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PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
PUBLISHED WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
Voutume IV.
FEBRUARY 20, 1886, TO JANUARY 28, 1888.
WASHINGTON:
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
1888.
A EE ESA Bs
'71099 >
it
LOW AT hi USE Uh
SE Pega).
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE.
C. HART MERRIAM, Chairman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, R. E. C.. STEARNS,
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
II
fa or oe
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Officers and Committees for 1887 . . . + © © «© © © © «© « iv
Officers and Committe¢@s for 1888 . . . . 2 2% © © «© «© @ v
Joint. Commisetan.: 2450 peal aa ee eee ee ew vi
Proceedings, February 20, 1886, to January 20, 1888. . . . .~ vii-xxii
Saturday Lectures; 2586-6 2s ata ae oe eee se ee
cb 95 1887 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xxili
Baird Memorial Meeting 500 0 wd 6 ei pei gira es es) RRM
Notice of Botanical Section’). 23563 soe a ae oe ee a ie EG
Addresses and Communications:
Description of a new species of Bat from the Western United
States / Vespertilio ctiliolabrum, sp. nov.), mE C. Hart Mer-
riama (December: 19; 2800") 65) ns Se ea fae ate ict Loe
Description of a new Mouse from New Mexico (Hesperomys
anthonyt, sp. nov.), by C. Hart Merriam (April 15, 1887*) . 5-8
The Beginnings of Natural History in America—The Third
Century—Annual Address of the President, G. Brown Goode,
JANGSry: 22, SF es aciee ee eh We le a oe ee eee
Some American Conchologists. Annual Address of the Presi-
dent, William H. Dall, January 28, 1888. . . . - - + 95-134
Description of a new Fox from Southern California ( VudZes
macrotis, sp. nov.), by C. Hart Merriam (February 18, 1888.*) 135-138
* Author’s separates of the special papers here enumerated were published on the dates given
in the parentheses following the author’s name.
ltr
LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
' ELectep January 8, 1887.
OFFICERS.
PRESIDENT.
WILLIAM H. DALL.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
LESTER F. WARD, CHAS. D. WALCOTT,
FRANK BAKER, C. HART MERRIAM.
SECRETARIES.
RICHARD RATHBUN, FREDERIC A. LUCAS.
TREASURER.
FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
COUNCIL.
WILLIAM H. DALL, President.
FRANK BAKER, OTIS T. MASON,
TARLETON H. BEAN, C. HART MERRIAM,
H. G. BEYER, RICHARD RATHBUN,
THEODORE GILL,* i RB. C. STEARNS,
G. BROWN GOODE,*» CHAS. D. WALCOTT,
F. H. KNOWLTON,. . : LESTER F. WARD,
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, CHARLES A. WHITE,*
GEORGE VASEY.
STANDING COMMITTEES—1887.
Committee on Communications.
G. BROWN GOODE, Chairman.
C. HART MERRIAM, FRANK BAKER.
Committee on Publications.
C. HART MERRIAM, Chazrman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, R. E. C. STEARNS,
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
Committee on Lectures.
G. BROWN GOODE, Chairman.
FRANK BAKER, G. K. GILBERT, .
C. HART MERRIAM, CHARLES V. RILEY.
Committee on the Trees and Shrubs of Washington.
LESTER F. WARD, Chairman.
WILLIAM SMITH, FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
GEORGE VASEY, E. LAMSON SCRIBNER.
* Ex-Presidents of the Society.
Iv
LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ELECTED JANUARY 14, 1888.
OFFICERS.
PRESIDENT.
/WILLIAM H. DALL.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
LESTER F. WARD, CHARLES V. RILEY,
C. HART MERRIAM, RICHARD RATHBUN.
SECRETARIES.
JOHN B. SMITH, -FREDERIC A. LUCAS. -
TREASURER.
F. H. KNOWLTON.
COUNCIL.
WILLIAM H. DALL, President.
TARLETON H. BEAN, RICHARD RATHBUN,
THEODORE GILL,* CHARLES V. RILEY,
G. BROWN GOODE,* JOHN B. SMITH,
JEROME H. KIDDER, R. E. C. STEARNS,
F. H. KNOWLTON, FREDERICK W. TRUE,
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, LESTER F. WARD,
C. HART MERRIAM, ‘CHARLES A. WHITE, *
GEORGE VASEY.
STANDING COMMITTEES—1888.
Committee on Communications.
G. BROWN GOODE, Chairman.
C. HART MERRIAM, FREDERIC A. LUCAS,
Committee on Publications.
C. HART MERRIAM, Chairman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, R. E. C. STEARNS,
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
Committee on Lectures.
G. BROWN GOODE, Chairman.
FRANK BAKER G. K. GILBERT,
C. HART MERRIAM, CHARLES V. RILEY.
Committee on the Trees and Shrubs of Washington.
LESTER F. WARD, Chairman.
WILLIAM SMITH, FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
GEORGE VASEY, F. LAMSON SCRIBNER.
* Ex-Presidents of the Society.
Vv
JOINT COMMISSION.
A temporary joint committee, appointed for the purpose of
considering the advisability of forming a permanent joint com-
mittee, submitted the following report to each of the five societies
concerned :—
WuerEAS, There now exist in Washington several scientific
societies, organized with similar aims, working by similar meth-
ods, composed largely of the same members, and meeting in the
same place; and
Whereas, Matters of common interest are numerous and con-
stantly increasing: therefore it is
Resolved, That it is the sense of this committee, that it is advis-
able to form a Joint Commission of the Anthropological, Biolog-
ical, Chemical, Geographic and Philosophical Societies of Wash-
ington to consider questions of common interest ;
That such Joint Commission shall consist of three representa-
tives from each of the five Societies ; :
That its functions shall be advisory, except that it may execute
instructions on general subjects, and in special cases, from two or
more of the Societies participating ;
Provided, That no Society shall be bound by the Commission
to an act as to which it has not given instruction.
The above resolution resulted in the establishment of a perma-
nent Joint Commission, composed of the following delegates :
Anthropological Soctety. Biological Society.
ROBERT FLETCHER, WILLIAM H. DALL,
WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, C. HART MERRIAM,
F. A. SEELY. RICHARD RATHBUN.
’ Chemical Society. National Geographic Society.
J. H. KIDDER, GARDNER HUBBARD,
F. W. CLARK, HENRY GANNETT,
H. W. WILEY. JOHN R. BARTLETT.
Philosophical Society.
~ GARRICK MALLERY,
J. W. POWELL,
MARCUS BAKER.
vi
PROCEEDINGS.*
NINETIETH MEETING, February 20, 1886.
The President in the chair, and thirty-seven persons present.
Dr. D. E. Salmon and Dr. Theobald Smith presented a pa-
per, which was read by the latter, entitled, ON a New MetTuHop
oF Propucine Immunity From Conracious DIsEASEs.
A paper by Prof. C. V. Riley, describing A CARNIvoROUS
ButTerFLy Larva, FENESICA TARQUINIUS,f was read by Mr.
J. B. Smith. Specimens of both the larva and imago were ex-
hibited. :
Prof. L. F. Ward spoke upon THE PLANE TREE AND ITS AN-
cEsTors,{ and exhibited specimens and figures of both the recent
and fossil species.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEw SpeciEs or APLODON-
TIA FROM CALIFORNIA,§ and exhibited skins and skulls of the.
only two species of the genus at present known.
Ninety-First Meetinc, March 6, 1886.
The President in the chair, and thirty-six persons present. -
Dr. George Vasey spoke upon NEw anp RECENT SPECIES OF
Nortu AMERICAN GRASSES.
Mr. Charles Hallock read a paper entitled Hyprr-INstTincr
IN ANIMALS.
* Until March 19, 1887, the meetings were held either in the Lecture
Room or in the office of the National Museum, and subsequently in the
Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club, on Lafayette Square.
+1886. Amer. Nat., June; and Proc. Ent. Soc., Washington, i, No. 2,
P- 37-
{The Paleontological History of the Genus Platanus. <Proc. U. S.
Nat. Mus., xi. (In course of publication.)
§ 1886. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a New Species of Aplo-
dontia from Caitfornia. < Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., iii, No. 10, pp. 312-328,
plates 19, 20, and two tables.
VII
VIII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
NINETY-SECOND MEETING, March 20, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-one persons present.
The following communications were presented :
Dr. D. E. Salmon and Dr. Theobald Smith, Notrres on Somer
BroLocicAL ANALYSES OF Potomac DRINKING WATER.
Dr. H. G. Beyer, Remarks on ANnTI-PyYRETICs.
Dr. W. S. Barnard, THE Errects or KEROSENE ON ANIMAL
AND VEGETABLE LiFe, with exhibition of a fungus that had de-
veloped in an emulsion of kerosene and milk.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton, AppITIONS TO, AND CHANGES IN, THE
FLorA CoLuMBIANA FoR 1885.* |
Ninety-Tuirp MEETING, April 3, 18386.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two members present.
Mr. J. B. Smith read a paper entitled Some PEecuttar SEc-
ONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS IN THE DELToOIDs, AND THEIR
SupposED FuNCTIONS.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described a NEw Supspecies oF GRAY
SQUIRREL FROM CENTRAL MINNESOTA.T
A paper by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, on Some Earty, AND As
yET UNPUBLISHED, DRAWINGS oF AUDUBON, was read by Mr.
F. W. True. Photographs of the drawings were exhibited.
Dr. Frank Baker and Mr. J. L. Wortman spoke upon REcENT
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE MECHANISM OF THE ELBow Joint. }
Ninety-FourtH Meetine, April 17, 1886.
Prof. Ward, Vice-President, in the chair, and seventeen per-
sons present.
Prof. Theodore Gill described THr CHARACTERISTICS AND
Fami iss oF [nromous FIsSHEs.
* 1886. These Proceedings, ili, pp. 106-132.
t Science, April 16, 1886, 35:.
t Embodied in the article, ‘‘ Elbow-ioint,” Wood’s Reference Hand- pot
of Medical Sciences, vol. ii.
PROCEEDINGS. Ix
Mr. F. A. Lucas read a paper entitled Nores.oN THE VERTE-
BR OF AMPHIUMA, SIREN, AND MENOPOMA.*
Mr. F. W. True gave an account of Some DIsTINCTIVE CrRa-
NIAL CHARACTERS OF THE CANADIAN Lynx,f with exhibition
of specimens, and also exhibited a specimen of a wood hare,
showing an abnormal growth of fur.
NINETY-FirtH MEETING, May 1, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-six persons present.
Prof. R. E. C. Stearns read a paper entitled INSTANCES OF
THE ErFrEectT oF MusIcAL SOUNDS ON ANIMALS.
Mr. John A, Ryder spoke upon THE EvoLuTIoN OF THE
MAMMALIAN PLACENTA,{ which, he contended, had passed in its
evolution from a diffuse, through a zonary, to a discoidal condi-
tion. |
Mr. W. H. Dall exhibited specimens of LiIncuLA (GLOTTIDIA) »
PYRAMIDATA, Stimpson, attached to sand and bits of shell by
the tip of the peduncle. He also described THE SuPERFICIAL
ANATOMY OF DIFFERENT SPECIES OF THE GENUS PECTEN.$
NINETY-SIxTH MEETING, May 29, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two persons present.
Mr. J. B. Smith read a paper on Ants’ Nests AND THEIR
INHABITANTS. || |
Dr. T. H. Bean presented a communication on THE Trout
*1886. Lucas, F. A. The Sacrum of Menopoma. <Amer. Nat., xx,
pp- 561, 562, June.
+1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, pp. 8, 9.
{ A Theory of the Origin of Placental Types, and on certain vestigiary
structures on the placentz of the mouse, rat, and field-mouse. American
Naturalist, August, 1887, pp. 770-784 (with two figs.)
See also (the placentation of the two-toed ant-eater, Cycloturus didac-
tylus), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1887, p. ——.
§ 1886. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., xii, No. 6. _
| 1886. Amer. Nat., xx, pp. 679-687, August.
x BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
oF NortH AMERICA, with exhibition of specimens, which was
followed by a long discussion, in which many members partici-
pated.
Prof. L. F. Ward exhibited a SPECIMEN OF THE Pato La
Cruz, oR Woop OF THE Cross, obtained in Northern Brazil.
NINETY-SEVENTH MEETING, October 16, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twelve members present.
The Secretary read a letter from Dr. Basil Norris, U. S. A.,
Spokane Falls, W. T., descriptive of the larval form of a species
of Amblystoma, probably A. tigrzva, a specimen of which was
exhibited.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton read a paper on FAsciaTION IN Ra-
NUNCULUS AND RuUDBECKIA, exhibiting specimens of each of the
genera, and reviewing the different theories held by authors as to
_ the cause of this structure. Remarks upon the same subject
were made by Dr. Fernow, Prof. Ward, and Mr. Mann.
Mr. J. B. Smith gave an account of an abnormal abundance
of DyNASTES TITYUS, one of the largest of the American beetles,
and having an intensely disagreeeble odor. It occasionally oc-
curs in the District of Columbia, and ranges south and west from
there into Texas and Mexico.*
Mr. F. W. True presented A Revision OF THE GENUS La-
GENORHYNCHUS. He also exhibited an abnormally developed
hoof of a mule, which was curved and twisted like a ram’s horn,
and a living specimen of the Almiguz (Solenodon cubanus)
from Cuba, the largest known American Insectivore.
NINETY-E1IGHTH MEETING, October 30, 1886.
The President in the chair, and ten members present.
Prof. Theodore Gill presented a communication on ‘T-aN10So-
MOUS FIsHEs.t
* 1887. Popular Science Monthly, xxx, pp. 409, 410, January.
+ The Characteristics and Relations of the Ribbon-fishes. <Am. Nat.,
v. 21, p. 86, Jan., 787.
PROCEEDINGS. XI
Dr. H.G. Beyer, U.S. N., called attention to an alleged method
of instructing the memory, which is being widely advertised.
NINETY-NINTH MEETING, November 13, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two persons present.
The following amendment to the Constitution, on motion of
Mr. Dall, was unanimously adopted: ‘* No person shall be con-
sidered a member ofthe Society until he shall have signified to
the Secretary, in writing, his acceptance of election, and shall have
paid his entrance fee and annual dues for the year in which he
shall have been elected.” 3 .
Dr. Filip Trybom, Inspector of Fisheries, of Sweden, read a
paper ON THE RECENT PROGRESS OF ZOGLOGY IN SWEDEN.*
Prof. J. W. Chickering, Jr., under the title, TRAVELS IN
ALASKA, gave a graphic description of the coast scenery of British
Columbia and southeastern Alaska, as seen from the deck of a
passenger steamer. :
Mr. William H. Dall presented some Historicat Notes on
THE DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS OF THE NATIONAL MusEvum.t
OnE HunpreptH MEETING, November 27, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-five persons present.
Prof. W. H. Seaman presented a communication entitled
Nores ON MARSILIA QUADRIFOLIA, illustrating his remarks
with stereopticon views, and herbarium and microscopical speci-
mens. Prof. Ward referred to the paleontological history of the
order containing the Marsz/ia.
Prof. L. F. Ward spoke upon THE AuTUMNAL HUEs OF THE
Co_umBIAN Fiora, which he thought were much brighter and
finer than farther north. This paper gave rise to a long discus-
sion, in which Prof. Riley, Dr. Merriam, Mr. Mann, and Mr.
Goode participated.
* 1887. Trysom, Firip. The Present Condition of the Natural Sciences
in Sweden. < Amer. Nat., xxi, pp. 409-415, May.
t+ Annual Rept. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1886.
XII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A New Species or Bat,
VESPERTILIO CILIOLABRUM, from the Western States.*
One Hunprep anp First MEETING, December 11, 1886.
The President in the chair, and twenty-three persons present.
The following papers were read:
Dr. Theobald Smith, Parasiric BacTERIA AND THEIR RE-
LATION TO SAPROPHYTES.
Mr. F. A. Lucas, ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE SPOTTED TIN-
AMOU, NOTHURA MACULOSA:T
Mr. C. D. Walcott, CkustacEAN TrAcKs Founp on STRATA
oF UpPpER CAMBRIAN (PoTspAM) AGE.
Dr. Frank Baker, THE FoRAMEN oF MAGENDIE.{
Dr..C. Hart Merriam, DesckiIPTION oF A NEw SUB-SPECIES
oF PockET GOPHER, FROM THE COLORADO DESERT OF SOUTH-
ERN CALIFORNIA?$
OnE HuNDRED AND SECOND MEETING, January 8, 1887.
(Seventh Annual Meeting.)
The President in the chair, and twenty-one members present.
The annual reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were read
and accepted.
The following board of officers was elected for the ensuing
year : |
Prestdent—Mr. William H. Dall.
Vice- Prestdents—Prof. Lester F. Ward, Dr. Frank Baker,
Mr. C. D. Walcott, Dr. C. Hart Merriam.
Secretartes—Mr. Richard Rathbun, Mr. Frederic A. Lucas.
Treasurer—Mr. F. H. Knowlton.
* 1886. These Proceedings, iv, pp. 1-4 (Extras issued Dec. 17, 1886).
¢ 1886. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 157.
¢ Embodied in the article, ‘‘ Meninges,” Wood’s Reference Hand-book of
Medical Sciences, vol. viii.
§ Science, Dec. 24, 1886, 588.
PROCEEDINGS. XIII
Additional Members of the Counctl—Dr. T. H. Bean, Dr.
George Vasey, Prof. O. T. Mason, Dr. H. G. Beyer, Prof. R. E.
C. Stearns.
OnE Hunprep AND TurrD MEETING, January 22, 1887.
(Seventh Anniversary Meeting. )
The President, Mr. Dall, occupied the chair, and about seventy-
five persons were present, including invited guests.
The retiring President, Mr. G. Brown Goode, delivered an ad-
dress, entitled; THr BrGInnincs oF NaturAL HIstTory IN
AMERICA—THE THIRD CENTURY.*
OnE HuNnpDRED AND FourtH MEETING, February 5, 1887.
The President occupied the chair, and thirty-five persons were
present, including Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, of England.
Mr. William T. Hornaday read a paper entitled THE Last oF
THE BuFFALO, in which he described the rapid destruction of this
species, and narrated his recent experiences in obtaining speci-
mens for the National Museum.
Prof. Cope, Dr. Merriam, and Mr. Fernow made remarks upon
the same subject.
Mr. Richard Rathbun exhibited a series of temperature charts
prepared by the U. S. Fish Commission to illustrate the surface
water temperatures of the Atlantic sea coast of the United States,
in connection with the migrations of fishes.
_ Mr. Dall spoke upon the value of temperature observations in
studying the distribution of marine animals.
* These Proceedings, pp. 9-94. Extras printed with cover and title page.
+ 1887. RATHBUN, RICHARD. Ocean Temperatures of the Eastern Coast
of the United States, from observations made at twenty-four light-houses
and light-shifs. <U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. * * *
The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. * * * By
George Brown Goode * * * anda Staff of Associates, Section iii, pp.
155-176, 32 folding plates, quarto.
XIV BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A New Species or Woop
Rat, NeotomaA BrYANTI, FROM CERROS ISLAND, off Lower Cal-
ifornia.*
Mr. Leonhard Stejneger exhibited specimens of several NEw
SPECIES OF BirpDS FROM THE SANDWICH IsLANDs,t and made
remarks upon the avifauna of that region.
Mr. Eaduard Muybridge, of Philadelphia, by invitation, ex-
hibited a series of his photographic views of animals in motion,
and explained the process of taking them. The assistance of these
views in explaining some obscure points in the evolution of ver-
tebrates was pointed out by Prof. Cope.
OnE Hunprep AND Firru MEETING, February 19, 1887.
Prof. Ward, Vice-President, in the chair, and twenty-two per-
sons present. ;
The presiding officer announced that an invitation had been re-
ceived from the Cosmos Club to use its new hall for the future
meetings of the Society. It was accepted.
Prof. E. D. Cope described A New Species oF SNAKE, from
the District of Columbia, closely related to the common Water
Snake, Zropzdonotus sipedon, which he proposes to call 7. 62-
sectus.{ He also spoke upon THE Hyorip APPARATUS IN THE
URODELE BATRACHIANS.
Dr. George Vasey made some remarks upon A REcENT Co -
LECTION OF MEXICAN GRASSES, OBTAINED BY DR. E. PALMER,
and exhibited specimens of the rarer species.
Prof. R. E. C. Stearns read a paper on THE ASCLEPIAD
PLANT, ARAUJIA ALBANS,§ and explained the mechanism of its
blossoms in capturing Lepidoptera. This subject was further
discussed by Prof. Riley, Mr. Smith, Prof. Ward, Dr. Baker,
and Prof. Cope.
* 1887. Amer. Nat., xxi, No. 2, pp. 191-193.
+ 1887. SreyJNEGER, LEonuarpD. Birds of Kauai Island, Hawaiian Ar-
chipelago, collected by Mr. Valdemar Knudsen, with descriptions of new
spectes. <Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, pp. 75-102.
$1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, p. 146.
$1887. STEARNS, R.E.C. Avaujia albens as a moth trap. <Am.
Nat., xxi, pp. 501I~507. .
PROCEEDINGS. XV
One HuNDRED AND SIxTH MEETING, March 5, 1887.
Prof. Ward, Vice-President, in the chair, and twenty-eight
persons present.
Mr. P. L. Jouy presented a communication entitled CorEa ;
THe CountTRY AND THE PEopLE, and exhibited a large series
of native implements and utensils, and also many photographs.
Dr. Frank Baker described Somze UNusuat Muscutar Vari-
ATIONS IN THE HuMAN Bopy,* which had recently come under
his notice, illustrating his remarks with the aid of diagrams and
prepared specimens.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam exhibited and described A New Species
or Woop Mouse, Evotomys CANADENSIS, recently received
from the mountains of North Carolina.
Dr. H. G. Beyer made some remarks upon THE PRESERVA-
TION OF BoTTLED Mus&umM SPECIMENS, especially in the line of
Materia Medica.
OnE HunpDRED AND SEVENTH MEETING, March 19, 1887.
Prof. Ward, Vice-President, in the chair, and twenty-two per-
sons present.
Mr. L. O. Howard read a paper entitled A Rock Creek Pur-
LANTHROPIST,f the philanthropist being the larva of a species of
flydropsyche, which preys upon the abundant larve of the black
fly (Stmulium venustum) .
Mr. Charles Hallock described THrt Trans-ConTINENTAL
RANGE OF THE Moose, ALCES MACHLIS, IN NorTH AMERICA. {
Dr. T. H. Bean compared AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN WORK
IN DEEP SEA ICHTHYOLOGY, much to the credit of the former
country.
Mr. F. A. Lucas noted THe OccurrENcE or NocrurNaL
LEPIDOPTERA AT SEA, mentioning some twelve or thirteen spe-
cies which had been found distant from land.§
* Published in the New York Medical Record, December 31, 1887, vol.
xxxli, No. 27, under the title, ‘‘ Some Unusual Muscular Anomalies.”
+ 1886. Published in part in Annual Rept., Dept. of Agriculture, 1886,
p- 510.
t 1887. American Field, xxvii, 15, 344, April 9. :
§ Science, April 8, 1887.
XVI BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Capt. J. W. Collins, under the title Some Nove Facts In
THE NATURAL History OF THE CopFIsH, described certain curi-
ous variations in the species, and exhibited several articles found
in the stomachs or imbedded in the flesh. The most peculiar of
these was a small hand-made knife of curious workmanship.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEW SpEciEs oF MOUSE
FROM New Mexico (HESPEROMYS ANTHONYI).*
OnE HunprRED AND E1cHutH MEETING, April 2, 1887.
The Society met for the first time in the Assembly Hall of the
Cosmos Club. The President occupied the chair, and thirty per-
sons were present.
Dr. Theobald Smith described the QUANTITATIVE VARIATIONS
IN THE GERM LIFE oF Potomac WATER DURING 1886.
