November 26,1880; by "Orig. Member" those who attended this and the succeeding
meeting.

12

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

Date of Election.
Orig. Member.

Orig. Member.

1882, Mar. 17.

Orig. Member.

1881, June 3.

iSSi, June 3.

1882, Feb. 17.

Founder.

1 88 1, May 20.

1882, Mar. 17.

i88l,Jan. 28.

i88i,Feb. 25.

Orig. Member.

1881, Dec. 23.
1881, Dec. 23.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

Brown, Stephen Carv03S0, Registrar, U. S. National Mu-
seum. National Museum, and gsS B Street S. W.

BuRDiCK, Edson Almeron, Pension Office, and 406 Spruce
Street N. W.

Burnett, Swan Moses, M. D. Lecturer on Ophthalmology
and Otology in the Medical Department of the University of
Georgetown. 121^ I Street N. IV.

BusEY, Samuel Clagett, M. D. Professor of the Theory
and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Department of the
University of Georgetown. 1^2^ I Street N. W.

Canby, William Jackson, 413 Tenth Street N. JV.

Carman, Myron Albert, D.B.S., io/j Foiirteenth St. N. IV.

Chase, Henry Sanders, Midshipman, U. S. Navy, on duty
in the National Museum. Smithsotiian Institution.

Chickering, Rev. John White, Jr., A. M. Professor of
Natural Science in the Columbia Institution for the Deaf
and Dumb. Kendall Green, N. E.

Chickering, John Jameson, A. M.
Schools. Kendall Green, N. E.

Teacher in the Public

Christie, Alexander Smyth, Astronomical Computer in the
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Coast Survey Office, and
207 New yersey Avetme N. W.

Clark, Alonzo Howard, Special Agent in the Fishery
Division of the Tenth Census. National Museum, and
gS3 G Street N. W.

Collins, Joseph Willt.a.m, Special Agent in the Fishery
Division of the Tenth Census. National Alusewn, and
Gloucester, Massachusetts.

CoMSTOCK, John Henry, S. B. Assistant Professor of Eth-
nology and Lecturer on the Zoology of Invertebrates in
Cornell University, Ithaca. Ithaca, New York.

Conant, Woodbury Page, Assistant Botanist, Department of
Agriculture. Agricultural Department,

CoUES, Elliott, M. D., Ph. D., M. N. A. S. Professor of
Anatomy in the Medical Department of Columbian Univer-
sity. Smithsonian Institution, and ij2i N Street N. M'.

Date of Election.
l88l, Nov. II.

i88i, Feb. 25.

1881, Jan. 28.

1882, Feb. 3.
1881, Feb. 25.
1881, Nov. II.

1881. Nov. II.

1882, Jan. 20.
1881, Jan. 28.

1 881, Feb. 25.
1881, Nov. 25.

1 88 1, Jan. 28.
1881, Mar. 25.
1881, Feb. II.

1881, Dec. 9.

LIST OF MEMBERS.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

13

Cox, W1LLI.A.M V.\N Zant, a. B. Fish Commission Office,
and 201 1 Twe/fih Street N. IV.

Dale, Frank C, M. D. Passed Assistant Surgeon, U. S.
N., on U. S. Steamer " Palos" on China Station.

Dall, William Healey, Assistant, U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey. Honorary Curator, Dept. of MoHusks, U. S. National
Museum. Coast Survey Office, and 11 ig Twelfth Street N. W.

Davis, Harry C, A. B. Adjunct Professor of Greek in
Columbian University, bjj Maryland Avenue S. W.

DeHaas, Wills, M. D. Care of Bureau of Ethnology,

Sm ith sonian Institution .

Dewey, Frederick Perkins, Ph. B. Assistant, Dept. of
Metallurgy, U. S. National Museum. National Museum,

and Whitney Avenue N. IV.

Dodge, Charles Richards, Special Agent, Tenth Census,
Division of Fruit and Orchard Statistics. 1^36 Vermont
Avenue N. IV.

DosH, Frank Bowman. Johns Hopkins University, Balti-
more.

Earll, Robert Edward, S. B. Special Agent in the Fishery
Division of the Tenth Census. National Museum, and 601,

M Street N. W.

Elliott, Henry Wood. Smithsonian Institution, and Cleve-
land, Ohio.

Ellzey, Mason Graham, A. M., M. D. Lecturer on Hy-
giene and Medical Jurisprudence in the Medical Department
of the University of Georgetown. 70/2 / Street N. IV.

Ferguson, Thomas B., Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries.
14JJ Massac/msetts Avenue N. W.

Fletcher, Robert, M. D„ Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S.
Army. Surgeon GemraVs Office, and IJ26 L Street N W.

Flint, James Milton, M. D. Surgson, U. S. Navy. Hon-
orary Curator, Section of Materia Medica, U. S. National
Museum. National Museum, and Riggs House.

Foreman, Edward, M. D. Assistant, U. S. National Mu-
seum. National Museum, and 200 Eleventh Street S. IV.

14

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

Date of Election.
1882, Feb. 17.

1881, Mar. 25.

Orig. Member.

1 88 1, Mar. 11.

1882, April 28.
Founder.
Founder.

Orig. Member.

1881, Nov. II.
Orig. Member.

1881, Feb. 25.

1882, Feb. 3.
1882, Feb. 17.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

Garrett, LeRoy Mason, Midshipman, U. S. Navy, on duty
at the National Museum. Smithsonian Institution.

Gannett, Henry, S. B., A.Met.B. Geographer of the
Tenth Census and of the U. S. Geological Survey. Office of
Geological Survey, and 1881 Harewood Ave., Le Droit Park.

Gedney, Charles DeForest, Coast Survey Office, and ji^
F Street N. E.

GlHOX, AuiERT Leary, A. M., M. D. Member of Naval
Board of Inspection. Medical Director, U. S. Navy, ijjf)
I Street N. W.

Gilbert, Grove Karl, Geologist, U. S. Geological Survey.
In charge of the Division of the Great Basin. Office of
Geological Szirvey, and 18S1 Harewood Ave. , Le Droit Park.

Gill, Theodore Nicholas, M. D., Ph. D., M. N. A. S.
Lecturer on Natural History in Columbian University. Cos-
mos Club, and J2I and J2j Four-and-a-half Street.

GooDE, George Brown, A. M. Assistant Director of the
U.S. National Museum. Chief of Division of Fisheries, U. S.
Fish Commission, and Special Agent in charge of Fishery.
Division, Tenth Census. Smithsonian Institution, and 1620
Massachusetts Avenue N. W.

Gore, James Howard, S. B. Adjunct Professor of Mathe-
matics in Columbian University. Honorary Curator of the
Food Collection, U. S. National Museum. Columbian Uni-
versity, and 130^ Q Street JV. IV.

Griffith, Samuel Henderson, M. D. Passed Assistant
Surgeon, U. S. Navy. Bureatt of Medicine, U. S. Navy.

Hassler, Ferdinand Augustus, M. D. /2j^ Thirteenth
Street N. W., and Tustin City, Los Angeles Co., California.

Hawes, George Wesson, Ph. D. Curator, Dept. of Min-
eralogy, U. S. National Museum. Special Agent in charge
of the Budding Stone Division, Tenth Census. Died at
Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 23, 1882.

Haw^kes, William Himes, A. B., M. D. Acting Assistant
Surgeon, U. S. Army. U. S. Army Dispensary, and iioj
F Street N. IV.

Hayden, Edward Everett, Midshipman, U. S. Navy, on
duty at the National Museum. Smithsonian Institution.

Date of Election.
1882, Mar. 31.

l88i,Jan. 14.
Orig. Member.
1882, April 14.

1882, May 26.

1882, April 27.
Orig. Member.

1881, Feb. 25.

Founder.

1882, Mar. 3.

1882, Jan. 20.
1882, Feb. 3.

LIST OF MEMBERS.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

16

Orig. Member.
Orig. Member.
Orig. Member.

Henshaw, Henry Wetherbee, Special Agent in the Indian
Division of the Tenth Census. Bureau of Ethnology,
Smithsonian Institution, and go j M Street JV. IV.

IIessel, Rudolph, Ph. D., Superintendent of Government
Carp Ponds. ^14 Tenth Street N. W.

Hoffman, Walter James, M. D. Bureau of Ethnology,
Smithsonian Institution, and 222 E Street N. W.

Hornaday, William Tell, Chief Taxidermist U. S. National
Museum. National Museum, and Ilarewood Avenue, Le
Droit Park.

Hough, Franklin Benjamin, Ph. D. Chief of Division of
Forestry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural
Department.

Hough, Myron Beach Warner. U. S. Treasurer's Office,
and J 72 Indiana Avenue AL W.

Howard, Leland O., S. B. Assistant in the Entomological
Division, U S. Department of Agricuhure. Agricultural
Department, and f4oy Fifteenth Street N. IV.

HowLAND, Edwin Perry, M. D. 2ri Four-and-a-half Street

N. IV.

Ingersoll, Ernest. New York City.

Johnson, Arnold Burgess, A. M., Chief Clerk, U. S. Light
House Board. Le Droit Park.

Johnson, Blanchard Freeman. Le Droit Park.

Johnson, Joseph Taber, A.M., M.D, Professor of Obstet-
rics and Diseases of Women and Infants, in the Medical
Department of the University of Georgetown. Gynecologist
to Providence Hospital, gjj New York Avenue N. PV.

JouY, Pierre Louis, Assistant Naturalist of U. S. Steamer
"Palos" on China Station.

Kidder, Jerome Henry, A.M., M. D. Surgeon, U. S. Navy.
Bureau of Medicine, U. S. Navy, and iboi O Street N. W.

King, Albert Freeman Africanus, M. D. Professor of
Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, in the
Medical Department of Columbian University. ^26 Thir-
teenth Street N. W.

16

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Date of Election.

1881, Nov. 25.

Orig. Member.

1882, Mar. 17.

1882, Jan. 20.
i88i, Jan. 28.

1881, May 20.

1881, Nov. II.

1882, Feb. 17.
1882, Jan. 20.
Orig. Member.

Orig. Member.
l88l,Jan. 28.

1 88 1, June 3.

1882, Feb. 17.

1881, Dec. 9.
Orig. Member.

ACTIVE MEMBERS-Continued.

KoEBELE, Alrert, Aid, U. S. National Museum.
Thirteenth S'.reet N. W.

1700

Lee, William, M. D. Professor of Physiology in the Med-
ical Department of Columbian University. 211/ Pennsyl-
vania Ave7tue N'. W.

Leech, Daniel, Sniithsonian Institution, and IJ07 Vermont
Avenue N. IV.

Lehnert, Rev. E., Pastor, German Lutheran Church.

McDonald, Marshall, Chief of Division of Propagation and
Transportation, U. S. Fish Commission. Commissioner of
Fisheries for the State of Virginia. Special Agent Fisheiy
Division of Tenth Census. Fish Commission 0£ice,andgog
Twenty-third Street N. IV.

McMurtrie, William, E. M., M. S., Ph. D. Examiner of
Wool in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agt icnltural
Department, and IJ2S I Street N. IV.

Mann, Benjamin Pickman, A.M. Assistant in the Entomo-
logical Division, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agri-
ctdtural Department, and 120J Q Street TV. IV.

Marsh, Charles Carrolton, Midshipman, U. S. Navy, on
duty at National Museum. Smithsonian Institution.

Martin, Frank, Aid, U. S. National Museum. National
Museum^ and 183S G Street N'. W.

Marx, George, Zoological Draughtsman, U. S. Department
of Agriculture. Agricultural Department, and 1626 Four-
teenth Street N'. IV.

Mason, Otis Tufton, Ph. D. Principal of the Preparatory
Department of Columbian University, fjoj Q St. A^. IV.

Merrill, George Perkins, M. S. Aid, U. S. National
Museum. A^ational Musewn, and 30JJ N Street N. W.

Millhr, Benjamin, Jr. i^ib Thirty-first Street N. JV.

Miner, Randolph Huntington, Midshipman, U. S. Navy,
on duty at National Museum. Smithsonian lustitutioti.

Nelson, Edward W., U. S. Signal Service observer at St.
Michael's, Alaska. Smithsonian Institution.

NoRRis, Basil, M. D. Surgeon and Brevet Colonel, U. S.
Army. jSsg G Street N. W.

LIST OF MEMBERS.

17

Date of Election.
Founder.

Orig. Member.

Orig. Member.
1881. Feb. XI.

Orig. Member.

Founder.

1 88 1, May 20.
1881. Dec. 9.

Founder.
Founder.

1882, Mar. 17.
1882, April 28.

1882, Mar. 31.

Orig. Member.

1882, Jan. 20.
i8§l, Mar. 11.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.
Patton, William Hampton, A. B. New York City.

Pergande, Theodore, Assistant in Entomological Division,
U. S. Department of Agriculture. 321 D Street N. W.

PcRTER, John Hampden, M.D. 2^20 M Street N. W.

Powell, John Wesley, Ph. D., LL. D., M. N. A. S. Direc-
tor, U. S Geological Survey, and Director, Bureau of Eth-
nology, Smithsonian Institution. National Museum, and
gio M Street N. W.

Prentiss, Daniel Webster, A.M., M.D. Professor of Ma-
teria Medica and Therapeutics, in the Medical Department
Columbian University. Commissioner of Pharmacy, District
of Columbia. 1224 Ninth Street N. W.

Rathbun, Richard, Curator, Dep't of Marine Invertebrates,
U. S. National Museum. Smifhsojiian Institution, and 1622
Massachusetts Avenue N". W.

Rau, Charles, Ph. D. Curator, Dept. of Antiquities, U. S.
National Museum. Sr.iithsonian Institution.

Reyburn, Robert, A. M., M. D. Profes:or of Physiology
and Hygiene, Medical Department, Howard University.
2i2g F Street N. W.

RiDGWAY, Robert, Curator, Dep't of Birds, U. S. National Mu-
seum. S:nithsonian Institution, and2i8 Eleventh Street S. W.

Riley, Charles Valentine, Ph. D. President, U. S. Ento-
mological Commis.sion. Entomologist U. S. Department of
Agriculture. Honorary Curator, of Insects in the U. S.
National Museum. Agricultural Department, and i-joo
Thirteenth Street N. W.

RiCHEY, Stephen Olin, M. D. 1426 New York Avenue.

RussnJr^, IcRAEL Cook, Assistant Geologist U. S. Geological
Survey. Salt lake City, Utah.

RVDER, John Adam, Embryologist, U. S. Fish Commission.
Smithsonian Instiuition, and Chambersburg, Pa.

ScHviiFFER, Edward Martin, M. D. St. Cloud Building,
and 1 1 14 Nineteenth Street N. W.

ScHoNBORN, Henry. 213 Seventh Street N. W.

ScHUERMANN, Carl Wilhelm, V. S. National Museum
and gj6 D Street S. W.

18

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Date of Election
Orig. Member.

1881, Jan. 14.
Orig. Member.

1882, May 26.
Orig. Member.

Orig. Member.
1881, Nov. II.

1882, Feb. 17.
1881, Nov. II.
Orig. Member.

1881, Nov. II.

1881, Mar. 25.

1882, Mar. 17.

1881, Feb. 25.

1882, Feb. 17.

ACTIVE MRMBERS— Continued.

ScHWARz, Eugene Amandus, Assistant in tlie Entomological
Division, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 606 H Street
N. W.

ScuDDER, Charles Willis. Clerk, U. S. Fish Commission.
127 F Street A' E.

ScuDDER, Newton Pratt, A.M. Aid, U. S. Fish Commis-
sion. I2J F Street N. E.

Seaton, Charles W., Superintendent of the Tenth Census.
Census Office, and ^oj AI Street N. W.

Seaman, William Henry, A. M. Professor of Chemistry
in the Medical Department of Howard University. 1424
Eleventh Street A'. W.

Sheldon, Charles Stiles. Census Office.

Shufeldt, Robert Wilson, M.D. Assistant Surgeon and
Captain U. S. Army. Hon. Curator, Section of Bird Skele-
tons U. S. National Museum. A^ational Museum, and 8 ig
Seventeenth Street A^. W.

Shute, Daniel Kerfoot, A. B. Children's Hospital. Co-
lumbian College Hill.

Smith, William Robert, Superintendent of U. S. Botanical
Garden. Botanical Garden.'

Smiley, Charles Wesley, A. M. Chief of Division of
Records, U. S. Fish Commission. Special Agent, Fishery
Division, Tenth Census. Fish Commission Office, and 1207
Eleventh Street N. W.

Stejneger, Leonhard, (of Bergen, Norway.) Aid U. S.
National Museum.' Absent in Siberia.

Sternberg, George Miller, M.D. Surgeon, U. S. Army.
Secretary of the National Board of Health. Fort Faint
San yose, San Francisco, Cal.

Stevenson, James, Executive Officer of the U. S. Geological
Survey. National Museum.

Stimpson, William Gordon. National Museum, and 211
Twelfth Street S. IV.

Streets, Thomas Hale, M. D. Passed Assistant Surgeon,
U. S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine, U. S. Navy.

LIST OF MEMBERS.

19

Date of Election.
1882, Mar. 17.

Orig. Member.

1881, Dec. 9.

1881, Jan. 28.

Orig. Member.
Founder.

1881, Dec. 23

Orig. Member.
1881, Mar. 25.

Founder.
Founder.

One:. Member.

1 88 1, May 20.
18S1, Tan. 28.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

Taylor, Frederick William, Chemist, U. S. National Mu-
seum. National Museum, and 1120 Vermont Avenue
N. W.

Taylor, Thomas, M. D. Microscopist, U. S. Department
of Agriculture. Agricultural Department, and 2j8 Massa-
chusetts Avenue N. E.

Thompson, John Ford, M. D. Professor of Surgery, Med-
ical Department, Columbian University. 1000 Ninth Street
N. W.

Todd, James Edward, Ph. D. Professor of Natural History
in Tabor College and Lecturer in Beloit College. Tabor,
lozva.

Toner, Joseph Meredith, M. D. 6/5- Louisiana Avenue
N. IV.

True, Frederick William, M. S. Librarian, and Curator
Dep't of Mammals, U. S. National Museum. National
Museum, and jojj N Street N IV.

Turner, Lucien M., Observer, U. S. Signal Service.
Ungava, Labrador.

Ulke, Henry, iiii Pennsylvania Avenue N. W.

Upham, Edwin Pori'er, Aid, U. S. National Museum.
Smithsonian Institution, and IJ17 Eleventh Street N. W.

Ya^^-ky, George, M. D. Botanist, U. S. Department of Ag-
riculture. Agricultural Department, and 14J7 S Street N. IV.

Ward, Lester Frank, A. M., LL. B. Paleo -botanist, U. S.
Geological Survey. Honorary Curator, Dep't of Fossil
Plants, U. S. National Museum. National Museum, and
1464 Rhode Isla)td Avenue N. W.

White, Charles Abiathar, A.M., M.D. Curator, Dep't of
Fossil Invertebrates, U. S. National Museum. Paleontolo-
gist U. S. Geological Survey. National Mus/'um, and ^og
Maple Avenue, Le Droit Park.

White, Maurice Putnam, Teacher, Public Schools. 507
Sixth Street N. W.

Williams, Alfred, Department of State, and 134 C Street

N. E.

20

Date of Election.
Orig. Member.

1881, Dec. 9.

1881, Jan. 28.

1882, Feb. 17.
Orig. Member.

1881, Feb. 25.

1882, Jan. 6.

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

ACTIVE MEMBERS— Continued.

Wilson, Joseph McMunn. U. S. Pension Office, and 1108
Maryland Avenue S. W.

WiNSLOW, Francis, Lieutenant, U. S. Navy, on duty with
U. S. Fish Commission. Brightwood, D. C.

WoLFLEY, William Irvin, A. M., M.D. 140 C Street N. E.

Yarnall, John Hepburn, M. D. ^028 P Street N. W.

Yarrow, Henry Crecy, M. D. Acting Assistant Surgeon
U. S. Army. Hon. Curator, Dept. of Reptiles U. S. National
Museum. Surgeon GeneraPs Office, and 814 Seventeenth
Street N. IV.

Yeates, William Smith, A. M. Aid, U. S. National Mu-
seum. National Museum, 2^22 L Street N. IV.

ZuMBROCK, Anton, M. D., Electrotyper and Photographer,
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Coast Survey Office, and
306 C Street N. W.

THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

CONSTITUTION

Adopted December 3, 1880.

ARTICLE I.

NAME.

The name of this Society shall be " The Biological Society
OF Washington."

ARTICLE II.

OBJECTS.

'Its objects shall be to encourage the study of the Biological Sci-
ences, and to hold meetings at which papers shall be read and dis-
cussed.

ARTICLE III.

MEMBERS.

The Society shall consist of active, corresponding and honorary
members. Candidates for membership shall be proposed to the
Council, in writing, by at least three members, and, upon recom-
mendation of the majority of the Council present at its regular
meeting, shall be balloted for at the earliest ensuing meeting. A
majority vote of the members present when the ballot is taken shall
be necessary to election.

ARTICLE IV.

OFFICERS.

The officers shall be a President, four Vice Presidents, two Sec-
retaries, and a Treasurer. There shall be a Council, consisting of
the officers of the Society and five members, to be elected by the
Society. A quorum of the council shall consist of seven members.

21

22 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Its duties shall be to act on nominations for membership, have the
direction of the finances, audit the accoimts of the Treasurer, and
provide a programme for each meeting of the Society.

The officers shall be elected by ballot at each annual meeting,
and shall serve one year, or until their successors are elected.

ARTICLE V.

PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENTS.

The President, or, in his absence, one of the Vice Presidents,
shall preside at meetings of the Society and Council. The presid-
ing officer shall appoint all committees in the Council and in the
Society, unless otherwise ordered. It shall be the duty of the re-
tiring president to deliver an address at the second meeting in
January.

ARTICLE VI.

SECRETARIES.

The Secretaries shall take and preserve correct minutes of the
proceedings of the Society and Council and a record of the mem-
bers, shall conduct its correspondence, give due notice of all meet-
ings, and inspect and count all ballots.

ARTICLE VII.

TREASURER.

The Treasurer shall have charge of all money and other property
of the Society, and shall make disbursements under the direction of
the Council. He shall collect all fees and assessments, and notify
members who may be in arrears.

ARTICLE VIII.

SECTIONS.

Sections for special work in any department of Biology may be
formed upon the recommendation of the Council.

ARTICLE IX.

MEETINGS.

Stated meetings shall, unless otherwise ordered, be held on Friday
of each alternate week, at eight o'clock P. M. The annual meeting

CONSTITUTION. 23

for the election of officers shall be the first meeting in January.
Special and field meetings may be called by the Comicil.

ARTICLE X.

FEES.

The initiation fee shall be one dollar ; the annual fee one dollar.
Members in arrears for one year shall, after due notification by the
Treasurer, be dropped from the rolls. No member in arrears shall
be entitled to vote at the annual meeting for the election of officers.