Dr. Edward Eggleston made an interesting communication, in
the form of queries, addressed to the members of the Society, re-
specting CERTAIN PLANTS AND ANIMALS KNOWN TO THE First
Cotonists or Nortu America. Many replies were obtained.
Prof. O. T. Mason exhibited and described a large series of
REPRESENTATIONS OF ANIMAL LIFE IN Eskimo ART.
Mr. F. W. True gave an account of THE BLACKFISH OF OUR
SOUTHERN WATERS.
OnE Hunprep AnD NintH MEETING, April 16,.1887.
The President in the chair, and forty-one persons present.
Mr. W. H. Dall described some Recent GrorocicaL Ex-
PLORATIONS IN SOUTHWESTERN FLoripa,} made by himself.
The observations were discussed by Mr. G. K. Gilbert and Dr. T.
Sterry Hunt.
Dr. H. G. Beyer spoke upon Tue AcTIon OF CAFFEINE UPON
THE KIDNEYS.
* 1887. These Proceedings, iv, pp. 5-8. (Extras issued April 15, 1887.)
+1887. Dari, Witt1AMH. WJWotes on the Geology of Florida. <Amer.
Tour. Sci., xxxiv, pp. 162-170.
etre
PROCEEDINGS. XVII
Dr. C. Hart Merriam read a paper detailing the RAVAGES OF
THE BoBOLINK IN THE RIcE FIELDS OF THE SOUTH.*
One HunprED AND TENTH MEETING, April 30, 1887.
. The President in the chair, and thirty-eight persons present.
Dr. J. H. Kidder exhibited a rounded concretion-like mass
taken from the stomach of a codfish; and also several rounded
grass balls from a small salt pond near Pyramid Lake, Nevada,
and explained’ their composition. These gave rise to much dis-
cussion, and Mr. McGee, who had collected the grass balls, de-
scribed the manner of their formation.
Mr. F. A. Lucas spoke upon THE Os PROMINENS IN Birps.
Mr. W. T. Hornaday read a paper entitled Crvi_izaTION As
AN EXTERMINATOR OF SAVAGE Races, which led to some re-
marks by Prof. Ward and Mr. Dall.
Mr. W. H. Dall called attention to A GENus oF BIvALVE Mor-
Lusks New To Nortu America. The genus is Cyrenxella.t
OnE HuNDRED AND ELEVENTH MEETING, May 14, 1887.
The President in the chair, and forty-two persons present.
Prof. C. V. Riley presented some BioLocicaL NoTEs on
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, suggested by a recent trip to’ that re-
gion. Remarks were made by Dr. Vasey, Dr. Merriam, Prof.
Stearns, and Mr. Dall.
Mr. P. L. Jouy exhibited specimens of A Birp NEw To JAPAN,
PITTA OREAS OF SWINHOE, from the island of Tsushima.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton made a communication on THE RECENT
SHOWER OF POLLEN IN WASHINGTON, the so-called ‘* sulphur
shower.” The distance which pollen may be carried by the
winds gave rise to remarks by Dr. Vasey, Prof. Riley, and Prof.
Ward.
* 1887. Published in part in Annual Rept. tide of Agriculture for 1886,
pp- 246-250.
+ 1887. Amer. Jour. Sci., xxxiv, p. 170.
XVIII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The question, ‘‘ Dors THE FiyincG Fisu Fry?” was discussed
by Mr. W. B. Barrows, Engineer G. W. Baird, U. S. N., Mr.
Lucas, Mr. Goode, Mr. Hallock, Mr. Dall, and Prof. Riley.
One Hunprep AND TweLrrH MEETING, May 28, 1887.
The President in the chair, and twenty-one persons present.
Prof. R. E. C. Stearns read a paper entitled THz ProrEcTiveE
DEVICES IN THE ‘* CARRIER SHELL,” XENOPHORA, and exhibited
specimens of several species.
Mr. R. T. Hill explained Tue TruzE Grotocicat Horizon
OF SOME HITHERTO UNPLACED FAuNAS, with special reference to
the Cretaceous of Texas. Mr. McGee made some remarks on Mr.
Hill’s paper. .
Mr. G. Brown Goode exhibited a series of JAPANESE CHROMO-
LITHOGRAPHS OF FisHEs, recently published. Mr. Baba, of
Japan, spoke upon Japanese methods of delineation, and the sub-
ject was further discussed by Prof. Gill, Prof. Riley, Mr. Dall,
Mr. Stejneger, and Prof. Seaman.
OnE HuNDRED AND THIRTEENTH MEETING, October 22, 1887.
The President in the chair, and forty persons present.
The President announced the death, during the summer recess,
of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, the only honorary member of the So-
ciety, and of Dr. Charles Rau, one of its most distinguished active
members.
Mr. L. O. Howard described AN Ant-DEcCAPITATING PaRa-
SITE, the larva of a species of Diptera, probably belonging to the
family Coxopide, from New Hampshire.
Dr. George Vasey presented some Notes on WESTERN
GRASSES. 3
Mr. F. A. Lucas read a paper entitled THz Brrp Rocks or
THE GULF oF SAINT LAWRENCE IN 1887.* These rocks are situ-
ated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and were visited, during the
* 1888. The Auk, April.
Se ae ee
ote ot ee 2 e :
PROCEEDINGS. . Tx
summer of 1887, by Mr. Lucas with the Fish Commission schooner
Grampus.
Mr. A. A. Crozier, under the title, Some BoranicaL TERMs,
referred to the ambiguity attending the use of the words ‘ sinis-
trorse ’’ and ‘‘ dextrorse,” as applied to twining plants.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam gave an account of the FAUNA AND FLora
OF THE GREAT SMOKy Mountains IN NortH CAROLINA AND
TENNESSEE.
OnE HUNDRED AND FouRTEENTH MEETING, November 5, 1887.
The President in the chair, and thirty-six persons present.
Mr. John B. Smith read a paper on SoME GEOGRAPHICAL VA-
RIATIONS OF INSECTS, with special reference to local variations
in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. |
Dr. T. H. Bean presented a communication respecting THE
Younc Forms or SOME OF OuR Foop FIsHEs, and exhibited
alcoholic specimens of the same. |
Mr. N. P. Scudder explained THE PERIOD OF GESTATION IN
THE ComMMoN CaGED WHITE MovuseE.
Mr. H. E. Van Diemen exhibited specimens of the fruit and
colored drawings of the foliage, flowers, and fruit of THE Jap-
ANESE PERSIMMON, D10SPYROS KAKI.
Prof. Theodore Gill described the characteristics of THE Fisu
FAUNA OF THE SouTH TEMPERATE OR NOTALIAN REALM.
One HunprRED AND FirTEENTH MEETING, Nov. 1g, 1887.
Prof. Ward, Vice-President, in the chair, and thirty-two per-
sons present.
Col. Marshall McDonald presented an EXPLANATION OF PAST
FAILURES IN THE CULTURE OF THE SALMONID&.
Mr. Walter B. Barrows read a paper entitled Fresuet NorEs
ON THE Rio UruGuay, SouTH AMERICA.
Dr. T. H. Bean described A New Species oF THyRSITOPS
XX BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
FROM THE NEw ENGLAND FISHING BANnks,* with the aid of
photographs and a life-size crayon sketch.
Mr. F. W. True gave a review of some of the more important
works on Cetaceans published since 1886.
Mr. F. A. Lucas read a paper entitled An AtcinzE CEME-
TERY, being the resting-place of the Great Auk on Funk Island,
off Newfoundland.
Mr. H. E. Van Diemen called attention to a cluster of the
fruit of the date palm, Phenzx dactylifera, from New Orleans,
which he had placed upon the table for examination.
OnE HuNDRED AND SIXTEENTH MEETING, December 3, 1887.
The President in the chair, and thirty-nine persons present.
Mr. Charles Hallock read a.paper descriptive of THE Great —
RosEAU Swamp of northwestern Minnesota.
A communication from Dr. C. A. White, on Tue Rapip Dis-
APPEARANCE OF THE SHED ANTLERS OF THE CERVIDA, Was
read by the Secretary.
Dr. Theobald Smith made a few remarks upon PEPTONIzING
FERMENTS AMONG BACTERIA.
Mr. C. D. Walcott exhibited A Fosstr LincuLa PRESERVING
THE CAST OF THE PEDUNCLE, from the Hudson Terrane, near
Rome, N. Y. : :
Ptof. Theodore Gill discussed THz PHyLOGENY OF THE CE-
TACEA. :
OnE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH MEETING, Dec. 17, 1887.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Vice-President, in the chair, and twenty-
three persons present. | :
Mr. C. L. Hopkins read a paper ‘entitled Nores RELATIVE To
THE SENSE OF SMELL IN THE TuRKEY BuzzArp.
Dr. Cooper Curtice described some recent observations respect-
ing THE TIMBER LINE oF PIKE’s PEAK.
* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x (in course of publication).
PROCEEDINGS. XXI
Mr. C. D. Walcott exhibited a SEcTion oF A Fossit Enpo-
CERAS OVER E1cutT FEEtr 1n LENGTH, and explained its structure
and relations to other shell-bearing Cephalopoda, both fossil and
recent.
Mr. Leonhard Stejneger read a paper entitled How rue Great
NorTHERN SEA Cow, RuyTINA, BECAME EXTERMINATED.*
OnE HunprRED AND EIGHTEENTH MEETING, Dec.-31, 1887.
The President occupied the chair, and sixteen persons were
present.
Mr. W. J. McGee spoke upon THE OVER-LAPPING HABITATS
oF STURNELLA MAGNA AND STURNELLA NEGLECTA, IN IOWA.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam exhibited and described A NEw Species
oF FreLp Mouse, ARVICOLA (CHILOTUS) PALLIDUS, FROM THE
Bap LANDs oF NoRTHWESTERN DAKOTA.
Mr. W. B. Barrows described THE SHAPE OF THE BiLt IN
SnaAiL-EaTinG Birps, with special reference to the Kite, Ros-
trhamus sociaétlis, and the ‘‘ crying” birds, Aramus.
A paper by Mr. H. Justin Roddy, on the FEEpING Hasirs oF
Some YounG Raprores, was read by Mr. Lucas.
One HunprRED AND NINETEENTH MEETING, Jan. 14, 1888.
(Eighth Annual Meeting).
The President occupied the chair, and twenty-seven members
were present.
The annual reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were read
and accepted. :
The following board of officers was elected for the ensuing
year: | 7 |
Prestdent—Mr. William H. Dall.
Vice-Presidents—Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Prof. L. F. Ward,
Prof. C. V. Riley, Mr. Richard Rathbun.
* 1887. American Naturalist, xxi, pp. 1047-1054, December.
XXII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Secretartes—Mr. J. B. Smith, Mr. F. A. Lucas.
Treasurer—Mr. F. H. Knowlton.
Additional Members of the Council—Dr. T. H. Bean, Dr.
J. H. Kidder, Prof. R. E. C. Stearns, Mr. F. W. True, Dr. .
George Vasey.
The President announced the following Committee on Satur-
day Lectures: Prof. G. Brown Goode, Chairman; Dr. Frank
Baker, Mr. G. K. Gilbert, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Prof. C. V.
Riley.
OnE HuNDRED AND TWENTIETH MEETING, Jan. 28, 1888.
(Eighth Anniversary Meeting).
The eighth anniversary meeting of the Society was held in the
lecture hall of Columbian University, on the evening of January
28, about seventy-five persons being present.
The President, Mr. William H. Dall, delivered an address, en-
titled, Some AMERICAN CONCHOLOGISTS.*
SATURDAY LECTURES, 1886.
The fifth course of Saturday Lectures under the auspices of the
Biological Society and the Anthropological Society was begun
March 6, 1886. The lectures were delivered in the lecture room
of the National Museum, and the following programme was carried
out:
March 6: Mr. WiLt1AmM Hattock. The Geysers of the Yellowstone.
March 12: Prof. Witt1am HarKness. How the Solar System is
measured.
March 20: Prof. T. C. MENDENHALL. The Nature of Sound.
March 27: Prof. F. W. CLarKe. The Chemistry of Coal.
April 3: Dr. C. HART Merriam. The Migration of Birds.
April zo: Dr. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS. The Gods of the Navajos.
Afgril 16: Dr. D. B. Stwmons. Social Status of the Women of Japan.
April 24: Prof. W. K. BrRooKes. Life.
May 1: Prof. Lester F. Warp. Heredity and Opportunity.
May &: Dr. JoHN S. Bittincs. Animal Heat.
* These Proceedings, pp. 95-134. Extras printed with title page and
cover.
PROCEEDINGS. XXIII
SATURDAY LECTURES, 1887.
The sixth course of Saturday Lectures was begun March 12,
1887, under the auspices of the Biological, Philosophical, and
Anthropological Societies. The lectures were delivered in the
lecture hall of the National Museum, eight being given on Sat-
urday afternoons, and four on Wednesday evenings with the aid
of the stereopticon. The programme was as follows:
March 12: Gen. A. W. GREELY, U.S.A. Animais of the Arctic Region.
March 19: Capt. C. E. Dutton, U. S. A. Earthquakes.
March 23: Mr. W. J. McGee. The Charleston Earthquake. (Evening
lecture. )
March 26: Prof. Oris T. Mason. The Natural History of Human Arts.
April 2: Dr. B. E. FERNow. Our Forestry Problem.
April 6: Mr. THomas Witson. Pre-historic Man in Europe. (Even-
ing lecture. )
April 16: Dr. Epwarp M. Hartweti. The Aims and Effects of
Physical Training.
April 20: Dr. FRANK BAKER. Facial Expression. (Evening lecture.)
April 23: Miss H. C. DeS. Assporr. The.Chemistry of the Higher
and Lower Plants.
April 30: Prof. HARRISON ALLEN. Rights and Lefts.
May 4: Prof. S. P. LANGLEY. Sunlight and the Earth’s Atmosphere.
(Evening lecture.) .
May 7: Dr. J. H. Bryan. The Mechanism of the Human Voice.
BAIRD MEMORIAL MEETING.
January 11, 1888, a meeting commemorative of the life and
scientific work of Prof. Spencer Fullerton Baird was held in the
lecture hall of the Columbian University, under the joint auspices
of the Anthropological, Biological, and Philosophical Societies of
Washington. A very large number of persons was in attendance.
Mr. Garrick Mallery, President of the Philosophical Society, pre-
sided, and the following addresses were delivered :
RELATIONS BETWEEN ProFessorR BAIRD AND THE PaRrTICI-
PATING SOCIETIES, by Mr. Garrick Mallery.
ProFEssor Barrp As ADMINISTRATOR, by Mr. William B.
Taylor, of the Smithsonian Institution.
XXIV - BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Proressor Barrp IN ScIENCE, by Mr. William H. Dall, Pres-
ident of the Biological Society.
THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PROFESSOR Barrp, by
Mr. J. W. Powell, President of the Anthropological Society.*
BOTANICAL SECTION.
A preliminary meeting of persons interested in Botany took
place November 21, 1887, in the office of the Botanist of the De-
partment of Agriculture. A second meeting was held December
5, at which a Botanical Section of the Biological Society was for-
mally organized. Dr. George Vasey was elected President, and
Mr. A. A. Crozier, Secretary. The first regular meeting was
held January 4, 1888, when the following papers were read:
1. RECENT PROGRESS IN THE STUDY OF FRESH-WATER ALG,
Prof. E. A. Burgess.
2. A CasE oF SEWER OBSTRUCTION BY TREE Roots, Prof.
F. H. Knowlton.
3. FuNGI oF THE AriID Recions, Prof. S. M. Tracy.
4. GLa@OsPORIUM OF THE Wax BEAN, Miss E. A. Southworth.
The Section is to meet monthly.
* These addresses, together with a portrait of Professor Baird, have been
printed in the Bulletin of the Philosophical. Society, vol. x, pp. 41-77, 1888.
Also separately issued with independent pagination.
‘
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DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF BAT
FROM THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.
( Vespertzlio ciliolabrum sp. nov.)
By Dr. C. Hart MERRIAM.
(Read November 27, 1886.)
Specimens of a small and apparently hitherto undescribed
species of bat have reached me from two widely separated
localities in the Western United States. The first were col-
lected by Mr. A. B. Baker in Trego County, Kansas; the
second by Mr. A. W. Anthony in Grant County, in the ex-
treme southwestern corner of New Mexico.
Mr. Baker writes me that ‘‘ the first two of these bats were
_ found in bluffs or cafions near the town of Banner, and were
hidden away in clefts in the chalk rock. The others were
captured at a bluff several miles distant. They-*had secreted
themselves in abandoned swallows’ nests which were inacces-
sible; but the bats were easily dislodged by means of stones.
They were followed to their various places of yeriay and seven
were secured.”
These bats belong to the group of American Vesfertzlzos, of
which V. xzt¢dus may be considered fairly typical. They differ
from V. xztidus, however, in size, proportions, and color, as
well as in the much larger size of the ear.
The Kansas specimens vary in color from bade pure white to
pale yellowish-brown, or even isabella-brown, while those from
New Mexico are tawny-isabella above and much paler under- .
neath.
2 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. OF WASHINGTON,
The following characters will serve to distinguish the species
from its allies:
VESPERTILIO CILIOLABRUM* sp. nov.
(Type No. 2797 female ad., Merriam Collection).
Bey SS Se aes EP
Dental formula: i. RS pm. 3-3 "3-3 20
The outer upper incisor of each side slopes forward and
inward parallel to the inner, contrary to the rule in the genus
Vespertilio, in which these teeth usually are divergent; cusp .
of inner upper incisor bifid, the anterior point being larger.
First upper premolar small and crowded against (and usually
somewhat internal to) the canine; second upper premolar
minute and wholly internal to the tooth-row so that it is not
visible from the outside except in immature individuals; third
premolar very large, nearly or quite equal to canine. Middle
lower premolar smallest; posterior largest.
Sides of upper lip fimbriate. Glandular prominences be-
tween eyes and nostrils moderately developed. Tip of ear
laid forward extends to end of muzzle.
The calcaneum reaches about half-way from the foot to the
tip of the tail; the postcalcaneal lobule is large for a Ves-
pertilio; the calcaneum ends in a projecting tooth or lobule.
The form of the ear is somewhat intermediate between that
of V. nztidus and that of V. nigricans: Internal basal lobe
slightly rounded; middle three-fourths of anterior margin
strongly conyex; tip shortly rounded off, forming a small, pro-
jecting lobe posteriorly, beneath which the outer border is
sharply emarginated for about one-third of its entire length ;
bottom of emargination straight or slightly convex; below this
* The specific name czliolabrum refers to the fringe of hairs along the
sides of the upper lip.
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW BAT. 3
the outer margin becomes abruptly convex and then nearly
straight, with a distinct reflexed lobe near its base. Tragus at-
tenuated above; inner margin straight or slightly convex; outer
margin slightly concave in upper half, then slightly convex,
with a distinct lobule at the base, which is separated by a
notch from the convexity above.
Thumb very small, considerably shorter than the foot. Foot
small. Wings from base of toes. Upper surface of wing-
membranes haired from about the middle of the humerus to
the knee: basal third of upper surface of interfemoral mem-
brane cevered with hair; on under surface of interfemoral the
hair is arranged in little tufts along transverse lines, about
thirteen in number. Half of last vertebra of tail free.
Fur long and soft; basal portion dusky ; apical portion vary-
ing from whitish or yellowish-white to isabella-brown (tawny-
isabella in the New Mexico specimens), which in some indi-
viduals is nearly as dark as in V. sududatus; the colored apical
portion varies in extent from less than one-third to more than
one-half the length of the hairs.
Measurements from alcoholic specimens.—Male adult (No.
2794 Merriam Collection): Head and body, 42 mm.;_ head,
16.25 mm.; tail, 37 mm.; ear, from inner basal angle, 15
mm.; tragus, 6.75 mm.; humerus, 22 mm.; forearm, 32.50
mm.; thumb, 3.75 mm.; third finger, 56 mm.; fifth finger,
44 mm.; tibia, 11.25 mm.; hind foot, 7 mm.
Female adult (type, No. 2797 Merriam Collection) : Head
and body, 43 mm.; head, 16.25 mm.; tail, 40 mm.3; ear,
from inner basal angle, 15 mm.; tragus, 6.75 mm.; humerus,
22 mm.; forearm, 33 mm.; thumb, 3.50 mm.; third finger,
56 mm.; fifth finger, 45.50 mm.; tibia, 11.50 mm.;_ hind
foot, 7.50 mm.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
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DESCRIPTION OF A NEW MOUSE FROM NEW
MEXICO.
Hesperomys ( Vesperimus) Anthony sp. nov.
By Dr. C. Hart MErRRIAM.
(Read March 19, 1887).
During the spring and summer of 1886, Mr. A. W. Anthony,
of Denver, Colorado, made his headquarters: at Camp Apache,
Grant county, New Mexico (about lat. 31° 20’). Camp Apache __
is in a hot desert region in the extreme southwestern corner of
_ the Territory, and only about four miles from the Mexican
boundary.
The following extract from one of Mr. Anthony’s letters
sufficiently describes the region. He writes: ‘‘ You can form
some idea of my location when I tell you that our nearest
water is a very small spring nine miles across the valley,
from which all our water is carried in wagons. The only
trees within forty miles are a few very small stunted cedars
and oaks. The only other vegetation consists of cacti and
other plants characteristic of these hot dry deserts.”
_ While in this region Mr. Anthony made a valuable collec-
tion of mammals, which he has very kindly presented to me.
Among other things of interest it contains five specimens of a
pretty little mouse, hitherto unknown in the. United States,
which I believe to be undescribed, and which, therefore, I
take pleasure in dedicating to its discoverer. _ In coloration,*
_ proportions, and cranial characters this mouse differs so rad-
5
6 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ically from all previously known species, that comparison
with others is unnecessary. Unfortunately, nothing is known
of its habits. It may be distinguished from its congeners by
the following diagnosis:
HESPEROMYS (VESPERIMUS) ANTHONYI sp. nov.
2333
Type No aSaz” male ad., Merriam Collection.
Size, small; tail considerably longer than head and body;
ears large and scant haired; whiskers long, reaching past
shoulders. Soles naked, 6 tuberculate; palms 5 tuberculate ;
thumb armed with a blunt nail.
Cotor.—Upper parts from nose to tail, uniform clear ash-
gray, more or less darkened by black-tipped hairs; sides
bright buffy-fulvous ; under parts white, the plumbeous basal
portion of the hairs showing through on the chin and throat,
which are thinly clothed with rather short hairs; belly
strongly washed with salmon, which may be due to earth-
staining. Pelage soft. The fur covering the breast, abdo-
men, and flanks is very much more dense than that of the
rest of the body, from which it may be distinguished at a
glance. In fact, on the sides it forms well-marked flank
patches or tufts. Possibly this character may be seasonal ;
if not, it is very remarkable. In the young the belly is pure
white, and. the buffy-fulvous flank patches are not apparent.
The material at hand consists of five skins and skulls, col-
lected in April and May. All are males. Nos. 2332 and
2335 are immature, though the latter is full grown. The
Skins were prepared with unusual care, and consequently
afford measurements of approximate accuracy. Moreover, Mr.
Anthony recorded the total length of each before skinning.
DESORIPTION OF A NEW MOUSE. Bee
Tableof Measurements of five Specimens of Hesperomys Anthonyi collected
at Camp Apache, Grant County, New Mexico, by A. W. Anthony.
(Measurements in millimeters).
gong age nd MEASURED FROM THE DRY SKIN,
R Sex
Skin Skull i
ngs Brick rr Total length, |, Total “Head en | Bina sof ar Date
: ly Vv : . foot. | from :
—— body. Sea pa crown.