ARTICLE XL

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

The constitution of the Society may be amended by a two-thirds
vote of the members present at any regular meeting, after at least
four weeks' notice.

ARTICLE XII.

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

The order of business at each regular meeting, unless otherwise
provided by the Council, shall be as follows :

I. Reading of minutes.
II. Reports of Committees.

III. Balloting for members.

IV. Nominations for membership.
V. Miscellaneous business.

VI. Reading of papers, discussions and exhibition of specimens.

Article XII may be suspended at any time by a two-thirds vote
of the members present.

PROCEEDINGS.

Preliminary Meeting, November 19, 1880.

In response to a letter of invitation signed by C. V. Riley and
G. Brown Goode, ten gentlemen met at the house of the former,
No. 1700 Thirteenth Street N. W., to take into consideration a
project for the organization of a natural history society in the city
of Washington. Capt. C. E. Button, U. S. A. was chosen chair-
man. After an informal interchange of views and a discussion of
various propositions advanced by those present, it was decided to
send out a call for a general meeting to be held on the following
Friday evening, to which all known to be interested in the objects
of the proposed society should be invited. The following persons
were in attendance at this preliminary meeting : Captain Clarence
E. Button, Prof. Theodore Gill, Messrs. G. Brown Goode, Ernest
Ingersoll, W. H. Patton, Richard Rathbun, C. V. Riley, Fred-
erick W. True, Lester F. Ward, and Br. George Vasey.

Meeting for Organization, November 26, 1880.

In response to a call signed by C. E. Button, J. W. Chickering,
Jr., Theodore Gill, G. Brown Goode, Ernest Ingersoll, W. H. Pat-
ton, Richard Rathbun, Robert Ridgway, C. V. Riley, F. W. True,
Lester F. Ward, and George Vasey, about thirty gentlemen assembled
in the Regents' Room, at the Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Riley
was elected chairman, and Mr. Goode, Secretary. After much dis-
cussion it was decided to organize a society to be called The
Biological Society of Washington. A committee consisting of
Messrs. Gill, Goode, Rathbun, Riley, and Ward was appomted to
draw up a form of constitution for the proposed society, and to
submit the same at a meeting to be held on the evening of Friday,

Becember 3.

24

PROCEEDINGS. 25

First Meeting, December 3, 1880.

Thirty-five gentlemen assembled in the Regents' Room of the
Smithsonian Institution, to hear the report of the Committee ap-
pointed to prepare a constitution for the projected society. Prof.
Riley acted as chairman and Mr. Goode as secretary. The com-
mittee presented its report, and the form of constitution proposed by
them was read article by article, and article by article modified and
adopted. The constitution as a whole, in the form appended to
these proceedings, was then adopted. The Society then adjourned
to Friday evening, December 10, at which time a meeting was ap-
pointed for the completion of the organization of the Society by the
election of a board of officers.

Second Meeting, December 10, 1880.

Twenty-two persons met in the usual place. Professor Gill was
called to the chair, and, on the motion of Prof. Ward, the Society
proceeded to ballot for officers for the ensuing year. The following
board of officers was elected :

President — Theodore Gill.

Vice-Presidents — C. V. Riley, J. W. Chickering, Lester F.
Ward, Henry Ulke.

Secretaries — G. Brown Goode, Richard Rathbun.

Treasurer — Robert Ridgway.

Membe7's of Council — J. H. Comstock, O. T. Mason, J. H. Kid-
der, A. F. A. King, George Vasey.

The Society then adjourned to meet on the 24th of December.

Third Meeting, December 24, 1880.

The President occupied the chair, and thirty-one members were
present.

Messrs. Riley, Goode and King were announced as having been
appointed a committee on communications. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean
presented a communication entitled Notes on a voyage along
the Coasts of Alaska and Siberia in the summer of 1880.*

* Published in part in the New York Times for September 17, November 21,
and December 6, 1880.

26 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

Fourth Meeting, January 14, 1881.
(First Annual Meeting.)

The President occupied the chair and thirty members were present.

In accordance with the recommendation of the Council one of
the Secretaries of the Society was instructed to cast the vote of its
members for the entire board of officers elected at the meeting of
December 10, such having been the understanding at the time of
that election. The officers elected at that time were then an-
nounced as having been re-elected to serve during the coming
year.

The President announced that the Secretary had been authorized
to have printed 250 copies of the constitution, with list of officers
and members, and requested all members to send in their full names,
that the customs of similar societies might be conformed to.

Prof. L. F. Ward read a paper entitled The Flora Columbiana
OF 1830 AND 1880, which contained comparisons between the list
of the plants of the District of Columbia printed in 1830 by Dr.
Brereton and the lists perfected by the resident botanists of to-day. *

Prof. D. S. Jordan, of the Indiana State University, read a paper
entitled The Salmon of the Pacific Coast. f

Fifth Meeting, January 28, 1881.

The President occupied the chair, and thirty-six members were
present.

The President delivered his first annual address upon The Prin-
ciples OF Biology with reference to Taxonomy. J

In the discussion of the presidential address, Messrs. Comstock,
Mason, Ward, Riley and White participated.

* Included in the following paper :

1882. Ward, Lester F. Guide | to ] the Flora | of ( Washington and

Vicinity | By | Lester F. Ward, A. M. | | Washington : Government

Printing Office, | 1881. Svo., pp. 264 + 2, with ;«a/ = Bulletin of the U. S.
National Museum, No. 22. (U. S. National Museum, No. 26.)

f 1881. Jordan, David S., and Charles H. Gilbert. Observations on the
Salmon of the Pacific. <^American Naturalist. XV, 18S1, (March,) pp. 177-
186.

J The essentials of this address are embodied in the articles Biology (Vol. I,
1875,) and Morphology (Vol. Ill, 1877,) in Johnson's Cyclopedia. New York,
1875-8

PROCEEDINGS. 27

Sixth Meeting, February ii, 1881.

The President occupied the chair, and thirty-seven members were
present.

An hour was devoted to the completion of the discussion of the
presidential address, Messrs. White, Ward, King and Gill taking
part. Dr. J. H. Kidder, U. S. N., exhibited a series of photo-
micrographs of objects obtained floating in the air of Washington.
He also exhibited photo-micrographs of the dry rot fungus from the
U. S. Steamer " Portsmouth," after its infection by yellow fever, of
spores of various organisms collected in the yellow fever hospitals
of Cuba, and of blood corpuscles from patients affected by various
febrile diseases.*

Seventh Meeting, February 25, 1881.

Prof C. V. Riley, V. P., occupied the chair and thirty-two mem-
bers were present.

Prof Riley read a paper entitled The Fertilization of Yucca. f
Dr. C. A. White gave an account of a collection of fossils, includ-
ing 1500 species, duplicates of the celebrated collection of James
Hall, State Geologist of New York, recently received by the
National Museum from the American Museum of Natural History
in New York. Mr. Frederick W True read a paper entitled
SucroRiAL Prehension in the Animal Kingdom.J

Eighth Meeting, March ii, 1881.

The President occupied the chair, and thirty-four members were
present.

In discussing Mr. True's paper on "Suctorial Prehension" Prof.

* 1S81. Kidder, Jerome II. Report | on ] an examination | of the | exter-
nal air of Washington | by J. H. Kidder, M. D., | Surgeon, U. S. Navy. | |

[Extracted from the Report of the Surgeon General | of the Navy for i88o.] |

I Washington: | Government Printing Office. | 1882. | 8vo., pp. 22 -|- i

(-|- i), 10 plates.

f 1881. Riley, Charles V. Further notes on the Pollination of Yucca and
on Pronuba and Prodoxus. <^Proceedings of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. 18S1, Vol. XXIX, Part II, pp. 617-639, figs. 1-16.

X To be published in the proceedings of the U. S. National Museum.

28 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Seaman referred to the climbing organs of the Virginia creeper,
Ampelopsis qidnquefolia, and of the so called "suckers" of various
sea-weeds, which though perhaps not suctorial in action seem to
cling to objects in a manner which is similar to suctorialism. Prof.
Riley spoke of a suctorial organ of prehension in the thoracic proleg
and anal pseudopod of Siinulium larvss and to the ventral branchiae
of the helgramite or dobson, Corydalis conmtus, larva, which are
suctorial in function. Prof. Gill, speaking of the suctorial powers
of young marsupiates stated that he believed them to exert an actual
suctorial power, even though the teats be somewhat modified to aid
them in clinging. Their first attachment to the teat is purely suc-
torial, though afterward probably the result of a spasm-like action
of the sphincter-oris muscle. He also referred to the suctorial
organs possessed by certain bats. Mr. Patton called attention to
the peculiar structure of the larva of Blcpharocera which inhabits tor-
rents and has six segments, each provided with a separate suctorial
organ, probably prehensive.

Dr. A. F. A. King read a paper entitled Septenary Periodicity in
Living Organisms ; in the discussion of which Messrs. Prentiss,
Riley, Scudder, Ward, and many others participated.

Ninth Meeting, March 25, 1881.

The President occupied the chair, and thirty-five members were
present.

Col. Marshall McDonald read a communication On the Laws of
the Relation of Periodicity in Development to Temperature.
This paper was discussed by Messrs. Prentiss, King, Busey, Gill
and Chickering.

Prof. J. W. Chickering, Jr., read a paper entitled Roan Moun-
tain AND ITS Flora. -!^

Prof. J. E. Todd read a paper entitled On the Flowering of

SOLANUxM ROSTRATUM, AND CaSSIA CHAM^CRISTA.f

*See 1882. Chickering, John W., Jr. Notes on Roan Mountain, North
Carolina. <^ Bulletin, Philosophical Society of Washington. IV. 1881. pp.
60-64. (Flora, p. 63).

■{-1882. Todd, James E. On the Flowers of Solamim rostnitum, and
Cassia chamcccrista. <^American Naturalist. XVI, 1882. (April), pp. 281-
287.

PROCEEDINGS. 29

Tenth Meeting, April 8, 1881.

The Pi'esident occupied the chair, except when reading his paper,
at which time he was replaced by Vice President Ward. Twenty-
three members were present.

Prof. Gill read a paper entitled A Critical Review of Gun-
ther's Study of Fishes,* and a short discussion upon the merits
of this article ensued, participated in by Messrs. Goode, Gill and
Ward.

Eleventh Meeting, April 22, iSSi.

The Pi'esident occupied the chair, and thirty-eight members were
present.

A committee of the Council submitted the following report upon
the formation of sections, in accordance with one of the provisions
of the Constitution :

The committee recommends, (r.) That five sections be formed as follows : I,
Vertebrates; II, Articulates; III, Mollasks ; IV, Radiates; V, Plants. For
these sections the following members are suggested as chairmen : I, Mr. Goode ;
II, Prof. Riley; III, Mr. Dall; IV, Mr. Rathbun ; V, Prof. Ward. (2.) The
members of the Society shall be requested to inform the Secretary what section
or sections they desire toco-operate with. (3.) New members on joining the
Societ) shall be requested to signify to the Secretary what departments of Biology
they are each respectively interested in. Signed by the Committee : C. V. Riley,
O. T. Mason, George Vasey, G. Brown Goode, Robert Ridgway.

The President announced that the temporary chairman would be
authorized to call meetings of the sections, and that members were
expected to hand in their decisions as to the sections which they
desire to join.

Dr. George M. Sternberg, U. S. A., Secretary of the National
Board of Health, read a paper entitled A Fatal Form of Septi-

■^1881. Gill, Theodore. Reprinted from the "Forest and Stream." |
I Giinther's | Literature and Moq^hography of Fishes. | A review of | Dr.

Giinther's introduction to the | study of Fishes. | | By Theodore Gill, M. A.,

M. D., Ph. D., I Member of the National Academy of Sciences, etc., etc. |

I New York : | Forest & Stream Publishing Co., | 1881. l2mo., pp. 16.

See also The Critic, I, (May 21, 1S81,) pp. 132-3; The iVeia York Times, May
29, 1881 ; Forest &= Stream, XVT, p. 428, (June 30, 1881;) Science, VII, pp.
323-6, (July 9, 1881 ;) The Nation, XXXIII, pp. 120-2, (August 11, 1881.)

30 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

c^MiA IN THE Rabbit, produced by the Subcutaneous Injec-
tion OF Human Saliva.^

This paper was discussed by Messrs, Thomas Taylor, Fletcher,
King, Comstock, Ward, and Gill.

Mr. Ernest Ingersoll read a paper entitled On the Mortality of
Marine Animals in the Gulf of Mexico.*

At the close of the meeting the roll of members was called, and
the following persons enrolled themselves as members of the several
sections :

Section I. Messrs. Baker, Birney, Clark, Earll, Gill, Goode,
Hoffman, King, Mason, Prentiss, Ridgway, N. P. Scudder, C. W.
Scudder, Smiley, Thomas Taylor, True, Ward, Wolfley, Fletcher,
Flint, Schuermann, Sternberg.

Section II. Messrs. Birney, Comstock, Merrill, Patton, Pergande,
Riley, Schwarz, Marx, Howard, and Ulke.

Section III. Messrs. Gill, Sheldon, and Ingersoll.

Section IV. Messrs. Gill and Rathbun.

Section V. Messrs. Comstock, Earll, Goode, Gore, Merrill, Pat-
ton, Riley, Schwarz, Seaman, Sheldon, Smiley, Thomas Taylor,
Vasey, Ward, Williams, Wolfley, Sternberg, Hawes, Flint, and Hoff-
man.

First Field Meeting, April 30, 1881.

On Saturday, April 30, the Botanical Section held a field meeting

at High Island, in the Potomac River, above the Chain Bridge.
Seventeen members were present.

Twelfth Meeting, May 6, 1881.

Vice-President Ward occupied the chair. Twenty-three members
were present.

* iSSi. Sternberg, George M. A fatal form of Septiccemia in the
Rabbit, produced by the sub-cutaneous injection of Human Saliva. <^ Studies
from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Ilopkini University. II. 1882, pp.
183-200. Plate XIV. (March.)

* 1881. Ingersoll, Ernest. On the Fish Mortality in the Gulf of Mexico.
rV. <Proceedings, U. S. National Museum, IV, 1881, pp. 74-80.

PROCEEDINGS. 31

Prof. Lester F. Ward read a paper entitled A Statistical View of
THE Flora of the District of Columbia.*

Prof. J. H. Comstock read a paper entitled Notes on Scale In-
sects, illustrating his remarks by a collection of specimens. f

Thirteenth Meeting, May 20, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-one members were
present.

Prof. Riley made some remarks upon Prof. Comstock's paper
on Scale Insects, and was responded to by Prof. Comstock. Dr.
George M. Sternberg, U. S. A., read a paper entitled On Mi-
crococcus SEPTicusJ illustrating his remarks by photo-micrographs
thrown upon a screen by the lantern. This paper was discussed by
Messrs. Seaman, Ward, and Taylor.

Fourteenth Meeting, June 3, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-five members were
present. It was announced that after the next meeting the Society
would be adjourned until the first Friday in October.

Dr. D. W. Prentiss read a paper entitled The Physiological Ac-
tion OF Jabirandi, (Pilocarpus pinnatifolius.)§

* 1 88 1 . Ward, Lester F. Field and Closet Notes on the Flora of Washington
and Vicinity. <BulIetin, Philosophical Society of Washington. IV. i88l.
pp. 64-120. (Statistical View pp. 8S-104, 116-119.) See also in Bulletin 22
U. S. National Museum, cited above, p. 26.

fiSSi. Comstock, James H. Report on Scale Insects. <Report of the
Entomologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for the year 1880. pp.
235-373- (Scale Insects, pp. 276-349. Plates III-XXII.)

t Sternberg, George M. A Contribution to the Study of the Bacterial Or-
ganisms commonly found upon exposed Mucous Surfaces, and in the Alimentary
Canal of Healthy Individuals. <Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns
Hopkins Univer-.ity. II. 1882. pp. 157-iSl. Plates XI-XIII : and in Pro-
ceedings, American Assoc. Adv. Sci., XXX, 188 1.

§ 1S81. Prentiss, D. Webster. Remarkable change of color of the hair
from light blonde to nearly jet black in a patient, while under treatment by pilo-
carpin. Report of pyelo-nephritis, with unusually prolonged anuria. <[Phila-
delphia Medical Times. .XL 1881. (No. 335, July 2, 18S1.) pp. 609-12; also
reprinted with following title :

I. I Remarkable change in the color of the | hair from light blonde to

32 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Mr. G. Brown Goode read a paper entitled The Mackerel,*
and was followed by Captain J. W. Collins who explained and illus-
trated the uses of the various kinds of apparatus used in the mack-
erel fishery, f

Fifteenth Meeting, June 17, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Fifty-two members were
present.

Mr. Robert Ridgway exhibited a collection of wild and domesti-
cated turkeys. Mr. Newton P. Scudder made a communication
upon the breeding habits of the Painted Tortoise, Chrysemys picta.
Dr. Thomas Taylor exhibited some specimens of a tapeworm from
the common hog. J Mr. Frederick W. True exhibited the first vol-
ume of the new annual, ZoologiscJier ^ahresbericJit, published in Leip-
zig, and compared its merits with those of the London Zoological
Record Prof C. V. Riley exhibited specimens of the seventeen-
year locust, and the Rocky Mountain locust, explaining the differ-
ence between them and describing their habits. §

The Society then adjourned to the basement of the Smithsonian
Building, where Col. Marshall McDonald described some recent

black in a | patient while under treatment by | pilocarpin. — Report of a | py-
elo-nephiritis, with unusu- | ally prolonged anuria. | 2. | Care ol membranous
croup treated sue- | cessfully by pilocarpin. | By | D. W. Prentiss, A.M., M. D.,
I Professor Materia Medica and Therapeutics, National Medical College, Wash-
ington, D. C. I — I Printed by | J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. | i8Sl.
8vo.,pp. 15 + 1.

Also — Change in the color of the human hair under the use of pilocarpin.
<Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic. XLVL 1881. (Sept. 3.) pp. 202-205; colored
plate and <[ Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of
Science, XXX, (Cincinnati Meeting,) 1881.

* 1882. Goode, G. Brown. Natural History of the Mackerel. ^Materials
for a Histoi7 of the Mackerel Fishery in Report U. S. Fish Commission. Part
VII for iS8i,pp. (i)-(48.)

f 1882. Collins, Joseph W. (With G. Brown Goode.) The Mackerel
Fishery of the United States. Ibid. pp. (49)-(i40-l-.)

+ 1882. Taylor, Thomas. On a tape-worm from the common hog. <Re-
port of the Commission of Agriculture for 1882, pp. . (In press.)

§ 1881. Riley, Charles V. The Periodical Cicada alias " Seventeen-year
Locust." <;American Naturalist, XV, 1881, pp. 479-481, one figure.

PROCEEDINGS. 33

experiments in fish culture, illustrating his remarks by apparatus in
which the eggs of the shad, Cliipea sapidissima, were in process of
hatching. He announced that he had succeeded in keeping shad
eggs for twenty-four hours in a half dry condition in moist cloth,
and in thus transporting them from place to place, instead of the
old cumbersome vessels filled with water.*

Mr. John A. Ryder exhibited, under the microscope, eggs of the
shad in various stages of development, and announced the discov-
ery of teeth in shad four or five days old. f

Sixteenth Meeting, October 28, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-two members were
present.

This evening the Society met for the first time in the Archive
Room of the National Museum. Prof. Lester F. Ward exhibited a
supposed petrifaction, resembling the hand of a mammal, from near
Granger's Station, Wyoming. A discussion followed upon the phe-
nomena of opalization, and the formation of pseudomorphs, in
which Messrs. Taylor, Gill, Schaeffer, Dall, and Ulke participated.
Mr. Henry W. Elliott read a paper On the Habits of the Sea
Otter, (Pusa lutris,) of the Northwest Coast, illustrating his
remarks by specimens and sketches on the blackboard. |

Dr. Thomas Taylor exhibited a new form of freezing microtome,
invented by himself, and demonstrated its manner of working. §

Seventeenth Meeting, November 11, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Twenty-eight members were
present.

*See Report of the U. S. Commission of Fisheries for 1881, (Part VIII,)
and Transactions of the American Fish Cultural Association for 1882.

fi882. Ryder, John A. The Protozoa and Protophytes considered as the
primary or indirect source of the food of fishes. <;Bu11., U. S. Fish Comm., I,
1882, pp. 236-251. (Eggs and food of young shad, pp. 248-9.)

X To be printed in the forthcoming Census report on the Fisheries of the
United States.

^1882. Taylor, Thomas. On a new form of freezing microtome. <:^Proc.
Amcr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., XXX, (Cincinnati Meeting,) 1881, p. 119.

3

34 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Prof. C. V. Riley read a paper entitled On the Philosophy of
THE Retardation of Growth among Lower Animals.* A dis-
cussion followed, participated in by Messrs. Ulke, White, Gill, Earll,
King, and Ward. Dr. C. A. White read a paper entitled An-
tiquity OF Certain Types of North American Non-Marine
MoLLUSCA, AND THE EXTINCTION OF OTHERS. f This paper was dis-
cussed by Messrs. Gill and Dall.

Eighteenth Meeting, November 25, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-four members were
present.

Mr. Richard Rathbun presented a communication On the Re-
cent Explorations of the U. S. Fish Commission. After
sketching the history of the Commission since its organization, in
1871, and describing the new exploring steamer ''Fish Hawk,"
he spoke at some length of the wonderful wealth of life discovered
in 1880 and i88r on the inner edge of the Gulf Stream, about one
hundred miles off Newport and Martha's Vineyard. Mr. Rathbun's
remarks were illustrated by numerous specimens, and a large model
of the steamer ''Fish Hawk." Messrs. Gill, Dall, Goode, and
Schaeffer took part in the discussion of this paper.

Nineteenth Meeting, December 9, 1S81.

The President occupied the chair. Forty members were present.

Col. Marshall McDonald described some recent observations upon
young shad in confinement. Prof. L. F. Ward read a paper on
The Causes of the Absence of Trees on the Great Plains. J

*i882. Riley, Charles V. Retarded Development in Insects. <^Pi-o-
ceedings, Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., XXX, Cincinnati Meeting, and in separate
"Retarded Development, &c.," pp. 4. (February, 1882.)

•j-1882. White, Charles. A. On Certain Conditions attending the Geological
Descent of some North American types of Fresh-water Gill-bearing MoUusks.
<American Journal of Science and Arts. XXIII. 1S82, (May.) pp. 382-6.
Annual Report of the U. S. Geological Survey for 1882.

J 1882. Ward, Lester F. On the Cause of the Ab.sence of Trees on the
Great Plains. <^ Kansas City Review of Science and Industry. V. 1882,
pp. 697-702, (March.)

PROCEEDINGS. 35

Prof. Gill read a paper entitled On the Affinities of the
" Great Swallower," Chiasmodus nicer.* He stated the genus
Chiasmodus to be the representative of a peculiar family, Chiasmo-
dontidce, and not at all allied to the Gadidce. Its first dorsal has in-
articulate spines and its ventrals are of the Acanthopterygian type.
The group is indeed related to the Harpagiferidcz and ChcenichthyidcB
and should have been referred by Dr. Giinther to his heterogeneous
"family TrachinidcE.^^

Twentieth Meeting, December 23, 1881.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty members were present.

Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. A., read a paper entitled On the
Osteology of the Glass Snake, (Opheosaurus ventralis.)!
Prof. Otis T. Mason read a paper entitled The Invasion of the
Domain of Biology by Anthropologists. Mr. Frederick W.
True read a paper entitled The Land Tortoises of North
America. I

Twenty-First Meeting, January 6, i88t.
(Second Annual Meeting.)

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-five members were
present.

The following officers were elected for the year 1882 :

President — Prof. Theodore Gill.

Vice Presidents — C. V. Riley, Prof. J. V/. Chickering, Jr., Les-
ter F. Ward, and Henry Ulke.

Secretaries — G. Brown Goode and Richard Rathbun.

Treasurer — Robert Ridgway.

Members of Council — Dr. J. H. Kidder, LT. S. N., Dr. George
Vasey, Dr. T. H. Bean, Dr. D. Webster Prentiss, Prof. O. T.
Mason.

*i879. Gill, Theodore. The Great Swallower. <;Forest & Stream. XIII.
1879, p. 906, (^Dec. 18,) with hgures. (A part only of the remarks made to the
Society.)

f 1882. Shufeldt, Robert W. Remarks upon the Osteology of Opheo-
saurus ventralis. <^Proceedings U. S. National Museum, IV. 1882. pp.
392-400. Nine figures.

X 1882. True, Frederick W. On the North American Land Tortoises
of the Genus Xerobates. <^Proceedings U. S. National Museum. IV. 1882.
pp. 434-449. Three figures.

36 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Twenty-Second Meeting, January 20, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Forty-five members were
present.

The President delivered the annual address on the topic The
History of Classification in Zoology.

In his introductory remarks he congratulated the Society upon its
present flourishing condition, stating that during the year its mem-
bership had nearly doubled. He also reviewed the history of other
scientific societies of the city, mentioning the National Institute,
the Botanical Society, the Potomac Side Naturalists' Club, the Physi-
cal Club, and the Geological and Geographical Society, all now ex-
tinct, and the existing Philosophical, Anthropological, and Biologi-
cal Societies. He also spoke of the eminent zoologists who had
been, in the early days of its history, identified with the Potomac
Side Naturalists' Club, the predecessor of the Biological Society,
mentioning the names of Prof. S. F. Baird, Count L. F. de Pour-
tales, Dr. William Stimpson, Mr. Robert Kennicott, Prof. J. S.
Nev/berry, Mr. H. Ulke, Dr. Harrison Allen, Dr. Elliott Coues,
Dr. D. W. Prentiss, Dr. F. V. Hayden, Mr. F. B. Meek, Baron
R. von Osten Sacken, Dr. William A. Hammond, Prof. Burt G.
Wilder, Dr. George Suckley, Mr. Titian R. Peale, and others.

Twenty-Third Meeting, February 3, 1882,

Prof. Lester F. Ward, V. P., occupied the chair. Thirty-three
members were present.

Mr. Frederick W. True read a paper On the Arctic Sea Cow,
(Rhytina Stelleri.)^!^ Mr. Henry W. Elliott exhibited draAv-
ings of the same extinct animal, and submitted a restoration by
himself, the merits of which he advocated.

Mr. Frederick W. True exhibited an immense specimen of Siren
laceriina, twenty-six inches in length, captured in the mud flats in
front of the city of Washington. This species had not previously
been recorded north of North Carolina.

*To be published in the forthcoming Census Report on the Fishery industries
of the United States.

PROCEEDINGS. 37

Twenty-Fourth Meeting, February 3, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-three members were
present.

An animated discussion concerning the form of the tail, as well
as the relationship and history of the Arctic Sea Cow, Rhytina Stcllcri,
took place. This was participated in by Messrs. Elliott, True,
Coues, and Gill.

Twenty-Fifth Meeting, March 3, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Ninety members were present.
Mr. G. Brown Goode, chairman of the Committee on Lectures
appointed by the Council, announced that, in co-operation with a
similar committee, appointed by the Anthropological Society in
response to an invitation from the Council of the Biological Society,
a course of lectures had been arranged for; these lectures to be
given on consecutive Saturdays, at 3 : 30 P. M., in the lecture room
of the National Museum. These lectures were to be free, and the
public was to be invited. The discussion of the form of the tail and
affinities of the Arctic Sea Cow was resumed ; and by special vote,
continued until 10:30 P. M. The speakers were Messrs. Elliott,
Coues, True, and Gill.

First Saturday Lecture, March 11, 1882.

An audience of about six hundred were present on the occasion
of the first Saturday lecture.

Prof Theodore Gill delivered a lecture entitled Scientific and
Popular Views of Nature Contrasted.*

The introductory address was delivered by Major J. W. Powell. f

* 1882. Gill, Theodore N. Scientific and Popular Views of Nature Con-
trasted. <[The Saturday Lectures, | delivered in the | Lecture Room of tlie U.
S. National Museum, | under the auspices of the | Anthropological and Bio-
logical Societies | of Washington, | in March and April, 18S2 | — | D. Lothrop
& Co., I 30 and 32 Franklin Street, Boston, Mass. | Washington, D. C. : — Judd
& Detwciler, Printer^ and Publishers. | 1882. | 8vo., pp. (4) 183 : (pp. 5-22).
Also separately as Saturday Lecture No. i, with title page, pp. 24.

f 1882. Powell, John W. Introductory Address (to the Saturday Lec-
tures.) <;The Saturday Lectures, pp. 1-3.

88 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Twenty-Sixth Meeting, March 17, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Forty-five members were
present.

Dr. ElHott Coues read a paper entitled On Recent Advances in
Ornithology, on the occasion of laying before the Society, in ad-
vance of publication, a complete copy of the work below cited.*
Remarks were made by Messrs. Gill, Ward, and Coues.

Dr. Edward Foreman exhibited a map of the Cretaceous fossil
beds of Maryland.

Second Saturday Lecture, March 18, 1882.

About six hundred persons listened to the lecture of Prof. Otis T.
Mason on the topic : What is Anthropology ? f

Third Saturday Lecture, March 25, 1882.

An audience of about six hundred persons listened to the lecture
by Prof. J. W. Chickering, Jr., on Contrasts of the Appalachian

Mountains.'!

Twenty-Seventh Meeting, March 31, 1882.

Prof. Lester F. Ward, V. P., occupied the chair. Eighty mem-
bers were present.

Dr. D. Webster Prentiss read a paper entitled Mesmerism in

*i882. Coues, Elliott. The | Coues Check List ] of | North American
Birds. 1 Second Edition, | Revised to Date, and entirely Rewritten, under Direc-
tion of the Author, | with a Dictionary of tlie | Etymology, Ortliography, and
Orthoepy j of the | Scientific Names, | the Concordance of Previous List*;, and a
Catalogue of his | Ornitlfological Publications. | [Monogram.] | Boston : | Estes
and Lauriat. | 18S2. — i vol., imp. Svo., pp. 1-165.

f 1882. Mason, Otis T. What is Anthropology? <The Saturday Lec-
tures, &c., pp. 25-43; also separate as Saturday Lecture No. 2. with title page,
Svo., pp. 21.

X 1882. Chickering, John W., Jr. Contrasts of the Appalachian Moun-
tains. <The Saturday Lectures, Sic, pp. 44-59; also separate with title page as
Saturday Lecture No. 3, 8vo., 16 pp.

PROCEEDINGS. 39

Animals, and at its close mesmerized a canary bird and a fowl.

The paper was discussed by Messrs. Schaeffer, Billings, EUzey,
Coues, Wolfley, Riley, True, King, Gilbert and Gihon.

Fourth Saturday Lecture, April i, 1882.

About eight hundred persons listened to the lecture of Major J.
W. Powell on Outlines of Sociology.-^

Fifth Saturday Lecture, April 8th 1882.

About seven hundred and fifty persons listened to the lecture of
Prof. C. V. Riley, on Little Known Facts About Well Known

Animals, f

Twenty-eighth Meeting, April 14, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Sixty-five members were
in attendance. Prof. William H. Brewer, of Yale College, was
present as a guest.

Dr. Frank Baker proposed amendments to the Constitution as
follows :

In Article III. Strike out the words, " upon recommendation of the ma-
jority of the members present at its regular meeting;" and substitute for the words
" a majority vote of the members present when the ballot is taken shall be ne-
cessary to an election," the words " seven affirmative votes shall be necessary to
an election."

In Article IV. Strike out the words, " its duty shall be to act on nomina-
tions," &c., and substitute — •' It shall conduct all the business of the Society ex-
cept the election of officers."

Ill Article XII. .Strike out sections III, IV and V.

A committee of five, consisting of Messrs. Ward, Goode,
Chickering, Riley, and Rathbun, was appointed to confer with the

* 1882. Powell, John W. Outlines of Sociology. <[The Saturday Lec-
turco, <S:c., pp. 60-82, also separate with title page as Saturday Lecture No.
4. 8vo. p. 25.

f 1882. Riley, Charles V. Little Known Facts About Well Known Ani-
mals. <^The Saturday Lectures, (S:c. pp. 83-112. Also separate with title page
as Saturday Lecture No. 5. 8vo., pp. 32. Fifteen woodcuts.

40 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

committees appointed by the Anthropological and Philosophical
Societies in reference to the proposed scheme for the consolidation
of the Scientific Societies of Washington and the formation of an
Academy of Sciences and to report the result of their conferences.

Dr. Frank Baker read a paper entitled On the Ramifications
OF THE Arteries. This was discussed by Messrs. Gill, Barnard,
and Scudder.

Mr. G. Brown Goode exhibited several remarkable specimens of
taxidermic skill from the work shops of the National Museum.*

Sixth Saturday Lecture, April 15, 1882.

About six hundred persons listened to the lecture of Dr. Robert
Fletcher upon Paul Broca and the French School of Anthro-
pology, f

Seventh Saturday Lecture, April 22, 1882.

Abot six hundred and fifty persons assembled to hear the lecture
by Mr. William H. Dall upon Deep-Sea Explorations. J Among
the audience was Captain Sir George S. Nares, R. N., late com-
mander of the British corvette " Challenger" during its three years
cruise of deep-sea exploration.

Twenty-Ninth Meeting, April 28, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Forty-five members were
present. The Society voted that the next regular meeting of the
Society should be. a " Darwin Memorial Meeting." A committee

* See Report of the Assistant Director of the U. S National Museum, <;Re-
port of Smithsonian Institution for 1881.

f 1882. Fletcher, Robert. Paul Broca and the French School of Anthro-
pology. <^The Saturday Lectures, &c. pp. 1 13-142. Also as separate, with
title page. 8vo., pp. 32.

X 1882. Dall, William H. Deep-Sea Explorations. <;The Satur-
day Lectures, &c. pp. 143-162. Also separate, with title page, as Saturday
Lecture No. 7. 8vo., pp. 22.

PROCEEDINGS. 41

consisting of Messrs. Goode, Riley, Ward, Rathbun, and Gill,
having been appointed by the Council to arrange for the same, and
having anticipated the action of the Society by making certain pre-
liminary arrangements.

Mr. Edmund B. Wilson, of Johns Hopkins University, a corres-
ponding member, presented a paper on The Embryology of
Renilla.*

Mr. Frank H. Gushing spoke on the topic Zuifi Biology, descri-
bing some of the peculiar plants and animals occurring in the
deserts of the Southwest, and referring to the manner in which
animals are regarded by the Zuui Indians.

Eighth Saturday Lecture, April 29, 1882.

About six hundred persons listened to the lecture of Dr. Swan
M. Burnett upon the topic How We SEE.f

Special Meeting, May 5, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-eight members were
present.

Mr. Goode presented the report of the Committee on the Dar-
win Memorial Meeting, which was accepted. Prof. Ward submit-
ted the report of the Committee on the Consolidation of the Scien-
tific Societies in Washington, as follows :

The joint committee composed of the several committees appointed by the
Philosophical, Anthropological, and Biological Societies of Washington to con-
sider the desirability of a federation of those societies —

Recommend to the several societies a federation on the following basis, and
for the purposes set forth :

* The remarks of Mr. Wilson were in part included in the following papers :
1880. Wilson, Edmund B. The Early Stages of Renilla. ^American Jour-
nal of Science, XX, 1880, pp. 446-9, plate VII.

18S2. Wilson, Edmund B. On Animal Polymorphism. <Johns Hop-
kins University Circulars, No. 15, May, 1 882, pp. 203-4.

f 1882. Burnett, Swan M. How We See. <The Saturday Lectures,
&c. pp. 163-185. Also separate, with title page. 8vo.,pp. 25. Three wood-
cuts.

42 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

I. The purposes of this federation shall be —

First, the pnblication of a common body of transactions;
Second, periodic meetings of the united societies;
Third, the management of courses of popular lectures; and,
Fourth, such other objects as may be agreed upon.

II. The federation shall be known as the Washington Academy of Sciences.

III. The several societies shall retain their own organizations, excepting as
hereinafter modified.

IV. The three societies shall have the same annual fees of membership.

V. The uniform fee for each of the three societies shall be three dollars.

VI. The Academy shall be organized by the election of a president, a secre-
tary, a treasurer, and two councilmen, by the Academy. The presidents of the
several societies shall be ex officio vice presidents of the Academy, and members
of its council, one secretary from each society shall be a member of the council,
and each society shall elect two additional councillors for the council of the
Academy.

VII. A grade of fellowship shall be established in the Academy.

VIII. The annual fee of fellowship shall be five dollars.

IX. The existing members of all the societies shall be fellows of the Acad-
emy, on the payment of the fellowship fee.

X. The council of the Academy may subsequently elect fellows from the
members of the Academy.

XI. The fellows of the Academy shall be ex officio members of all the
societies.

XII. It is recommended to the several societies that the existing committees
of conference be continued, for the purpose of collecting the sense of the said
societies on the above j.ropositions, and of carrying out such scheme of organi-
zation as may be mutually accepted.

William B. Taylor,
Chairman of Joint Committee.

Committee of Philosophical Society. — John V/. Powell, Theodore Gill, James
C. Welling, John S. Billings, William B. Taylor.

Committee of Biological Society. — Lester F. Ward, G. Brown Goode, Charles
V. Riley, Richard Rathbun, John W. Chickering.

Committee of Anthropological Society. — ^John W. Powell, Garrick Mallery,
James C. Welling.

Mr. Goode submitted the following table of statistics, showing
the comparative membership in the three societies :

PROCEEDINGS. 43

Total membership in the tliree Societies 329

Membership in Philosophical Society 160

" Anthropological Society 115

" Biological Society 134

Common to all 22

" Philosophical and Anthropological Societies 32

" Philosophical and Biological Societies 38

Anthropological and Biological Societies 36

Members of Philosophical Society only — . 97

" Anthropological Society only 61

" Biological Society only 20

The reports of the committee were discussed by Messrs. Wilson,
Bean, True, Riley, Kidder, Seaman, and Ellzey, a strong feeling of
opposition to any scheme of consolidation being manifest. The
motion of Prof. Riley, '■'■Resolved, That it is the sense of this (in-
formal) meeting that a federation with the Anthropological and
Biological Societies is desirable," was carried by a vote of 22 to 8.
The first six articles of the report of the committee were provisionally
approved one by one, and the committee was continued, with instruc-
tions to report further action at a regular meeting of the Society.

Thirtieth Meeting, May 12, 1882.

DARWIN MEMORIAL MEETING.

The President occupied the chair. In addition to the members
of the Society, the members of the other societies and their friends
had been invited to attend ; and although the night was stormy,
about seven hundred ladies and gentlemen were present to attend
the memorial service in honor of Charles Darwin, who died at
Down, Kent, England, April 19, 1882. On the stage sat, in addi-
tion to the officers of the Society, Dr. W. B. Taylor, President of
the Philosophical Society; Major J. W. Powell, President, Dr.
Robert Fletcher and Prof. O. T. Mason, Vice-Presidents, and Col.
F. A. Seely, Secretary, of the Anthropological Society. A large
portrait of Darwin, painted by Henry Ulke, V. P., and a bust, by
Mrs. Mica Heideman, decorated the stage. The order of exercises
was as follows :

Introductory Theodore Gill.

Biographical Sketch Wm. H. Dall.

The Philosophic Bearings of Darwinism John W. Powell.

44 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Darwin's Coral Island Studies Richard Rathbun.*

Darwin's Investigations on the Relation

of Plants and Insects Charles V. Riley.

Darwin as a Botanist Lester F. Ward.

Darwin on Emotional Expression Frank Baker.

A Darwinian Bibliography Frederick W. True.

A Portrait of Darwin Henry Uike.

The addresses delivered on this occasion are printed in full in the
appendix.

Thirty-First Meeting, May 26, 1882.

The President occupied the chair. Thirty-five members were
present.

Mr. \Vm. H. Dall made an appeal for aid in the exploration of
the molluscan fauna of the District of Columbia.

Dr. Tarleton H. Bean exhibited a specimen of a rare arctic bird,
the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Eurynorhynchits pygmcBus, obtained by
him on the coast of Siberia. f

Dr. M. G. Ellzey made a brief communication upon the natural
history of mules.

The Society ratified the action of the council in voting that
the proceedings of the Society, together with the addresses at the
Darwin Memorial Meeting, should be printed, and that the funds
of the Society now in the treasury should be used for that purpose. A
resolution to the effect that women should be admitted to member-
ship in the Society was referred to a committee consisting of Gen.
William Birrey, Messrs. Dall and Goode, and Doctors Prentiss and
Kidder.

The Society then adjourned to meet in October.

* Omitted on account of the illness of Mr, Rathbun.

f 18S2. Bean, Tarleton H. Notes on Bh-ds collected during the sum-
mer of i83o, in Alaska and Siberia. <^Proc. U. S. Mus., V, 1882, pp.
1 44 -I- {E. pygmaus,'^. \i^^.)

AIjo, 1 83 1. Bean, Tarleton H. Our unique Spoon-billed Sandpiper.
<Forest and Stream, XVI, April 12, 1881.

ADDRESSES

DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE

DARWIN MEMORIAL MEETING,

HELD IN THE LECTURE-ROOM OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM,

May 12, 1882.

45

THE DOCTRINE OF DARWIN.*

By Theodore Gill.

The chief for many years of the leaders in science knows no
longer the world he erstwhile knew so well. Charles Darwin has
closed a life illustrious in the annals of biology, scarce full of years
but very full of honors.

How fruitful was that life and how potent its influence on philoso-
phy and on sociology the united voice of the civilized world pro-
claims— how grievous the loss the lamentations of mankind testify.
Less than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the publication
of the " Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection." How
great is the contrast between the beliefs and practice of naturalists
before its appearance and those of their present successors ! He
would, indeed, have been a bold man who would have predicted
that, in two decades after its appearance, the views therein promul-
gated would be universally accepted and be taken as the recognized
platform of biologists. But the incredible has actually happened ;
all the students of nature, and in every land ; zoologists and bot-
anists, palaeontologists and geologists — in America and Europe,
at the confines of Asia, the extreme of Africa, and in distant Aus-
tralia— all meet on common ground as evolutionists ; all recognize
to a greater or less extent the operation of natural selection in the
survival of the fittest. To appreciate the cause of the profound
impression produced by the deceased naturalist's greatest work,
some reference to the antecedent and succeeding conditions is fit-
ting.

It had been, from time immemorial, a generally accepted idea
that the living beings which people the globe had, in some mys-

* Several of the paragraphs in this address were published in advance, with a
few modifications, in " The Critic," of New York, for May 6, 1882.

47

48 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

terious manner, been each "created" separately; but how, few
ventured to express in words, for the mere attempt to do so con-
jured up such strange fancies that the intelligent mind drew back in
revolt and refused to consider them. Now, it is a recognized
scientific creed that the animals and plants which have successively
inhabited the earth, were the descendants, with modification,
from previous inhabitants since the dawn of life. A glimmer of
the truth had now and then occurred to contemplative students.
Philosophers had ventured to think that living forms like ancient
ones might have descended from them. The investigators in
various departments of biology had gradually deduced generaliza-
tions which all tended in a similar direction. The taxologists, in
their very nomenclature, compared the animal kingdom to a tree of
which the principal types were "branches" diverging from a com-
mon trunk, while the minor groups were successive offshoots ; and
the idea of genetic relationship suggested by the various degrees of
likeness was expressed in the names conferred on other groups —
"tribe," "family," etc. The embryologists had recognized a co-
incidence between the stages of development of the "superior"
animals and the adults of animals inferior in the system. The
palaeontologists had discovered an approximate coincidence between
the successive inhabitants of the earth and the successive stages in
the development of the living animals of the same types. The
series of facts thus obtained had even, to some extent, been co-
ordinated.

All these series of facts were such as would have been the result
of the derivation of existing types from previous ones. But the
possibility that the seeming was the real did not commend itself to
the consideration of naturalists. Instead thereof, it was assumed
that the facts were " in accordance with a plan of the Creator; "
that the Deity had conceived a few patterns, and that by those he
constructed the animals which successively appeared on the globe,
to be in time swept off and replaced by others. If answer was
made that such was a puerile conception of creation and that it lim-

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 49

ited the power of Deity, excessive anger was displayed, and its op-
ponents called infidels and atheists. But even those who doubted
whether the accepted views of creation were tenable, hesitated to
take the alternative view. An efficient factor in variation remained
to be discovered, and a full presentation of the data had yet to be
made.

It was in 1859 that the desiderata indicated were supplied in
" The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection." " Varia-
tion under Domestication" was compared and contrasted with
"Variation under Nature." The " Struggle for Existence" which
is the result of the progres^ve increase of living beings was con-
sidered, and " Natural Selection" was designated as the factor which
determined the development and existence as ' ' species' ' of forms
which had descended, with modifications, from countless antecedent
generations. With the successive changes in temperature and other
conditions ensuing in the ever-changing world, the animals and
plants which peopled it were compelled to keep pace by correspond-
ing changes in structure, or to give place to others who could
adapt themselves to the new conditions.

So much were the views thus enunciated opposed to the current
ideas that a brief period of astonished silence ensued, and men felt
about before they could realize their full purport, or that such opin-
ions were broached in sober earnest. Then followed on every hand
torrents of detraction and abuse. The naturalists of the old school
and the priests of revelation met on common ground, and loud and
bitter was the denunciation. Numerous were the arguments against
the new theory.