2149 2675 | ‘ad 165; | 144 | 68 80 | 81.5 | 18.5 12. /Apr. 12,1886,
2332 2840 | j‘im 162 | 145 | 62 7-908 18.6.) We fe ee
2333 2841 |-j‘ad 168 | 145 | 638 81 | 82.5) 19.5 | 12. |May10, ‘
2334 | 2842 | J‘ ad 165 | 150 | 66 83 | 8. | 19.5) 12. $e ee
2335 | 2843 |G‘im. 162 | 189 | 64 The PB AO ee ee
| | i
CRANIAL CHARACTERS.—The skull, compared with that of
fT. leucopus, is short, broad, and flat. The incisor foramina
reach’ past the anterior plane of the first molar. The nasals are
short and do not extend so far posteriorly as the premaxillaries.
Excluding skull No. 2840, which is not full grown, the close
agreement in cranial measurements is remarkable.
Cranial Measurements.
No. | No. | No. | No.
2840 | 2841 | 2842 | 2843
Sim. |S aa. PaaS
Basilar length (from one of the occipital condyles to posterior
\ edge of alveola of incisor of same Side). ..........2...cccessecsssereseoeee 18.9 | 20. 20.3 | 20.4
Basilar length of Hensel (from inferior lip of foramen magnum
to posterior edge of alveola Of iNCiSOT). ............seeeee eeceeeseeeeeenees 16.5 | 18, 18. 18.
<even test Ty WOMB: DRCAAGH sos cic ciscapcncessndsnct seeder dcaske ss cestsdessouensee pe ag eS? cs ae Be 3) Fay a
AHGCTOLISAL CONBETICEION. \oisssicssiusccsh cootebtenn es cs scandsetucevevscrecdecsepoves 3.8 3.9 3.7 3.7
Grontest length-of Nawal DOME... 5. 6icsci cya séscscinscctous sosss sass cces succsdeses 7.4 | 7.8 | 85 | 8&3
Length of upper molar series.................. $6°|: 38 | &8 |-a8
EPOABNT CO PROUT i503 capvseacicess avoseasesaseuses sbeceeneesscesscessscescenscee census 5.4 5.6 5.6 5.7
Fe aes, EROS ML TIOCOEE oe oe) sctate en bases ecscOersSsadhectaknecacesssoyces 8.8 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5
Distance between alveole of upper molar series anteriorly...........) 2.5 | 2.5 2.5 | 2.5
i ie dN a es “6 “© posteriorly ........ | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25
Foramen magnum to post-palatal notch. ............:scc0 cee eee! TA | 8 8. 8.2
Height of cranium from inferior lip of foramen magnum ............ 6.8 7.3 ( F ts
Fronto-palatal depth (taken at middle of molar series)..............++. 5.8 6.2 6. 5.8
SPIGUAL OF FURAN A oy nce png ticdy tas tc deseda tne wadees ce fused; lncendns kgpesdacawsecess 12.6 | 12.9 | 12.9 | 13.2
Length of under molariform Series, ..........c.0sceceesssereseoe: ae coe cadeve 3.7 3.8 3.8 4,
* The apparent discrepancy between the total length as recorded by Mr.
Anthony and that taken from the dry skin is due to the necessary stretching
of the fresh specimens for measurement.
THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN SCIENCE.*
THE THIRD CENTURY.
By G. Brown Goope.
VIIt.
In the address which it was my privilege, one year ago, to read
in the presence of this Society, I attempted to trace the progress
of scientific activity in America from the time of the first settle-
ment by the English in 1585 to the end of the Revolution—a
period of nearly two hundred years. |
Resuming the subject, I shall now take up the consideration
of the third century—from 1782 to the present time. For con- —
venience of discussion the time is divided, approximately, into
decades, while the decades naturally fall into groups of three.
From 1780 to 1810, from 1810 to 1840, from 1840 to 1870, and
from 1870 to the close of the century, are periods in the history
of American thought, each of which seems to be marked by
characteristics of its own. These must have names, and it may
not be inappropriate to call the first the period of Jefferson, the
second that of Silliman, and the third that of Agassiz.
The first was, of course, an extension of the period of Linneus,
the second and third were during the mental supremacy of Cuvier
and Von Baer and their schools, and the fourth or present, begin-
ing in 1870, belongs to that of Darwin, the extension of whose
influence to America was delayed by the tumults of the civil con-
vulsion which began in 1861 and ended in 1865.
The ‘‘ beginnings of American science” do not belong entirely
*Annual Presidential Address delivered at the Seventh Anniversary
Meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, January 22, 1887, in
the Lecture Room of the U. S. National Museum.
10 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
to the past. Our science is still in its youth, and in the discus-
sion of its history I shall not hesitate to refer to institutions and
to tendencies which are of very recent origin.
It is somewhat unfortunate that the account book of national
progress was so thoroughly balanced in the Centennial year, It
is true that the movement which resulted in the birth of our Re-
public first took tangible form in 1776, but the infant nation was
not born until 1783, when the treaty of Paris was signed, and
lay in swaddling clothes until 1789, when the Constitution was
adopted by the thirteen States.
In those days our forefathers had quite enough to do in adapt-
ing their lives to the changed conditions of existence. The
masses were struggling for securer positions near home, or were
pushing out beyond the frontiers to find dwelling-places for them-
selves and their descendants. The men of education were in-
volved in political discussions as fierce, uncandid, and unphilo-
sophical in spirit as those which preceded the French revolution
of the same period.
The master minds were absorbed in political and administra-
tive problems, and had little time for the peaceful pursuits of
science, and many of the men who were prominent in science—
Franklin, Jefferson, Rush, Mitchill, Seybert, Williamson, Mor-
gan, Clinton, Rittenhouse, Patterson, Williams, Cutler, Ma-
clure, and others—were elected to Congress or called to other
positions of official responsibility.
IX.
The literary and scientific activities of the infant nation were
for many years chiefly concentrated in Philadelphia, unti] 1800
the federal capital and largest of American cities. Here, after
the return of Franklin from France in 1785, the meetings of the
American Philosophical Society were resumed. Franklin con-
tinued to be its president until his death in 1790, at the same
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 8)
time holding the presidency of the commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania, and a seat in the Constitutional Convention. The pres-
tige of its leader doubtless gave to the Society greater promi-
nence than its scientific objects alone would have secured.
In the reminiscences of Dr. Manasseh Cutler there is to be
found an admirable picture of Franklin in 1787. As we read it
we are taken back into the very presence of the philosopher and
statesman, and can form a very clear appreciation of the scien-
tific atmosphere which surrounded the scientific leaders of the
post-Revolutionary period.
‘
Dr. Cutler wrote:
‘¢ Dr. Franklin lives on Market street. His house stands up a
court at some distance from the street. We found him in his
garden sitting upon a grass-plot, under a large mulberry tree,
with several gentlemen and two or three ladies. When Mr.
Gerry introduced me he’ rose from his chair, took me by the
hand, expressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the city, ©
and begged me to seat myself close by him. His voice was low,
his countenance open, frank, and pleasing. I delivered to him
my letters. After he had read them he took me again by the
hand and, with the usual compliments, introduced me to the
other gentlemen, who are, most of them, members of the Con-
vention. Here we entered into a free conversation, and spent the
time most agreeably until it was quite dark. The tea-table was
spread under the tree, and Mrs. Bache, who is the only daughter ©
of the Doctor and lives with him, served it to the company.
‘* The Doctor showed me a curiosity which he had just received
and with which he was much pleased. It was a snake with two
heads, preserved in a large vial. It was about ten inches long,
well proportioned, the heads perfect, and united to the body about
one-fourth of an inch below the extremities of the jaws. He
showed me a drawing of one entirely similar, found near Lake
Champlain. He spoke of the situation of this snake if it was
travelling among bushes, and one head should choose to go on one
side of the stem of a bush and the other head should prefer the
other side, and neither head would consent to come back or give
way to the other. He was then going to mention a humorous
matter that had that day occurred in the Convention in conse-
quence of his comparing the snake to America; for he seemed
to forget that everything in the Convention was to be kept a pro-
found secret. But this was suggested to him, and I was deprived
of the story,
+3 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘¢ After it was dark we went into the house, and he invited me to
his library, which is likewise his study. It is. a very large cham-
ber and high-studded. The walls are covered with shelves filled
with books ; beside these, four large alcoves, extending two-thirds
the length of the chamber, filled in the same manner. I presume
this is the largest and by far the best private library in America.
He showed me a glass machine for exhibiting the circulation of
- the blood in the arteries and veins of the human body. The cir-
culation is exhibited by the passing of a red fluid from a reservoir
into numerous capillary tubes of glass, ramified in every direction,
and then returning in similar tubes to the reservoir, which was
done with great velocity, and without any power acting visibly
upon the fluid, and had the appearance of perpetual motion.
Another great curiosity was a rolling press for taking copies of
letters or other writing. A sheet of paper is completely copied
in two minutes, the copy as fair as the original, and without de-
facing it in the smallest degree. It is an invention of his own,
extremely useful in many circumstances of life. He also showed
us his long artificial hand and arm for taking down and putting
up books on high shelves, out of reach, and his great arm-chair,
with rockers and a large fan placed over it, with which he fans
himself, while he sits reading, with only a slight motion of the
foot, and many other curiosities and inventions, all his own, but
of lesser note. Over his mantel he has a prodigious number of
medals, busts, and casts in wax or plaster of Paris, which are the
effigies of the most noted characters of Europe. But what the
Doctor wished especially to show me was a huge volume on bot-
any, which indeed afforded me the greatest pleasure of any one
thing in his library. It was a single volume, but so large that it
was with great difficulty that he was able to raise it from a low
shelf and lift it to the table; but, with that senile ambition which
is common to old people (Dr. Franklin was eighty-one), he in-
sisted on doing it himself, and would permit no one to assist him,
merely to show how much strength he had remaining. It con-
tained the whole of Linnzus’s Systema Vegetabilium, with large
cuts colored from nature of every plant. It was a feast to me,
and the Doctor seemed to enjoy it as well as myself. We spent
a couple of hours examining this volume, while the other gentle-
men amused themselves with other matters! The Doctor is not
a botanist, but lamented he did not in early life atterid to this
science. He delights in natural history, and expressed an earnest
wish that I should pursue a plan I had begun, and hoped this
science, so much neglected in America, would be pursued with
as much ardor here as it is now in every part of Europe. I
wanted, for three months at least, to have devoted myself entirely
to this one volume, but, fearing lest I should become tedious to
him, I shut the book, though he urged me to examine it longer.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. . 13
He seemed extremely fond, through the course of the visit, of
dwelling on philosophical subjects, and particularly that of natu-
ral history, while the other gentlemen were swallowed up in poli-
tics. This was a favorable circumstance to me, for almost all his
conversation was addressed to me, and I was highly delighted
with the extensive knowledge he appeared to possess of every
subject, the brightness of his faculties, the clearness and vivacity
of his mental powers, and the strength of his memory, notwith-
standing his age. His manners are perfectly easy, and everything
about him seems to diffuse an unrestrained freedom and happi-
ness. He has an incessant vein of humor, accompanied with an
uncommon vivacity that seems as natural and involuntary as his
breathing.”
To Franklin, as President of the Philosophical Society, suc-
ceeded David Rittenhouse [b. 1732, d. 1796],a man of world-wide
reputation, known in his day as ‘‘ ¢Ae American Philosopher.”*
He was an astronomer of repute, and his observatory built at
Norriton in preparation for the transit of Venus in 1769 seems to
have been the first in America. His orrery, constructed upon an_
original plan, was one of the wonders of the land. His most
important contribution to astronomy was the introduction of the
use of spider lines in the focus of transit instruments.f
He was an amateur botanist, and in 1771 made interesting
physiological experiments upon the electric eel.{
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of — and the
first Director of the United States Mint.
Next in prominence to Franklin and Rittenhouse were doubt-
less the medical professors, Benjamin Rush, William Shippen,
John Morgan, Adam Kuhn, Samuel Powell Griffiths, and Cas-
par Wistar, all men of scientific tastes, but too busy in pub-_
lic affairs and in medical instruction to engage deeply in research,
for Philadelphia, in those days as at present, insisted that all
*See obituary in the European Magazine, July, 1796; also Memoits
of Rittenhouse, by WILLIAM BarTon, 1813,.and Eulogium by Benjamin
Rush, 1796.
t Von Zacu: Monatliche Correspondenz, ii, p. 215.
¢ Phila. Medical Repository, vol. 1.
14 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
her naturalists should be medical professors, and the active inves-
tigators, outside of medical science, were not numerous. Rush,
however, was one of the earliest American writers upon eth-
nology, and a pathologist of the highest rank. He is generally
referred to as the earliest professor of chemistry, having been
appointed to the chair of chemistry in the College of Philadel-
phia in 1769; it seems certain, however, that Dr. John Morgan
lectured on chemistry as early as 1765.*
Dr. Shippen [b. 1735, d. 1808], the founder of the first
medical school. [1765] and its professor of anatomy for forty-
three years, was still in his prime, and so was Dr. Morgan
[b. 1735, d. 1789], a Fellow of the Royal Society, a co-founder
of the medical school, and a frequent contributor to the Philo-
sophical Transactidns. Morgan was an eminent pathologist,
and is said to have been the one to originate the theory of the
formation of pus by the secretory action of the vessels of the
part.t He appears to have been the first who attempted to
form a museum of anatomy, having learned the methods of
preparation from the Hunters and from Siie in Paris. The
beginning was still earlier known, for a collection of anatomical
models in wax, obtained by Dr. Abraham Chovet in Paris, was
in use by Philadelphia medical students before the Revolution. {
Another of the physicians of colonial days who lived until
after the revolution was Dr. Thomas Cadwallader [b. 1707,
d. 1779], whose dissections are said to have been among the
earliest made in America, and whose ‘‘ Essay on the West
India Dry Gripes,” 1775, was one of the earliest medical trea-
tises in America.
Dr. Caspar Wistar [b. 1761, d. 1818] was also a leader,
* BARTON’s Memoirs of Rittenhouse, p. 614.
+ THACHER. American Medical Biography, i. p. 408.
¢ This eventually became the property of the University. See Barton’s
Rittenhouse, p. 377. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., ii, p. 368.
cpg allies Sl laa ai
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15
and was at various times professor of chemistry and anatomy.
His contributions to natural history were descriptions of bones of
Megalonyx and other mammals, a study of the human ethmoid,
and experiments on evaporation. He was long Vice-President of
the Philosophical Society, and in 1815 succeeded Jefferson in its
presidency. The Wistar Anatomical Museum of the University
and the beautiful climbing shrub W7starza are among the me-
morials to his name.*
Still another memorial of the venerable naturalist may per-
haps be worthy of mention as an illustration of the social condi-
tions of science in Philadelphia in early days. A traveller visit-
ing the city in 1829 thus described this institution, which was
continued until the late war, and then discontinued, but has been
resumed within the last year:
‘¢ Dr. Wistar in his lifetime had a party of his literary and sci-
entific friends at his house, one evening in each week, and to this
party strangers visiting the city were also invited. When he died,
the same party was continued, and the members of the Wistar
party, in their turn, each have a meeting of the club at his house,
on some Saturday night in the year. This club consists of the
men most distinguished in science, art, literature, and wealth in
the city. It opens at early candle-light, when not only the mem-
bers themselves appear, but they bring with them all the strangers
of distinction in the city.”+
The ‘‘ Wistar parties” were continued up to the beginning of
the civil war in 1861, and have been resumed since 1887. A
history. of these gatherings would cover a period of three-quarters
of a century at the least, and could be made a most valuable and
entertaining contribution to scientific literature.
Packard, in his History of Zodlogy,} states that zodlogy, the
world over, has sprung from the study of human anatomy, and
* Hosack: Tribute to the Memory of Wistar, New York, 1818.
+ ArwaTER: Remarks made on a tour to Prairie du Chién; thence to
Washington City, in 1829. Columbus, 1831, p. 238.
¢ Standard Natural History, pp. lxii-lxxii.
16 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
that American zoology took its rise, and was fostered chiefly,
in Philadelphia, by the professors in the medical schools.
It was fully demonstrated, I think, in my former address, that
there were good zodlogists in America long before there were
medical schools, and that Philadelphia was zo/ the cradle of
American natural history; although, during its period of polit-
ical pre-eminence, immediately after the Revolution, scientific
activities of all kinds centred in that city. As for the medical
schools it is at least probable that they have spoiled more nat-
uralists than they have fostered.
Dr. Adam Kuhn [b. 1741, d. 1817] was the professor of
botany in 1768 *—the first in America—and was labeled by his
contemporaries ‘‘ the favorite pupil of Linnzus.” Professor
Gray, in a recent letter to the writer, refers to this saying as a
‘¢myth;” and it surely seems strange that a disciple be-
loved by the great Swede could have done so little for botany.
Barton, in a letter, in 1792, to Thunberg, who then occupied
the seat of Linnzus in the University of Upsala, said:
‘* The electricity of your immortal Linné has hardly been felt
in this Ultima Thule of science. Hada number of the pupils of
that great man settled in North America its riches would have
been better known. But, alas! the only one pupil of your prede-
cessor that has made choice of America as the place of his resi-
dence has added nothing to the stock of natural knowledge.’’+
The Rev. Nicholas Collin, Rector of the Swedish Churches
in Pennsylvania, was a fellow-countryman and acquaintance of
Linneus { and an accomplished botanist, having been one of the
editors of Muhlenberg’s work upon the grasses and an early
writer on American linguistics. He read before the Philo-
sophical Society, in 1789, ‘‘An Essay on those inquiries in
* See p. 99, ante.
+ B.S. Barton, in Transactions American Philosophical Society, iii,
P- 339-
t ‘‘I often heard the great Linnzeus wish that he could have explored
the continent of North America.” Coxiuin: Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., iii,
p- Xv.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 17
Natural Philosophy which at present are most beneficial to the
United States of North America,” which was the first attempt
to lay out a systematic plan for the direction of scientific re-
search in America. One of the most interesting suggestions he
made was that the Mammoth was still in existence.
‘¢ The vast Mahmot,” said he, ‘* is perhaps yet stalking through’
the western wilderness; but if he is no more let us carefully
gather his remains, and even try to find a new skeleton of this
giant, to whom the elephant was but a calf.” *
Gen. Jonathan Williams, U.S. A. [b. 1750, d. 1815], was first
superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point and
‘¢ father of the corps of engineers.” He was a nephew of
Franklin, and his secretary of legation in France, and, after
his return to Philadelphia, was for many years a judge of the
court of common pleas, his military career not beginning till
1801. This versatile man was a leading member of the Phil-
osophical Society and one of its Vice-Presidents. His paper
‘* On the Use of the Thermometer in Navigation” was one of the
first American contributions to scientific seamanship.
The Rev. Dr. John Ewing [b. 1732, d. 1802], also a Vice-
President, was Provost of the University. He had been one of
the observers of the transit in 1769, of which he published an
account in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society. He
early printed a volume of lectures on Natural Philosophy, and
was the strongest champion of John Godfrey, the Philadelphian,
in his claim to the invention of the reflecting quadrant.f
* Id., p. xxiv.
+ ‘‘Thomas Godfrey,” says a recent authority, ‘‘ was born in Bristol, '
Penn., in 1704, and died in Philadelphia in December, 1749. He followed
the trade of a glazicr in the metropolis, and, having a fondness for mathe-
matical studies, marked such books as he met with, subsequently acquir-
ing Latin, that he might become familiar with the mathematical work in
that language. Having obtained a copy of Newton’s ‘ Principia,’ he de-
scribed an improvement he had made in Davis’ quadrant to James Logan,
18 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Dr. James Woodhouse [b. 1770, d. 1809] was author and ed-
itor of several chemical text-books and Professor of Chemistry in
the University, a position which he took after it had been refused
by Priestley. He made experiments and observations on the
vegetation of plants, and investigated the chemical and medical
properties of the persimmon tree. He it was who first demon-
- strated the superiority of anthracite to bituminous coal by reason
of its intensity and regularity of heating power.*
The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley [b. in Gloucester, England,
Nov. 30, 1711, d. in Philadelphia, July 4, 1778] survived the
Revolution, though, in his latter years, not a contributor to
science. The associate of Franklin in ‘‘ the Philadelphia Ex-
periments ” in electricity, his discoveries were famous in Europe
as well as in America.f It is claimed that he originated the
theory of the positive and negative in electricity; that he first
demonstrated the passage of electricity through water; and that
he first discovered that heat could be produced by electricity ;
besides inventing numerous mechanical devices of scientific
interest. From 1753 to 1772 he was connected with the
University of Pennsylvania, where there may still be seen a
window dedicated to his memory.
Having already referred to the history of scientific instruction
in America,{ and shown that Hunter lectured on comparative
anatomy in Newport in 1754; Kuhn on Botany, in Philadel-
phia, in 1768, Waterhouse on natural history and botany, at
Cambridge, in 1788; and some unidentified scholars upon chem-
istry and natural history, in Philadelphia, in 1785, it would
seem unjust not to speak of Kinnersley’s career as a lecturer.
who was so impressed that he at once addressed a letter to Edmund Halley
in England, giving a full description of the construction and uses of God-
frey’s instrument.”
* SILLIMAN: American Contributions to Chemistry, p. 13.
+ See Priestley’s History of | femaeee
t P. 99, anée.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 19
He seems to have been the first to deliver public scientific lec-
tures in America, occupying the platform in Philadelphia, New-
_port, New York, and Boston, from 1751 to the beginning of
the Revolution. The following advertisement was printed in
the ‘* Pennsylvania Gazette” for April 11, 1751:
Notice is hereby given to the Curzous that Wednesday next
Mr. Kinnersley proposes to begin a Course of Experiments on the
newly-discovered Electrical Fire, containing not only the most
curious of those that have been made and published in Europe,
but a considerable Number of New Ones lately made in this City,
to be accompanied with methodical Lectures on the Nature and
Properties of that Wonderful Element.
Francis Hopkinson [b. 1737, d. 1791], signer of the Declar-
ation of Independence, was treasurer of the Philosophical
Society, and among other papers communicated by him was
one in 1783, calling attention to the peculiar worm parasitic in
the eye of a horse. The ‘‘ horse with a snake in its eye” was —
on. public exhibition in Philadelphia in 1782, and was the
object of much attention, for the nature and habits of this peculiar
Filaria were not so well understood then as now. ,
The father of Francis, Thomas Hopkinson [b. in London,
1709, d. in Philadelphia, 1751], who was overlooked in my
previous address, deserves, at least, a passing mention. Coming
to Philadelphia in 1731 he became lawyer, prothonotary, Judge
of the Admiralty, and member of the Provincial Council. As
an incorporator of the Philadelphia Library Company, and origi-
nal trustee of the College of Philadelphia, and first President
of the American Philosophical Society in 1743, his public spirit
is worthy of our admiration. He was associated with Kin-
>
nersley and Franklin in the ‘* Philadelphia Experiments ;” and
Franklin said of him:
‘‘ The power of points to throw off the electrical fire was first
communicated to me by my ingenious friend, Mr. Thomas Hop-
kinson.” *
* Witson & Fiske: Cyclopedia of American Biography, iii, 260.
20 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The name of Philip Syng is also ‘mentioned in connection
with the Philadelphia experiments, and it would be well if some
memorials of his work could be placed upon record. :
William Bartram [b. 1739, d. 1823] was living in the famous
botanical garden at Kingsessing, which his father, the old King’s
botanist, had bequeathed.him in 1777. He was for some years
professor of botany in the Philadelphia college, and in 1791
printed his charming volume descriptive of his travels in Flor-
ida, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The latter years of his life
appear to have been devoted to quiet observation. William
Bartram has been, perhaps, as much underrated as John Bar-
tram has been unduly exalted. He was one of the best observ-
ers America has ever produced, and his book, which rapidly
passed through several editions in English and French, is a
classic and should stand beside White’s ‘‘ Selborne” in every
naturalist’s library. Bartram was doubtless discouraged early
in his career by the failure of his patrons in London to make any
scientific use of the immense botanical collections made by him in
the South before the Revolution, which, many years later, was
lying unutilized in the Banksian herbarium. Coues has called
attention very emphatically to the merits of his bird work, which
he pronounces ‘‘ the starting-point of a distinctly American
school of ornithology.”” T'wo of the most eminent of our early
zodlogists, Wilson and Say, were his pupils; the latter his kins-
man, and the former his neighbor, were constantly with him_at
Kingsessing and drew much of their inspiration from his conver-
sation. ‘‘ Many birds which Wilson first fully described and
figured were really named and figured by Bartram in his
Travels, and several of his designations were simply adopted
by Wilson.”*
Bartram’s ‘‘ Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians ”’+
-
* Cours: Key to North American Birds, p. xvi
t Trans. Am. Ethnological Society, iii, 1851.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 21
was an admirable contribution to ethnography, and his general
observations were of the highest valuc.
_ In the introduction to his ‘‘ Travels,” and interspersed through
this volume, are reflections which show him to have been the
possessor of a very philosophic and original mind.
His ‘‘Anecdotes of an American Crow ” and his ‘‘ Memoirs
of John Bartram ”’* were worthy products of his pen, while his
illustrations to Barton’s ‘‘ Elements of Botany” show how
facile and truthful was his pencil.
His love for botany was such, we are told, that he wrote a
description of a plant only a few minutes before his death, a
statement which will be readily believed by all who know the
nature of his enthusiasm. Thus, for instance, he wrote of the
Venus’s Fly Trap:
‘‘Admirable are the properties of the extraordinary Dionza mus-
cipula! See the incarnate lobes expanding ; how gay and sportive
they appear! ready on the spring to entrap incautious, deluded in-
sects! What artifice! There! behold one of the leaves just closed
upon a struggling fly ; another has gotten a worm; its hold is sure ;
its prey can never escape—carnivorous vegetable! Can we, after
viewing this object, hesitate for a moment to confess that vegeta-
ble beings are endowed with some sensible faculties or attributes
similar to those that dignify animal nature? They are living, or-
ganical, and self-moving bodies; for we see here in this plant
motion and volition.”+
Moses Bartram, a cousin of William, and also a botanist, was
also living near Philadelphia, and in 1879 published ‘*Observa-
tions on the Native Silk Worms of North America,” and Hum-
phrey Marshall [1722-1801 ], the farmer-botanist, had a botanical
garden of his own, and in 1785 published ‘* The American
Grove—Arbustrium Americanum ”—a treatise on the forest trees
and shrubs of the United States, which was the first strictly
* Nicholson’s Journal, 1805.
+ Travels, 1793, p. xiv.
-
22 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
American botanical book, and which was republished in France
a few years later in 1789.
Gotthilf Muhlenberg [b. 1753, d. 1815], a Lutheran clergy-
man, living at Lancaster, was an eminent botanist, educated in
Germany, though a native of Pennsylvania. His ‘* Flora of Lan-
caster” was a pioneer work In 1813 he published a full cata-
logue of the Plants of North America, in which about 2,800
species were mentioned. He supplied Hedwig with many of the
rare American mosses, which were published either in ‘* Stirpes
Cryptogamice ” of that author or in the ‘‘ Species Muscorum.”
To Sir J. E. Smith and Mr. Dawson Turner he likewise sent
many plants. He made extensive preparations, writing a gen-
eral flora of North America, but death interfered with his pro-
ject. The American Philosophical Society preserves his her-
barium, and the moss Funxerza Muhlenbergiz, the violet, Viola
Muhlenbergit, and the grass Muhlenbergia, are among the
memorials to his name.* :
To Pennsylvania, but not to Philadelphia, came, in 1794,
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the philosopher, theologian, and
chemist. Although his name is more famous in the history
of chemistry than that of any living contemporary, American
or European, his work was nearly finished before he left Eng-
land. He never entered into the scientific life of the country
which he sought as an exile, and of which he never became
a citizen, and he is not properly to be considered an element
in the history of American science.
His coming, however, was an event of considerable political
importance; and William Cobbett’s ‘‘ Observations on the Em-
igration of Doctor Joseph Priestley. By Peter Porcupine,” was
followed by several other pamphlets equally vigorous in ex-
pression. McMaster is evidently unjust to some of the public
* Hooker: On the Botany of America. Edinburgh Journal of Science,
iii, p. 103, e¢ seg.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 23
men who welcomed’ Priestley to America, though no one will
deny that there were unprincipled demagogues in America in
the year of grace 1794. Jefferson was undoubtedly sincere when
he wrote to him \the words quoted elsewhere in this address.
Another eminent exile, welcomed by Jefferson, and the writer, —
at the President’s request, of a work on national education in the
United States, was M. Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours [b. in
Paris, 1799, d. 1817]. He was a member of the Institute of
France, a statesman, diplomatist, and political economist, and
author of many important works. He lived in the United States
at various times, from 1799 to 1817, when he died near
Wilmington, Delaware. Like Priestley, he was a member of the
American Philosophical Society, and affiliated with its leading
members.
The gunpowder works near Wilmington, Delaware, founded
by his son in 1798, are still of great importance, and the statue
of one of his grandsons, an Admiral in the U. S. Navy, adorns
one of the principal squares in the National Capital.
Among other notable names on the roll of the society, in the
last century, were those of Gen. Anthony Wayne and Thomas
Payne. His Excellency General Washington was also an active
member, and seems to have taken sufficient interest in the society
to nominate for foreign membership the Earl of Buchan, Presi-
dent of the Society of Scottish nes leary and Dr. James An-
derson, of Scotland.
The following note written by Washington is published in the
Memoirs of Rittenhouse :
‘¢ The President presents his compliments to Mr. Rittenhouse,
and thanks him for the attention he has given to the case of Mr.
Anderson and the Earl of Buchan.
_ * Sunpay AFTERNOON, 20¢h April, 1794.”
Of all the Philadelphia naturalists of those early days, the one
who had the most salutary influence upon the progress of science
24 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
was, perhaps, Benjamin Smith Barton [b. 1766, d. 1815.]
Barton was the nephew of Rittenhouse, and the son of the Rev.
Thomas Barton, a learned Episcopal Clergyman of Lancaster,
who was one of the earliest members of the Philosophical Society,
and a man accomplished in science.
He studied at Edinburgh and Gottingen, and at the age of 19,
in 1785, he was the assistant of Rittenhouse and Ellicott, in
the work of establishing the western boundary of Pennsylvania,
and soon after was sent to Europe, whence, having pursued an
extended course of scientific and medical study, he returned in
1789, and was elected professor of natural history and botany in
the University of Pennsylvania. He was a leader in the Philo-
sophical Society, and the founder of the Linnzan Society of
Philadelphia, before which, in 1807, he delivered his famous
‘¢ Discourse on some of the Principal Desiderata in Natural His-
tory,” which did much to excite an intelligent popular interest
in the subject. His essays upon natural history topics were the
first of the kind to appear in this country. He belonged to the
school of Gilbert White and Benjamin Stillingfleet, and was
the first in America of a most useful and interesting group of
writers, among whom may be mentioned John D. Godman,
Samuel Lockwood, C. C. Abbott, Nicholas Pike, John Bur-
roughs, Wilson Flagg, Ernest Ingersoll, the Rev. Dr. McCook,
Hamilton Gibson, Maurice Thompson, and W. T. Hornaday, as
well as Matthew Jones, Campbell Hardy, Charles Waterton,
P. H. Gosse, and Grant Allen, to whom America and England
both have claims.
Barton published certain descriptive papers, as well as manuals
of botany and materia medica, but in latter life had become so
absorbed in medical affairs that he appears to have taken no
interest in the struggles of the infant Academy of Natural Sciences,
which was founded three years before his death, but of which he
never became a member.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 25
His nephew and successor in the Presidency of the Linnzan
Society and the University Professorship, William P. C. Barton
[b. 1786, d. 1856], was a man of similar tendencies, who in
early life published papers on the flora of Philadelphia [Flore
Philadelphiz Prodromus, 1815], but later devoted himself chiefly
to professional affairs, writing copiously upon materia medica and
medical botany.
The admirers of Benjamin Smith Barton have called him ‘‘the ~
father of American Natural History,” but I cannot see the pro-
priety of this designation, which is equally applicable to Mitchill
or Jefferson, and perhaps still more so to Peter Collinson, of
London. The praises of Barton have been so well and so often
sung that I do not feel guilty of injustice in passing him briefly by.*
The most remarkable naturalist of those days was Rafinesque,
[b. 1784, d. 1872], a Sicilian by birth, who came to Philadel-
phia in 1802.
Nearly fifty years ago this man died, friendless and impover-
ished, in Philadelphia. His last words were these: ‘‘ Time ren-
ders justice to all at last.” Perhaps the day has not yet come
when full justice can be done to the memory of Constantine
Rafinesque, but his name seems yearly to grow more prominent
in the history of American zoédlogy. He was in many respects
the most gifted man who ever stood in our ranks. When in his
prime he far surpassed his American contemporaries in versa-
tility and comprehensiveness of grasp. He lived a century too
soon. His spirit was that of the present period. In the latter
years of his life, soured by disappointments, he seemed to become
unsettled in mind, but as I read the story of his life his eccen-
tricities seem to me the outcome of a boundless enthusiasm for
the study of nature. The picturesque events of his life have
*W. P. C. Barton: Biography of Benjamin S. Barton, Philadelphia,
1815
26 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
been so well described by Jordan,* Chase,t and Audubon} that
they need not be referred to here. The most satisfactory gauge
of his abilities is perhaps his masterly ‘‘ Survey of the Progress
and Actual State of Natural Sciences in the United States of
America,” printed in 1817.§ His own sorrowful estimate of
the outcome of his mournful career is very touching:
‘‘T have often been discouraged, but have never despaired
long. I have lived to serve mankind, but have often met with —
ungrateful returns. I have tried to enlarge the limits of knowl-
edge, but have often met with jealous rivals instead of friends.
With a greater fortune I might have imitated Humboldt or
Linneus.”
Dr. Robert Hare [b, 1781, d. 1858] began his long career of use-
fulness in 1801, at the age of twenty, by the invention of the oxy-
hydrogen blow-pipe. This was exhibited at a meeting of the
Chemical Society of Philadelphia in 18or.||
This apparatus was perhaps the most remarkable of his orig-
inal contributions to science, which he continued without inter-
ruption for more than fifty years. It belongs to the end of the
post-revolutionary period, and is therefore noticed, although it is
not the purpose of this essay to consider in detail the work of
the specialists of the present century.
Dr. Hugh Williamson [b. Dec. 5, 1735, d., in New York, May
22, 1719] was a prominent but not particularly useful promoter
of science, a writer rather thana thinker. His work has already
been referred to. The names of Maclure, who came to Phila-
delphia about 1797, the Rev. John Heckewelder, and Albert
Gallatin [b. 1761, d. in 1849], a native of Switzerland, a states-
man and financier, subsequently identified with the scientific cir-
* JORDAN: Bulletin xv, U. S. National Museum: Science Sketches, p. 143.
+ CHASE: Potter’s American Monthly, vi, pp. 97-101.
t Aupuson: The Eccentric Naturalist <_ Ornithological Biography,
P- 455. |
§ Amer. Monthly Magazine, ii, 81.
|| Amer. Month. Mag., i, 8o.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7 27
cles of New York, complete the list of the Philadelphia savans
of the last century.
There is not in all American literature a passage which illus-
trates the peculiar tendencies in the thought of this period so
thoroughly as Jefferson’s defense of the country against the
charges of Buffon and Raynal, which he published in 1783,
which is particularly entertaining because of its almost pettish
depreciation of our motherland.
‘¢On doit etre etonné” (says Raynal) ‘‘ que l Amerique n’ait
pas encore produit un bon poéte, un habile mathematicien, un
homme de génie dans un seul art ou un seule science.”
_ ¢¢ When we shall have existed a people as long as the Greeks did
before they produced a Homer, the Romans a Virgil, the French
a Racine and Voltaire, the English a Shakespeare and Milton,
should this reproach still be true, we will inquire from what
unfriendly causes it has proceeded that the other countries of
Europe and quarters of the earth shall not have inscribed any
name on the roéle of poets.
‘¢In war we have produced a Washington whose name will in
future ages assume its just station among the celebrated worthies
of the world, when that wretched philosophy shall be forgotten
which would have arranged him among the degeneracies of na-
ture. .
‘¢ In physics we have produced a Franxk/in, than whom no one
of the present age has made more important discoveries, nor has
enriched philosophy with more, or more ingenious, solutions of
the phenomena of nature.
‘© We have supposed J/r. ARzttexhouse second to no astronomer
living; that in genius he must be the first because he is self-
taught. He has not indeed made a world; but he has by imita-
tion approached nearer its Maker than any man who has lived
from the creation to this day. There are various ways of keeping
the truth out of sight. Mr. Rittenhouse’s model of the planetary
system has the plagiary appellation of an orrery ; and the quadrant
invented by Godfrey, an American also, and with the aid of which
the European nations traverse the globe, is called Hadley’s quad-
rant.
‘¢ We calculate thus: The United States contain three millions
of inhabitants; France twenty millions; and the British Islands
ten. We produce a Washington, a Franklin, a Rittenhouse.
France then should have half a dozen in each of these lines, and
Great Britain half that number, equally eminent. It may be true
28 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
that France has; we are but just becoming acquainted with her,
and our acquaintance so far gives us high ideas of the genius
of her inhabitants.
‘¢ The present war having so long cut off all communications
with Great Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate
of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she
wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not
seem the legitimate offspring either of science or civilization.
The sun of her glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her phi-
losophy has crossed the channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and
herself seems bearing to that awful dissolution whose issue is not
given human forethought to scan.’’*
This was one phase of public sentiment. Another, no less
instructive, is that shown forth in the publications of Jefferson’s
fierce political opponents in 1790, paraphrased, as follows, by
McMaster in his ‘‘ History of the People of the United States :”
‘¢ Why, it was asked, should a philosopher be made President?
Is not the active, anxious, and responsible station of Executive illy
suited to the calm, retired, and exploring tastes of a natural phi-
losopher? Ability to impale butterflies and contrive turn-about
chairs may entitle one to a college professorship, but it no more
constitutes a claim to the Presidency than the genius of Cox, the
great bridge-builder, or the feats of Ricketts, the equestrian. Do
not the pages of history teem with evidence of the ignorance and
mismanagement of philosophical politicians? John Locke was a
philosopher, and framed a constitution for the colony of Georgia,
but so full was it of whimsies that it had to be thrown aside.
Condorcet, in 1793, made a constitution for France, but it con-
tained more absurdities than were ever before piled up in a system
of government, and was not even tried. Rittenhouse was another
philosopher ; but the only proof he gave of political talents was
suffering himself to be wheedled into the presidency of the Demo-
cratic Society of Philadelphia. But suppose that the title of phi-
losopher is a good claim to the Presidency, what claim has Thomas
Jefferson to the title of philosopher? Why, forsooth!
‘¢ He has refuted Moses, dishonored the story of the Deluge,
made a penal code, drawn up a report in weights and measures,
and speculated profoundly on the primary causes of the difference
between the whites and blacks. Think of such a man as Presi-
dent! Think of a foreign minister surprising him in the act of
anatomizing the kidneys and glands of an African to find out why
the negro is black and odoriferous !
* Notes on Virginia, 1788, pp. 69-71.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 29
‘¢ He has denied that shells found on the mountain tops are parts
of the great flood. He has declared that if the contents of the
whole atmosphere were water, the land would only be overflowed
to the depth of fifty-two and a half feet. He does not believe
the Indians emigrated from Asia.
‘¢ Every mail from the South brought accounts of rumblings and
quakes in the Alleghanies, and strange lights and blazing meteors
in the sky. These disturbances in the natural world might have
no connection with the troubles in the political world; neverthe-
less it was impossible not to compare them with the prodigies all
writers of the day declare preceded the fatal Ides of March.”
be ey
In New York, although a flourishing medical school had been
in existence from 1769, there was an astonishing dearth of natu-
ralists until about 1790. Governor Colden, the botanist and
ethnologist, had died in 1776, and the principal medical men
of the city, the Bards, Clossy, Jones, Middleton, Dyckman,
and others, confined their attention entirely to professional
studies. A Philosophical Society was born in 1787, but died
before it could speak. A Society for the Promotion of Agri-
culture, Arts, and Manufactures, organized in 1791, was more
successful, but not in the least scientific. Up to the end of
the century New York State had but six men chosen to mem-
bership in’ the American Philosophical Society, and, up to 1809,
but five in the American Academy. Leaders, however, soon
arose in Mitchill, Clinton, and Hosack.
Samuel Latham Mitchill, the son of a Quaker farmer [b. 1764,
d. 1831], was educated in the medical schools of New York
and Edinburgh, and in 1792 was appointed Professor of Chem-
istry, Natural History, and Philosophy in Columbia College.
Although during most of his long life a medical professor and
editor, and for many years representative and senator in Congress,
he continued active in the interests of general science. He made
many contributions to systematic natural history, notably a His-
tory of the Fishes of New York, and his edition of Bewick’s
30 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘¢ General History of Quadrupeds,” published in New York in
1804, with notes and additions, and some figures of American
animals, was the earliest American work of the kind. He was the
first in America to lecture upon geology, and published several
papers upon this science. His ‘‘ Mineralogical Exploration of
the banks of the Hudson River” in 1796, under the ‘‘ Society
for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Useful
Arts,” founded by himself, was our earliest attempt at this
kind of research, and in 1794 he published an essay on the
9
‘*Nomenclature of the New Chemistry,” the first American
paper on chemical philosophy, and engaged in a controversy
with Priestley, in defence of the nomenclature of Lavoisier,
which he was the first American to adopt.
His discourse on ‘‘ The Botanical History of North and South
America” was also a pioneer effort. He was an early leader
in ethnological inquiries and a vigorous writer on political topics.
His ‘* Life of Tammany, the Indian Chief”? (New York, 1795),
is a classic, and he was well known to our grandfathers as the
author of ‘‘ An Address to the Fredes or People of the United
States,” in which he proposed that ‘* Fredonia” should be adopted
as the name of the nation.
Dr. Mitchill was a poet,* and a humorist, and a member of the
literary circles of his day. In ‘* The Croakers” Rodman Drake
thus addressed him as ‘‘ The Surgeon General of New York :”
‘*Tt matters not how high or low it is
Thou knowest each hill and vale of mpOwiedge,
Fellow of forty-nine societies
And lecturer in Hosack’s College.”
Fitz-Greene Halleck also paid his compliments in the following
terms:
‘¢ Time was when Dr. Mitchill’s word was law,
When Monkeys, Monsters, Whales and Esquimaux,
Asked but a letter from his ready hand,
To be the theme and wonder of the land. ss
*Examples of his verses may be found in Duyckinck’s Cyclopedia of
American Literature.
Pe eh See ad
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 31
These and other pleasantries, of which many are quoted in
Fairchild’s admirable ‘‘ History of the New York Academy of
Sciences,” gives us an idea of the provinciality of New York
sixty years ago, when every citizen would seem to have known
the principal local representatives of science, and to have felt a
sense of personal proprietorship in him and in his projects.
Mitchill was a. léader in the New York Historical Society ;
founder of the Literary and Philosophical Society, and of its
successor, the Lyceum of Natural History, of which he was long
president. He was also President of the New York Branch of
the Linnzan Society of Paris, and of the N. Y. State Medical
Society, and Surgeon-General of the State Militia; a man of the
widest influence and universally beloved. He served four terms
‘in the House of Representatives, and was five years a member
of the U. S. Senate.*
DeWitt Clinton [b. 1769, d. 1828], statesman and_philan-
thropist, U. S. Senator, and Governor of New York, was a
man of similar. tastes and capacities. What Benjamin Frank-
lin was to Philadelphia in the middle of the eighteenth century
DeWitt Clinton was to New York in the beginning of the nine-
teenth. He was the author of the Hibernicus ‘‘ Letters on
the Natural History and Internal Resources of the State of New
York” (New York, 1822), a work of originality and merit. As
President of the Literary and Philosophical Society he delivered
in 1814 an ‘‘ Introductory Discourse,” which, like Barton’s in
* See Francis, JoHN W. Life of Dr: Mitchill, in Williams’s American
Medical Biography, pp. 401-411, and eulogy in Discourse in Commemora-
tion of 53d Anniversary of N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1857, 56-60; andin his Old
New York; also—
Sketch by H. L. Fairchild in History of the New York Academy of Sci-
ences, 1887, pp. 57-67; also Dr. Mitchill’s own pamphlet: Some of the
Memorable Events and Occurrences in the Life of Samuel S. Mitchill, of
New York, from the year 1786 to 1827.
A biography by Akerly was in existence, but has never been printed.
Numerous portraits are in existence, which are described by Fairchild.
32 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Philadelphia, ten years before, was productive of great good. It
was, moreover, laden with the results of original and important
observations in all departments of natural history. Another im-
portant paper was his ‘‘ Memoirs on the Antiquities of Western
New York” printed in 1818.
Clinton’s attention was devoted chiefly to public affairs, and
especially to the organization of the admirable school system of
New York and other internal improvements. He did enough in
science, however, to place him in the highest ranks of our early
naturalists.*
Hosack has been referred to elsewhere as a pioneer in miner-
alogy and the founder of the first botanic garden. He was long
president of the Historical Society, and exercised a commanding
influence in every direction. His researches were, however,
chiefly medical.
Samuel Akerly [b. 1785, d. 1845], the brother-in-law of
Mitchill, a graduate of Columbia College, 1807, was an in-
dustrious worker in zodlogy and botany and the author of the
‘‘ Geology of the Hudson River.” John Griscom [b. 1774, d.
1852], one of the earliest teachers of chemistry, began in 1806 a
career of great usefulness. ‘‘ For thirty years,” wrote Francis,
‘¢ he was the acknowledged head of all other teachers of chem-
istry among us (in New York), and he kept pace with the flood
of light which Davy, Murray, Gaylussac, and Thenard, and
others shed on the progress of chemical philosophy at that day.”
About 1820 he went abroad to study scientific institutions, and his
charming book, ‘A Year in Europe,’ supplemented by his regu-
lar contributions to Sz//iman’s Journal, commenting on scientific
affairs in other countries, did much to stimulate the growth of
scientific and educational institutions in America.
*Hosack: Memoirs of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1829. RENwIcK:
Life of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1840. CAMPBELL: Life and Writings
of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1849.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 33
Francis tells us that he was for thirty years the acknowledged
head of the teachers of chemistry in New York.*
A zealous promoter of zodlogy in those days was F. Adrian
Vanderkemp, of Oldenbarnavelt, New York, who in 1795, we
are told, delivered an address before an Agricultural Society in
Whitesburg, N. Y., in which he offered premiums for essays
upon certain subjects, among which was one ‘for the best ana-
tomical and historical account of the moose, fifty dollars, or for
bringing one in alive, sixty dollars.”
Having mentioned several American naturalists of foreign
birth, it may not be out of place to refer to the American origin
of an English zodlogist of high repute, Dr. Thomas Horsfield,
born in Philadelphia in 1773, and after many years in the East
became, in 1820, a,resident of London, where he died in 1859.
His name is prominent among those of the entomologists, bota-
nists, and ornithologists of this century, especially in connection |
with Java.
a
In New England, science was more highly appreciated than in
New York. Massachusetts had in John Adams a man who, like
Franklin and Jefferson, realized that scientific institutions were
the best protection for a democratic government, and to his efforts
America owes its second scientific society—the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780. When Mr. Adams
travelled from Boston to Philadelphia, in the days just before
the Revolution, he several times visited at Norwalk, we are told,
a curious collection of American birds and insects made by Mr.