But why this great turmoil and uproar? Darwin was not the
first to believe that species had been derived and not created. So
had philosophers believed before; the grandfather of Darwin be-
lieved and urged the belief; a great naturalist at the commencement
of the century — Lamarck — boldly and wisely formulated a theory of
evolution ; the "Vestiges of Creation " took up the view, and gained
marked attention in Britain. Even a clergyman of the English
4

50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Church, the Savilian professor in orthodox Oxford, the Rev. Baden
Powell, in 1855, had considered the "Philosophy of Creation" in
a " masterly manner," and Darwin bore testimony that nothing can
be more striking than the manner in which the enlightened priest
showed that the introduction of new species is a regular phenom-
enon in contradistinction to a miraculous process. Darwin was not
the first even to conceive of the principle of natural selection.
An American resident in England, Dr. W. C. Wells, as early as
1813, had recognized the operation of the principle in the distri-
bution of the human race. In 1831, Patrick Matthews also appre-
ciated the principle of natural selection ; so Darwin himself wit-
nesses.

It was not, then, the mere enunciation of the theory of evo-
lution, nor of the principle of natural selection, that characterized
the "Origin of Species," and drew the attention of mankind to it.
It was the recognition of the incessant and universal operation of
the factors, the masterly co-ordination of the facts of biology — zool-
ogy, botany, anatomy, general morphology, physiology, embryology,
palaeontology — and geology, the marshalling in orderly array and
concentration in one direction of all natural knowledge, the force of
the logic, the clearness of the exposition, the judicial candor of the
argument that arrested men's attention, and provoked serious con-
sideration of what before had been ignored as being beyond the
domain or possibilities of investigation. In the time of Lamarck
the world was not ready for a consideration of the question. Lam-
arck's was the prophesy of intuitive genius — genius the greater in
that the facts that had then been garnered were few. The " Vestiges
of Creation ' ' was so replete with errors of fact and misconceptions
as to attract more attention to the fault of its details that to the
logic of its argument. The principle of natural selection had been
applied to very special fields by Wells and Matthews ; no evidence
had been furnished of its wide extension, and it even occupied a
subordinate position in the thoughts of those investigators.

The author of the " Origin of Species" was a different man from

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 51

his predecessors, and lived in a happier time. The facts had been
accumulated and co-ordinated ; men were ready to consider the
reason why facts were such, and none was better fitted than Darwin
— I should rather say none was so well fitted — to arrange and present
the facts and to draw the deductions therefrom. Ever a close ob-
server, practiced in many lands, student of all nature — especially
skilled as a geologist, a botanist, and a zoologist — endowed with a
severely judicial mind, honest above all, none like him had ever
grappled with the mystery of creation. For more than twenty
years he had pondered on the subject ; with impartial severity he
had weighed the evidence. He was, perforce, led to the conclusion
that all the living had been derived from past forms, with modifica-
tions incident to individuality ; the sums of the divergencies, small in
themselves, became large in the aggregate, became enormous in time.
The increasing beings, crowding upon each other, invading each
other's domains, struggled for the life into which they were born.
Happy were those possessing some slight advantage — strength,
swi&ness, dexterity, or adaptability resulting from modification of
structure — for they could procure place or food at the expense of
their competitors, and the characters that gave them victory secured,
likewise, the temporary ascendancy of their kind. How great is
this variability our domesticated animals attest ; how ancient is our
globe geology teaches ; that the race is to the strong or the cunning
observation of inferior nature assures. With known variability,
time, and space, what could not result ? Which, then, was the more
probable that Nature — or, if you will, the Creator — had always
operated under law, or that there had been constant interference ?
Thus were the issues fairly joined. On the one hand. Creation
was the rallying cry ; on the other, Evolution and Darwin. But
what meant the opposed terms ? It is surely but reasonable to ask
the question. The evolutionists conceded the reasonableness, and
gladly accepted the ordeal. Could less be required of the creation-
ists? In reverential mood would I submit the alternatives. If they
repel, blame not me. I have long and fruitlessly searched for better.

52 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

Creation implies the actual fashioning of forms in full panoply,
and with all the characteristics of their kind. But when it was
asked how this had been effected the answer was vague and evasive.
Did "elemental atoms flash into living tissues ? " Was there vacant
space one moment and an elephant apparent the next ? Or did
a laborious God mould out of gathered earth a body to then endue
with life ? The questions are surely pertinent, for only by such
means can we conceive of creation. But passionate disclaimers and
angry denunciations greeted him who would frame such conceptions
in exact language. Metaphysical jargon and rhetoric about divine
purposes might sophisticate, but could not answer.

Evolution denotes the derivation of living beings from preceding
in endless succession. Variation in progeny, limited heredity, and
time are its correlatives. These being conceded, the peopling of
the globe with its life, past and present, is conceivable.

What was the evidence to support the conflicting conceptions ?

For creation it was urged that the universal consensus of mankind
supported it ; that divine revelation taught it ; and that the diver-
sities and specialization of organic forms forbade the idea of their
derivation from a common parentage.

The universal consensus of mankind maintained till the sixteenth
century the doctrine that the earth was flat ; that the sun and other
planets circled round the earth ; and that the earth was the great
centre of the universe. The universal consensus of mankind for
thousands of years is not the universal concensus of the enlight-
ened man, nor of the present century.

The teachers of revelation have been often mistaken. Many are
they who once were contemned and denounced because their utter-
ances were not in accordance with the opinions of their day, who
are now accepted as the champions of a purer religion. One of the
wisest priests of England has said that "with a certam class of
religionists every invention and discovery is considered impious and
unscriptural as long as it is new. Not only the discoveries of as-
tronomy and geology, but steam, gas, electricity, political economy,

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 53

have all in their turn been denounced ; and not least, chloroform.
Its use in parturition has been anathematized as an infraction of the
penalty pronounced on Eve!"^ It is not I, but a great clergy-
man, who expresses such sentiments.

The objection that the differentation and specialization of organic
beings gainsay their derivation froiu a common source is a most
weighty one. In the infancy of our own knowledge it was unan-
swerable, and the less we know of nature the more we are impressed
with these diversities. It is not, however, simply a question of
whether evolution is true ; but which is the more probable of two
alternatives — that all the phenomena which point in one direction
and which could have occurred in natural sequence, have taken
place in such sequence ; or that direct creative intervention has en-
sued again and again, when the same ends could have been produced
without such intervention.

Nature was true to her disciple, and herself furnished the replies.

It was contended that if evolution were true, the evidence should
be forthcoming in the existence in previous geological epochs of
forms of a generalized character intermediate between still earlier
ones and later widely separated forms ; and that of such there were
very few.

The graves of the distant past gave up their dead, and the ossu-
aries of our own far West yielded most cogent testimony to the
truth. Forms from the eocene and later beds, resurrected by the
wand of the anatomist, rising in successive lines behind the wide
gaps in the living files, proclaimed that all were of one blood, and
showed the genealogy of the contemporaries of man.

Many were the forms thus" connected. Few are those that may
be mentioned on this occasion. The horse-like animals, the rhi-
noceroses, and tapirs are so unlike, that proof of their derivation
from one source might be thought to be impossible. But as we go
back into the ages we find equines with lateral digits and hooflets

*Rev. Baden Powell's Essay on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, etc.,
P- 455-

54 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

becoming larger and longer, teeth shorter and more generalized,
skeletons less characteristic; rhinoceroses with cutting teeth, and
more slender forms ; tapir-like animals without the peculiar tapirine
teeth, with rhinocerotoid skulls, and with otherwise modified
structure ; all these accompanied by innumerable other modifica-
tions, till finally we are almost at a loss to tell whether it is a horse-
like, a rhinocerotoid or a tapiroid animal that is before us, and they
become lost in earlier forms with special characters of their own.
And as we go still further back we are confronted with still other
forms that are connected by series projected backward from the
ruminants and from the elephantids. We do, in fine, know the
genealogy of our own contemporaries — imperfectly it is true, but
still we know it.

It was objected that animals were segregated by such very wide
intervals that they must be isolated in different branches, and that
there could be no community of structure between such branches ;
they expressed fundamentally different plans of structure.

One by one zoology, anatomy, and embryology supplied the links
between the old branches ; the branches were at length completely
uprooted, and it has even become a matter of simple convention
what should be considered major groups. Plans of structure can no
longer be claimed to be peculiar to different types.

That branch of which man is the primate — the vertebrates — was
supposed to be perfectly unassailable and isolated ; but zoology and
anatomy have revealed to us amphioxus, and embryology the earlier
stages of the tunicates. The evidence is now conclusive that these
forms which once appeared to be among the most distant are now
the most closely related. The affinities of the tunicates with inver-
tebrates are evident, and thus we may look far back to that time
when vertebrates did not exist, but when the common ancestors, from
which they and the related invertebrates should diverge, held sway.

It was even pretended that the evidence was insufficient to show
that variation was possible or could be propagated.

From every hand testimony was forthcoming. The breeder could

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 55

point to every domesticated animal — the horticulturist and pomolo-
gist to all cultivated plants — the systematist and zoogeographer to
the limits of species which varied with knowledge of their distri-
bution— the palaeontologist to the gradation between the extinct
forms and widely separated living species, as well as to that between
forms which lived in successive earlier epochs.

It was urged that the Darwinian theory was opposed to revelation,
and subversive of Christianity.

As students of nature and seekers after truth alone — so far as
nature is concerned — we only ask whether the views of Darwin are
true or not. But now, from many a pulpit, and from the most en-
lightened of the clergy, we hear the claim that evolution is in per-
fect accordance with revelation, and is a witness to the power, pres-
cience, and goodness of God.

It was contended that acceptance of the teachings of Danvin
would have a pernicious tendency, and entail riot, lawlessness, and
crime in the world.

A long life of singular purity and blamelessness in the person of
Darwin was an answer. An unsullied heritage from an ancestor
entertaining like views has been transmitted to heirs of his body
without flaw. Sons of the great philosopher continue the studies
of their great sire, and worthily wear the heavy mantle left to them.

One after another the scientific opponents of evolution became
convinced of its verity, or died out. The naturalists of a new
generation with one accord accepted "Darwinism" as a starting
point for their more profound studies. The methods and aims of
biology became changed. Biology became exalted from empiricism
into a science. Long before "The Origin of Species" had even
' ' come of age, ' ' acceptance of its teachings had become an essential
of scientific creed, and Darwin was acknowledged to have effected
a greater revolution in science than any Englishman since the time
of Newton. Most meet was it then that he should rest by the side
of his great predecessor whose rival he will ever be in fame.

56 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

By William H. Dall.

Charles Robert Darwin, son of Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, F. R. S. ,
and Emma Wedgewood, grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin and
Josiah Wedgewood, was born at Shrewsbury, England, February
1 2th, 1809. He died of disease of the heart at his residence,
Downe Court, Beckenham, Kent, at 4 P. M., April 19, 1882, and
consequently had attained the age of 73 years, 2 months, and 7
days. At Shrewsbury his childhood was passed and his education
was obtained at the once famous Shrewsbury Grammar School,
presided over by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Butler, afterward Bishop of
Litchfield and Coventry.

At the age of sixteen he entered the University of Edinburgh
(1825) where he remained two years. Even at this early period he
had become a student of natural history, and read his first scientific
paper before the Plinian Society. It was "On the Movement of
the Ova of Flustra," one of the incrusting marine corallines.

In 1827 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he grad-
uated as a Bachelor of Arts four years later. Here he fell under the
influence of the teachings of Prof. John Stevens Henslow, an excel-
lent botanist, whose instruction doubtless did much to determine
the field of study subsequently occupied by his pupil.

In 1 83 1 Captain Fitzroy, R. N., offered to share his cabin with any
competent naturalist who would accompany him on his prospecting
voyage to South America in H. M. S. Beagle, detailed for surveys in
that region. Mr. Darwin, then only twenty-two years of age, offered
his services with the stipulation that he should control the collections
made, and was accepted. Tlie Beagle sailed November 27, 1831,
from Plymouth, and returned to England on the 2d of October, 1836.
During a large part of the voyage Mr. Darwin suffered greatly from
sea-sickness, or some difficulty which simulated it, and which, in some
form, returned at intervals throughout his whole life, as sudden fits of

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 57

illness which prostrated him for days together, and which were fol-
lowed by long periods of wakeful convalescence. Under the cir-
cumstances, the amount of keen and patient observation, the vast
accumulation of facts, and the extensive collections obtained by
Mr. Darwin during his voyage, appear more marvelous than ever.

After his return his health was much shattered, and his studies
more or less interrupted for some years. He took his Master's de-
gree in course, and shortly after his return was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society, (of which his father and grandfather were pre-
viously Fellows,) and of the Geological Society, of which last he
was made secretary.

In 1839 he published his epoch-making work "A Journal of
Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various
Countries visited by H. M. S. Beagle;" the first of that long
series of investigations to which his life was devoted, and the pub-
lication of which revolutionized the study of biology, and gave to
Darwin a position as a naturalist unparalleled in the history of
science.

In the same year, 1839, Mr. Darwin married his cousin, Emma
Wedgewood, and retired to the secluded and beautiful district of
Kent where, in his country-house of Downe Court, near Orpington,
more than forty years of his life were spent. The district is purely
agricultural, a plateau of chalk, some 400 feet above the sea, in-
terrupted by the wavy hollows characteristic of the English chalk
country, with beech woods here and there on the slopes. His
dwelling is one of the old square-built, red-brick mansions of the
last century, to which has been added in more recent times a gable-
fronted wing, with another square-built wing and pillared portico
on the corresponding side. Shut in and almost hidden from the
roadway by a high wall and belt of trees it offers ideal seclusion
for a quiet student. On the southern side the walled garden opens
into a secluded meadow bounded by a tract of underwood through
which there is a lovely view of the narrow valley which descends
toward Westerham.

58 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Here, and in the by-paths of adjacent woods and meadows, Mr.
Darwin was accustomed to take daily exercise with a characteristic
regularity. Up to ten or twelve years ago, his tall figure, mounted
on a favorite old black horse, was a familiar object in the country
lanes. This animal fell and died suddenly one day, after which it
was noted that Mr. Darwin rode no more. His invariable hours for
walking, in these later years, were seven in the morning, noon, and
four o'clock in the afternoon, usually accompanied by one or more
of his sons ; one of whom, Mr. Francis Darwin, has long been es-
tablished as a surgeon in the hamlet of Downe. His habits were ex-
tremely regular. He rose at six, took a cold plunge bath (which
was repeated in the evening), breakfasted alone, and after his first
morning walk was usually in his library by 8 A. M. At nine he
would spend a little time in the dining-room opening his mail, and
in the evening would linger an hour or two in the society of his
family, or that of some of his scientific friends who occasionally
visited him ; but the greater part of his time was spent in his library,
his garden, and the adjacent grounds. A few friends, among whom
were Sir John Lubbock and Dr. Farr, near residents, were often
with him, and with such he was social, frank and ever ready to en-
joy a joke or frolic ; with all men he was unpretentious, kind, and
devoid of any artificiality of manner ; but his life was essentially a
secluded one, as may be judged from the fact that the news of his
death did not reach London until noon of the following day.

Nevertheless, his life was far from solitary, for his family formed
quite a colony in itself until the children reached maturity. Two
children, a boy and girl, were lost in infancy, one dying in 1842
and the other in 1858, and are buried in the village churchyard of
Downe, near by some of the Wedgewoods.

In the family who lived Mr. Darwin was fortunate. His eldest
son, William, is a banker at Southampton ; the second, George,
took high honors at Cambridge, and is now a Fellow of Trinity Col-
lege and a distinguished mathematician ; the third, Frank, having
inherited his father's delicate constitution, acted as his secretary;
the fourth, Leonard, an officer of artillery, has distinguished himself

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 59

in the direction of astronomy ; the fifth, Horace, is an excellent
mathematician. One married and one unmarried daughter com-
plete a family whose constant care has always been to relieve its head
from any trouble and anxiety.

Mr. Darwin has always been in easy circumstances, financially, so
that he could use his time as he chose, without care. When young
he pursued field-sports, with the combined interest of the hunter and
the naturalist ; in later years he found his chief relaxation in read-
ing popular novels. His work was taken up with great method, and
he never wrote for more than two hours at a time.

In 1853 he received the gold medal of the Royal Society for his
various works ; in 1859 that known as the Wollaston medal from
the Geological Society; in 1871 he received the Prussian Order of
Knighthood " For Merit," and was elected a corresponding member
of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; and in 1878, foreign asso-
ciate of the French Academy. He received honorary degrees from
Leyden and Cambridge, and other scientific honors almost without
number.

His death was unexpected. He had been slightly unwell for
several weeks, and the weakness of the heart's action was such that
he was not permitted to ascend the stairs, but in the main, he was
still able to pursue his ordinary routine. On Tuesday morning Sir
John Lubbock found him apparently about as usual. That he was
seriously ill, was first known in the village Wednesday afternoon by
the arrival of his groom on horseback, horse and man reeking with
foam, having galloped for ice six miles and back from the nearest
point where it could be procured ; but in vain, the relief arrived too
late, Charles Darwin had already passed away, surrounded by his
family, including several of his sons, Mrs. Darwin, and a married
daughter. On the 26th his mortal remains were laid in Westmin-
ster Abbey, near by the ashes of Isaac Newton, and were followed
to the tomb, not only by dignitaries of Church and State, but by
the universal reverence of the scientific world. ^-

*It is hardly necssary to state that this sketch is a compilation from all the
different sources which happened to be available at the time.

60 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

DARWIN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHILOSOPHY.
By John W. Powell.

Many are the definitions of philosophy. If we wish not to define
what is true philosophy, but simply to define the term in all its
uses when referring to all times and all men, this definition will do:
Philosophy is the explanation of the phenojnena of the universe.

Now, the phenomena of the universe are embraced in many vast
categories.

First, we have the constitution of the heavenly bodies, and their
real and apparent motions to be explained. What are they, and
how came they to be what they are?

Then we have the earth itself; its forms, its lands and seas, its
mountains and valleys, its rivers and lakes, the winds which blow
about it, the storms which fall upon it, the lightnings that flash
athwart the sky, the thunders that roll among the clouds. What
are all these things, and whence came they, and why are they?
Again, in the constitution of the earth we find rocks with their
minerals, and geologic formations with their fossils. What are
rocks and minerals, formations and fossils, and whence came they?

Look at the innumerable forms of plants covering the earth with
verdure — the whole vegetable kingdom on the land and on the sea;
forests, mosses, and confervse. Who shall explain the meaning of
the phenomena of the vegetable kingdom ?

The oceans teem with animal life ; reptiles crawl overall the land;
the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the plains, are all in-
habited by beasts; and ' the air itself is populated. Who shall tell
us of all the living things, and then explain life itself?

Turn to the contemplation of man, organized into tribes and
nations ; man possessed of innumerable languages ; man engaged in
arts and industries; man endowed with reason and will ; man in
search of moral principles to guide his conduct. Whence came this
man, and whither does he go?

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 61

Among all tribes and nations of the globe, and in all times, men
have sought to discover the whence, the how, and the why, of all
things — the phenomena of the universe.

The explanation of the universe is philosophy.

The philosophies of the world may be classified as —

I. Mythologic.
II. Metaphysic.
III. Scientific.

Mythology and science constitute the two grand systems of
philosophy, but between them stands metaphysic philosophy as a
stepping-stone from the former to the latter.

In the lower stages of society philosophy is purely mythologic.
All savage and barbaric peoples explain the phenomena of the uni-
verse by a system of myths. A mythology is always a growth, and
among every people there grows up by the employment of diverse
and superficial analogies — curious suggestions — a body of mythic
explanations which constitute its philosophy.

Among the Wintuns of California the world is three-storied.
There is a world — a great chamber — above, and there is this world,
and a world below. The waters fall from the world above because
the sky, the floor of that upper world, leaks ; and the waters come
from the world below through the springs that issue from the flanks
of the dead volcanoes of that land ; so the waters from above and
the waters from below meet and flow down the great Sacramento to
the sea, where again they divide ; the waters from above taking their
way to their upper home, and the waters from below taking their
way to the lower world.

The mountains were formed by the great mole-god, who crawled
under the land and upheaved the mountain ranges that stand on
either side of the Sacramento Valley. And so they explain all of
the phenomena of the universe, with which they are acquainted,
in a system of myths which constitutes the philosophy of the Win-
tuns.

62 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Now such a system of philosophy, a mythology, is found in every
savage and barbaric tribe of the world.

But there came a time in the history of mankind when some of
the peoples changed their philosophy — their e:cplanation of the
phenomena of the universe — by changing their methods of reason-
ing.

ORIGIN OF METAPHYSIC PHILOSOPHY.

From three to two thousand years ago Europe, Asia, and Africa
established a commerce in ideas — an exchange in philosophies —
carried on by the navigation of the Mediterranean. During that
and some previous time there were built on the shores of this sea
many cities. Through the building of these cities, and through
the industries and arts which sprang up therewith, society was re-
organized, and placed upon a new basis — tribal society developed
into national society — barbarism into civilization.

The peoples of these cities spoke diverse languages, and enter-
tained diverse mythologic philosophies. Through the intercourse
which sprang up between them each learned of the philosophy of
the other, and the scholars of that day attempted to discover in all
of these diverse mythologies a common body of truth upon the
theory then widely accepted, that they had all sprung from a com-
mon source — a primitive philosophy itself the truth — and that all
the philosophies then existing were degenerations therefrom. This
line of investigation led to a curious result.

All of the mythologies of the cities of the Mediterranean were
found to be baseless — each a fabric of poetic but superficial analo-
gies. In the mental activity of that time many new philosophies
were proposed, diverse and contradictory, and the wisest philoso-
phers said, " How shall we know the truth?" And they endeav-
ored to discover some criterion by which truth should be known.
This resulted in the development ol formal logic as a testing ma-
chine into which opinions were put for the purpose of sifting truth
from error.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 63

Now tlifi machine called logic, the tool of the metaphysician, is
curiously constructed. Its chief hypothesis is that man was primi-
tively endowed with fundamental principles as a basis of reason-
ing, and that these principles can be formulated. These fundamen-
tal principles are supposed to be universal, and to be everywhere
accepted by mankind as self-evident propositions of the highest
order, and of the broadest generalization. These fundamental
propositions were called major propositions. The machine, in for-
mal logic, was a verbal juxtaposition of propositions with the major
propositions at the head, followed by the minor propositions, and
from this truth was supposed to floAv.

This formal logic of the Aristotelian epoch has lived from that
period to the period of science. Logic is the instrument of meta-
physics, and metaphysic philosophy, in its multif3,rious forms, is the
product of logic. But during all that time — 2,000 years — no truth
has been discovered, no error has been detected by the use of the
logical machine. Its fundamental assumption is false.