Arnold. ‘* This was afterwards sold to Sir Ashton Lever, in
whose apartments in London Mr. Adams saw it again, and felt
a new regret at our imperfect knowledge of the productions of
* Griscom, JOHN H.: Memoir of John Griscom. New York, 1859.
+ DeWitt Clinton, in Trans. Lt. Phil. Soc. N. Y., p. 59.
34 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
the three kingdoms of nature in our land. In France his visits
to the museums and other establishments, with the inquiries of
Academicians and other men of science and letters respecting
this country, and their encomiums on the Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia, suggested to him the idea of engaging his native
State to do something in the same good but neglected cause.’”’*
The Academy, from the first, was devoted chiefly to the physi-
cal sciences, and the papers in its memoirs for the most part
relate to astronomy and meteorology.
Among its early members I find the names of but two natural-
ists: The Rev. Manasseh Cutler, pastor of Ipswich Hamlet, one
of the earliest botanists of New England,t and William Dan-
dridge Peck [b. 1763, d. 1882], the author of the first paper on
systematic zodlogy ever published in America, a ‘‘ Description.
of four remarkable fishes, taken near the Piscataqua in New
Hampshire,” published in 1794.{ Peck, after graduating at
Harvard, lived at Kittery, N. H., and first became interested in
natural history by reading a wave-worn copy of Linné’s ‘+ Sys-
tem of Nature,”
which he obtained from the ship which was
wrecked near his house. He became a good entomologist, and
communicated much valuable material to Kirby in England, and
was also one of our first writers on the fungi. He was the first
to occupy the chair of natural history in Harvard University, to
which he was appointed in 1800. ;
The Rev. Dr. Jedediah Morse [b. 1761, grad. Yale, 1783,
d. 1826] was the earliest of American geographers, and appears,
especially in the later gazetteers published by him, to have printed
important facts concerning the number and geographical distribu-
tion of the various Indian tribes.
The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded
* KIRTLAND: Mem. Amer. Acad. New Series, vol. 1, p. xxii.
t See previous address, p. 95.
$~ Mem. Amer. Acad. Sci., ii, Part ii, p. 46. 1797.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDBESS. 35
in 1799, one of the chief promoters being President Dwight
[b. 1752, d. 1817], whose ‘‘ Travels in New England and
New York,” printed in 1821, abounds with scientific observations.
Another was E. C. Herrick [b. 1811, d. 1862], for many
years librarian and subsequently treasurer of Yale College,
whose observations upon the aurora, made in the latter years of
the last century, are still frequently quoted; and later an active
investigator of volcanic phenomena, and the author of a treatise .
on the Hessian fly and its parasites, the results of nine years’
study; and of another on the existence of a planet between
Mercury and the sun.
Benjamin Silliman [b. in Trumbull, Conn., Aug. 8, 1779, d
in New Haven, Nov. 27, 1869], who, in 1802, became Professor
of Chemistry at Yale, began there his career of usefulness as
an organizer, teacher, and critic. One of his introductions to
popular favor was the paper which he, in conjunction with
Prof. Kingsley, published, ‘‘An account of the meteor which
burst over Weston, in Connecticut, in December, 1807.” This
paper attracted attention everywhere, for the nature of meteors
was not well understood in those days. Jefferson was reputed to
have said in reference to it, ‘‘ that it was easier to believe that
two Yankee professors could lie than to admit that stones could
fall from heaven ;” but I think this must be pigeon-holed with
the millions of other slanders to which Jefferson was subjected
in those days. I find in the papers by Rittenhouse and Madison,
published twenty years before, by the Philosophical Society,
matter-of-fact allusions to the falling of meteors to the earth.
Silliman was the earliest of American scientific lecturers who
appeared before popular audiences, and, as founder and editor of
the Journal of Science, did a service to science, the value of
which is beyond estimate or computation.
Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor of the Theory and Practice
of Medicine in Harvard, 1783-1812, was one of the earliest
36 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
teachers of natural botany in America, and the author of a poem
entitled ‘* The Botanist.”* The Rev. Jeremy Belknap [b..1744,
d. 1798], in his ‘* History of New Hampshire,” and the Rev.
Samuel Williams [b. 1743, d. 1817], in his ‘* Natural and Civil
History of Vermont,”} made contributions to local natural his-
tory, and Capt. Jonathan Carver [b. 1732, d. 1780], in his
‘¢ Travels through the Interior Parts of America,” t gave some
meagre information as to the zodlogy and botany of regions
previously unknown.
In the South the prestige of colonial days seemed to have de-
parted. Except Jefferson, the. only naturalist in Virginia was
Dr. James Greenway, of Dinwiddie Co., a botanist of some
merit. Mitchell returned to England before the Revolution, and
Garden followed in 1784. H. B. Latrobe, of Baltimore, was
an amateur ichthyologist, and Dr. James MacBride, of Pine-
ville, S. C. [b. 1784, d. 1817], was an active botanist. Dr.
Lionel Chalmers [b. 1715, d. 1777], who was for: many years
the leader of scientific activity in South Carolina, was omitted
in the previous address. A graduate of Edinburgh, he was for
forty years a physician in Charleston. He recorded observations
on meteorology from 1750 to 1760, the foundation of his ‘* Trea-
tise on the Weather and Diseases of South Carolina ” [ London,
1776], and published also valuable papers on pathology. He
was the host and patron of many naturalists, such as the Bar-
trams. 3
There was no lack of men in the South who were capable of
appreciating scientific work. Virginia had fourteen members
in the American Philosophical Society from 1780 to 1800, while
Massachusetts and New York had only six each, the Carolinas
had eight, and Maryland six. The population of the South
was, however, widely dispersed and no concentration of effort
* Biography in Polyanthus, vol. ii.
_¢t Walpole, N. H., 1794, 8vo, p. 416.
$1778.
oat Sle ae a ae
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. _ 37
was possible. To this was due, no doubt, the speedy dissolu-
tion of the Academy of Arts and Sciences founded in Richmond
in 1788.*
A name which should, perhaps, be mentioned in connection
with this is that of Dr. William Charles Wells, whom it has
been the fashion of late to claim as an American. It would
_ be gratifying to be able to vindicate this claim, for Wells was
a man of whom any nation might be proud. He was the orig-
inator of the generally-accepted theory of the origin of dew, and
was also, as Darwin has shown, the first, to recognize and an-_
nounce the theory of evolution by natural selection.; Unfor-
tunately Wells’s science was not American science. We might
with equal propriety claim as American the art of James
Whistler, the politics of Parnell, the fiction of Alexandre
Dumas, the essays of Grant Allen, or the science of Rumford
and Le Vaillant.
Wells was the son of an English painter, who emigrated, in
1753, to South Carolina, where he remained until the time of
the Revolution, when, with other loyalists, he returned to
England. He was born during his father’s residence in Charles-
ton, but left the country in his minority; was educated at Edin-
burgh, and though he, as a young physician, spent four years in
the United States, he was permanently established in London
practice fully twenty-eight years before he read his famous letter
before the Royal Society.
The first American naturalist who held definite views as to
evolution was, undoubtedly, Rafinesque. In a letter to Dr.
Torrey, Dec. 1, 1832, he wrote:
‘¢ The truth is that species, and perhaps genera also, are form-
ing in organized beings by gradual deviations of shapes, forms,
and organs taking place in the lapse of time. There is a tendency
* See previous discourse, p. 98.
+ Darwin: Origin of species, 6th Amer. Ed., p xv. Morse: Proc.
Amer. Assoc. Adv. Science, xxv, p. 141.
38 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
to deviation and mutation in plants and animals by gradual steps,
at remote, irregular periods. This is a part of the great universal
law of perpetual mutability in everything.”
It is pleasant to remember that both Darwin and Wallace
owed much of their insight into the processes of nature to their
American explorations. It is also interesting to recall the clos-
ing lines, almost prophetic as they seem to-day, of the ‘‘Epistle
to the Author of the Botanic Garden,” * written in 1798 by
Elihu Hubbard Smith, of New York, and prefixed to the Amer-
ican editions of ‘* The Botanic Garden :”
‘¢ Where Mississippi’s turbid waters glide
And white Missouri pours its rapid tide;
Where vast Superior spreads its inland sea
And the pale tribes near icy empires sway;
Where now Alaska lifts its forests rude
And Nootka rolls her solitary flood.
Hence keen incitement prompt the prying mind
By treacherous fears, nor palsied nor confined ;
Its curious search embrace the sea and shore
And mine and ocean, earth and air explore.
‘*¢ Thus shall the years proceed,—till growing time
Unfold the treasures of each different clime;
Till one vast brotherhood mankind unite
In equal bonds of knowledge and of right;
Thus the proud column, to the smiling skies
In simple majesty sublime shall rise,
O’er ignorance foiled, their triumph loud proclaim,
And bear inscribed, immortal, DARWIN’s name.”
XII.
During the three decades which made up the post-revolution-
ary period there were several ‘‘ beginnings” which may not
well be referred to in connection with individuals or localities.
The first book upon American insects was published in 1797,
a sumptuously-illustrated work, in two volumes, with 104 col-
ored plates, entitled “The Natural History of the rarer Lepi-
dopterous Insects of Georgia.” This was compiled by Sir
James E. Smith from the notes and drawings of John Abbot
* Erasmus, grandfather of Charles Darwin.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. » 39
[b. about 1760], living in England in 1840, an accomplished
collector and artist, who had been for several years a resident
of Georgia, gathering insects for sale in Europe. Mr. Scudder
characterizes him as ‘* the most prominent student of the life his-
tories of insects we have ever had.”’*
There had, however, been creditable work previously done in
what our entomologists are pleased to call the biological side of
the science. As early as 1768, Col. Landon Carter, of ‘‘ Sabine
Hall,” Virginia, prepared an elaborate paper ‘* On the Habits of
the Fly-Weevil that destroys the Wheat,” which was printed by
‘the American Philosophical Society,f accompanied by an ex-
tended report by ‘‘ The Committee of Husbandry.” In the same
year Moses Bartram presented his ‘* Observations on the native
Silk-Worms of North America.”
Organized effort in economic entomology appears to date from
the year 1792, when the American Philosophical Society ap-
pointed a committee to collect materials for a natural history of
the Hessian Fly, at that time making frightful ravages in the
wheat-fields, and so much dreaded in Great Britain that the
import of wheat from the United States was forbidden by law.
The Philosophical Society’s committee was composed of Thomas
Jefferson, at that time Secretary of State in President Washing-
ton’s cabinet, Benjamin Smith Barton, James Hutchinson, and
Caspar Wistar. In their report, which was accompanied by
large drawings, the history of the little marauder was given in
considerable detail.
The publication of Wilson’s American Ornithology, begin-
ning in 1808, was an event of great importance. It was in 1804
*There is a whole series of quarto or folio volumes in the British Mu-
seum done by him, and a few volumes are extant in this country. Be-
sides, all the biological material in Smith-Abbot’s Insects of Georgia is
his.”—Letter of S. H. Scudder.
+t Transactions of the American Philosophical Soc., 1, 274.
t Jbed., p. 294.
40 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
that the author, a schoolmaster near Philadelphia, decided upon
his plan. In a letter to Lawson he wrote:
‘¢T am most earnestly bent on pursuing my plan of making a
Collection of all the Birds of North America. Now, I don’t
want you to throw cold water on this notice, Quixotic as it may
appear. I have been so long accustomed to the building of Airy
Castles and brain Windmills that it has become one of my com-
forts of life, a sort of rough Bone, that amuses me when sated
with the dull drudgery of Life.”
I need not eulogize Wilson. Every one knows how well he
succeeded. He has had learned commentators and elo-,
quent biographers. Our children pore over the narrative of
the adventurous life of the weaver naturalist, and we all are
sensible of the charms which his graceful pen has given to the
life-histories of the birds.
His poetical productions are immortal, and his lines to the
Blue Bird and the Fisherman’s Hymn are worthy to stand by
the side of Bryant’s Waterfowl, Trowbridge’s Wood Pewee,
Emerson’s Titmouse, Thaxter’s Sandpiper, and, possibly best
of all, Walt. Whitman’s Mocking-Bird in ‘‘ Out of the Cradle
endlessly Rocking.” :
Ichthyology in America dates also from these last years of
‘the century. Garden was our only resident ichthyologist until
Peck and Mitchill began their work, but Schepf, the Hessian
military surgeon, printed a paper on the Fishes of New York
in 1787, and William Bryant, of New Jersey, and Henry Col-
lins Flagg, of South Carolina, made observations upon the elec-
tric eel, in addition to those which Williamson, of North Car-
olina, laid before the Royal Society in 1775.
Paleontology had its beginning at about the same time in the
publication of Jefferson’s paper on the Megalonyx or ‘‘Great
Claw ” in 1797.*
* The first vertebrate fossils were found in Virginia. Samuel Maverick,
of Massachusetts, reported to the colony at Boston in 1836 that, at a place
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 41
This early study of a fossil vertebrate was followed 20 years
later by the first paper which touched upon invertebrates—that
?
by Say on ‘‘ Fossil Zodlogy,” in the first volume of Silliman’s
Journal. Lesueur seems to have brought from France some
knowledge of the names of fossils, and identified many species
for the early American geologists. |
Stratigraphical and physical geology also came in at this time,
and will be referred to later. '
The science of mineralogy was brought to America in its
infancy. The first course of lectures upon this subject ever
given in London was in the winter of 1793-4, by Schmeisser,
a pupil of Werner. Dr. David Hosack, then a student of
medicine at Edinburgh, was ‘one of his hearers, and inspired by
his enthusiasm began at once to form the collection of minerals
which he brought to America on his return in 1794, which was_
the first mineralogical cabinet ever seen on this side of the
Atlantic. This collection was exhibited for many years in New
York (and in 1821 was given to Princeton College). Howard
soon after obtained a select cabinet from Europe, and the
museum of the American Philosophical Society acquired the -
Smith collection. In 1802, Mr. B. D. Perkins, a New York
bookseller, brought from London a fine collection, which soon
passed into the possession of Yale College, and in 1803 Dr. Arch-
ibald Bruce brought over one equally fine, which was made the
basis of lectures when in 1806 he became professor of miner-
alogy in Columbia College. George Gibbs, in 1805, imported
the magnificent collection which was long in the custody of the
American Geological Society. Seybert, about the same time,
brought to Philadelphia the cabinet which in 1813 was bought
by the Academy of Natural Sciences and was lectured upon by
Troost in 1814.
on the James River, about sixty miles above its mouth, the colonists had
found shells and bones, among these bones that of a whale, eighteen feet
below the surface.—Neill’s Virginia Carolorum, p. 131.
42 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Much of the early botanical exploration was, however, carried
out by European botanists: André Michaux [b. near Vetsailles,
1746, d. Madagascar, 1802], a pupil of the Jussiens and an ex-
perienced explorer, was sent by this government, in 1785, to
collect useful trees and shrubs for naturalization in France. He
remained eleven years; made extensive explorations in the
regions then accessible, and as far west as the Mississippi; sent
home immense numbers of living plants; and, after his return,
in 1796, published his treatise on the American Oaks,* and pre-
pared the materials for his posthumous ‘‘ Flora Boreali-Ameri-
canas.” : e
Frangois André Michaux [b. near Versailles, 1770, d. at
Vauréal, 1855] was his father’s assistant in these early travels,
and in 1802 and 1806 himself made botanical explorations in the
Mississippi Valley. His botanical works were of great impor-
tance,t especially that known in its English translation as the
‘¢ North American Sylva,” afterward completed by Nuttall, and
still the only work of the kind, though soon to be supplemented,
we hope, by Professor Sargent’s projected monographs.
Frederick Pursh [b. 1774, in Tobolsk, Siberia, d. June 11,
'1820, in Montreal, Canada] carried on botanical explorations
between 1799 and 1819 ; living, from 1802 to 1805, in Philadel-
phia, and from 1807 to 1810 in New York. In 1814 he pub-
lished in London his ‘‘ Flora Americe Septemtrionalis.” Pursh’s
Flora was largely based upon the labors of the American bot-
anists Barton, Hosack, LeConte, Peck, Clayton, Walter, and
Lyon, and the botanical collection of Lewis and Clarke, and —
enumerated about 3,000 species of plants, while Michaux’s,
printed eleven years before, had only about half that number.
A. von Enslen collected plants at this time, in the South and
West, for the Imperial Cabinet in Vienna. C. C. Robin, who
* Histoire des chénes de l’Amerique Septentrionale, 1801; 36 plates.
| Voyage 4 l’ouest des monte Alléghany, &c. 8vo, pp. 684. Paris, 1808.
Histoire des arbres foréstiéres de l’Amerique, Septentrionale.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 43
travelled from 1802 to 1806 in what are now the Gulf States,
wrote a botanical appendix to his Travels, published in 1807, on
which Rafinesque founded his ‘* Florula Ludoviciana” (New
York, 1817).
Thaddeus Henke [b. 1761, d. in Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1817]
visited Western North America with the Spaniards late in the
last century,'and made large collections of plants, which were
sent to the National Museum of Bohemia, at Prague, and in
part described in Presl’s ‘‘ Reliquie Henkiane,” 72 plates.
Archibald Menzies [b. 1754, d. 1842], an English naval sur-
geon, also collected on our Pacific coast, under Vancouver, in -
1780-95, and his plants found their way to Edinburgh and Kew.
Captain Wangenheim, Surgeon Schoepf, of the Hessian
contingent of the British army, Olaf Swartz, a Swedish botan-
ical explorer, and others, also gathered plants in these early days,
and, in some instances, published in Europe their botanical
observations.
- Other collectors of this same class were L. A. G. Bosc [1759-
1828], who made botanical researches in the Carolinas during
the last two years of the century, and returned to France in 1800
with a herbarium of 1,600 species. He also collected fishes,
and his name is perpetuated in connection with at least two
well-known American fauna. Another was M. Milbert, who
collected for Cuvier in New York, Canada, the Great Lake
region, and the Mississippi Valley from 1817 to 1823.
The Baron Palisot de Beauvois [b. 1755, d. 1820] came from
Santo Domingo to America in 1791. He travelled extensively,
and being a zodlogist as well as a botanist, made observations
upon our native animals, particularly the reptiles.
It is to him that we owe the most carefully recorded of
existing observations of young rattlesnakes crawling down their
parent snakes’ throats for protection from enemies.
Most of these men did not contribute largely to the advance-
44 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ment of American scientific institutes or affiliate with the natu-
ralists of the day.
Of quite another type was the Count Luigi Castiglioni, who
travelled, soon after the Revolution, throughout the Eastern
States, and published in 1790 two volumes of his travels.*
The Count Volney [b. at Craon Feb. 3, 1757, d. in Paris
April 25, 1820], traveller, statesman, and historian, travelled
in this country from 1795 to 1798, and in 1803, while a Senator
of the French Republic, published his famous work upon the
United States, containing his observations upon its soil and its
climate, and upon the Indians, together with the first doctrines
of the language of the Miamis,t and also giving a description
of the physical and botanical features of the country. Volney
was an admirer and intimate friend of Franklin, and it was in his
home at Passy, we are told, that he conceived the idea of his most
famous book ‘‘ Les Ruines.’’f
Among the traditions of Fauquier county, Virginia, is one
which is of interest to naturalists, since it relates to an incident
showing the interest of our first President in science :
‘*¢ About the year 1796,” runs the story, ‘‘ at the close of a long
summer’s day, a stranger entered the village of Warrenton. He
was alone, and on foot, and his appearance was anything but
prepossessing. His garments, coarse and dust-covered, indicated
an individual in the humble walks. "From a cane across his
shoulders was suspended a handkerchief containing his clothing.
Stopping in front of Turner’s tavern, he took from his hat a paper
and handed it to a gentleman standing on the steps; it read as
follows :
*¢.The celebrated historian and naturalist
VoOLNEY needs no recommendation from
‘¢ G. WASHINGTON.”
* Viaggio negli Stati Uniti del America Settentrionali.
+t Tableau du climat et du sol des Etats-Unis d’Amerique, s suivi d’eclair-
cissements sur la Floride, sur la»colonie frangaise a Scioto sur quelques
colonies canadiennes, et sur les savages. Paris, 1803. 8vo,2vols. 2d
edition. Paris. 8vo, 1 vol., pp. 494. Map.
t BicrLow, Jonn: Franklin’s Homeand Host. in France. The Century,
May, 1888, p. 743.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 45
In 1801 Jefferson began his eight years of presidency. Since he
was the only man of science who has ever occupied the chief magis-
tracy, he hasa right to a high place in the esteem of such a society
as ours, and I only regret that, having spoken of him at length
a year ago, I cannot now discuss his scientific career in all its
aspects.
I then spoke of the credit which was due to him for beginning
so early as 1780 to agitate the idea of a government exploring
expedition to the Pacific, which culminated in the sending out
by Congress of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, in 1803.
Captain Lewis [b. 1774, d. 1809], the leader of this expedition,
was a young Virginian, the neighbor, and for some years the
private secretary, of President Jefferson. He set out in the sum-
mer of 1803, accompanied by his associate, Captain Clarke, and
twenty-eight men. They entered the Missouri, May 14, 1804,
before the middle of the following July had reached the great
fails, and by October were upon the western slope, where, em-
barking in canoes upon the Kouskousky, a branch of the Colum-
bia, they descended to its mouth, where they arrived on the 15th
of November, 1805. The following spring they retraced their
course, arriving at St. Louis in September.* The results of the
expedition were first made known in Jefferson’s message to Con-
gress, read February 19, 1806.
The statue of Meriwether Lewis is one of those at the base
of the Washington Monument in Richmond, Virginia, and is
worthy of the man and his career.
Dr. Asa Gray in a recent letter says:
‘‘T have reason to think that Michaux suggested to Jefferson
the expedition which the latter was active in sending over to the
Pacific. I wonder if he put off Michaux for the sake of having
it in American hands? ”’+
The idea of anexpedition to the Pacific was one which was likely
* See a complete bibliography of the various reports of this expedition,
by Elliott Coues, in the Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey.
t See Amer. Journ. Sci., xii, No. 1.
46 - BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
to occur to any thoughtful American, and was, after all, simply
the continuing of a plan as old as the Spanish days of discovery.
Jefferson, at all events, was an active promoter of all such enter- .
prises, and after a quarter of a century’s effort the expedition was
dispatched, while in 1805 Gen. Z. M. Pike was sent to explore
the sources of the Mississippi river and the western parts of
‘¢ Louisiana,” penetrating as far west as ‘‘ Pike’s Peak,” a name
which still remains as a memento of this enterprise.
The organization of these early expeditions marked the begin-
ning.of one of the most important portions of the scientific work
of our government—the investigation of the resources and
natural history of the public domain. The expeditions of Lewis
and Clarke, and of Pike, were the precursors and prototypes of
the magnificent organization now accomplishing so much for
science under the charge of Major J. W. Powell.
As early as 1806, Jefferson, inspired by Patterson and Hassler,
urged the establishment of a national Coast Survey, and in this
"was earnestly supported by his Secretary of the Treasury, Albert
Gallatin, who drew up a learned and elaborate project for its
organization, and an act authorizing its establishment was passed
in 1807. During his administration, in 1802, the first scientific
school in this country was established, the Military Academy at
West Point. The Military Academy was a favorite project of
General Washington, who is said to have justified his anxiety for
its establishment by the remark that ‘‘ an army of asses led by a
lion is vastly superior to an army of lions led by an ass.”
Jefferson has been heartily abused for not gratifying Alexander
Wilson’s request to be appointed naturalist to Pike’s expeditions.
It is possible that even in those days administrators were ham-
pered by lack of financial resources. It must also be remem-
bered that in 1804 Wilson was simply an enthusiastic projector
of ornithological undertakings, and had done nothing whatever
to establish his reputation as an investigator.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 47
One of Jefferson’s first official acts was to throw his presidential
mantle over Priestley. Two weeks after he became President of
the United States he wrote these words:
‘¢Tt is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the first moments of
my public action, I can hail you with welcome to our land,
tender to you the homage of its respect and esteem, cover you
under the protection of those laws which were made for the wise
and good like you, and disclaim the legitimacy of that libel on
legislators which, under the form of a law, was for some time
placed among them.”
* '* * ‘Yours is one of the few lives precious to mankind,
and for the continuance of which every thinking man is solicitous.
Bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my dear sir, of
bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through. * * *
All advances in science were prescribed as innovations. They
pretended to praise and encourage education, but it was to be the
education of our ancestors. We were to look backwards, not
forwards for improvement; the President (Washington) himself
declaring in one of his answers to addresses that we were never |
to expect to go beyond them in real science. This was the real
ground of all the attacks on you; those who live by mystery and
charlatanerze fearing you would render them useless by simpli-
fying the Christian philosophy, the most sublime and benevo-
lent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man, en-
deavored to crush your well-earned and well-deserved fame.”’*
XIII.
With the close of the third decade ended the first third of a
century since the Declaration of Independence. We have now
passed in review a considerable number of illustrious names and
have noted the inception of many worthy undertakings.
‘¢ Still, however,” in the words of Silliman, ‘‘ although indi-
viduals were enlightened, no serious impression was produced
on the public mind; a few lights were, indeed, held out, but
they were lights twinkling in an almost impervious gloom.”
This was a state of affairs not peculiar to America. A gloom
no less oppressive had long obscured the intellectual atmosphere
* Jefferson’s Works (T. J. Randolph ed.), 1830, iii, 461.
ft Silliman, i, 37.
—
48 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
of the old world. There were a goodly number of men. of
science, and many important discoveries were being made, but
no bonds had yet been formed to connect the interests of the men
of science and the men of affairs.
Speculative science, in the nature of things, can only interest
and attract scholarly men. and though its results, concisely and
attractively stated, may have a passing interest to a certain por-
tion of every community, it is only by its practical applications
that it secures the hearty support of the community at large. ©
Huxley, in his recent discourse upon *‘ The Advance of Science
in the Last Half Century,”* has touched upon this subject in a
most suggestive and instructive manner, and has shown that Bacon,
with all his wisdom, exerted little direct beneficial influence upon
the advancement of natural knowledge, which has after all been
chiefly forwarded by men like Galileo and Harvey, Boyle and
Newton, ‘‘who would have done their work quite as well if
neither Bacon nor Descartes had ever propounded their views
respecting the manner in which scientific investigation should be
pursued.”
I think we should look upon Bacon as the prophet of modern
scientific thought, rather than its founder. It is no doubt true,
as Huxley has said, that his ‘* scientific insight ” was not sufficient
to enable him to shape the future course of scientific philosophy,
but it is scarcely true that he attached any undue value to the
practical advantages which the world as a whole, and incident-
ally science itself, were to reap from the applications of scientific
methods to the investigation of nature.
Even though the investigations of Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz,
Boyle, Torricelli, and. Malpighi, had directly helped no man to
either wealth or comfort, the cumulative results of their labors,
and those of their pupils and associates, resulted in a condition
* Woop, T. H.: The Reign of Victoria; a survey of Fifty Years of Pro-
gress. London, 1887.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 49
of scientific knowledge from which, sooner or later, utilitarian
results must necessarily have sprung.
It is true, as Huxley tells us, that at the beginning of this cen-
tury weaving and spinning were still carried on with the old
appliances ; true that nobody could travel faster by sea or by land
than at any previous time in the world’s history, and true that
King George could send a message from London to York no
faster than King John might have done. Metals were still
worked from their ores by immemorial rule of thumb, and the
centre of the iron trade of these islands was among the oak for-
ests of Sussex, while the utmost skill of the British mechanic did
not get beyond the production of a coarse watch.
It cannot be denied that although the middle of the eighteenth
century was illuminated by a host of great names in science,
chemists, biologists, geologists, English, French, German, and ,
Italian, the deepening and broadening of natural knowledge had
produced next to no immediate practical benefits. Still I cannot
believe that Bacon, the prophet, would have been so devoid of
‘* scientific insight” as to have failed to foresee at this time the
ultimate results of all this intellectual activity.
But Huxley says:
‘¢ Even if, at this time, Francis Bacon could have returned to
the scene of his greatness and of his littleness, he must have re-
garded the philosophic world which praised and disregarded his
precepts with great disfavor. If ghosts are consistent, he would
have said, ‘‘ these people are all wasting their time, just as Gil-
bert, and Kepler, and Galileo, and my worthy physician Harvey
did in my day. Where are thé fruits of the restoration of science
which I promised? This accumulation of bare knowledge is all
very well, but cuz doz0? Not one of these people is doing what I
told him specially to do, and seeking that secret of the cause of
forms, which will enable him to deal at will with matter and
superinduce new nature upon old foundations.”
As Huxley, however, proceeds himself to show, in the dis-
cussion which immediately follows this passage, a ‘* new nature,
50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
begotten by science upon fact,’’ has been born within the past
few decades, and pressing itself daily and hourly upon our atten-
tion, has worked miracles which have not only modified the whole
future of the lives of mankind, but has reacted constantly upon
the progress of science itself.
It is to the development of this new nature, then in its very
infancy, that we must look for the revival of interest in science
on this side of the Atlantic.
The second decade of the century was marked by a great
accession of interest in the sciences.. The second war with
Great Britain having ended, the country, for the first time since
colonial days, became sufficiently tranquil for peaceful attention
to literature and philosophy. The end of the Napoleonic wars
and the restoration of tranquillity to Europe tended to scientific
advances on the other side of the Atlantic, and the results of the
labors of Cuvier, whose glory was now approaching its zenith,
of Brongniart, of Blainville, of Jussieu, of Decandolle, of Werner,
of Hutton, of Buckland, of De la Beche, of Magendie, of Hum-
boldt, Daubuisson, Berzelius, Von Buch, of Herschel, of Laplace,
of Young, of Fresnel, of Oersted, of Cavendish, of Lavoisier, Wol-
laston, Davy, and Sir William Hooker, were eagerly welcomed
by hundreds in America.
‘¢In truth,” wrote one who was among the most active in
promoting these tendencies, ‘‘ in truth, a thirst for the Natural
Sciences seemed already to pervade the United States like the
progress of an epidemic.” ae
The author of these enthusiastic words was Amos Eaton
[b. in Chatham, N. Y., 1776, d. May 6, 1842], one of the most
interesting men of his day. In 1816, at the age of forty, he
abandoned the practice of law and went to New Haven to
attend Silliman’s lectures on Mineralogy and Geology. He was
aman of great force and untiring energy, and one of the pio-
neers of American geology; though the name, ‘‘ father of Amer-
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 51
ican geology,” sometimes applied to him, would seem to belong
more appropriately to Maclure, or, perhaps, to Mitchill. He
was, however, only some eight years later than Maclure in
beginning geological field-work. Eaton’s ‘‘ Index to the Geology
of the Northern States of America,” printed in 1817, was the first
strictly American treatise, and seems to have had a very stimu-
lating effect. He was pre-eminently an agitator and an educator.
He travelled many thousands of miles on foot throughout New
England and New York, delivering, in the meantime, at the
principal towns, short courses of lectures on natural history.
In March, 1817, having received an invitation to aid in the intro-
duction of the Natural Sciences in Williams College, his Alma
Mater, he delivered a course of lectures in Williamstown.
‘s Such,” he remarks, ‘‘ was the zeal at this institution that an
uncontrollable enthusiasm for natural history took possession of
every mind; and other departments of learning were, for a time,
crowded out of the college. The authorities allowed twelve
students each day (seventy-two per week) to devote their whole
time to the collection of minerals and plants, in lieu of all other
exercises.” * | :
In April, 1818, he went to Albany on the special invitation
of Gov. DeWitt Clinton and delivered a course of lectures on
Natural History. ‘*In Albany I found,” wrote he, ‘* Dr. T.
Romeyn Beck, and in Troy, Doctors Burrett, Robbins, and
Dale, zealous beyond description in the cause of Natural Science.
By the exertions of these gentlemen a taste for the study of
Nature was strongly excited in those two cities, especially for
that of geology. They, together with several others, had become
members of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and, in
the fall of 1818, established a society of the same name and
upon a similar plan in Troy. Collections were made with
such zeal that, in the course of a few months, Troy could boast
* Geological Text-Book, 2d ed., 1832, p. 16.
a2 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
of a more extensive collection of American geological specimens
than Yale College, or any other institution upon this continent.’’*
‘¢In this period,” remarked Bache, ‘‘ the prosecution of mathe-
matics and physical science was neglected; indeed barely kept
alive by the calls for boundary and land surveys of the more ex-
tended class, by the exertions necessary in the lecture-room, or by
isolated volunteer efforts.
‘‘As the country was explored and settled the unworked mine
of natural history was laid open, and the attention of almost all
the cultivators of science was turned toward the development of
its riches. 3
‘¢ Descriptive natural history is the pursuit which emphatically
made that period. As its experiment may be taken the admira-
ble descriptive mineralogy of Cleaveland, which seemed to fill the
measures of that day and be, as it were, its chief embodiment,
appearing just as the era was passing away.”
The leading spirits of the day seem to have been Silliman,
Hare, Maclure, Mitchill, Gibbs, Cleaveland, DeWitt Clinton,
and Caspar Wistar.
Names familiar to us of the present generation began now to
appear in scientific literature: Isaac Lea began to print his
memoirs on the Unéontde ; Edward Hitchcock, principal of the
Deerfield Academy, was writing his first papers on the geology
of Massachusetts; Prof. Chester Dewey, of Williams College,
[b. 1781, d. 1867], afterwards known to us all from his excellent
work upon the Carices, was discussing the mineralogy and geol-
ogy of Massachusetts; Dr. John Torrey, also to be famous as a
botanist, was then devoting his attention to mineralogy and
* The Troy Lyceum of Natural History was incorporated in (819, and a
lectureship was created, filled by Mr. Eaton (Szlliman’s Fournal, ii, 173).
In 1820 a similar association, ‘‘ The Hudson Association for Improvement
in Science,” was founded in the city of Hudson, and in 1821 the Delaware
Chemical and Geological Society.
+ Presidential Address Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1851, pp. vi, xlvi.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 53
chemistry ; Dr. Jacob Porter was making botanical observations
in central Massachusetts ; quaint old Caleb Atwater, at that time
almost the only scientific observer west of the Alleghanies, was
discussing the origin of prairies, meteorology, botany, geology,
mineralogy, and scenery of the Ohio country, and a little later
the remains of mammoths.
Prof. J. W. Webster, of Boston, was making general studies
in geology; the Rev. Elias Cornelius and Mr. John Grammer
were writing of the geology of Virginia; Mr. J. A. Kain, upon
that of Tennessee, I. P. Brace, that of Connecticut, and James
Pierce, that of New Jersey.
To this period belonged the brilliant Constantine Rafinesque,
with Torrey, Silliman, Cleaveland, Gibbs, James, Schoolcraft,
Gage, Akerly, Mitchill, Dana, Beck, and Featherstonhaugh.
Dr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, afterwards prominent in ethnology,
printed, in 1819, his ‘‘ View of the Lead Mines of Missouri,”
the first from American contributors to economic geology; and
in the same year his ‘‘ Transallegania,” a mineralogical poem,
probably the last as well as the first of its kind written in
America. In 1821 he published a scholarly ‘* Account of the
Native Copper on the Southern shore of Lake Superior.”*
Mineralogy and geology were the most popular of the sciences.
American Geology dated its beginning from this previous
decade. Prof. S. L. Mitchill was one of the first to call
attention to the teachings of Kirwan and the pioneers of Eu-
ropean geology, and very early in the century began to
instruct the students of Columbia College in the principles
of geology as then understood. He published Observations
on the Geology of America, and also edited a New York edition
of Cuvier’s ‘‘ History of the Earth,” contributing to this work
an appendix which was constantly quoted by early writers.
The first geological explorer was William Maclure [b. in Ayr,
* Amer. Jour. Science, iii, pp. 201-210.
°
54 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Scotland, 1763, d. in San Angel, Mexico, Mar. 23, 1840], a
Scotch merchant who amassed a large fortune by commercial
connections with this country, and became a citizen of the United
States about 1796. His most important service to American
science was that of a patron, for he was a liberal supporter of the
infant Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, and for twenty-two
years its president, besides being an upholder of other important
enterprises.
The publication in 1809 of his ‘‘ Observations on the Geology
of the United States” marks the beginning of American geo-
graphical geology and the first attempt at a geological survey of
the United States. This had long been the object of his ambi-
tion, and, in order to prepare himself for the task, he had spent
several years in travel throughout Europe, making observations
and collecting objects in natural history, which he forwarded to
the country of his adoption.
His undertaking was undoubtedly a remarkable one. ‘‘ He
went forth with his hammer in his hand and his wallet on his
shoulder, pursuing his researches in every direction, visiting
almost every State and Territory, wandering often amidst path-
less tracts and dreary solitudes until he had crossed and re-
crossed the Alleghany mountains not less than fifty times. He
encountered all the privations of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and ex-
posure, month after month and year after year, until his indom-
itable spirit had conquered every difficulty and crowned his
enterprise with success,”* and after the publication of his me-
moir he devoted eight years more to collecting materials for a
second and revised addition.
The geological map of the United States, published in 1809,
appears to have been the first of the kind ever attempted for an
entire country. Smith’s geological map of England was six
years later, and Greenough’s still subsequent in date.
* Martin: Memoir of William Maclure, p. 11. _
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. : oe
The publication in London in 1813 of Bakewell’s ‘+ Introduc-
tion to Geology” seems to have given a great stimulus to geo-
logical researches in this country, as may be judged from the
publication of an American edition a year or two later.
Mitchill, Bruce, and Maclure soon had a goodly band of asso-
ciates. Naturalists were not confined to limited specialties in
those days, and we find all the chemists, botanists, and zodlo-
gists absorbed in the consideration of geological problems.
Maclure and most of the Americans were disciples of Werner.
Silliman, writing in 1818, said:
‘¢A grand outline has recently been drawn by Mr. Maclure
with a masterly hand and with a vast extent of personal obser-
vation and labour ; but, to fill up the detail, both observation and
labour still more extensive are demanded ; nor can the object be
effected till more good geologists are formed and distributed over
our extensive territory.”
On the 6th of September, 1819, the American Geological :
Society was organized in the philosophical room of Yale Col-
lege, an event of great importance in the history of science,
hastening, as it seems to have done, the establishment of State
surveys and stimulating observation throughout the country.
This Society, which continued in existence until about 1826,
may fairly be considered the nucleus of the Association of Ameri-
can Geologists and Naturalists, and, consequently, of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of Science. Members
appended to their names the symbols, M. A. G. S., and it was
for a time the most active of American scientific societies.
The characteristics of the leading spirits were summed up by
Eaton at the time of its beginning:
_ ¢¢ The President, William Maclure, has already struck out the
grand outline of North American geographical geology. The
first Vice-President, Col. G. Gibbs, has collected more facts and
amassed more geological and mineralogical specimens than any
other individual of the age. The second Vice-President, Pro-
fessor Silliman, gives the true scientific dress to all the naked
56 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
mineralogical subjects which are furnished to his hand. The
third Vice-President, Professor Cleaveland, is successfully em-
ployed in elucidating and familiarizing those interesting scenes ;
and thus smoothing the rugged paths of the student. Professor
Mitchill has amassed a large store of materials and annexed them
to the labors of Cuvier and Jameson. The drudgery of climbing
cliffs and descending into fissures and caverns, and of traversing
in all directions our most rugged mountainous districts, to ascer-
tain,the distinctive characters, number, and order of our strata,
has devolved upon me.”’*
Eaton has very fairly defined his own position among the early
geologists, which was that of an explorer and pioneer. The epi-
thet, ‘‘ Father of American Geology,” which has sometimes been
applied to him, might more justly be bestowed upon Maclure, or
even upon Mitchill. The name of Amos Eaton [b. 1776, d.
1872] will always be memorable, on account of his connection
with the geological survey of New York, which was begun in
1820, at the private expense of Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer ;
also as the founder, in 1824, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti-
tute, the first of its class on the continent. :
The State of New York was not pre-eminently prompt in
establishing an official survey, but the liberality of Van Rensse-
laer and the energy of Eaton gave to New York the honor of
attaching the names of its towns and counties to a large num-
ber of the geological formations of North America.
In these early surveys Eaton was associated with Dr. Theo-
dore Romeyn Beck and Mr. H. Webster, naturalist and collec-
tor, one of the first being a survey of the county of Albany, un-
der the special direction of a County Agricultural Society, fol-
lowed by similar surveys of Rensselaer county and Saratoga
county and others along the Erie Canal.
In July, 1818, Professor Silliman began the publication of the
American Journal of Science, which has been for more than
two-thirds of a century the most prominent register of the scien-
* Index to the Geology of the Northern States. 2ded. 1820. p. viii.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 57
tific progress of this continent. Silliman’s journal succeeded,
and far more than replaced, the American Mineralogical Jour-
nal, the earliest of American scientific periodicals, which was
established in New York 1810 by Dr. Archibald Bruce, and
which was discontinued after the close of the first volume, in
1814, on account of the illness and untimely death of its pro-
jector.* The Mineralogical Journal was not so limited in
scope as in name, and was for a time the principal organ of
our scientific specialists.f
We can but admire the spirit of Silliman, who remarks in the
preface to the third volume:
‘‘ Tt must require several years from the commencement of the
work to decide the question [whether it is to be supported], and
the editor (if God continues his life and health) will endeavour
to prove himself neither impatient nor querulous during the time
that his countrymen hold the question undecided, whether there
shall be an American Journal of Sctence and Arts.”
In the fall of 1822 he announced that a trial of four years had
decided the point that the American public would support this
journal.
Prior to the establishing of Silliman’s journal, the principal
organs of American science were the Medical Reposztory,
commenced in 1798, of which Dr. Mitchill was the chief
proprietor; the Mew York Medical and Physical Journal,
conducted chiefly by Dr. Hosack; the Boston Journal of Phi-
losophy and the Arts, and other similar periodicals. Our
students looked chiefly, however, to the English journals—
Tilloch’s Phclosophical Magazine and Nicholson’s Journal of
Natural Philosophy, and later, Thomson’s Aznals of Phil-
osophy, the Annales de Chimie.
*<**No future historian of American science will fail to commemorate
this work us our earliest Aurely scéentzjic journal, supported by original
American communications,” said Silliman in his prospectus, 1817.
+The only copies of this journal known to be in existence are in the N.
Y. State Library and the Harvard Library.
58 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The American Monthly Magazine, established in 1814 by
Charles Brockden Brown, was fully as much devoted to science
as to literature, and an examination of this and other journals
of the early portion of the century will, I think, satisfy the student
that scientific subjects were more seriously considered by our
ancestors than by the Americans of to-day. The American
Monthly published elaborate reviews of technical works, such as
Cleaveland’s Mineralogy, and summaries of the world’s progress
in science, as well as the monthly proceedings of all the scientific
societies in New York, and papers on systematic zoology and
botany by Rafinesque.
In 1812 the American Antiquarian Society was established at
Worcester, and before 1820, when its first volume of transactions
appeared, had collected 6,000 books and ‘‘a respectable cabinet.”
This was a pioneer effort in ethnological science. Archeologia
Americana contained papers by Mitchill, Atwater, and others,
chiefly relating to the aboriginal population of America. The
name of Isaiah Thomas, LL. D. [b. in Boston 1749, d. in Wor-
cester 1831], the founder and first president of the society, who
at his own expense erected a building for its accommodation and
endowed its first researches, should be remembered with grati-
tude by American naturalists. He was one of the most eminent
of American printers, and styled by DeWarville ‘‘ the Didot of
- America.” |
In 1812 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
~-was founded, the outgrowth of a social club, whose members,
we are told, had no conception of the importance of the work
they were undertaking when, in a spirit of burlesque, they
assumed the title of an academy of learning.
In 1816 the Coast Survey, after years of discussion, was placed
in action under the supervision of Hassler (who had been ap-
pointed its head as early as 1811), but, two vears later, the work
going on too slowly to please the Government, it was stopped.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 59
The Linnzan Society of New England, established in Boston
about this time, was the precursor of the Boston Society of
Natural Science.
The publication of an American edition of Rees’s. Cyclopedia,
in Philadelphia, was begun in 1810, and the 47th volume com-
pleted in 1824. This was an event in the history of American
science, for it furnished employment and thus fostered the inves-
tigations of several eminent naturalists, among whom were Alex-
ander Wilson, Thomas Say, and Ord; while, at the same time, it
fostered a taste for science in the United States and gave currency
to several rather epoch-making articles, such as Say’s upon
Conchology and Entomology.
Mr. Bradbury, the publisher of this Cyclopedia, was the first
of a goodly company of liberal and far-seeing publishers who
have done much for science in this country by their patronage of
important scientific publications. | }
In 1817 Josiah Meigs, Commissioner of the Land Office, issued
a circular to the several Registers of the Land Offices of the
United States requiring them to keep daily meteorological obser-
vations, and also to report upon such phenomena as the times of
the unfolding of leaves of plants and the dates of flowering, the
migrations of birds and fishes, the dates of spawning of fishes,
the hibernation of animals, the history of locusts and other in-
sects in large numbers, the falling of stones and other bodies from
the atmosphere, the direction of meteors, and discoveries rela-
tive to the antiquities of the country.
It does not appear that anything ever resulted from this step,
but it is referred to as an indication that, seventy years ago, our
Government was willing to use its civil service officials in the
interest of science. A few years later the same idea was carried
into effect by the Smithsonian Institution.
In those early days each of the principal cities had public mu-
seums founded and supported by private enterprise. Their pro-
60 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
prietors were men of scientific tastes, who affiliated with the nat-
uralists of the day and placed their collections freely at the dis-
posal of investigators.
The earliest was the Philadelphia Museum, established by
Charles Wilson Peale, and for a time housed in the building of
the American Philosophical Society. In 1800 it was full of pop-
ular attractions.
‘¢ There were a mammoth’s tooth from the Ohio, and a woman’s
shoe from Canton; nests of the kind used to make soup of, and a
Chinese fan six feet long; bits of asbestos, belts of wampum,
stuffed birds and feathers from the Friendly Islands, scalps, tom-
ahawks, and long lines of portraits of great men of the Revolu-
tionary War. To visit the Museum, to wander through the rooms,
play upon the organ, examine the rude electrical machine, and
have a profile drawn by the physiognomitian, were pleasures
from which no stranger to the city ever refrained.”
Dr. Hare’s oxyhydrogen blow-pipe was shown in this Museum
by Mr. Rubens Peale as early as 1810.
The Baltimore Museum was managed by Rembrandt Peale,
and was in existence as early as 1815 and as late as 1830.*
Earlier efforts were made, however, in Philadelphia. Dr.
Chovet, of that city, had a collection of wax anatomical models
made by him in Europe, and Prof. John Morgan, of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, who learned his methods from the Hunters
in London and Sué in Paris, was also forming such a collection
before the Revolution.+
The Columbian Museum and Turrell’s Museum, in Boston,
are spoken of in the annals of the day, and there was a small
collection in the attic of the State House in Hartford.
*<* Baltimore has a handsome museum superintended by one of the
Peale family, well known for their devotion to natural science and to
works of art. It is not their fault if the specimens which they are enabled
to display in the latter department are very inferior to their splendid ex-
hibitions in the former.”—Mrs. TrRoLLopr, Domestic Manners of the
Americans. London, 1831.
+ Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., ii, p. 366.
rf
5
' PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 61
The Western Museum, in Cincinnati, was founded about 1815,
by Robert Best, M. D., afterwards of Lexington, Ky., who seems
to have been a capable collector, and who contributed matter to
Godman’s ‘¢ American Natural History.” In 1818 a society styled
tie Western Museum Society was organized among the citizens,
which, though scarcely a scientific organization, seems to have
taken a somewhat liberal and public-spirited view of what a mu-
seum should be. ‘To the naturalist of to-day there is something
refreshing in such simple appeals as the following:
‘¢ In collecting the fishes and reptiles of the Ohio the managers
will need all the aid which their fellow-citizens may feel disposed
to give them. Although not a very interesting department of
zoology, no object of the Society offers so great a prospect of
novelty as that which embraces these animals.