It has been discovered that man is not endowed with a body of
major propositions. It is found that in the course of the evolution
of mind minor propositions are discovered first, and major prop-
ositions are reached only by the combination of minor propositions;
that always in the search for truth the minor proposition comes
first, and that no major proposition can ever be accepted until the
minor propositions included therein have been demonstrated.

The error in the metaphysic philosophy was the assumption that
the great truths were already known by mankind, and that by the
proper use of the logical machine all minor truths could be discov-
ered, and all errors eliminated from philosophy. As metaphysic
methods of reasoning were wrong, metaphysic philosophies were
false ; the body of metaphysic philosophy is a phantasmagoria.

THE ORIGIN OF SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY.

While metaphysic philosophers have been playing with their
logical kaleidoscopes, another body of philosophers have been at

64 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF "WASHINGTON.

work gathering the materials for the philosophy of science. Theii
method is to collect facts and to discover their relations, and they
accept no conclusions that are not reached by this method. All
other conclusions they hold as undetermined or indeterminate.

And now must be given a definition of science. Science is tue
discernment, discrimiiiaiion, and classificatioti of facts, and the dis-
covery of their relations of sequence. This is a simple statement,
but for its full comprehension a little illustration may be necessary.

A savage hears the voice of his fellow-man, he hears the voice of
the beast, and of the bird; he also hears the noise of the thunder,
and he supposes that the noise is a voice. In these cases he discerns
noises, but he does not discriminate one noise from the other, and
supposes them all to be voices, and that the noise of the thunder is
the voice of the Thunder Bird. To understand facts we must not
only discern, but discriminate.

The next step in the progress of science is classification. Having
discerned and discriminated facts, they must be classified — all those
of like nature thrown together. All noises made by living beings
for conveying intelligence may be grouped into one class and called
voices ; all noises made by explosions grouped in another class ; and
so, as we go on discerning, discriminating, and classifying, we col-
lect the materials of philosophy.

But this is not all of philosophy. Facts have genetic relations.
If one thing is done something else will follow, and the highest
function of scientific philosophy is to discover the order of succes-
sion of phenomena — how phenomena follow phenomena in endless
procession, how every fact has had its antecedent fact, and every fact
must have its consequent fact. This part of science is called evolu-
tion, and by this expression scientific men mean to be understood
that phenomena go on in endless consequences, and that every act
has been preceded by some other act, and that every act will be
followed by some other act ; that the causes of all of the phenomena
of the universe that we wish to explain in a system of philosophy
run back into the infinite past ; that the consequences of all of the

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 65

phenomena which we may now observe in the universe will run on
into the infinite future. This is evolution.

The statement now given of the three great systems of philosophy
is perhaps sufficient for our purposes this evening, and it remains
for us to point out the part contributed to scientific philosophy by
Darwin, whom we mourn to-night.

When Darwin rose as a light in the scientific world, scientific
philosophers had already discovered that the philosophic method of
research should include the discernment, discrimination, and classi-
fication of facts. At that time the scientific men of the world were
engaged chiefly in the collection and arrangement of facts. To
some extent they were engaged in discovering their relations of
sequence. Important and interesting sequences had been discov-
ered in the vast realm of astronomy ; other interesting sequences of
facts had been discovered in the realm of geology; some interesting
sequences of facts had been discovered in the realm of human
history. In the realm of biology, in plant and animal life, the order
of succession of facts, the method of evolution, had not been dis-
covered ; yet many men were thinking on this subject, many men
searching for the method and course of biologic evolution. The
facts relating thereto were partly known, and the course and laws
of biologic evolution were dimly discerned.

It remained for Darwin to demonstrate the laws of biologic evo-
lution, and the course of the progress of life upon the globe. This
he has done in a manner so masterly that there lives not in the
world a working biologist, a scientific man engaged in this field of
research, who has not directly or indirectly accepted his great con-
clusions, and the larger body of biologists have accepted them
directly.

Let ns now go back to the statement that prior to the time of
Darwin, scientific men engaged in researches relating to vegetal
and animal life were occupied chiefly in the discernment, discrim-
ination, and classification of facts.

Botanists and zoologists were engaged in describing species, and
5

66 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

classifying species, and this did not always enlist the highest talent :
and naturalists had become wearied with discussions over minute
differences and obscure resemblances, the origin and meaning of
which were not understood.

The discovery, largely made by Darwin, of the laws of succes-
sion, or genesis, gave to this department of scientific research a
wonderful impetus, and since that day thousands of men have
sprung up throughout the civilized world to take part in biologic
research.

In this field the greatest talent of the latest time is absorbed.
The philosophy of biology satisfies the reason. In the universe of
life, system is discovered, and biologists see visions of the origin of
living beings and dream dreams of the destiny of living beings.

Had philosophers discovered that the generations of living beings
were degenerating they would have discovered despair. Had they
discovered that life moves by steps of generations in endless circles —
that what has been is, and what is shall be, and there is no progress,
the gift of science to man would have been worthless.

The revelation of science is this : Every generation in life is a
step in progress to a higher and fuller life ; science has discovered
hope.

Darwin demonstrated what others vaguely believed or dimly saw :
The course and methods of biologic evolution. Darwin gave hope
to philosophy.

The universe of phenomena may be classed in three great cate-
gories.

I. Physical.
II. Biologic.
III. Anthropologic.

Physical phenomena may be thrown into three categories:

1. Molar or mechanical physics; 2. Stellar or astronomical physics;
3. Molecular physics.

Biologic phenomena may be classed as: i. Vegetal ; 2. Animal.
Anthropologic phenomena may be classed as: i. Sociologic;

2. Philologic; 3. Philosophic; 4. Psychologic.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 67

To the discovery of the methods and course of physical evolution,
/. e., the order of succession in physical phenomena, many great
men have contributed. Among these, Newton stands pre-eminent.

The discovery of biologic evolution, /. e., the succession of phe-
nomena in vegetal and animal life, is in like manner due to the
researches of many men, but among these Darwin stands pre-
eminent. By his discoveries the discoveries of all other biologists
have been correlated and woven into systematic philosophy. The
methods and course of anthropologic evolution have yet to be
systematized. Important discoveries have been made, but this por-
tion of philosophy is yet inchoate.

WORKING HYPOTHESES.

But Darwin's investigations have not ended research or com-
pleted philosophy. He brought scientific men to the frontiers of
truth, and showed them a path across the border. Yet more than
this he did. He pointed out one of the fundamental methods of
research. Before his time philosophers talked about deductive
methods and inductive methods. Darwin has taught us that both
are fruitless.

Deductive methods are the logical or metaphysical methods which
have been already described, by which men arrived at conclusions
from general principles supposed to be innate in the human mind.
The vanity of these methods has already been characterized.

Inductive methods have found their best expression in the Ba-
conian philosophy. By inductive methods men are to collect facts,
unbiased by opinions, or preconceived theories. They are to gather
the facts, put them together, arrange and combine them to find
higher and still higher generalizations.

But there are facts and facts — facts with value, and facts without
value. The indiscriminate gathering of facts leads to no important
discoveries. Men might devote themselves to counting the leaves
on the trees, the blades of grass in the meadows, the grains of sand
on the sea shore; — they might weigh each one, and measure each

68 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

one, and go on collecting such facts until libraries were filled, and
the minds of men buried under their weight, and no addition
would be made to philosophy thereby. There must be some method
of selecting, some method of determining what facts are valuable,
and what facts are trivial. The fool collects facts ; the wise man
selects them.

Amid the multiplicity of facts in the universe, how does the wise
man choose for his use? The true scientific man walks not at random
through the world making notes of what he sees ; he chooses some
narrow field of investigation. Within this field he reviews what
is already known and becomes conversant with the conclusions al-
ready reached. He then seeks to discern more facts in this field,
and to make more careful discriminations therein, and then to make
more homologic classifications; and, finally, more thoroughly to dis-
cover the complexity of sequences.

If he attain to success in doing all this his investigations are al-
ways suggested by some hypothesis — some supposition of what he
may discover. He may find that his hypothesis is wrong, and
discover something else; but without an hypothesis he discovers
nothing. A scientific man taking up a subject reviews the facts
that are known, and imagines that they lead to conclusions that
have not yet been reached by others. His imagination may lead
him quite astray, yet he follows it, and says "Now if this be true,
then there must be certain yet undiscovered facts," and he seeks
for them. He may find that which he seeks, or he may find some-
thing quite other. If he be an honest thinker, a true philosopher,
it matters not to him. He substantiates his hypothesis or con-
structs a new one. If such hypothesis leads to many new discov-
eries scientific men accept it, and call it a working hypothesis, and
if it still leads on to discovery scientific men call it a theory; and
so working hypotheses are developed into theories, and these
theories become the fundamental principles, the major propositions
of science, the widest generalizations of philosophy.

Sometimes the inductive method — the Baconian method — is said

J

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 69

to have been modified or improved by the addition of the method
by working hypotheses, and then modern scientific methods are
said to be inductive. With this understanding, it may be said that
the deductive methods of metaphysics have been supplanted by the
inductive methods of science. It would, perhaps, be better to say
that deductive and inductive methods have been superseded by the
method of working hypotheses.

Working hypotheses are the instruments with which scientific
men select facts. By them, reason and imagination are conjoined,
and all the powers of the mind employed in research.

Darwin, more than any other man, has taught the use of working
hypotheses. Newton and Darwin are the two great lights of
science — the Gemini in the heavens of philosophy; stars whose
glory is the brightest of all.

There be good folk in the world who love mythologic and meta-
physic philosophy — one or both. In the ears of such the praise
of Darwin is not sweet music. Let me beg of such who may be
here to consider that we come to-night to praise our dead, and to
tell of our love for the man who gave us hope. You and I cannot
contend over an open grave, and in my soul I find no cause for
angry contention elsewhere. Every man's opinions are honest
opinions — his opinions are the children of his own reasoning, and
he loves his offspring.

When I stand before the sacred fire in an Indian village and
listen to the red man's philosophy, no anger stirs my blood. I
love him as one of my kind. He has a philosophy not unlike that
of my forefathers, though widely separated from my own, and I love
him as one near akin.

Among civilized men I find no one who has not a philosophy in
part common with my own ; and of those smaller portions of our
philosophies which are not alike I see no cause why anger should
be kindled between us thereby. They and I are bound together by
the same cord of honesty in opinion.

In Darwin's writings I find no word of reproach. Denunciation

70 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

and ridicule, greater than any other man has endured, never kindled
a spark of hatred in his breast. Wrapped in the mantle of his plii-
losophy he received no wounds, but lived with and loved mankind.
Let us not gird science to our loins as the warrior buckles on his
sword. Let us raise science aloft as the olive branch of peace and
the emblem of hope.

DARWIN'S WORK IN ENTOMOLOGY.
By Charles V. Riley.

Charles Robert Darwin was one of the original members of the
London Entomological Society, of whom only six are yet living.
He always took the keenest interest in the science of entomology,
and drew largely from insects for illustrations in support of the
theory with which his name will forever be associated. Indeed, I
have the authority of my late associate editor of the American En-
tonwloglst, Benjamin Dann Walsh, who was a classmate of Darwin's,
at Cambridge, that the latter's love of natural history was chiefly
manifested, while there, in a fine collection of insects ; so that, as
has been the case with so many noted naturalists, Darwin probably
acquired from the study of insects that love of nature, which, first
forever afterward, inspired him in his endeavors to win her secrets
andi nterpret aright her ways !

Though he has left no descriptive or systematic work of an ento-
mological character, yet his writings abound in important facts and
observations anent insects, and no branch of natural science has
more fully felt the beneficial impulse and stimulus of his labors than
entomology. Indeed, the varying conditions of life in the same
individual or species \ the remarkable metamorphoses ; the rapid
development] the phenomena of dimorphism and heteromorphism ;
of phytophagic and sexual variation; the ready adaptation to
changed conditions, and consequent rapid modification; the great
prolificacy and immense number of individuals; the three distinct-

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 71

ive states of larva, pupa, and imago, susceptible to modification, as
well as other ckaracteristics in insects — render them particularly
attractive and useful to the evolutionist, and the changed aspect
which natural history in general has assumed since the publication
of the " Origin of Species" is perhaps more marked in entomology
than in any other branch, for its author helped to replace ridicule by
reason. During his voyage on the ''Beagle" he collected a very
large number of interesting species, especially in Coleoptera, and
they formed the basis of many memoirs by Walker, Newman, and
White, and particularly by G. R. Waterhouse, who named Odonfoscelis
Darwinii after him. These memoirs were published either in the
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and in the Transactions
of the London Entomological Society, or in various entomological
periodicals, and I append a list, which, in this connection, it is not
necessary to read.

Scattered through his memorable works, a "Journal of Researches
into the Natural History and Geology of the countries visited dur-
ing the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle round the world," (which is best
known by the publisher's title, "A Naturalist's Voyage Round the
World,") and "The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selec-
tion," are many interesting entomological facts, and in almost
every instance they are illumined by his masterly genius and his
keen, penetrating mind. These are so numerous, so varied, and
withal so widely dispersed, that I can only make reference, at this
time, to a few of the most important and striking of them.

He pointed out the great preponderance of phytophagous over
predaceous species in the tropics as exemplifying the relation of the
insect and plant worlds, both of which attain their maximum in
those zones. Carabidse are few ; Scavengers and Brachelytra very
common ; Rhyncophora and Chrysomelidae astonishingly numerous.
(Journal of Researches, etc., p. 34.)

He showed by minute observations that the insect faunas of
Tierra del Fuego, separated from Patagonia only by the Straits of
Magellan, have nothing in common, and he discussed the influence

72 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

of primary barriers on the distribution of species, as shown in the
marked divergence of the faunas on the eastern and western slopes
of the Cordillera. "We ought not," he remarks, "to expect any-
closer similarity between the organic beings on the opposite sides
of great mountain ranges than on the opposite shores of the ocean,
except for species which have been able to cross the barrier, whether
of rock or salt water." {^Ibid, pp. 326-7.)

I believe he was the first to draw attention to the paucity of in-
sects on islands, and to establish the principle that the smaller the
area, the less favorable it is for the development of insect life.
(Jbid, p. 391.)

It is a fact of observation that islands predispose to the apterous
condition among insects, a fact that is especially noticeable in
Kerguelen's Land, as observed by Dr. Hooker, and particularly by
our fellow member, Dr. Kidder. Darwin (Origin of Species, etc.,
p. 109,) first suggested the most plausible reason, viz: that the in-
discriminate use of Avings might prove injurious to an insular
species by tempting it out to sea and to destruction, so that the loss
of the power of flight is a positive advantage to the species. The
argument against this explanation, viz : that insular species should
be gifted with strong powers of flight to fortify themselves against
being blown to sea in heavy gales, has little force, because either
requirement may be fulfilled; and, in reality, where flight is abso-
lutely necessary, as in the majority of Lepidoptera, and flower-
frequenting Coleoptera, the wing capacity, in insular species, is
actually increased, or correlated with a diminution of bulk ;
whereas, in those less dependent on aerial progression, natural se-
lection would decrease wing-power, and there would be just such
a correlated increase of bulk as is generally the case.

The principle he laid down, that the accidental introduction of
organic beings amongst others to whose interest they are hostile,
may be a powerful means of keeping the latter in check, and of
finally destroying them, finds vivid exemplification in insects, as I
have shown in discussing those imported into this country.^

■^Second Annual Rep. on the Insects of Missouri, 1879, pp. 8-13,

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 73

He gave reasons for the belief (now generally accepted) that the
usual gaudy coloring of intertropical insects is not related either to
the heat or light of those zones, but rather to the conditions of ex-
istence being generally favorable to life. — (Journal of Researches,
etc., p. 381.) He has written on the Phosphorescence of Fire-flies,
and on the habits of the larva of one of them — Lamphyris occidentalis.
— {^Ibid, pp. 29-30.) He discussed the food-habits of stercovorous
beetles, with reference to the origination of a new habit and the
power of adaptation to new conditions. — (ylbid, p. 490, note.)

At Port St. Julian, Patagonia, he found a species of Tabanus
extremely common, and remarks: "We here have the puzzle that
so frequently occurs in the case of mosquitoes — on the blood of
what do these insects commonly feed ? The guanaco is nearly the
only warm-blooded quadruped, and is found in quite inconsiderable
numbers compared with the multitude of flies." He has discussed
the question of hibernation of insects, and shown that it is governed
by the usual climate of a district, and not by absolute temperature.
{Ibid, 98-9.) He gave the first true explanation of the springing
power of the Elateridse when laid on their backs, showing how
much depended on the elasticity of the sternal spine. {Ibid, p. 31.)
He was the first, I believe, to record the exceptional powers of run-
ning and of making sound, in a butterfly, viz., Ageronia feronia of
Brazil.

In his most famous work he lays stress particularly on the follow-
ing facts and generalizations, for which he draws from insects : the
individual differences in important characters; the remarkable
manner in vv^hich individuals of the same brood often differ, dimor-
phism and trimorphism being only the extreme exaggeration of
this fact ; the difficulty of distinguishing between species and varie-
ties ; that geographical races are local forms completely fixed and
isolated ; that representative species are better distinguished from
each other than local forms and sub-species ; that the species of
large genera vary more frequently than those of small genera, and
that specific differences in the former are often exceedingly small ;

74 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

that fecundity does not determine the rate of increase ; that the
struggle for life is most severe between species of the same genus ;
that secondary sexual characters are generally displayed in the same
parts of the organization in which the species of the same genus
differ from each other; that distinct species present analogous varia-
tions ; that similar structures are often independently developed ;
the varying importance for classification of the same important or-
gan in the same group of beings ; that analogical or adaptive re-
semblances are misleading for classification ; that the great fre-
quency of mimicry among insects is associated with their small
size and general defencelessness, as no species furnished with a
sting, or other defensive property, is known to mimic other species ;
the importance of relative position or connection in homologous
parts ; the remarkable changes of stnicture effected during devel-
opment ; that adaptation to the conditions of life in the insect
larva is just as perfect and beautiful as in the adult animal, and
that, consequently, larvse of different orders are often similar, and
larvas belonging to the same order often very dissimilar; that larval
and pupal stages are acquired through adaptation, and not through
inheritance ; that rudimentary organs plainly declare their origin
and meaning.

Finally he brought together a large body of interesting facts
in entomology, bearing on the development and perpetuation
of mimicry, and of secondary sexual characters — all more or less
explicable by, and furnishing convincing argument for, the gen-
eral theory of natural selection ; while he freely acknowledged
that he found among insects facts that seemed to be most fatal to
the theory. This is especially the case in social insects where the
colony contains neuters and sterile females which often differ widely
in instinct and in structure from the sexual forms, and yet can-
not propagate their kind. This is not the place to enter into a
discussion of the subject, and I will simply remark that there are
reasons for the belief that, in his candor, he has been led to exag-
gerate the difficulties in this case.

i

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 75

But Darwin's chief investigation into insect life were in its rela-
tions to plant life, and his work "On the Various Contrivances by
which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, and
on the good effect of crossing," as also that on "Insectivorous
Plants," are monuments of skill, industry, and lucid exposition.

Entomologists had often noticed the pollen masses of orchids
attached to the proboscis of various moths, and in commenting
upon the fact had pronounced it "curious." Darwin in this, as
in so many other cases, gave meaning to the curious, and brought
light out of darkness.

Before his time we find frequent reference to the injury caused
to plants by insects, and Sprengel, Gaertner, Herbert, and others
had shown that insects were, also, in many cases, beneficial and
even necessary to plants, the color, form, odor, secretions, and
general structure of which have reference to their necessary insect
pollinizers.

Yet their writings had produced but slight impression outside of
a limited circle. It remained for Darwin to impress the world with
a broader sense of the actual interrelation, between the two, and to
inspire a number of observers in this field, in all parts of the globe,
who are now constantly adding to the rich store of facts we already
possess on the subject. I need only refer to the work of Hooker,
Bennet, Axell, Delpino, Hildebrand, H. Muller, and others abroad,
and to that of Dr. Gray, and Mr. Wm. Trelease at home.

The importance of insects, as agents in cross-fertilization, Avas
never properly appreciated till after Darwin's remarkable work on
Primula, and his researches on Orchids, Linum, Lythrum, etc.

He established the principle that "nature abhors close fertiliza-
tion," and though some less careful observers in this country —
exaggerating the importance of their isolated and often inaccurate
observations — have opposed his views, the scientific world has been
convinced alike by the force of his logic as by the eloquence of
his innumerable facts.

We all know how palaeontology has verified many of his anticipa-

76 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

tions as to missing links being supplied with increased knowledge
of the geological record, and in connection with his work on the
fertilization of orchids, we have a remarkable instance of similar
verification. The nectaries of Angrcecum sesqidpedale were found
by him to sometimes reach wyi inches in length, with only the
lowest i^ inches filled with nectar. He said " there must be moths
with probosces capable of extension to a length of between lo and
II inches." In Natiweiox July 17, 1873, or some years later, Fritz
Miiller recorded, through his brother, Herman Miiller, the finding
of a Brazilian Sphingid having a length of proboscis of 0.25 meters,
or between 10 and 11 inches.

I cannot do justice to Darwin's work on Insectivorous Plants
within the time to which these remarks have been limited, nor with-
out trenching on the ground to be covered by Prof. Ward. I must
be content to remark, therefore, that he demonstrated the new and
wonderful fact in physiology that many plants are capable of ab-
sorbing soluble matter from captured insects, and that they have
special contrivances and sensibilities that facilitate the capture of
their prey : in other word.s, that plants actually capture and digest
animal food ; for the secretion of Drosera, and other insectivorous
plants, with its ferment acid belonging to the acetic series, resembles
the gastric juice of animals with its pepsin and hydrocloric acid.
The fact of absorption demonstrated, it follows that the process
would prove serviceable to plants growing in very poor soil, and
that it would tend to be perfected by natural selection.

The pleasure Darwin took in observing the habits and ways of
insects, and the simple and lucid manner in which he recorded his
observations are frequently exemplified in his Journal of Researches,
and his account of sundry Brazilian species on page 35, and fol-
lowing, may be consulted as an example.

In the same way that he has influenced all lines of thought and
investigation, he has influenced entomology. We find everywhere,
in his treatment of insects, the same acute perception, the same
candor and impartiality, the same clearness of expression, the same

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 77

aptitude to get at the significance and bearing of facts observed, as
well as the same readiness to deduce a theory which is only equaled
by the devotion with which he clings to the truth, whether favora-
ble or unfavorable to the theory.

In the light of Darwinism, insect structure and habit have come
to possess a new significance and a deeper meaning. It has, in
short, proved a new power to the working entomologist who, for all
time, will hold in reverence the name of him who, more than any
other man, helped to replace scholasticism by induction and who
gave to the philosophic study of insects as great an impetus as did
Linnseus to their systematic study.

In his private life Darwin has given us a lesson of patience, cour-
tesy, and consideration, that will be best appreciated by those who
have the misfortune to be endowed with more irritable and ag-
gressive natures.