‘¢ The obscure and neglected race of insects will not be over-
looked, and any specimen sufficiently perfect to be introduced
into a cabinet of entomology will be thankfully received.’’*
Major John Eatton LeConte, U.S. A. [b. 1784, d. 1860], was
a very successful student of botany and zoélogy. He published
many botanical papers*and contributions to descriptive zodlogy,
and also in Paris, in conjunction with Boisduval, the first
instalment of a work, of which he was really sole author, upon the
Lepidoptera of North America.
The elder brother, Dr. Lewis LeConte [b. 1782, d. 1838],
was equally eminent as an observer, and was, for forty years, one
of the most prominent naturalists in the South. On his _planta-
tion in Liberty county, Ga., he established a botanical garden
and a chemical laboratory. His zodlogical manuscripts were de-
stroyed in the burning of Columbia just at the close of the civil
war, but his observations, which he was averse to publishing in
his own name, were, we are told, embodied in the writings of his
*An Address to the people of the Western Country, dated Cincinnati,
Sept. 15, 1818, and signed by Elijah Slack, James Findlay, William Steele,
Jesse Embrees, and Daniel Drake, Managers.
t Histoire Generale et Iconographie.
62 - BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
brother, of Stephen Elliott, of the Scotch botanist Gordon,* of
Dr. William Baldwin, and others. {
Stephen Elliott, of Charleston, South Carolina [b. 1711, d.
1830], was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1791, and, while
prominent in the political and financial circles of his State, found
time to cultivate science. He founded in 1813 the Literary and
Philosophical Society of South Carolina, and was its first presi-
dent; and in 1829 was elected Professor of Natural History and
Botany in the South Carolina Medical College, which he aided
to establish. He published ‘‘ The Botany of South Carolina and
Georgia” (Charleston, 1821-27), having been assisted in -its
preparation by Dr. James McBride; and had an extensive
museum of his own gathering. The Elliott Society of Natural
History, founded in 1853, or before, and subsequently con-
tinued under the name of the Elliott Society of Science and
-Art, 1859-75, was named in memory of this public-spirited
man.
Jacob Green [b. 1790, d. 1841], at different times professor
in the College of New Jersey and in Jefferson Medical College, .
was one of the old school naturalists, equally at home in all
of the sciences. His paper on Trilobites (1832) was our first
formal contribution to invertebrate paleontology ; his ‘*Account of
some new species of. Salamanders,’’§ one of the earliest steps in
American herpetology ; his ‘* Remarks on the Unios of the United
States,”|| the beginning of studies subsequently extensively prose-
cuted by Lea and some other entomologists. Healso wrote upon
the crystallization of snow, and was the author of ‘‘ Chemical
* Loudon’s. Gardeners’ Magazine.
+ A. H. Stephens in Fohnson’ s Cyclopedia, p. 0702.
Sag LeConte family deserves a place in Galto’s ‘“ Hereditary Ge-
nius.” Prof. John LeConte, the physicist, and Prof. Joseph LeConte,
the geologist, were sons of Dr. Lewis LeConte; while Dr. J. L. LeConte
is the son of his brother, Major LeConte.
§ Contributions of the Maclurian Lyceum, i, Jan., 1827, p. 3.
| Ibid, i, ii, 41.
A oA hls eae ee hi >
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 63
?
Philosophy,” ‘* Astronomical Researches,’ and a work upon
Botany of the United States.
The earlicr volumes of Silliman’s Journal were filled with notes
of his observations in all departments of natural history.
José Francisco Correa da Serra, secretary of the Royal
Academy of Lisbon, was resident in Philadelphia in 1813, in the
capacity of Portuguese minister, and affiliated with our men of
science in botanical and geological interests. In 1814 he lectured
on botany in the place of B. S. Barton, and also published sev-
eral botanical papers, as well as one upon the soil of Kentucky.
Alire Raffenau Delile, formerly a member of Napoleon’s
scientific expedition to Egypt, and the editor of the ‘‘ Flora of
Egypt,” was in New York about this time, for the purpose of
completing his medical education, and seems to have done much
to stimulate interest in botanical studies.
To this as well as to the subsequent period belonged Dr. |
Gerard Troost [b. in Holland, Mar. 15, 1776, ed. at Leyden, d.
at Nashville, Aug. 17, 1850], a naturalist of Dutch birth and edu-
cation, who came to Philadelphia in 1810, and, was a founder
and the first President of the Philadelphia Academy. In 1826
he founded a Geological Survey of the environs of Philadelphia ;
in 1827 became Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Ge-
ology in the University of Nashville. As State geologist of
Tennessee from 1831-49 he published some of the earliest State
geological reports.
Another expedition, well worthy of mention, though not ex-
ceedingly fruitful, was one made under the direction of Mr.
Maclure, President of the Philadelphia Academy, to the Sea
Islands of Georgia and the Florida peninsula. The party con- .
sisted of Maclure, Say, Ord, and Titian R. Peale, and its re-
sults, though not embodied in a formal report, may be detected
in the scientific literature of the succeeding years. This was
early in 1818, while Florida was still under the dominion of
64 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Spain, and the expedition was finally abandoned, owing to the
hostile attitude of the Seminole Indians in that territory.
XIV.
The third decade of the century, beginning with 1820, was
marked by a continuation of the activities of that which pre-
ceeded. In 1826 there were in existence twenty-five scientific
societies, more than half of them especially devoted to natural
history,* and nearly all of very recent origin.
The leading spirits were Mitchill, Maclure, Webster, Torrey,
Silliman, Gibbs, LeConte, Dewey, Hare, Hitchcock, Olmstead,
Eliot, and T. R. Beck.
Nathaniel Bowditch [b. 1773, d. 1838], who, in 1829, began
the publication of his magnificent translation of the ‘*‘ Mecanique
Celeste” of La Place, with those scholarly commentations which
secured him so lofty a place among the mathematicians of the
world.
Still more important was the lesson of his noble devotion of
his life and fortune to science. The greater part of his monu-
mental work was completed, we are told, in 1817, but he found
that to print it would cost $12,000, a sum far beyond his means.
A few years later, however, he began its publication from his
own limited means, and the work was continued, after his death,
by his wife. The dedication is to his wife, and tells us that
‘¢‘ without her approbation the work would not have been under-
taken.”
Another person was W. C. Redfield [b. 1789, d. 1857], who,
in 1827, promulgated the essential portions of the theory of
storms, which is now pretty generally accepted, and which was
subsequently extended by Sir William Reid in Barbadoes and
Bermuda, and greatly modified by Professor Loomis, of New
Haven. An eloquent eulogy of Redfield was pronounced by
* Amer. Journ. Sci., x, p. 368. (Cut).
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 65
Professor Denison Olmsted at the Montreal meeting of the Ameri-
can Association in 1857.*
Among the rising young investigators appear the names of
Joseph Henry, A. D. Bache, C. U. Shepard, the younger Silli-
man, Henry Seybert, William Mather, Ebenezer Emmons,
Percival, the poet geologist, DeKay, Godman, and Harlan.
The organization, in 1824, of the Rensselaer School, after-
wards the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, marked the
beginning of a new era in scientific and technological education.
Its principal professors were Amos Eaton and Dr. Lewis C.
Beck.
In 1820 an expedition was sent by the General Government
to explore the Northwestern Territory, especially the region
around the Great Lakes and the sources of the Mississippi. This
was under charge of Gen. Lewis Cass, at that time Governor of
Michigan Territory. Henry R. Schoolcraft accompanied this
expedition as mineralogist, and Capt. D. B. Douglass, U. S. A.,
as topographical engineer ; and both of these sent home consider-
able collections reported upon by the specialists of the day. Cass
himself, though better known as a statesman, was a man of scien-
tific tastes and ability, and his “ Inquiries respecting the History,
Traditions, Languages, &c., of the Indians,” published at Detroit
in 1823, is a work of high merit.
Long’s expeditions into the far West were also in progress at
this time, under the direction of the General Government; the
first, or Rocky. Mountain, exploration in 1819-20; the second to
the sources of the St. Peter’s, in 1823. In the first expedition
Major Long was accompanied by Edwin James as botanist and
geologist, who also wrote the Narrative published in 1823. The
second expedition was accompanied by William H. Keating,
Professor of Mineralogy and Chemistry in the University of
Pennsylvania, who was its geologist and historiographer. Say
* See History of N. Y. Academy of Science, p. 76.
66 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
was the zodlogist of both explorations. De Schweinitz worked
up the botanical material which he collected.
The English expeditions sent to Arctic North America under
the command of Sir John Franklin were also out during these
years, the first from 1819 to 1822, the second from 1825 to 1827,
and yielded many important results. To naturalists they have
an especial interest, because Sir John Richardson, who accom-
panied Franklin as surgeon and naturalist, was one of the most
eminent and successful zoélogical explorers of the century, and
had more to do with the development of our natural history than
any other man not an American.
His natural history papers in Franklin’s reports, 1823 and
1828, his ‘* Fauna Boreali Americana,” published between 1827
and 1836, his report upon the ‘‘ Zodlogy of North America,” are
all among the classics of our zodlogical literature.*
The third decade was somewhat marked by a renewal of in-
terest in zodlogy and botany, which had, during the few preced-
ing years, been rather overshadowed by geology and mineralogy.
Rafinesque had retired to Kentucky, where, from his profes-
sor’s chair in Transylvania University, he was issuing his Az-
nals of Nature and his Western Minerva; and his brilliancy
being dimmed by distance, other students of animals had a
chance to work.
One of the most noteworthy of the workers was Thomas Say
[b. 1787, d. 1834], who was a pioneer in several departments of
systematic zoology. A kinsman of the Bartrams, he spent many
of his boyhood days in the old botanic garden at Kingsessing,
in company with the old naturalist, William Bartram, and the
ornithologist Wilson. At the age of twenty-five, having been
unsuccessful as an apothecary, he gave his whole time to
zoology. He slept in the hall of the Academy of Natural
*See Rev. Jonn McItwrairn’s Life of Sir John Richardson, C. B.,
LL. D. London, 1868. Also Obituary in London Reader, 1865, p. 707.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — 67
Sciences, where he made his bed beneath the skeleton of a
horse, and fed himself upon bread and milk. He was wont, we
are told, to regard eating as an inconvenient interruption to sci-
entific pursuits, and to wish that he had been created with a hole
in his side, through which his food might be introduced into his
system. He built up the museum of the society, and made
extensive contributions to biological science.
His article on conchology, published in 1816 in the American
edition of Nicholson’s Cyclopedia, was the foundation of that
science in this country, and was republished in Philadelphia in
1819, with the title, «‘A Description of the Land and Fresh-
water Shells of the United States.”
‘¢ This work,” remarked a contemporary, ‘‘ ought to be in the
possession of every American lover of Natural Science. It has
been quoted by J¢. Lamarck and adopted by AZ. de Ferrusac, |
and has thus taken its place in the scientific world.”
Such was fame in America in the year of grace 1820.
In 1817 he did a similar service for systematic entomology,
and his contributions to herpetology, to the study of marine
invertebrates, especially the crustacea, and to that of invertebrate
paleontology, were equally fundamental.
As naturalist of Long’s expeditions he described many Western
vertebrates, and also collected Indian vocabularies, and it is
said that the narrative of the expeditions was chiefly based upon
the contents of his note-books.
In 1825 he removed from Philadelphia to New Harmony, In-
diana, and, in company with Maclure and Troost, became a
member of the community founded there by Owen of Lanark.
Comparatively little was thenceforth done by him, and we can
only regret the untimely close of so brilliant a career.*
*See Memoirs by B. H. Coates, read before American Philosophical
Society, Dec. 16, 1834. Memoirs by George Ord; also a tribute to his
memory in Dall’s presidential address before the Society in January, 1888.
68 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Charles Alexander Lesueur [b. at Havre-de-Grace, France,
Jan. 1, 1778, d. at Havre, Dec. 12, 1846], the friend and associate
of Maclure and Say, accompanied them to New Harmony. The
romantic life of this talented Frenchman has been well narrated
in his biography by Ord.* He was one of the staff of the Bau-
din expedition to Australia in 1800, and to his efforts, seconding
those of Peron, his associate, were due most of the scientific
results which France obtained from that ill-fated enterprise.
Lesueur, though a naturalist of considerable ability, was, above
all, an artist. The magnificent plates in the reports prepared by
Peront and Freycinet { were all his. He was called ‘the
Raffaelle of zodlogical painters,” and his removal to America in
1815 was greatly deplored by European naturalists. He travelled
for three years with Maclure, exploring the West Indies and the
eastern United States, making a magnificent collection of draw-
ings of fishes and invertebrates, and in 1818 settled in Philadel-
phia, where, supporting himself by giving drawing lessons, he
became an active member of the Academy of Sciences, and
published many papers in its Journal.
No one ever drew such exquisite figures of fishes as Lesueur,
and it is greatly to be regretted that he never completed his pro-
jected work upon North American Ichthyology. He issued a
prospectus, with specimen plates, of a ‘‘ Memoir on the Meduse,”
and his name will always be associated with the earliest American
work upon marine invertebrates and invertebrate paleontology,
because it was to him that Say undoubtedly owed his first ac-
quaintance with these departments of zodlogy. In 1820, while
at Albany in the service of the United States and Canadian
Boundary Commission, he gave lessons to Eaton and identified
his fossils, thus laying the foundations for the future work of
the rising school of New York paleontologists.
*Orp: Memoir of Charles Alexander Lesueur. Am. Your. Scé., 2d ser.,
viii, p. 189.
t Voyage des Decouvertes aux Terres Australes.
t Voyage aux Terres Australes.
t
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 69
Twelve years of his life were wasted at New Harmony, and
in 1837, after the death of Say, he returned to France, sarrying
his collections and drawings to the Natural History Museum at
Havre, of which he became Curator. His period of productive-
ness was limited to the six years of his residence in Philadelphia.
But for their sacrifice to the socialistic ideas of Owen, Say and
Lesueur would doubtless be counted among the most distin-
guished of our naturalists, and the course of American zodlog-
ical research would have been entirely different.
The Rev. Daniel H. Barnes [b. 1785, d. 1828], of New York,
a graduate of Union College and a Baptist preacher, was one of
Say’s earliest disciples, and from 1823 he published papers on
conchology, beginning with an elaborate study of the fresh-water
mussels. This group was taken up in 1827 by Dr. Isaac Lea,
and discussed from year to year in his welJ-known series of
beautifully illustrated monographs. .
Mr. Barnes published, also, papers on the ‘‘ Classification of the
Chitonide,” on ‘* Batrachian Animals and Doubtful Reptiles,”
and on ‘* Magnetic Polarity.”
The officers of the Navy had already begun their contributions
to natural history which have been so serviceable in later years.
One of the earliest contributions by Barnes was a description of
five species of Chztoz collected in Peru by Capt. C. S. Ridgely,
of the ‘‘ Constellation.”
In this period (1828-++-) was begun the publication of Audu-
bon’s folio volumes of illustrations of North American birds—
a most extraordinary work, of which Cuvier enthusiastically ex-
claimed: ‘* C’est le plus magnifique monument aoe Art ait en-
core élevé a la Nature.”
Wilson was the Wordsworth of American naturalists, but Au-
dubon was their Rubens. With pen as well as with brush he
delineated those wonderful pictures which have been the delight
of the world.
70 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Born in 1781, in Louisiana, while it was still a Spanish colony,
he became, at an early age, a pupil of the famous French painter
David, under whose tuition he acquired the rudiments
of his art. Returning to America, he began the career of an ex-
plorer, and for over half a century his life was spent, for the
most part, in the forests or in the preparation of his ornitholog-
ical publications— occasionally visiting England and France,
where he had many admirers. His devotion to his work was as
complete and self-sacrificing as that of Bowditch, the story of
whose translation of LaPlace has already been referred to. It
was a great surprise to his friends (though his own fervor did,
not permit him to doubt) that the sale of his folio volumes was
sufficient to pay his printer’s bills. Audubon was not a very
accomplished systematic zodlogist, and when serious discrimi-
nations of species was necessary, sometimes formed alliances
with others. Thus Bachman became his collaborator in the
study of mammals, and the youthful Baird was invited by him,
shortly before his death in 1851, to join him in an ornithological
partnership. His relations with Alexander Wilson form the
subject of a most entertaining narration in the ‘‘ Ornithological
Biography.’’* | :
Thomas Nuttall [b. in Yorkshire, 1786, d. at St. Helens, Lanca-
shire, Sept. 10, 1859] was so thoroughly identified with Ameri-
can natural history and so entirely unconnected with that of
England that, although he returned to his native land to die, we
may fairly claim him as one of our own worthies. He crossed
the ocean when about twenty-one years of age, and travelled in
every part of the United States and in the Sandwich Islands
studying birds and plants. From 1822 to 1828 he was curator
and lecturer at the Harvard Botanical Garden. Besides numer-
ous papers in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy,
he published in Philadelphia, in 1818, his ‘‘ Genera of North
* 1, P. 439-
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 71
American Plants,” in his ‘‘ Geological Sketch of the Valley of
_ the Mississippi,” in 1821; his ** Journal of Travels into the Ar-
2
kansas Territory,” a work abounding in natural history obser-
vations ; in 1832-4 his ‘* Manual of the Ornithology of the United
States and Canada ;” and in 1843-9 his ‘* North American Sylva,”
a continuation of the Sylva of Michaux. About 1850 he retired
to a rural estate in England, where he died in 1859.
Nuttall was not great as a botanist, as a geologist, or a zodlo-
gist, but was a man useful; beloved, and respected.
Richard Harlan, M. D. [b. 1796, d. 1843], who, with Mitchill,
Say, Rafinesque, and Gosse, was one of the earliest of our herpetolo-
gists, and who was one of Audubon’s chief friends and supporters,
published in 1825 the first instalment of his ‘‘ Fauna Americana,”
which treated exclusively of mammals. This was followed, in
1826, by a rival work on mammals, by Godman. MHarlan’s book
was a compilation, based largely on translations of portions of |
Desmarest’s ‘‘ Mammalogie,” printed three years before in Paris.
It was so severely criticised that the second portion, which was
to have been devoted to reptiles, was never published, and _ its
author turned his attention to medical literature. | Godman’s
‘* North American Natural History, or Mastology,” contained
much original matter, and, though his contemporaries received it
with faint praise, it is the only separate, compact, illustrated
treatise on the mammals of North America ever published, and is
useful to the present day. John D. Godman [b. in Annapolis,
Md., Dec. 20, 1794, d. in Germantown, Pa., Apl. 17, 1830] died
an untimely death, but gave promise of a brilliant and useful
career as a teacher and investigator. His ‘‘ Rambles of a Nat-
uralist” is one of the best series of essays of the Selborne type
ever produced by an American, and his ‘‘ American Natural His-
tory” is a work of much importance, even to the present day,
embodying as it does a large number of original observations.
Michaux’s Sylva was, as we have seen, continued by Nuttall:
(2 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Wilson’s American Ornithology was, in like manner, continued
by Charles Lucien Bonaparte [b. in Paris, May 24, 1803, d.
in Paris, July 30, 1857], Prince of Canino, and nephew of
Napoleon the First, a master in systematic zodlogy. Bonaparte
came to the United States about the year 1822, and returned to
Italy in 1828. His contributions to zodlogical science were of
great importance. In 1827, he published in Pisa his ‘‘ Specchio
comparativo delle ornithologie di Roma e di Filadelfia,” and
from 1825 to 1833 his ‘* American Ornithology,” containing de-
scriptions of over one hundred species of birds discovered by
himself.
The publication of Torrey’s “ Flora of the Middle and North-
ern Sections of the United States”’ was an event of importance,
as was also Dr. W. J. Hooker’s essay on the Botany of
America,* the first general treatise upon the American flora or
fauna, by a master abroad, is pretty sure evidence that the work
of home naturalists was beginning to tell.
So, also, in a different way, was the appearance in 1829 of
the first edition of Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘‘ Familiar Lectures on Bot-
any,’ a work which did much toward swelling the army of
amateur botanists.
Important work was also in progress in geology. Eaton and
Beck were carrying on the Van Rensselaer survey of New York,
and in 1818 the former published his ‘‘ Index to the Geology of
the Northern States.” Prof. Denison Olmstead, of the Univer-
sity of North Carolina, was completing the official survey of
that State—the first ever authorized by the government of a State.
Prof. Lardner Vanuxem, of North Carolina, in 1828, made an
important advance, being the first to avail himself successfully of
- paleontology for the determination of the age of several of our
_ formations, and their approximate synchronism with European
beds.t
* Brewster’s Edinburgh Journal of Science, iii, p. 103.
¢ Gill.
ee a en ee et Se oe oe
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 73
Horace H. Hayden, of Baltimore [b. 1769, d. 1844], pub-
lished in 1820 ‘‘ Geological Essays, or an inquiry into some of
the geological phenomena to be found in various parts of America
and elsewhere,” * which was well received as a contribution to
the history of alluvial formations of the globe, and was apparently
the first general work on geology published in this country.
Silliman said that it should be a text-book in all the schools.
He published, also, a ‘* New Method of preserving Ana-
tomical Preparations,” + ‘* A Singular ore of Cobalt and Manga-
nese,” { on ‘** The Bare Hills near Baltimore,’’|| and on “ Silk
Cocoons,Ӥ and was a founder and vice-president of the Maryland
Academy of Sciences.
XV.
In the fourth decade (1830-40) the leading spirits were Silli-
man, Hare, Olmstead, Hitchcock, Torrey, DeKay, Henry, and
Morse.
Among the men just coming into prominence were J. W.
Draper, then professor in Hampden Siduey College, in Virginia,
the brothers W. B. and H. D. Rogers, A. A. Gould the
conchologist, and James D. Dana.
Henry was just making his first discoveries in physics, having,
in 1829, pointed out the possibility of electro-magnetism as a
motive power, and in 1831 set up his first telegraphic circuit at
Albany. In 1832 the United States Coast Survey, discontinued
in 1818, was reorganized under the direction of its first chief,
Hassler, now advanced in years.
The natural history survey of New York was organized by the
* Rey. Sill. Journ., iii, 47. Blackwood’s Mag., xvi, 420; xvii, 56.
t American Medical Record, 1822.
t 2dzd. 1832. || Silliman’s Journal, 1822.
§ Journ. Amer. Silk Company, 1839.
{] Proc.. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., ii, 163.
74 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
State in 1836, and James Hall and Ebenezer Emmons were
placed upon its staff. :
G. W. Featherstonhaugh [b. 1780, d. 1866] was conducting
(1834-5) a Government expedition, exploring the geology of
the elevated country between the Missouri and Red rivers and
the Wisconsin territories. He bore the name of ‘+ United States
Geologist,” and projected a geological map of the United States,
which now, half a century later, is being completed by the U. 8S.
geologist of to-day. Besides his report upon the survey just
referred to, Featherstonhaugh printed a ‘*‘ Geological Reconnois-
>
sance, in 1835, from Green Bay to Coteau des Prairies,” anda
‘¢ Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor,” in London, 1847.
In 1838 the United States Exploring Expedition under Wilkes
was sent upon its voyage of circumnavigation, having upon its staff
a young naturalist named Dana, whose studies upon the crusta-
ceans and radiates of the expedition have made him a world-wide
reputation, entirely independent of that which he has since gained
as a mineralogist and geologist. It is customary to refer to the
Wilkes expedition as having been sent out entirely in the inter-
ests of science. Asa matter of fact it was organized primarily
in the interests of the whale fishery of the United States.