As the above account of Darwin's entomological work is doubt-
less rather uninteresting to most of those gathered here, I will close,
by request, with a few personal impressions.

I have had the pleasure on two occasions of visiting Darwin at
his invitation. On the first occasion, in the summer of 1871, I
was accompanied by Mr. J. Jenner Wier, one of his life-long
fi iends and adm.irers. From Mr. Weir I first learned that Darwin
was, in one sense, virtually a confirmed invalid, and that his work
had been done under physical difficulties which Avould have ren-
dered most men of independent means vapid, self-indulgent, and
useless members of society.

It is eloquent of the indomitable will and perseverance of the
man that, during the long voyage on the Beagle, he suffered so
from sea-sickness that he never fully recovered from the shock to
his system, and could not again venture on the ocean. He had, in
fact, on his return from the voyage, to go through a long course of
hydropathic treatment. We also now know that though he had
suffered much for some months past from weakness and recurring
fits of faintness, and had been confined to the house, yet as late as

78 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Tuesday evening before the day of his death, at 4 P. M., Wednes-
day, he was in his study examining a plant which he had had
brought to him, and that he read that night before retiring, while
as late as the i6th of March, he read two papers on special botani-
cal subjects before the Linnean Society.

The village of Down is fifteen miles southeast of London, four
miles from Orpington station on the Southeastern Railway. The
country is among the most beautiful agricultural suburbs of London,
and I shall never forget the impression of peaceful, quiet seclusion
experienced, as we drove from the station and finally through one
of those characteristic English lanes, just wide enough for one
vehicle, and worn down several feet below the general level — the
sense of confinement being enhanced by the luxuriant hedge on
either side. This lane skirts the orchard wall for 100 yards and
then goes in front of the house, from which it is separated by a
grass plot and flint wall overgrown with ivy.

The Darwin residence is a plain, but spacious, old-fashioned
house of the style so common in England, and which, with the sur-
rounding well-kept grounds and conservatory, convey that impres-
sion of ease and comfort that belong to the average home of the
English country gentleman. A noticeable feature is a bow window
extending through three stories and covered with trellis and creepers.
In Darwinian phrase the environrient was favorable for just such
calm study and concentration as he found necessary to his health
and his researches.

Upon introduction I was at once struck with his stature (which
was much above the average, and I should say fully six feet,) his
ponderous brow and long white beard — the moustache being cut on
a line with the lips and slightly brown from the habit of snuff-
taking. His deep-set eyes were light blue-gray. He made the im-
pression of a powerful man reduced somewhat by sickness. The
massive brow and forehead show in his later photographs, but not
so conspicuously as in a life-sized head of him when younger, which
hung in the parlor.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 79

In the brief hours I then spent at Down the proverbial modesty
and singular simplicity and sweetness of his character were appar-
ent, while the delight he manifested in stating facts of interest was
excelled only by the eagerness with which he sought them from
others, whether while strolling through the greenhouse or sitting
round the generously spread table.

Going to him as a young entomologist with no claim on his favor,
he seemed to take delight in manifesting appreciation. I had occa-
sion in my third report on the insects of Missouri, published in tlie
spring of that year, to discuss the question of Natural Selection in
its bearings on Mimicry, as exemplified in two of our North Ameri-
can butterflies, {Danais archippus and Lime^iitis disippiis.') This re-
port I found in his study with many leaves turned down, and he
appeared to take especial pleasure in conveying a sense of his ap-
preciation of particular parts.

The few letters which I received from Darwin were in his own
hand-writing, which was rapid and better calculated to save time
than to facilitate the reading. I take the liberty of reproducing
here the first and last as indicating his attitude toward all workers
in the field of natural science, however humble or however unde-
serving of his praise they may have been ; and this generous trait
in his character will explain, in some measure, the stimulus and en-
couragement which he gave to investigators :

Down,
June i, [1871.] Beckenham, Kent.

My Dear Sir : I received some little time ago your Report on Noxious In-
sects, and have now read the whole with the greatest interest. There is a vast
number of facts and generalizations of value to me, and I am struck with admir-
ation at your power of observation. The discussion on mimetic insects seems to
me particularly good and original. Pray accept my cordial thanks for the in-
struction and interest which I have received.

What a loss to natural science our poor mutual friend, Walsh, has been : it is
a loss ever to be deplored.

Pray believe me, with much respect,

Yours, very faithfully,

Ch. Darwin.

80 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Down,
September 28, 1881. Beckenham, Kent.

My Dear Mr. Riley : I must write lialf-a-dozen lines to say how much in-
terested I have been hy your "Further Notes" on Pronuba, whicli you were so
kind as to send me. I had read the various criticiims, and though I did not
know what answer would be made, yet I felt full confidence in the result, and
now I see I was right. ■'' * * *

If you make any further observation on Pronuba it would, I think, be well
worth while for you to observe whether the moth can or does occasionally bring
pollen from one plant to the stigma of a distinct one ; for I have shown tliat the
cross-fertilization of the flowers on the same plant does very little good and, if
I am not mistaken, you believe that the Pronuba gathers pollen from the same
flower which she fertilizes.-

What interesting and beautiful observations you have made on the metamor-
phoses of the grass-hopper destroying insects !

BeHeve me.

My dear sir.

Yours sincerely,

Ch. Darwin.

My own experience in this regard is the common experience, for
an interest in natural science was an open sesame to bis generous
soul. His consideration, without aggression, was the secret of the
gratitude and respect which all felt who had the honor to know him,
either personally or through correspondence.

His approval of the work of others was coupled with a deprecia-
tion of his own, which was very marked on the occasion of my
second visit to Europe, in 1875, when I crossed the ocean with his
son Leonard on his way from the Transit of Venus expedition.
"Insectivorous Plants " was just finished and Darwin was worn and
in feeble health, staying, in fact, at Abinger Hall for rest. He was
quite disgusted with the book, to use his son's expression, and
doubted whether it could prove of sufficient interest, with its long
and dry records of experiments, to be read by any one.

♦This is A misapprehension. Pronuba is an cffeetnnl cross-fertilizer, running from
flower to flower, and often flying from raceme to rncenie witli one and the same load of
pollen. The omitted passages in this letter refer to the work of a gentleman still living.

DARWIN MEMORIAX. 81

DARWIJNT AS A BOTANIST.

• By Lester F. Ward.

Appointed by the committee to furnish a brief sketch on this
occasion of the contributions of Charles Darwin to the science of
plants, I have purposely chosen the title, "Darwin as a Botanist,"
m order to emphasize the contrast which may be drawn between
different classes of botanists, and to do what I can to accustom the
public mind to associate with the terms botanist and botany certain
great fields of investigation which are now rarely suggested by
these words.

If I had entitled my paper: Darwin's researches into the phenom-
ena of the vegetable kingdom, I fear it might not have occurred to
some of you that this great investigator was a botanist, as he is not
generally known as such. Yet I fail to see why the science of bot-
any is not fully entitled to receive its share of the dignity and the
luster which Darwin's investigations have reflected upon biology in
general.

The popular idea of botany, however, is very different from this.
Not ignorant people alone, but scientific men as well, place all
botanists under two general classes: " Field Botanists" and " Closet
Botanists."

The field botanist is one who, being passionately fond of plants
and having mastered the rudiments of botany and become familiar
with the names and classification of plants, searches the country
for new and rare species, and for new localities for old ones, and
makes large collections. Success in these objects is his triumph,
and occasionally becoming the proud discoverer of hitherto un-
known forms of vegetable life, he finds the scientific world quick
and generous in awarding him due credit.

The closet botanist is one who, disdaining the boyish pursuit of
flowers, devotes himself to the study of the characters of plants as
revealed by the herbarium specimens which the field botanist so
6

82 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

copiously furnishes, and by which method he, too, can discover
"new species," and obtain prompt recognition. The closet bota-
nist performs the further useful service of "revising" intricate
families and genera of plants, unraveling the entanglenients of
previous authors, and making such changes in the classification
and names as are best suited to secure the maximum personal
credit.

I need not tell this audience that Charles Darwin belonged to
neither of these classes of botanists. A lover of nature, he yet never
wasted precious time in the idle pursuit of rarities. Thoroughly
familiar with the distinctive characters upon which botanical classi-
fication rests, he yet never pursued to any marked extent the inves-
tigation of specimens from the hortus siccus. I doubt whether a
single species of plant was ever named after him by reason of his
having either discovered it in a wild state or detected its specific dis-
tinct ness by the examination of its characters. I even doubt
whether he possessed an herbarium, in the accepted sense of the word.

And yet this man has probably contributed more to our real
knowledge of plants than any other single botanist.

In what, then, have Darwin's botanical investigations consisted?

There is a little French book entitled "Voyage d'un Botaniste
.dans sa Maison," a title which, allowing for the characteristic hy-
perbole of the French tongue, suggests the general nature of Dar-
win's botanical studies. His researches were conducted in his
laboratory, in pots of plants at his window, in his aquarium, in his
green-house, in his garden. He worked with instruments of pre-
cision, recorded his observations with exactness, and employed
every mechanical device for making his results reveal important
truths, of which the genius of man would seem to be capable.

Darwin looked upon plants as living things. He did not study
\h€\x forms so much as their actions. He interrogated them to learn
what they were doitig.

The central truth, towards which his botanical investigations con-
stantly tended, was that of the universal activity of the vegetable

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 83

kingdom — that all plants move and act. He has, so to speak, anhnated
the vegetable world. He has shown that whichever kingdom of
organic nature we contemplate, to live is to jnovc.

He blandly rebukes the vulgar notion that "plants are disting-
uished from animals by not having the power of movement," and
still more modestly says that "plants acquire and display this power
only when it is of some advantage to them." But is this the
whole ? Do animals display this power except when it is of some
advantage to them ? Certainly not.

Darwin shows us that certain parts of all plants are at all times
in motion ; not merely the molecular activities of their tissues and
of the living protoplasm in their cells, but organized movement of
parts. Every leaf, every tendril, every rootlet, possesses the power
of spontaneous movement, and under nearly all circumstances actu-
ally exercises that power.

There are a great many distinct kinds of movement, depending
in all cases upon the special advantages thereby gained to the plant.
The laws under which these movements take place have received
from him an admirable terminology. Most of them are condi-
tioned either by light, by gravity, by radiation, or by insect agency.

We thus have of the first class, heliotropisin, or movement to-
wards the light ; apheliotropism, or movement from the light ;
diahelioiropism, or movement at right angles to the source of light ;
and paraheliotropis7n, embracing such movements as screen the
plant from excess of light.

To the second class belong : geoiropism, or movement towards
the earth or into the soil ; apogeotropism, or movement contrary to
the force of gravity; and diageotropisjn, or movement at right
angles to the force of gravity.

The third class embraces the so-called nyctotropic movements of
plants by which they appear to sleep, and which prove to be devices
for the prevention of excessive radiation of the plants' heat.

Under the fourth class fall all those wonderful movements which
aid the plant in preventing self-and securing cross-fertilization, a

84 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

subject of the most absorbing interest, and of which you have
already listened to so able a presentation by Prof. Riley from the
point of view of the entomologist.

But Darwin's great service has been to show that these varieties
of activity are simply modes in Avhich inherent and spontaneous
activities manifest themselves under these varying external influences.

His preliminary investigations into the nature of these innate
powers of movement were directed to that large class of plants
known "as twiners and climbers, whose revolving motions were so
thoroughly described in his work on "Climbing Plants." It was
here that he laid the foundation for those later studies which
eventually resulted in that great work, almost his last, on the
"Power of Movement in Plants." In this work he demonstrates
by an enormous induction that the ample sweeps of the twining
plant are but the most obvious manifestations of a class of
phenomena which are common to the entire vegetable kingdom.

Amid the varied forms of movement which plants present Darwin
has succeeded in finding one fundamental and generic one to which
every other may be referred. To this universal form of plant
activity he gives the name "circumnutation." Not only twining
stems and tendrils, but parts of flowers, tips of growing shoots,
caps of penetrating roots and rootlets, radicles, epicotyls, cotyledons,
and even full-grown leaves, are incessantly describing circles,
ellipses, and other more or less regular geometrical figures ; and he
conclusively shows that it is out of this primary form of activity
that all the more specialized forms already mentioned have been
developed. All movements of the parts of plants are thus to be
interpreted as modified forms of this innate periodic circumnutation
which is common to all plant life. Such modifications are always
in the direction of the plant's advantage and may be so great as to
become difficult of recognition as forms circumnutation.

I need not labor to convince you that any modification which is
an advantage to the plant will be secured by the process of natural
selection. It is the glory of the great genius whose labors we are

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 85

here to commemorate to have demonstrated this truth to the entire
satisfaction of the united scientific world.

Darwin has actually solved the great problem of phytology, so
long supposed to be incapable of solution, viz : Why does the root
grow downward and the stem upward ? Briefly and roughly stated,
the answer to this question is that, as the bursting seed pushes out
its two germinal points these circumnutate from the first, and thus
explore their surroundings for the means of benefiting the plant.
To employ Darwin's own word, they ''perceive" the advantage
that would result from the penetration of the soil, on the one
hand, and from the ascent into the free air and sunlight, on the
other, and through the pre-Darwinian law of the " physiological
division of labor," the one hQcova&s gcotropic and the other heliotropic
— the one develops into a radicle and then into a root, while the
other develops into an epicotyl and then into a stem.

I will only add to the thoughts already presented that Darwin's
discovery of the existence in all plants of an innate and spontaneous
mobility belonging to them as forms of organic life, possesses an
important ulterior significance.

The law of natural selection, as a fundamental process, has long
since passed the stage of discussion. But there has always remained
one unsettled question lying at its very base which Darwin him-
self admitted to be an open one. That question concerns the
cause itself of variation. It is granted that, admitting the tendency
to vary, all the results claimed for natural selection must follow; but
many declare that, in this very tendency to vary, there is a mystery
as great as the mystery of life itself.

It is only in this work on the " Power of Movement in Plants"
that Darwin has really assailed this last fortress of supernaturalism.
Not that he has avowed any such purpose, for of this he would have
been incapable, but so skilfully and so powerfully has he marshaled
the facts that the conclusion follows without being stated. No one
can doubt that he perceived this, and I, for one, am convinced
that he saw it from afar, and that it was the great end of his labors;

86 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

but with his characteristic wisdom he has declined to invoke the
odium thcologiaim, correctly judging that the truth must ultimately
assert itself.

The tendency to vary, then, is a mechanical result of the proved
fact of universal movement coupled with the admitted law of natu-
ral selection. By means of the former all plants and growing parts
of plants are perpetually exploring their immediate surroundings in
search, as it were, for conditions favorable to development. By
means of the latter they are able to avail themselves of such favor-
able conditions when found. Nothing further than this is required
to complete the natural explanation of all the phenomena presented
by the organic world, and thus, at last, the whole domain of biol-
ogy is emancipated from teleological fetters, and placed on the
high plane of rational investigation.

In conclusion, let me simply say that, while we can but deeply
mourn the irreparable loss which science has sustained in the death
of Charles Darwin, we have still the highest grounds for congratu-
lation in the fact that he lived to complete that great work which,,
next to the " Origin of Species," will, I firmly believe, be awarded
by posterity the highest place, viz. ," The Power of Movement in
Plants; " for, while the former auspiciously opened the great debate
by stating the profoundest of all biological problems, the latter has
fittingly closed the argument by answering the last objection.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 87

DARWIN ON THE EXPRESSION OF THE EMOTIONS.

By Frank Baker, M. D.

From the tendency of the imagination to magnify the unknown
and remote, arises a popular error that to attain eminence a man of
science must be able to gather facts from great distances — from the
sources of the Nile, and from polar snows. But the near and com-
monplace are subject to the same laws as the atoms of interstellar
space, and true scientific insight may discover in the very dust
under our feet secrets hitherto concealed.

Darwin's work upon the Expression of the Emotions is continu-
ous with and supplementary to his larger and better-known treatise on
the Descent of Man. As with other matter bearing directly upon
the development hypothesis, its publication was deferred as long as
possible, in order that the evidence might be fully weighed. Pro-
jected in 1838, it was not published until thirty-five years later.
One class of objections to the hypothesis was not considered in the
main work. It was generally held that, by his emotional expres-
sion, man was widely separated from the lower animals. The emi-
nent anatomist, Duchenne, who remains to-day the best authority
on muscular movements, merely expressed the views of the time
when he stated that no cause could be assigned for facial ex-
pression, except the "divine fantasy" of the Great Artificer.

Having projected his work, how does Darwin proceed? From
the gentlemen who have preceded me you have learned of his
methods. To test the truth of his conceptions he commences a
series of most minute and careful observations, omitting nothing
within his reach. His most important field is that which is nearest;
his own children, his friends and companions, even the dogs that
accompany his daily walks, come under that powerful scrutiny.
Where, indeed, can we find so perfect an observer? The calm
sanity of his mind keeps him equally aloof from egotism and from
self-depreciation. A fact is a fact, to be stated with the fairness

88 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

and openness of perfect daylight. Here is a man who cares more
for the truth than for himself. The black spot in man's sunshine,
the shadow of himself, seems non-existent for him. He stands by
his work, that is enough ; if it has worth, well — if not, still well ;
the elemental drift of action and reaction will continue, the out-
come will still be good. As Carlyle has said, "A noble uncon-
sciousness is in him. He does not engrave ti'uth on his watch-seal ;
no, but he stands by truth, speaks by it, works and lives by it."

But not as a fact gatherer do we find him greatest. Many others
have struggled with ant-like toil to amass piles of facts which, like the
ant-heap, remain but sand after all. Darwin brings to his work an
informing spirit, the genius of scientific hypothesis. Breathed upon
by this spirit, the dry bones of fact come together "bone to his
bone," the sinews and the flesh come upon them, they become alive
and stand upon their feet " an exceeding great army." He searches
always for the principles which underlie the facts and make them
possible, realizing that the phcnomcjia, the things which are seen,
are temporal and transitory ; the things which are not seen, the
cosmical forces which govern and control, are eternal.

In his examination of the expression of the emotions he found
that both in man and animals they can be referred to three general
principles which may be termed habit, antithesis, and nervous over-
flow. By habit, or repetition, serviceable movements become fixed —
involuntary, or semi-voluntary. By antithesis, opposite frames
of mind are expressed by opposite actions, even though those actions
may not be serviceable. The theory of nervous overflow is that un-
usual quantities of force generated by the cerebro-spinal system are
discharged by unusual channels of expression when the ordinary
channels are insufficient.

He finds that emotional expressions are generally direct conse-
quences of anatomical structure, and clearly shows the interdepen-
dence of anatomy and physiology. For structure can no more be
divorced from function than matter can be dissociated from force.
All the complex expressions of grief — from the twitching of the

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 89

eyelids and mouth to the shedding of tears — he has shown to
depend upon the necessity for preventing engorgement of the eyes
during screaming, an act originally useful solely to attract attention.
The steps by which he arrived at this conclusion are typical of his
method. Starting first with animals, he finds that their expressions
of grief are much less complex and various than those of man.
They are confined to noises, such as screaming, barking, whining,
in higher forms accompanied by changes in facial expression, par-
ticularly by contraction of the muscles surrounding the eye. There
is a physiological necessity for this, as otherwise the expiratory
effort caused by screaming might engorge and rupture the small
ocular blood-vessels. By pressing on the lachrymal gland this
causes, in some of the higher anim.als, a flow of tears. What at
first was accidental, merely occasioned by the proximity of the
gland, becomes at last habitual, and the nervous force automatically
follows the line of its accustomed action, causing a flow of tears after
emotional excitement, even though no screaming take place. The
correctness of this view is supported by the fact that infants do not
shed tears until several weeks old, although they scream violently.
The functional activity of the lachrymal gland, in connection with
grief, is, therefore, later in phylogenetic development. The laws
of heredity and adaptation are found to be operating here, as else-
where, in the domain of life ; the supposed gap between the emo-
tions of man and of other animals is successfully bridged over, and
another anthropocentric fallacy is consigned to the limbo of igno-
rant superstitions.

Many expressions of the lower emotions are found to be disfig-
uring vestiges of acts useful to lower animals for offense and de-
fense, or for obtaining food. These survive — relics of the previous
history of our race — as rudimentary organs are preserved long after
their use has ceased. The erection of the hair during fear is re-
motely derived from the same cause that makes puss bristle when
attacked and the puff adder swell out when approached. Originally
used for the purpose of exciting fear in an enemy by an increase of

90 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

size, it now involuntarily accompanies the somewhat changed emo-
tion of which some of the phases are extinct. It is not very rare to
find persons who can make the hair over the fi^ont of the head
bristle at will. Rage is habitually expressed by uncovering the
teeth, which is, in the lower animals, an attempt to frighten their
enemies by a show of weapons. This expression may become soft-
ened and modified to express the milder emotions of contempt and
disdain. I have met a lady who has to perfection the rather rare
accomplishment mentioned by Darwin of drawing up the upper lip
in a triangular notch directly over the canine teeth so as to display
them alone, usually on one side at a time. This most expressive
gesture of disdain can be performed under the influence of the
emotion by many who cannot do it at will.

Of an opposite class are certain higher expressions, which, having
arisen later, are not yet entirely fixed. Blushing is one of the
most curious of these. It is not found in infants, and varies greatly
in frequency and amount in adults, accompanying the sentiment of
modesty, almost unknown among animals. The reddening is
usually confined to the face and neck. Darwin suggests an in-
genious explanation for this. The blood-vessels most exposed to
variations of temperature acquire the habit of expanding and con-
tracting— their vaso-motor nerves become more sensitive. The
chief expression of personal appearance is in the face ; the attention
of the mind is, therefore, directed there whenever the emotion of
modesty is aroused. This interferes with the ordinary tonic con-
traction of the blood-vessels, and an excess of blood suffuses the
surface.

A remarkable confirmation of Darwin's views is the recent discov-
ery of localized centers in the brain which control emotional ex-
pression, and exist in animals as well as in man. It may some-
time be possible to read the currents and counter-currents of the
brain by means of feature-play with a precision approaching that
by which we estimate the force of a distant battery by the play of
a galvanometer needle. Many phenomena of expression, which

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 91

were obscure before this discovery, can now be satisfactorily ex-
plained. Among these are the phenomena of associated move-
ments. It has been stated that the variety and complexity of the
movements involved in the simple act of walking are such that it
would be impossible ever to perform it were it necessary to think
what had to be done, and weigh in the judgment the precise amount
of force necessary to distribute to each muscle at each moment of
the act. It is now known that the cerebral centers which control
the separate muscles put in action are closely contiguous in the
brain, and that they probably intercommunicate and excite each
other in a definite manner, predetermined by habit and heredity.
The conscious mind has only to set in motion the subordinate ap-
paratus, when it goes on, and works out the problem with matchless
skill, like the system of cogs and eccentrics that produce the intri-
cate pattern in an engraver's lathe. All have noticed the uncouth
manner in which children and untrained persons follow with lips
and tongue the motions of their hands when using a tool of any
kind. Darwin ascribes this to unconscious imitation, but it can be
explained more strictly in accordance with his own principles.
The facial muscles are actuated from a cerebral center in close
proximity to those which move the arms and hands. In the lower
animals this is necessary, for the mouth is an organ of prehension,
used in strict association with the fore-limbs in seizing prey, and in
other acts. As this associated movement became strongly fixed by
long habit, it survives with great obstinancy, and though it has not
been useful to the race since the historical period, we have yet to
caution our children not to put their tongues out when they write.

My limit of time forces me to conclude this hasty and imperfect
summary. The practical bearing of these views is not without im-
portance. Physicians have always depended greatly upon emo-
tional expression as a means of diagnosis. Unconsciously the face
of the patient reveals his physical state. Yet too much has been left
in the empirical border-land of science. Why a certain pathologi-

92 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

cal state should be indicated by a definite combination of expres-
sions has not always been clearly shown. To-day the whole subject
is studied from the point of view of anatomy and physiology. No
occult force is admitted, the correlative nerve-supply of muscles and
the effect of excitation of nerve-centers are rationally investigated.
Aside from the great special value of the work, of what tremen-
dous import to the race are Darwin's deductions ! For he has
shown us that our every thought and act mold our physical frames,
and through them the generations yet unborn, either to beauty and
grace, or to uncouth ugliness and deformity. As the struggle for
existence filled the rocks with organisms forever extinct, because
not for the highest use, so may we, too, fossilize and outgrow
habits and desires of ignoble birth, ascending by the "power of
leasts," by that wondrous calculus of nature, to purer and nobler
existence. Darwin has taught us that the forces which, acting
through countless cycles, have brought us up from formless slime,
now remain in our hands to use for good or ill —

"That life is not as idle ore,
But iion dug from central gloom,
And heated hot with burning fears,
And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
And battered with the shocks of doom
For shape and use."

A DARWINIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY.

By Frederick W. True,

Librarian of the U. S. National Musetim.

The complete bibliography of Darwinism should contain, not
alone the works which emanated from the busy brain and ready pen
of Darwin himself, but the many other productions which these
called into life. The aquiescences of friends, the objections of
critics, the censures of foes, should all be enrolled in their proper
places as representing the ripples and counter-ripples in the sea of

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 93

thought, produced by the weighty ideas which dropped from the
clear mind of the philosopher. It is not to the merits of these,
however, that I can call your attention, but only to a few facts rel-
ative to the books of Darwin himself.

I would not have you suppose, if, indeed, one could, after the
lucid remarks to which you have listened, that the faulty — and, I
fear, almost indiscernible — list of published works, which I have
attempted to exhibit before you, reveals more than a moiety of
Darwin's writings.* A large number of comprehensive papers,
pregnant notes, and incisive queries are contained in those store-
houses of precise knowledge, the journals of science, and the pub-
lications of learned societies. During more than half a century,
from the beginning of Darwin's career to its very close, scarcely a
year passed in which a number of articles did not issue from his
pen. His first paper, on the Ova of Flustra, and another of simi-
lar nature, were read before the Plinian Society, of Edinburgh, in
1825. His last note on the Distribution of Fresh- water Bivalves
appeared in Nature but a few days before his death.

During the first twenty-five years the articles have mostly a geo-
logical and zoological bearing, but later botanical and anthropologi-
cal subjects come into prominence. They were contributed to many
publications, including a few American, German, and French
journals. The mass of papers, however, are to be found in the
Proceedings and Transactions of the Geological Society of London,
the Philosophical Transactions, the Philosophical Magazine, the An-
nals and Magazine of Natural History, and Nature.

It is in these papers that we first find the germs of many of those
more elaborate works, to which general attention has been attracted.
Thus the works on the Origin of Species, the Fertilization of
Plants by Insects, the Action of Earth Worms, and others were
foreshadowed at a time considerably antedating their final appear-
ance.

* The speaker referred to two large scrolls hanging on the lecture room walls,
upon which were inscribed a list of Darwin's most important publications.

94 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,

Darwin seemed to prefer to work out and write out his ideas
alone. Once at least, however, he shared the toil with fiis friend,
Mr. Wallace, and later, in several instances, with his sons, Francis
and George Darwin. «

Regarding the separately published works of Darwin, there is
much of interest from the bibliographical point of view. The con-
scientiousness with which the author profited by the criticisms of
others, revising, improving, and extending his generalizations,
makes each new edition seem like a separate production. Whole
chapters were stricken out and new ones inserted ; facts of doubtful
character were replaced by others of a more positive nature and
more recent acquisition.

Time forbids that I should refer to the details of publication of
more than one work. The inquiring student will find his wants
satisfied in the several lists which have already been published.

I will give the history of but one work, the most important of
all, the "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." The
first edition of this work received the signature of the author on
November 24, 1859, and was published the same year. The second
edition, which appeared soon after, "was little more than a .re-
print of the first." "The third edition was largely corrected and
added to, and the fourth and fifth still more largely." The sixth
edition, which appeared in 1872, was likewise largely amended, and
had reached its twenty thousand in 1878. In the meantime foreign
editions and translations began to appear. The American and
French editions at first kept pace with the English, the second Amer-
ican being from the second English, and the third French from the
third English. The Germans, coming in a little later, published
their second edition from the third English, and their third, from
the fourth English one. The last editions in all these languages
were derived, I believe, from the sixth English one. "The Italian
is from the third, the Dutch and three Russian editions from the
second English editions, and the Swedish from the fifth English
edition."

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 95

At least twelve of the more important works have been issued in

«

one or more editions m German and French, and a number in
other European languages as well.

The sage of Down was undoubtedly honest in his surprise at the
ever-extending circle of his influence. A wider and more intelli-
gent audience could scarcely be desired. The number of books in
which his opinions are discussed or alluded to is legion. As the
illustrious Asa Gray has remarked, "Dante literature and Shakes-
peare literature have been the growth of centuries, but Darwinism
filled teeming catalogues during the life time of the author. ' '

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE WRITINGS OF
CHARLES DARWIN.

1835. [Extracts from Letters addressed to Professor Henslow.]
Tract, privately printed, Svo., Cambridge, 18;!5.

1837. Note sur la Decouverte de quelques Ossemens Fossiles dans I'Amerique
■ du Sud.

Ann. Sci. Nat., 2d series, (Zoology,) VII, 1837, pp. 319-320.

1837. [Notes upon the Rhea Americana.]

Proe. Zool. Soc, London, V, 1837, pp. 35-3C.

1837. Remarks upon the Habits of the Genera Geospiza, Camarhynchus, Cac-

toniii, and Certhidea of Gould.
Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1837, p. 49.

1838. Sur Trois Esp^ces du Genre Felis.

I'Institut, VI, 1838, no. 235, pp. 210-211.

1838. On the Formation of Mould.

Trans. Geol. Soc., 2d ser., V, 1840, pp. 505-.5in: Proc. Geol. Soc, 11, 1838, pp.
574-.57(): Philo.s. Mag., 3d .'(cr., Xlf. p. 89: Gardener's Chronicle, 1844, p. 218:
Frorieps Notiz., VI, 1738, Cull. 180-183.

1838. Observations of Proofs of the Recent Elevation of the Coast of Chili,
made during the Survey of H. M. S. "Beagle," commanded by Capt.
Fitzroy.
Proc. Geol. Soc, II, 1838, pp. 44G-449: Philos. Mag., 3d ser., XL p. 100.

1838. A Sketch of the Deposits containing E.\tinct Mammalia in the neighbor-
hood of the Plata.

Proc. Genl. Soc, II, 1838, p. 543: Philos. Mag., 3d s«r. XI, p. 200: Ann. Sci
Nat., VII. Zool., 1837, pp. 319-320.

96 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

1838. On certain Areas of Elevation and Subsidence in the Pacific and Indian
Ocean, as deduced from the study of Coral Formations.

Proc. Geol. Soc, 1I,1S3S, pp. 552-55-1: Philos. Mag., ser. .3, XI, p. 307:
Froricp. Notiz., IV, 1838, coll. 100-103.

1838. Geological Notes mafle during a Survey of the East and West Coasts of
South America, in the years 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1835, with an
Account of a Tran.sveise Section of the Cordilleras of the Andes be-
tween Valparaiso and Mcndoza.
Proc. Geol. Soc, 11, 1838, p. 210-212: Philos. Mag., ser. 3, VIIT, p. LOG.

1838. Origin of Saliferous Deposits. Salt Lakes of Patagonia and La Plata.
Journ. Geol. Soc, II, 18.38, pt. 2, pp. 127-128.

1838. On the Connexion of Certain Volcanic Phasnomena, and on the Formation

of Mountain-chains and the effects of Continental Elevations.

Pi'oc Geol. Roc, 1 1, 18.38, pp. C54-(;CO: 'I'ran.';. Geol. Soc, V, 1840, pp. G01-G32:
Poggend. Annal., LII, 1841, pp. 484-lOG.

1839. Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Vari-

ous Countries Visited by H. M. S. "Beagle," under the Command of
Captain Fitzroy, R. N., from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin,
Esq., M. A,, F. R. S., Secretary to the Geological Society. 8vo.,
London, 1839.

1839. [Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H. M. SS. "Adventure" and
" Beagle," describing their Examination of the Southern Shores oi
South America, Vol. IIL]
Journal and Remarks, 1832-1836, 8vo, London, 1839.

1839. Note on a Rock seen on an Iceberg in 61° South Latitude.
Journ. Roynl Geog. Soc, IX, 1830, pp. 528-520.

1839. Ueber die Luftschifferei der Spinnen.

Fror. N. Not., Bd., 77, no. 222, 1830, pp. 23-24.

1839. Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy and of other parts of

Lochaber, in Scotland, with an attempt to prove that they are of

Marine Origin.

Philos. 'I'raus., 18.39, CXXIX, p. 39-82: Edinb. New Philo.s. Journal,
XXVIl, 1830, pp. 395-403.

1840. Geological Observations (with numerous Maps and Sections) made during

the Voyage of H. M. Ship " Beagle," under the command of Capt.
Fitzroy, R. N., on the Volcanic Islands of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, and on Coral Fonnations; together with a Brief Notice of the
Geology of the Cape of Good Hope, and of parts of Au.stralia. By
Charles Darwin, Esq., M.A., Secretary to the Geological Society of
London.

1840-1844. The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. "Beagle," under the com-
mand of Capt. Fitzroy, during the years 1832 to 1836. Edited and
Superintended by Charles Darwin. 8vo. London, 1840- 1844.

Fossil Mammalia. By R. Owen. With a Geological Introduction by
Charles Darwin.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 97

1841. On a Remarkable Bar of Sandstone off Pemambuco, on the Coast of

Brazil.
Philos. Mag., 3d ser., XIX, 1841, pp. 257-260.

1842. Notes on the Effects produced by the Ancient Glaciers of Caernarvonshire,

and on the Boulders Transported by Floating Ice.

Philos. Ma;;., 3d ser., XXI, 1842, p. 180: Edinb. New Philos. Journal,
XXXIII, 1842, pp. 352-353.

1842. On the Distribution of Erratic Boulders, and on the Contemporaneous
Unstratified Deposits of South America.

Trans. Geol. Soc, 2d ser., 1842, VI, pp. 415-432: Proc. Geol. Soc, III, 1842,
pp. 425-430: Philos. Mag., 3d .«er., XIX, p. 53G: Leonhard & Bronn, Neues
Jahrb. for Min., Geol., &c., 1843, p. 741.

1842. The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. Svo. London, 1842.

1843. Remarks on Charles Maclaren's paper " On Coral Islands and Reefs,

as described by M. Darwin."
Edinburgh New Philos. Journal, XXXIV, 1843, pp. 47-50.

1844. Observations on the Structure and Propagation of the genus Sagitta. By

Charles Darwin, F. R. S., V. P. G. S.

Ann. and Mag. of Nat. History, 13, 1844, pp. 1-6, pi. 1, figs. A-D: Ann. de
Sei. Nat., 3d series, Zoologie, 1, 1844, pp. 3G0-3G5, figs. : Fror. N. Not., Bd XXX,
no. C39, 1844, pp. 1-G.

1844. Brief Descriptions of several Terrestrial Planarice and of some remark-
able Marine Species, with an Account of their Habits. By Charles
Darwin, F. R. S., V. P. G. S.
Ann. and Mag. of Nat. History, 14, 1844, pp. 241-251, pi. V, figs. 1-4.

1844. Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands, visited during the voy-
age of H. M. S. Beagle, together with some brief notices on the
Geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Being the sec-
ond part of the Geology of the Voyage of the " Beagle," under the
command of Capt. Fitzroy, R. N., during the years 1832 to 1836.
Svo. London, 1844.
Journ. Geol. See., I, p. 556.

1846. Geological Observations on South America. Svo. London, 1846.

1846. An account of the Fine Dust which often falls on Vessels in the Atlantic
Ocean.
Journ. Geol. Soc, II, 1840, pp. 26-30.

1846. On the Geology of the Falkland Islands.
Journ. Geol. Soc, II, 1846, pp. 267-274.

1848. On the Transportal of Erratic Boulders from a Lower to a Higher Level.
Jour. Geol. Soc, IV, 1848, pp. 315-323.

1S49. [Geological Instructions, in Admiralty Manual of Scientific Instructions.
Edited by Sir J. Herschel. Svo. London, 1849.]

1850. On British Fossil Lepadidce.

Quart. Journ. G«ol. Soc. London, VI, 1850, pp. 439-440.

7

98 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

1 85 1. A Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidse, or Pedunculated Cirripedes of
Great Britain. London. Printed for the Paleontographical Society,
185 1. 4to.

1851. A Monograph of the Sub-Class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Spe-
cies. The Lepadidse; or. Pedunculated Cirripedes. London, printed
for the Ray Society, 1851. 8vo.

1 85 1. Analog)' of the Structure of some Volcanic Rocks with that of Glaciers.
Edinburgh Proe. Roy. Soc, 11, 1851, pp. 17-18.

1854. A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidae and Verrucidas of Great Britain.
London, printed for the Paleontographical Society, 1854. 4to.

1854. A Monograph of the sub-Class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Spe-

cies. The Balanidce, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidas, etc.,
etc., etc. Printed for the Ray Society, 1854. 8vo.

1855. On the power of icebergs to make rectilinear uniformly-directed grooves

across a sub-marine undulatory surface.
Phil. Mag., X, 1355, pp. 96-98.

1857. On the action of Sea-water on the germination of Seeds.

Jonrn Linu. Soc, I, 1857, (Botany,) pp. 130-14ii.

185S. On the Agency of Bees in the Fertilization of Papilionaceous Flowers,
and on the crossing of Kidney Beans.

Gardeners' Chronicle, Nov. 13, 1858 : Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 3d series,
1858, pp. 459-405.

1858. Darwin, Charles and Wallace, Alfred. On the Tendency of Species to

Form Varieties, and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by
Natural Means of Selection.

Journal Proe. Linn. Soc, London, III, 1858, pp. 45-62.

1859. On the variation of organic beings in a state of nature; on the natural

means of selection ; on the comparison of domestic races and true
species.

.Tourn. Linn. Soc, III, (Zoology,) 1859, pp. 4(5-53 : Halle. Zeitsch. Gesell. Nat.,
XVI, 18G0, pp. 425-459.

1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preserva-
tion of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. 8vo. London,
1859.

1S62. On the Two Forms, or Dimorphic Condition, in the species of Primula,
and on their remarkable Sexual Relations.
Journ. Liun. Soc. VI, 1802, (Botany) pp. 151-1.57.

1S62. On the three remarkable sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum, an
Orchid in the possession of the Linnean Society.
Journ. Linn. Soc., 18G2, (Botany,) pp. 151-157.

1862. On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orcliids are
Fertilized by Insects. 8vo. London, 1862.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 99

1863. Observation sur I'h^t^romorphisme des fleurs, et des consequences pour
la fecondation.
Ann. Sci. Nat., XIX, 1863, (Botany,) pp. 204-255.

1863. On the thickness of the Pampean formation near Buenos Ayres.
Journ. Geol. Soc, XIX, 1863, pp. 68-71.

1863. On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation,
in several species of the genus Linum.
Journ. Linn. Soc, VII, 1863, (Botany,) pp. 69-83.

1863. On the so-called "Auditory Sac" of Cirripedes.

Nat. Hist. Review, 1863, pp. 115-116.

1864. On the Sexual Relations of the Three Forms of Lythrum.

Journ. Linn. Soc. Vol. VIII, 1864, p. 160.

1867. On the Character and Hybrid-like Nature of the Illegitimate Offspring
of Dimorphic and Trimorphic Plants.
Jour. Linn. Soc, Vol. X, 1867, (Bot.,) p. 393.

1867. On the specific difference between Primula veris and P. vulgaris; and on
the Hybrid Nature of the Common Oxslip.
Jour. Linn. Soc, Vol. X, 1867, (Hotany,) p. 437.

1867. Queries about Expression for Anthropological Inquiry.

Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1867, p. 324.

1868. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. 2 vols., 8vo.

London, 1868.

1869. Notes on the Fertilization of Orchids.

Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 4th series, IV, 1869, pp. 141-169.

1870. Note on the Habits of the Pampas Woodpecker [Colaptes campesiris.)

Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1870, pp. 705, 706.

1 87 1. The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex. 2 vols., l6mo.

London, 1871.

1872. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, i2mo. London,

1872.

1874. Flowers of the Primrose destroyed by Birds.

Nature, X, 1874, pp. 24, 25.

1875. Insectivorous Plants. 8vo. London, 1875.

1876. Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Animal Kingdom.
1876. Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 8vo. London, 1876.

1876. Sexual Selection in relation to Monke3'S.

Nature, XV, 1876, pp. 18, 19.

1877. The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same Species. 8vo.

London, 1877.

100 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

1877. [Testimonial to Mr. Darwin. Evolution in the Netherlands.]
Nature, XV, 1877, pp. 410-412. Letter of Mr. Darwin.

1877. The Contractile Filaments of the Teasel.
Nature, XVI, 1877, p. 339.

1877. A Biographical Sketch of an Infant.

Mind, II, (No. 7, July, 1877,) pp. 285-294.

1878. Transplantation of Shells.

Nature, XVIII, p. 120.

1879. Fritz Miiller on a Frog having Eggs on its Back; On the Abortion of the

Hairs on the Legs of certam Caddis Flies, &c.
Nature, XIX, 1879, pp. 4C2-4C4.

1879. ^^'s and Water Casks.

Nature, XIX, 1879, p. 481.

1879. Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated by W. S. Dallas. With

a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. 8vo. London, 1879.

1880. Fertility of Hybrids from the Common and Chinese Goose.

Nature, XXI, 1880, p. 207.

1880. The Sexual Colors of certain Butterflies.
Nature, XXI, 1880, p. 237.

1880. The Omari Shell Mounds.

Nature, XXI, 18S0, pp. 5G1, 562.

1880. Sir Wyville Thomson on Natural Selection.
Nature, XXIII, 1880, p. 32.

1880. Black Sheep.

Nature, XXIII, 1880, p. 193.

1881. The Power of Movement in Plants. By Charles Darwin, LL. D., as-

sisted by Francis Darwin. 8vo. London, 1 881.

1881. Movements of Plants.

Nature, XXIII, 1881, p. 409.
1881. Mr. Darwin on Vivisection.

Nature, XXIII, 1881, p. 583.

1881. The Movements of Leaves.

Nature, XXIII. 1881, p. G03.

1881. Inheritance.

Nature, XXIV, 1881, p. 257.

1881. Leaves Injured at Night by Free Radiation.

Nature, XXIV, 1881, p. 450.
1881. [On the Bodily and Mental Development of Infants.]

Nature, XXIV, 1881, p. 565.

DARWIN MEMORIAL. 101

1881. The Parasitic Habits of Molothrus.
Nature, XXV, 1881, pp. 51-52.

1881. The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms, with

observations on their habits. With illustrations. i2mo. London,
1881.

1882. The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on the Roots of certain Plants, and

on Chlorophyll Bodies.

Jour. Linn. Soc, London, X ? 1881, p. ?: Abstract in Nature, XXV, 1882, pp.

489-490.

1882. On the Dispersal of Freshwater Bivalves.
Nature, XXV, 1882, pp. 529-530.

APPENDIX.

THE PROPER USE OF THE TERM BIOLOGY.*

By Theodore Gill.

From the Presidential Address delivered January 28, 188 1.

The father of modern natural history, following in the footsteps of his prede-
cessors, recognized three kingdoms of nature, and allowed them ecjual rank in
his scheme of classification. These were severally the subjects of the sciences
designated as mineralogy, botany, and zoology. The contrasts between the char-
acteristics of the first and the last two, and the generalities which have since
compelled us to employ a term in common for botany and zoology, were not then
appreciated. The same method and the same system of terminology were used
by Linnaeus for the description of the mineral as for the vegetable and animal
kingdoms. Nevertheless suggestions had been made still earlier towards a segre-
gation under a common head of the kingdoms of organic nature.

As early as 1587, Cristofle de Savigny, in a scarce and little-known work
(Tableaux accomplis de tous les arts lib^raux, Paris,) contrasted the organic
kingdoms under a common denominator, psychologie, now universally accepted
with a very different signification. The suggestion in question, however, fell still
born. It was not till 1802 and 1803 that a term destined to general adoption
was proposed. Then the illustrious Lamarck made use of the word Biologie
as a common name under which to consider the phenomena presented by organic
nature. A number of words were subsequently urged as substitutes and as
better, e. g., So)?iiologie hy Rafinesque, in 18 14; Physiqtie Organiquehy Comte,
in 1830; Organomie by d'Omalius d'Halloy, in 1838; Zoologie by Jean Reynaud,
in 1843; Orgnnologiehy Gerdy,in 1844; and, lastly, Z^Mo/zy by Baden Powell.
None of them, however, have been received with favor, and, slowly at first,
afterward by general consent, Biology was accepted as a term much needed
to group the many generalities enunciable respecting animals and plants. The old
professorships of natural history or of zoology and botany combined are now
being replaced by professorships of biology, and almost pari passu with exces-
sive (because exclusive) cultivation of special departments of botany and zoology
has been a tendency to combine on common ground to consider the general laws
and principles afl;ecting alike the organic kingdoms of nature, and by students
agreeing in the method which they employ in their several pursuits. As a result
of this feeling has been born the Biological Society of Washington.

♦Much discussion having attended the consideration of a name for the " Biological
Society of Washington " the subject was treated of in the first presidential address, and
that portion thereof relating to the question at issue is here reproduced.

102

USE OF THE TERM BIOLOGY. 103

The applicability of the term biology, in the sense now so generally accorded
to it, is doubtless debatable, and has been strongly objected to by an eroinenf
scholar, Baden Powell. That gentleman, in the first essay of his " Order of Na-
ture," (§ 4, p. 173, note,) while discussing the "Theory of Life" and "Life in
Geological Epoch," has uttered a protest against the use of the word in the fol-
lowing terms :

"While on this subject I cannot omit to take this occasion of recording my
protest against the now prevalent, but barbarous use of the term 'Biology.'
/?;«?• never means 'life' in the sense of 'vitality;' it means the 'life' of a man
as progressnig in time — his birth, actions, and death. Plato has ' /?i»g Cw/)?,'
the lifetime of a life. (Epinomis, [or the Philosopher,] 982.) Unfortunately the
term ' Zoology,' which would be the proper one for this branch of science, has
been already appropriated to what ought to have been called ' Zoography ; ' but
there is still ' Zoonomy,' the science of the laws of life, open to adoption, and,
at any rate, much better than ' biology,^ which, if it means anything, would be a
theory of the facts of biography.'''' *

On the other hand, a still more eminent and probably better scholar in Greek
philology, William Whewell, has preferred the term biology to any other. In his
" History of Scientific Ideas," under the caption of " The Philosophy of Biology,"
(Vol. 2, p. 170,) he urges that "the word Physiology, by which they [that is, to
use again his own words, 'the organical sciences'] have most commonly been
described, means the science of nature ; and though it would be easy to explain,
by reference to history, the train of thought by which the word was latterly re-
stricted to living nature, it is plain that the name is, etymologically speaking,
loose and improper. The term biology, which means exactly what we mean to
express, tlie science of life, has often been used, and has of late become not un-
common among good writers."

It may be added that the word fhoq, although doubtless generally used in the
sense of lifetime, as urged by Baden Powell, nevertheless does not appear to have
been limited to such meaning, but to have had practically the same range as our
word life. Even if it were so limited, however, it would be eminently appropriate
from the standpoint from which all scientific students of nature now take view,
for it is the lifetime of nature and the questions of how organisms have been
evolved and how grown and developed that must interest the students of life,
plants and animals, as well as those organisms neither plants nor animals that for-
merly existed and still survive.

It is in fact the sum of those phenomena which may be aptly described as con-
stituting the lifetime of nature that forms the true aim of what may, with the
strictest and exact propriety, be called Biology.

The word seems to have been also used quite generally by entomologists in a
very restricted sense ; that is, as a common denominator for whatever relates to
the special habits and manners of insects in contradistinction to Physiology,
Thus Hagen, in his Bibliotheca Entomologica, (1863,) groups all entomological

* Powell, Order of Nature, Essay 1, g 4, p. 172, note, Theory of Life.

104 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

treatises under eight categories, viz : (i) Accessories and Generals; (2) Genera
Entomology; (3) Special Entomology, i. e., the subordinate groups, orders, etc.
(4) Anatomy; (5) Physiology; (6) Biology; (7) Benefits from Insects; and (8)
Injuries from Insects. This summary will give some idea of what entomologists
intend by the word, and the original sense of the word, as indicated by Plato in
the connection (already indicated, might be used as an argument in justification.
There would, indeed, be no strong objection to the use of the word to signify a
study of habits had it not been abready, by general consent, used in another
sense. Our well considered rules, as well in zoology as in botany, that priority
determines the use of a name, and that the same name cannot be well used in two
different senses, combine with the universal consecration of the term otherwise, to
forbid us to use it in the limited sense indicated.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

A.

Page.

Academy of Sciences, Washington 40, 42

Accounts, auditing 22

Address, presidential 22, 20, 30

Agassiz. Mr. Alexander 9

Ageronia foronia 7.3

Alaslia 25

Allen, Dr. Harrison 30

Allen, Mr. J. A 9

Amendments to tlie Constitution 23

Ampelopsis quinquefolia 28

Angrsecum sesquipedale 70

Animals, Mortality of. 30

Animals, Well Known 30

Anthi'opology, Kreneli, Scliool of 40

Anthropology, What is 38

AntliropolDgical Society ."i, 30, .37, 41, 42, 43

Anthropologists in Biology 35

Appalachian Mountains, Contrasts of. 38

Airearages 22

Arrearages, penalty for 24

Arteries, Ramilications of the 40

Ashford, Dr. F. A 11

Assessments, collection of 22

B.

Baird, Prof. S. F 5, 9, 30

Baker. Dr. l^^rank 11,30,40

Baker on Ramifications of Arteries 40

Baker on Darwin's Expression of Emotions 87

Ballots, count of 22

Barker, Mr. J. S 11

Barnard, Dr. Wm. S 11

Bats, suctorial organs of. 28

Boan, Dr. Tarleton II 11, 2,-i, 35, 44

Bean, Voyage to Alaska and Siberia 25

Bean on Spoonbill Sandpiper 44

Be.ssels, Dr. Emil 11

Beyer, Dr. H. G 11

Bibliography, Darwinian 92

Billings, Dr. John S 11, 42

Biology, ;\nthropologists In 35

Biology, Use of Term 102

Biology, Ziiiii 41

Birney, Mr. II. II 11,30

Birney, General William 11,44

Blepharocera 28

Blish, Mr. .1. B 11

Blood corpusoles, diseased 27

Page.

Botanist, Darwin as a 81

Bransford, Dr. J. F 11

Brewer, Prof. W. II 9,39

Brewster, Mr. Wm 9

Broca, Paul 40

Brooks, Dr. W. K 9

Brown, Mr. J. T 11

Brown, Mr. S. C 12

Burdiok, Mr. E. A 12

Burnett, Dr. Swan M 12,41

Burnett on " How we See "' 41

Busey, Dr. S. C 12

Business, miscellaneous 23

Canby, Mr. W. J 12

Carman, Dr. M. A 12

Cassia oliam;8crista 28

Chase, .Mr II. S 12

Chiasmodontidse 35

Chickcriiig, Prof. J. W 12, 2.5, 28, 3.5, .38, 30, 42

Chiokering, Mr. J. J 12

Chiasmodus niger 35

Chickeringon Appalachian .Mountains 38

Chirkeringon Roan Mountain and its flora.. 28

Christie. Mr. A. S 12

Clirysemys picta 32

Cicada, the Periodical 32

Clark, Mr. A. H 12,30

Cliipea sapid i.ssima.., 33

Collett. Dr. Robert _. 9

Collins, Captain J. W 12,32

Collins on the Mackerel l-'ishery 32

Committees, appointment of 21

Committees, reports of 23

Com.stock, Prof. .J. H 12, 25, 30, 81

Comstock on Scale Insects 31

Con.ant, Mr. W. P 12

Constitution 21-23

Constitution, adoption of 25

Constitution, amendments to 23

Constitution, amendments propsed by Baker 39

Constitution, Committee on 24

Correspondence, conduct of. 22

Coryydalis cornutus 28

Cones, Dr. Elliott 12, 30, 37, .38

Coues on Advances in Ornithology 38

Council, list of. 7

Council, composition of. 21

105

106

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Page.

Council, duties of 22

Council, minutes of. 22

Council, presiding officer 22

Council, quorum of 21

Cox, Mr. W. V 13

Cretaceous Beds of Maryl.and 38

Cashing on Zufii Biology 41

D.

Dale, Dr. F. C 13

Dall, Prof. William H 13, 29, 40, 44

Dall, Biography of Darwin ;j6-59

Dall on Deep-Sea Explorations 40

Dall on mollusks of Dist. Columbia 44

Danias arehippus 79

Darwinian Bibliography 92-101

Darwin, Biography of 56-59

Darwin as a Botanist 81

Darwin's Contributions to Philosophy 60-70

Darwin on Expression of Emotion 87

Darwin Memorial Meeting 40,43,45

Darwin, Mrs. Heideman's bust of 43

Darwin, The Doctrine of. 47-55

Darwin, Ulke's portrait of. 43

Davis, Prof. H. C 13

De Haas, Dr. Wills 13

Deep-Sea Explorations 40

Derby, Prof. O. A 9

Dewey, Dr. F. P 13

Disbursements 22

Discussions 23

District of Columbia, flora of 26,31

District of Columbia, mollusks of 44

Dodge, Mr. C. R 13

Dosh, Mr. F. B 13

Drosera 70

Dutton, Captain C. E 24

E.

Earn, Mr. R. E 13. 30. 34

Elliott, Mr. Henry W 13,33,30,37

Elliott on Arctic Sea-cow 3G, 37

Ellioiton Sea-otter 33

EUzey, Dr. M. G 13,44

Ellzey on Mules 44

Emotions, Expression of 87

Eurynorhynchus pygmceus 44

Evolution, anthropologic 67

Evolution, biologic 67

Evolution, physical 67

Exhibition of specimens 23

Explorations, Deep-Sea 40

Expression of Emotions 87

P.

Farlow, Prof. Wm. G 9

Fee, annual 23

Page.

Fee, initiation 23

Fees, collection of 22

Ferguson, Major T. B 13

Finances, direction of 22

Fish Commission, explorations of. 34

"Fish Hawk," steamer 34

Fish mortality 30

Fishes, Gunther's Study of 29

Fishery, Mackerel 32

Fletcher, Dr. Robert 13,30,40

Fletcher on Paul Broca 40

Flint, Dr. J. M 13,30

Flora Columbiana 26

Flora of District of Columbia 31

Flora of Roan Mountain 28

Foreman, Dr. E 13

Foreman on Cretaceous Beds of Maryland... 38
Founder 11

Garrett, Mr. L. M 14

Gannett, Mr. Henry 14

Gedney, Mr. C. D 14

Geotropism 83, 85

Giglioli, Dr. E. H 10

Gihon, Dr. A. L 14,39

Gilbert, Mr. Charles H 26

Gilbert, Mr. G. K 14,39

Gill, Prof. Theodore 14, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 33,

34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 47

Gill, Principles of Biology 26

Gill on Use of term Biology 102

Gill on Darwin 47-55

Gill on Views of Nature 37

Gill on Great-Swallower 35

Gill on Gunther's Study of Fishes 29

Gill on History of Classification 36

Gill on Suctorialism in Marsupiates 28

Glass snake 35

Goode, Mr. G. Brown 3, 7, 14, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32,

34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44

Goode on the Mackerel 32

Goode on Statistics of Societies of Washing-
ton 43

Goode on Taxidermy 40

Gore, Prof. J. II 14, .30

Gray, Prof. Asa 10,95

Great plains, absence of trees 34

Griffith, Dr. S. II 14

Grimm, Prof. Oscar von 10

Growth, retardation of. 34

Gunther, Dr. A. C. G 35

Giinther's study of fishes 29

Hammond, Dr. William A 36

Hassler, Dr. F. A 1*

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

107

Page.

Hawes, Dr. George W 14,30

Eawes, Dr. George W., death of. 14

Hawlces, Dr. W. H U

Hayden, Mr. E. E 14

Haydfn, Dr. F. V 3G

Heideman, Mrs. Mica 43

Heliotropism 83, 85

Hensh.aw, BTr. H. W 15

Hessel. Dr. R 15

High Island 30

Hoffman, Dr. W. J 15, 30

Hog, Tape-worm from 32

Hooker, Sir Joseph D 72

Hornaday, Mr. W. T 15

Hough, Dr. F. B 15

Hough, Mr. M. B. W 15

Howard, Mr. L. 0 15,30

How we See 41

Howland, Dr. E. P 15

Hyatt, Prof. A 10

Hypotheses, working 67

I.

Ingersoll, Mr. Ernest 15, 24, 30

Ingersoll on Mortality of Marine Animals.... 30

Insects, Scale 31

Introductory note 5

J.

Jabirandi, Physiological Action of. 31

Johnson, Mr. A. B 15

Johnson, Mr. B. F 15

Johnson, Dr. J. T 15

Jordan, Prof. D. S 20

Jordan on Salmon of the Pacific Coast 20

Jouy, Mr. P. L 15

Kennicott, Dr. Robert 30

Kerguelen's Land 72

Kidder, Dr. J. H 15, 2.5, 27, 35, 72

Kidder on External Air of Washington 27

King, Dr. A. F. A 7, 15, 25, 28, 30, 39

King, Septenary Periodicity 28

Koebele, Mr. A 16

Ii.

Lamarck 49

Lamphyrus oecidentalis 73

Lawrence, Mr. Geo. N 10

Lectures, Saturday 37

Lee, Dr. Wm 16

Leech, Mr. D 10

Page.

Lehnert, Rev. E 16

Limeiiitia di.sippus 79

Locusts 32

M.

McDonald, Col. M 16, 28, 32, 34

McDonald on Experiments in Fish Culture.. 32
McDonald on Periodicity in Development.... 28

JIcDonald on Shad in Confinement 34

McMurtrie, Dr. Wm 16

Macjferel 32

Mallory, Col. Garrick 42

Mann, Mr. B. P 16

M ash, Mr. C. C 16

Marsupiates, Suctorial Powers of. 28

Martin, Mr. Frank 16

M.arx, George 16, 30

Mason, O. T 7, 16, 25, 30, 35, 43

Mason on What is Anthropology 38

Mason on Anthropologists in Biology 35

Matthews, Patrick 50

Meek, F. B 36

Meeting, annual 22

Meeting, first annual 26

Meeting, second annual 35

Meeting for organization 24

Meeting, preliminary 24

Meetings, field 23, 30

Meeting, notice of. 22

Meetings, special 23

Meeting, stated 22

Member, original ." 11

Members, active, list of. 11-20

Members, balloting for 23

Members, classification of. 21

Members, corresponding, list of. 9,10

Members, election of 21

Members, honorary, list of 9

Members, women as ._.'. 44

Membership, nominations for 22,23

Membership, proposals for 21

Merrill, Mr. George P 16-30

Mesmerism in animals 33

Mexico, Gulf of 30

Micrococcus septicus 31

Microtome, Freezing 33

Miller, Mr. Benj 16

Miner, Mr. R. H 16

Minutes of proceedings 22

Minutes, reading of 23

Molluscan fauna of D. C 44

Mollusks, Antiquity and Extinction of 34

Morse, Prof. Edward S 10

Muller, Fritz 76

Miiller, Herman 76

Mules 44

Mythology 61

108

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON.

N.

Page.

N&,Tne of the Society 21, 24, 102

Np.res, Sir George S 40

National ."iliiseiim 2(!, 27, :iO, :}i, rjf), 37, 4(1, 44

Nature, Scientific and Popular Views of. 37

Nelson, Mr. E. W 10

Newberry, Prof. J. S 3G

Norris, Dr. Baail 10

Object of the Society 21

Odonto.scelis Darwinii ., 71

Officers 7

Officers, classification of 21

Officers, election of. 22, 23

Officers for 1881) 25

Officers for 1S81 26

Officers for 1882 35

Officers, term of office 22

Opal izat ion 33

Opiioosaurus ventralis 35

Order of busine.ss 23

Order of business, suspension of. 23

Ornithology, advances m '. 38

Osten Sackcn, Baron R. von 36

Packard, A. S., Jr 10

Papers, reading and discussion of. 21, 23

Pata:;onia, insect fauna of 71

Patton, .Mr. W. H 17,21,28,30

Peale, Titian R ; 36

Pergande, T 17, .30

Periodicity, laws of 28

Periodicity, Septenary 28

Petrifaction , ,33

Plienomena, anthropologic, categories of.... CO

Phenomena, biologic, catego'ies of. 66

Phenomena, classification <if CO

Phenomena, physical, categories of CO

Philosophy, classilicatinn of 01

Philosojihy, definitiiin of CO

Pliilosophy, metaphysic 02

Piiilosopjiy, scientific 03

Philosophical Society 30, 41, 42, 43

Pliotomicrogiaphs 27, 31

Pilocarpus piuniitifolius 31

Polymorphism, animal 41

Porter, Dr. J. H 17

Potomac Sliie Naturalist's Club 30

Pourtales, Count L. F. De 30

Powell, Rev. Baden .50,53

Powell, Major .J, \V 17, 37, 39, 42, 43, CO

Powell on Darwin's Contribution to Philoso-
phy 00-70

Powell, Introduction to Saturday Lectures... 37
Powell on Sociology 30

Pago.

Prehension, suctorial 27

Prentice on .laViiraiidi 31

Prentiss, Dr. D. W 7, 17, 28, 3i), 31 35, 30, 38, 44

Prentiss on Mesmerism in Animals 38

President, duties of 22

President, retiring 22

Presidential address 23

Presidential address for 1881 26

Presi<]cntial address for 1882 36

Proceedings, printing of 44

Proceedings of the Society 24-44

Programme, provision for 23

Pronnba 27, 80

Prodoxus 27

Pseudomorphs 33

Pusa lutris 33

Quorum _ 21

R.

Rabbits, Septiecemia in 29

Rathbun, Mr. Richard 3, 7, 17, 24, 25, 20, 30, 34,

35. 42, 44
Rathbun on Explorations of Fish Commis-
sion 34

Ran, Dr. Chas 17

Renill.a, Embryology of 41

Retardation of Growth 34

Reyburn, Dr. Robert 17

Rhytina Stelleri 30, 37

Richey, Dr. S. 0 17

Ridgway, Robert 17, 25, 30, 32, 35

Ridgway on Turkeys 32

Riley, Prof. C. V..17, 24, 25, 20, 27, 28, 20, 3(), 31, 32,
34, 35, 30, 41, 42, 43, 4-1, 70, 79, 80

Riley on Darwin in Entomology 70-77

Riley, Facts about Anim;ds ,39

Riley, Fertilization of Yucca 27

Riley, Reminiscences of Daiuin 77

Riley on lictardation of Growth 34

Riley on Locusts 32

KMley on Scale Insects 31

Riley on Suckers of the Ilelgramite, etc 28

Roan Mountain and its Flora 28

Russell, .Mr. 1. C 17

Ry<ler, Mr. .lohn A 17,33

Ryder on Development of Shad 33

S.

Salmon of Pacific Coast 26

Sandpiper, Spoon billed 44

Satiiniay Lectures 37

S'-ale insects 31

Schaeffer, E. M 17,33

Schonborn, Mr. LI 17

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

109

Page.

Schuerman, Mr. C. W 17,30

Schwartz, Mr. B. A 18,30

Science, definition of C4

SeiKlder. Mr. C. W, 18,30

Scndiler, Mr. N. P 18,28,30,32.40

Siiiddoron Breeding of Tortoise 32

Sea cow, Arctic 30, 37

Beaton, Hon. C. W 18

Seaman, Prof. W. H 18,30,31

Sea-otter 33

Sections, chairman of. 29

Sections, formation of 22,29

Scelcy, Col. F. A 43

Septenary Periodicity 28

Sliad, Eggs of. 33

Sliad in Confinement 34

Sheldon, Blr. C. 8 18, 30

Shnfcldt, Dr. R. W 18,35

Shnfeldton Glass Snake 35

Shute. Mr. D. K 18

Siberia 25,44

Simuliiim, sp 28

Smiley, C. W 18, 30

Smith, Prof. S. 1 10

Smith, Mr. W. R 18

Smithsonian Institution, Secretary of. 5

Sociology, Outlines of 39

Siilanum rostratum 28

Specimens, exhibition of 33

Sti'inegger, L 18

Sternberg, Dr. George M 18, 29, 30, .31

Sternberg on micrococcus 31

Sternberg on Septicsemia 29

Stevenson, ;\lr. James 18

Stimpson, Mr. W. G 18

Streets, Dr. T. H IS

Suckers of plants 28

Suckley, Dr. George 3G

Suctorial Prehension 27

Taylor, F. W 19

Taylor, Dr. Thomas 19,30, 31, 33

Taylor, Dr. William B 42

Taylor on Freezing Microtome 33

Taylor on Tape-worm from Hog 32

Tape-worm fi-om Hog 32

Taxidcrmic Skill 40

Taxonomy 2G

Terra del Fuego, insect fauna of 71

Thompson, Dr. J. Ford 19

Todd, Prof. .1. E 19, 28

Todd on Flowering of Solanum, etc 28

Toner, Dr. J. M 19

Tortoise, painted 32

Tortoises, Land, of North America 35

Page.

Treasurer, duties of 22

Trees, Absence on Great Plains 34

True, Mr. Frederick VV.... 19, 24, 27, 30, 32, 35, 3R,

37, 39, 44

True, Darwinian bibliography > 92

True on Arctic Sea-cow, 36, 37

True on Land Tortoises 35

True on Suctorial Prehension in Animals 27

True on Siren lacertina 36

True on Zoologischer .lahresbericht 32

Turkeys, wild and domesticated 32

Turner, Mr. L. M 19

XT.

Ulke, Mr. Henry 19, 25, 30, 34, 35, 36, 43, 44

Uphara, Mr. E. P... 19

Vasey, Dr. George 7, 19, 24, 25, 30, 35

Velie, Dr. J. W 10

Verrill, Prof. A. E 10

Vestiges of Creation 40, 50

Vice-President, duties of 22

Vote, privilege of. 23

Walsh, Mr. Benjamin Dann 70

Ward, Prof. Lester F 3, 7,.19, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30.

31, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42, 44

Ward on Darwin as a Botanist 81

Ward, Exhibition of Petrifaction 33

Ward on Flora Columbianfe of 1830 and 1880.. 26

Ward, statistics of flora of D. C 31

Ward on Trees on Great Plains 34

Washington, external air of 27

Wa'^hington, scientific societies of. 36, 40, 41

Waterhouse, G. R 71

Watson, Sereno 10

Weir, Dr. .1. Jenner 77

Welling, Dr. James C 42

Wells, Dr. W. 0 50

White, Dr. C.A 19,26,27,34

White, Mr. M. P 19

White on Antiquity and Extinction of .Mol-

lusks 34

White on Collection of Fossils 27

Wilder, Prof. Burt G 36

Willlam.s, Mr. A 19,30

Wilson, Mr. J. M 20

Wilson, Dr Edmund B 10,41

Wilson on Renilla 41

Winslow, Mr. F 28

Wolflcy, Mr. W.J 20,30,39

Women, admission of. 44

110

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

Page.

Yarnall, Dr. J. H 20

Yarrow, Dr. H C 20

Yeates, Mr. W. S 20

Yellow fever 27

Yucca, fertilzation of 27

Z.

Page.

Zoological Record 32

Zoologischer Jahresbericht 32

Zoology, classification in 36

Zumbrock, Dr. A 20

Zuiii biology 41

SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

499

V

)- '> tr-^^

^rx'

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Biological Society or Washington,

WITH THE ADDRESSES READ ON THE OCCASION OF THE

DARWIN MEMORIAL MEETING

May 12, 1882.

f^7>.

^

Volume I.

November 19. 1880, to May 26, 1882.

WASHINGTON:

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

1883.

'\'JSJ;3'"**i I-IBRARV

iOOLlNC fl

^