Dana, before his departure with Wilkes, had published, in
5
1837, the first edition of his ‘* System of Mineralogy,” a work
which, in its subsequent editions, has become the standard man-
ual of, the world. |
The publication of Lyell’s ‘* Principles of Geology ” at the be-
ginning of this decade ( 1830) had given new direction to the
thoughts of our geologists, and they were all hard at work under
its inspiration.
With 1839 ended the second of our thirty-year periods—the
one which I have chosen to speak of as the period of Silliman—
not so much because of the investigations of the New Haven
professor, as on account of his influence in the promotion of
American Science and scientific institutions.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 75
This was a time of hard work, and we must not withhold our
praise from the noble little company of pioneers who were, in those
years, building the foundations upon which the scientific institu-
tions of to-day are resting.
The difficulties and drawbacks of scientific research at this time
have been well described by one who knew them :*
‘¢ The professedly scientific institutions of our country issued,
from time to time, though at considerable intervals, volumes of
transactions and proceedings unquestionably not without their
influence in keeping alive the scarcely kindled flame, but whose
contents, as might be expected, were, for the most part, rather in
conformity with the then existing standard of excellence than in
advance of it. Natural history in the United States was the mere
sorting of genera and species. The highest requisite for distinc-
tion in any physical science was the knowledge of what European
students had attained. Astronomy was, in general, confined to
observations, and those not of the most refined character, and its
merely descriptive departments were estimated far more highly
than the study of its laws. Astronomical computation had hardly
risen above the ciphering out of eclipses and occultations. Indeed,
I risk nothing in saying that astronomy had lost ground in Amer-
ica since those colonial times, when men like Rittenhouse kept
up a constant scientific communication with students of astronomy
beyond the seas. And I believe I may farther say, that a single
instance of a man’s devoting himself to science as the only earthly
guide, aim, and object of his life, while unassured of a professor’s
chair or some analogous appointment upon which he might de-
pend for subsistence, was utterly unknown.
‘¢ Such was the state of science in general. In astronomy the
expensive appliances requisite for all observations of the higher
class were wanting, and there was not in the United States, with
the exception of the Hudson Observatory, to which Professor
Loomis devoted such hours as he could spare from his duties in
the college, a single establishment provided with the means of mak-
ing an absolute determination of the place of any celestial body, or
even relative determinations at all commensurate in accuracy with
the demands of the times. The only instrument that could be
thought of for the purpose was the Yale College telescope, which,
although provided with a micrometer, was destitute of the means
of identifying comparison-stars. A better idea of American as-
tronomy a dozen years ago can hardly be obtained than by quot-
*GouLp, B. A. Address in commemoration of Sears Cook Walker.
<Proc. Amer. Assoc. Ad. Sci., viii, 25
’
76 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ing from an article published at that time by the eminent geometer
who now retires from the position of President of this Association.
He will forgive me the liberty for the sake of the illustration.
‘The impossibility,’ said he, ‘of great national progress in as-
tronomy, while the materials are, for the most part, imported, can
hardly need to be impressed upon the patrons of science in this
country. * * * And next to the support of observers is the
establishment of observatories. Something has been done for this
purpose in various parts of the country, and it is earnestly to be
hoped that the intimations which we have heard regarding the in-
tentions of Government may prove to be well founded; that we
shall soon have a permanent national observatory equal in its ap-
pointments to the best furnished ones of Europe ; and that Ameri-
can ships will ere long calculate their longitudes and latitudes from
an American nautical almanac. ‘That there is on this side of the
Atlantic a sufficient capacity for celestial observations is amply
attested by the success which has attended the efforts, necessarily
humble which have hitherto been made.’” *
XVI.
Just before the middle of the century a wave, or to speak more:
accurately, a series of waves of intellectual activity began to pass
over Europe and America. There was a renaissance, quite as
important as that which occurred in Europe at the close of the
Middle Ages. Draper and other historians have pointed out the
causes of this movement, prominent among which were the in-
troduction of steam and electricity, annihilating space and
relieving mankind from a great burden of mechanical drudgery.
It was the beginning of the ‘‘ age of science,” and political as well
as social and industrial changes followed in rapid succession.
In Europe the great work began a little earlier. Professor
Huxley, in his address to the Royal Society in 1885, took for a
fixed point his own birthday in 1825, which was four months
before the completion of the railway between Stockton and
Darlington—‘‘ the ancestral representative of the vast reticulated
fetching and carrying organism which now extends its meshes
over the civilized world.” Since then, he remarked, ‘‘ the greater
* PEIRCE, BENJAMIN, Cambridge Miscellany, 1842, p. 25.
al ial _ a — oe
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 77
part of the vast body of knowledge which constitutes the modern
sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, and geology has been
acquired, and the widest generalizations therefrom have been
deduced, and, furthermore, the majority of those applications of
scientific knowledge to practical ends which have brought about
the most striking differences between our present civilization and
that of antiquity have been made within that period of time.”
It is within the past half century, he continued, that the most
brilliant additions have been made to fact and theory and service-
able hypothesis in the region of pure science, for within this time
falls the establishment on a safe basis of the greatest of all the
generalizations of science, the doctrines of the Conservation of
Energy and of Evolution. Within this time the larger moiety of
our knowledge of light, heat, electricity, and magnetism has been
acquired. Our present chemistry has been, in great part, created,
while the whole science has been remodelled from foundation to
roof.
‘‘It may be natural,” continued Professor Huxley, ‘* that
progress should appear most striking to me among those sciences
to which my own attention has been directed, but I do not think
this will wholly account for the apparent advance ‘ by leaps and
bounds’ of the biological sciences within my recollection. The
cell theory was the latest novelty when I began to work with the
microscope, and I have watched the building of the whole vast
fabric of histology. I can say almost as much of embryology,
since Von Baer’s great work was published in 1828. Our
knowledge of the morphology of the lower plants and animals
and a great deal of that of the higher forms has very largely been
obtained in my time; while physiology has been put upon a to-
tally new foundation, and, as it were, reconstructed, by the thor-
ough application of the experimental method to the study of the
phenomena of life, and by the accurate determination of the
purely physical and chemical components of these phenomena.
78 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The exact nature of the processes of sexual and non-sexual repro-
duction has been brought to light. Our knowledge of'geograph-
ical and geological distribution and of the extinct forms of life
has been increased a hundredfold, As for the progress of geo-
logical science, what more need be said than that the first volume
of Lyell’s ‘ Principles’ bears the date of 1830.”
It cannot be expected that, within the limits of this address, I
should attempt to show what America has done in the last half
century. -I am striving to trace the beginnings, not the results, of
scientific work on this side of the Atlantic. I will simply quote
what was said by the London Z7mes in 1876:
‘¢In the natural distribution of subjects, the history of enter-
prise, discovery, and conquest, and the growth of republics, fell
to America, and she has dealt nobly with them. In the wider
and more multifarious provinces of art and science she runs neck:
and neck with the mother country and is never left behind.”
It is difficult to determine exactly the year when the first
waves of this renaissance reAched the shores of America. | Silli-
man, in his Priestley address, placed the date at 1845. I should
rather say 1840, when the first national scientific association was
organized, although signs of awakening may be detected even be-
fore the beginning of the previous decade. We must, however,
carefully avoid giving too much prominence to the influence of
individuals. I have spoken of this period of thirty years as the
period of Agassiz. Agassiz, however, did not bring the waves
with him; he came in on the crest of one of them; he was not
the founder of modern American natural history, but, as a public
teacher and organizer of institutions, he exerted a most important
influence upon its growth.
One of the leading events of the decade was the reorganization
of. the Coast Survey in 1844, under the sage administration of
Alexander Dallas Bache,* speedily followed by the beginning of
* Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., ii, 164.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 79
’
investigations upon the Gulf Stream, and of the researches of
Count Pourtales into its fauna, which laid the foundations of mod-
ern deep-sea exploration. Others were the founding of the
Lawrence Scientific School, the Cincinnati Observatory, the
Yale Analytical Laboratory, the celebration of the Centennial
Jubilee of the American Philosophical Society in 1843, and the
enlargement of Silliman’s ‘‘ American Journal of Science.”
The Naval Astronomical Expedition was sent to Chili, under
Gibbon (1849), to make observations upon the parallax of the
sun. Lieut. Lynch was sent to Palestine (in 1848) at the head
of an expedition to explore the Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Frémont conducted expeditions, in 1848, to explore the
Rocky Mountains and the territory beyond, and Stansbury, in
1849-50, a similar exploration of the valley of the Great Salt
Lake. David Dale Owen was heading a Government Geological _
Survey in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota (1848), and from all
of these came results of importance to science and to natural
history. y
In 1849, Prof. W. H. Harvey, of Dublin, visited America and
collected materials for his Werezs Boreali-Americana, which
was the foundation of our marine botany.
Sir Charles Lyell, ex-President of the Geological Society
of London, visited the United States in 1841 and again in 1845,
and published two volumes of travels, which were, however, of
much less importance than the effects of his encouraging presence
upon the rising school of American geologists. His ‘‘ Principles
of Geology,” as has already been said, was an epoch-making
work, and he was to his generation almost what Darwin was to
the one which followed.
Certain successes of our astronomers and physicists had a bear-
ing upon the progress of American science in all its departments,
which was, perhaps, even greater than their actual importance
would seem to warrant. These were the discovery, by the Bards
80 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
of Cambridge, of Bards comet in 1846, of the satellite Hyperion
in 1848, of the third ring of Saturn in 1850, the discovery by
Herrick and Bradley, in 1846, of the bi-partition of Belas comet,
and the application of the telegraph to longitude determination
after Locke had constructed, in 1848, his clock for the registra-
tion of time observations by means of electro-magnetism.
It is almost ludicrous at this day to observe the grateful senti-
ments with which our men of science welcomed the adoption of
this American method in the observatory at Greenwich.
Americans were still writhing under the sting of Sidney
Smith’s demand ‘* Who reads an American book?” and the nar-
rations of those critical observers of national customs, Dickens,
Basil Hall, and Mrs. Trollope.
The continental approval of American science was like balsam
to the sensitive spirits of our countrymen.
John William Draper’s versatile and original researches in
physics were also yielding weighty results, and as early as 1847
he had already laid the foundations of the science of spectroscopy
which Kirchhoff so boldly appropriated many years later.
Most important of all, by reason of its breadth of scope, was
the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution, which was organ-
ized in 1846 by the election of Joseph Henry to its secretaryship.
Who can attempt to say what the conditions of science in the
United States would be to-day, but for the bequest of Smithson?
In the words of John Quincy Adams, ‘‘ Of all the foundations
or establishments for pious or charitable uses which ever signal-
ized the spirit of the age or the comprehensive beneficence of the
founder, none can be named more deserving the approbation of
mankind.”
Among the leaders of this new enterprise and of the scientific
activities of the day may be named: Silliman, Hare, Henry,
Bache, Maury, Alexander, Locke, Mitchel, Peirce, Walker,
Draper, Dana, Wyman, Agassiz, Gray, Torrey, Haldeman,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 81
Morton, Holbrook, Gibbes, Gould, DeKay, Storer, Hitchcock,
Redfield, the brothers Rogers, Jackson, Hays, and Owen.
Among the rising men were Baird, Adams the conchologist,
Burnett, Harris the entomologist, and the LeConte brothers
among zodlogists; Lapham, D. C. Eaton, and Grant, among
botanists ; Sterry Hunt, Brush, J. D. Whitney, Wolcott Gibbs,
and Lesley, among, chemists and geologists, as well as Schiel,
of St. Louis, who had before 1842 discovered the principle of
chemical homology.
I have not time to say what ought to be said of the coming of
Agassiz in 1846. He lives in the hearts of his adopted country-
men. He has a colossal monument in the museum which he
reared, and a still greater one in the lives and works of pupils
such as Agassiz, Allen, Burgess, Burnett, Brooks, Clarke, Cooke,
Faxon, Fewkes, Gorman, Hartt, Hyatt, Joseph LeConte, Lyman,
McCrady, Morse, Mills, Niles, Packard, Putnam, Scudder, St. |
John, Shaler, Verrill, Wilder, and David A. Wells.
XVII.
They were glorious men who represented American science at
the middle of the century. We may well wonder whether the
present decade will make as good a showing forty years hence.
The next decade was its continuation. The old leaders were
nearly all active, and to their ranks were added many more.
An army of'new men was rising up.
It was a period of great explorations, for the frontier of the
United States was sweeping westward, and there was need of a
better knowledge of the public domain.
Sitgreaves explored the region of the Zufii and Colorado rivers
in 1852, and Marcy the Red River of the North. The Mexican
boundary survey, under Emory, was in progress from 1854 to
1856, and at the same time the various Pacific railroad surveys.
There was also the Herndon exploration of the valley of the Am-
82 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
azon, and the North Pacific exploring expedition under Rogers.
These were the days, too, when that extensive exploration of
British North America was begun, through the co-operation of
the Hudson’s Bay Company with the Smithsonian Institution.
It was the harvest-time of the museums. Agassiz was building
up with immense rapidity his collections in Cambridge, utilizing
to the fullest extent the methods which he had learned in the
great European establishments and the public spirit and generosity
of the Americans. Baird was using his matchless powers of
organization in equipping and inspiring the officers of the various
surveys, and accumulating immense collections to be used in the
interest of the future National Museum.
Systematic natural history advanced with rapid strides. The
magnificent folio reports. of the Wilkes expedition were now
being published, and some of them, particularly those by Dana
on the crustaceans and the zodphytes and geology, that of Gould
upon the mollusks, those by Torrey, Gray, and Eaton upon the
plants, were of great importance. |
The reports of the domestic surveys contained numerous papers
upon systematic natural history, prepared under the direction of
Baird, assisted by Girard, Gill, Cassin, Suckley, LeConte, Cooper,
and others. The volumes relating to the mammals and the birds,
prepared by Baird’s own pen, were the first exhaustive treatises
upon the mammalogy and ornithology of the United States.
The American Association was doing a great work in popular
education through its system of meeting each year in a different
city. In 1850 it met in Charleston, and its entire expenses were
paid by the city corporation as a valid mark of public approval,
while the foundation of the Charleston museum of natural his-
tory was one of the direct results of the meeting.
In 1857 it met in Montreal, and delegates from the English
scientific societies were present; this was one of the earliest of
those manifestations of international courtesy upon scientific
eround of which there have since been many.
NE en a nt een |
PRESIDENTIAD ADDRESS. 83
In the seventh decade, which began with threatenings of civil
war, the growth of science was almost arrested. A meeting of
the American Association was to have been held in Nashville in
1861, but none was called. In 1866, at Buffalo, its sessions were
resumed with the old board of officers elected in 1860. One of
the vice-presidents, Gibbes, of South Carolina, had not been
heard from since ‘the war began, and the Southern members
were all absent. Many of the Northern members wrote, explain-
ing that they could not attend this meeting because they
could not afford it, ‘‘ such had been the increase of liv-
ing expenses, without a corresponding increase in the salaries
of men of science.” Few scientists were engaged in the war,
though one, O. M. Mitchel, who left the directorship of the
Dudley observatory to accept the command of an Ohio brigade,
died in service in 1862, and another, Couthouy, sacrificed his —
life in the navy. Others, like Ordway, left the ranks of science
never to resume their places as investigators.
Scientific effort was paralyzed, and attention was directed to
other matters. In 1864, when the Smithsonian building was
burned, Lincoln, it is said, looking at the flames from the win-
dows of the Executive Mansion, remarked to some military offi-
cers who were present: ‘‘ Gentlemen, yonder is a national
calamity. We have no time to think about it now. We must
attend to other things.”
The only important events during the war were two; one
the organization of the National Academy of Sciences, which
soon became what Bache had remarked the necessity for in
1851, when he said: ‘‘ An institution of science, supplementary
_to existing ones, is much needed to guide public action in refer-
ence to scientific matters.’’*
The other was the passage, in 1862, of the bill for the estab-
lishment of scientific educational institutions in every State.
* Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vi, xlviii.
84 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The agricultural colleges were then, as they still are, unpopular
among many scientific men, but the wisdom of the measure is
apparently before long to be justified.
Before the end of the decade, the Northern States* had begun a
career of renewed prosperity, and the scientific institutions were
reorganized. The leading spirits were such men as Pierce,
Henry, Agassiz, Gray, Barnard, the Goulds, Newberry, Lea,
Whittlesey, Foster, Rood, Cooke, Newcomb, Newton, Wy-
man, Winchell.
Among the rising men, some of ‘them-very prominent before
1870, were Barker, Bolton, Chandler, Eggleston, Hall, Hark-
ness, Langley, Mayer, Pickering, Young, Powell, Pumpelly,
Abbe, Collett, Emerson, Hartt, Lupton, Marsh, Whitfield,
Williams, N. H. Winchell, Agassiz, the Allens, Beale, Cope,
Coues, Canby, Dall, Hoy, Hyatt, Morse, Orton, Perkins, Rey,
Riley, Scudder, Sidney Smith, Stearns, Tuttle, Verrill, Wood.
Soon after the war the surveys of the West, which have coa-
lesced to form the U. S. Geological Survey, were forming under
the direction of Clarence Cook, Lieut. Wheeler, F. V. Hayden,
and Major Powell.
The discovery of the nature of the corona of the sun by Young
and Harkness in 1869 was an event encouraging to the rising
spirits of our workers.
XVIII.
With 1869 we reach the end of the third period and the thresh-
old of that in which we are living. I shall not attempt to define
the characteristics of the natural history of to-day, though I wish
to direct attention to certain tendencies and conditions which
exist. Let me, however, refer once more to the past, since it
leads again directly up to the present.
* See A. D. Wuirte’s Scientific and Industrial Education in the United
States. < Popular Science Monthly, v, p. 170.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 85
/
In a retrospect published in 1876,* one of our leaders stated
that American science during the first forty years of the present
century was in ‘a state of general lethargy, broken now and
then by the activity of some first-class man, which, however,
commonly ceased to be directed into purely scientific channels.”
This depiction was, no doubt, somewhat true of the physical
and mathematical’ sciences concerned, but not to the extent indi-
cated by the writer quoted. What could be more unjust to the
men of the last generation than this? ‘It is,” continues he,
‘¢ strikingly illustrative of the absence of everything like an
effective national pride in science that two generations should
have passed without America having produced anything to con-
tinue the philosophical researches of Franklin.”
‘I may not presume to criticise the opinion of the writer from
whom these words are quoted, but I cannot resist the tempta-
tion to repeat a paragraph from Prof. John W. Draper’s eloquent
centennial address upon ‘* Science in America :”
‘¢In many of the addresses on the centennial occasion,” he
said, ** the shortcomings of the United States in extending the
boundaries of scientific knowledge, especially in the physical and
chemical departments, have been set forth. ‘We must acknowl-
edge with shame our inferiority to other people,’ says one. ‘ We
have done nothing,’ says another. * * * But we must not
forget that many of these humiliating accusations are made by
persons who are not of authority in the matter; who, because
they are zgzorant of what has been done, ¢hizk that nothing
has been done. They mistake what is merely a blank in their
own information for a blank in reality. In their alacrity to de-
preciate the merit of their own country they would have us confess
that, for the last century, we have been living on the reputation
of Franklin and his thunder-rod.”
These are the words of one who, himself an Englishman by
birth, could, with excellent grace, upbraid our countrymen for
their lack of patriotism.
The early American naturalists have been reproached for de-
* North American Review.
86 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
voting their time to explorations and descriptive natural history,
and their work depreciated, as being of a character beneath the
dignity of the biologists of to-day.
‘¢ The zoélogical science of the country,” said the president of
the Natural History Section of the American Association a few
years since, ‘* presents itself in two distinct periods: The first
period may be recognized as embracing the lowest stages of the
science; it included, among others, a class of men who busied
themselves in taking an inventory of the animals of the country,
an important and necessary work to be compared to that of the
hewers and diggers who first settle a new country, but in their
work demanded no deep knowledge or breadth of view.”
It is quite unnecessary to defend systematic zodlogy from such
slurs as this, nor do I believe that the writer quoted would really
defend the ideas which his words seem to convey, although, as
Professor Judd has regretfully confessed in his recent address
before the Geological Society of London, systematic zodlogists
and botanists have become somewhat rare and out of fashion in
Europe in modern times.
The best vindication of the wisdom of our early writers will
be, I think, the presentation of a counter-quotation from another
presidential address, that of the venerable Dr. Bentham before
the Linnean Society of London, in 1867:
‘¢Tt is scarcely half a century,” wrote Bentham, ‘‘ since our
American brethren applied themselves in earnest to the in-
vestigation of the natural productions and physical condition of
their vast continent; their progress, especially during the latter
half of that period, had been very rapid until the outbreak of the
recent war, so deplorable in its effects in the interests of science
as well as on the material prosperity of their country. The pe-
culiar condition of the North American Continent requires im-
peratively that its physical and biological statistics should be ac-
‘curately collected and authentically recorded, and that this should
be speedily done. It is more than any country, except our Aus-
tralian colonies, ina state of transition. Vast tracts of land are
still in what may be called almost a primitive state, unmodified
by the effects of civilization, uninhabited, or tenanted only by the
remnants of ancient tribes, whose unsettled life never exercised
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 87
much influence over the natural productions of the country. But
this state of things is rapidly passing away; the invasion and
steady progress of a civilized population, whilst changing gen-
erally the face of nature, is obliterating many of the evidences
of a former state of things. It may be true that the call for re-
cording the traces of previous conditions may be particularly
strong in Ethnology and Archeology ; but in our own branches
of the science, the observations and consequent theories of, Dar-
win having called special attention to the history of species, it
becomes particularly important that accurate biological statistics
should be obtained for future comparison in those countries
where the circumstances influencing those conditions are the most
rapidly changing. ‘The larger races of wild animals are dwin-
dling down, like the aboriginal inhabitants, under the deadly in-
fluence of civilized man. Myriads of the lower orders of animal
life, as well as of plants, disappear with the destruction of forests,
the drainage of swamps, and the gradual spread of cultivation,
and their places are occupied by foreign invaders. Other races,
no doubt, without actually disappearing, undergo a gradual change
under the new order of things, which, if perceptible only in the
course of successive generations, require so much the more for
future proof an accurate record of their state in the still unsettled
condition of the country. In the Old World almost every at-
tempt to compare the present state of vegetation or animal life
with that which existed in uncivilized times is in a great meas-
ure frustrated by the absolute want of evidence as to that former
state; but in North America the change is going forward, as it
were, close under the eye of the observer. This consideration
may one day give great value to the reports of the naturalist sent
by the Government, as we have seen, at the instigation of the
Smithsonian Institution and other promoters of science, to ac-
company the surveys of new territories.”
Having said this much in defence of the scientific men of the
United States, I wish, in conclusion, to prefer some very serious
charges against the country at large, or, rather, as a citizen of
the United States,to make some very melancholy and humili-
ating confessions. ‘ :
The present century is often spoken of as ‘‘ the age of science,”
and Americans are somewhat disposed to be proud of the manner
in which scientific institutions are fostered and scientific investi-
gators encouraged on this side of the Atlantic.
Our countrymen have made very important advances in many
88 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
departments of research. We have a few admirably organized
laboratories and observatories, a few good collections of scientific
books, six or eight museums worthy of the name, and a score or
more of scientific and technological schools, well organized and
better provided with officers than with money. We have several
strong scientific societies, no one of which, however, publishes
transactions worthy of its own standing and the collective reputa-
tion of its members. In fact, the combined publishing funds of all
our societies would not pay for the annual issue of a volume of |
memoirs, such as appears under the auspices of any one of a dozen
European societies which might be named. ,
Our Government, by a liberal support of its scientific depart-
ments, has done much to atone for the really feeble manner in
which local institutions have been maintained. The Coast Sur-
vey, the Geological Surveys, the Department of Agriculture, the
Fish Commissions, the Army, with its Meteorological Bureau, its
Medical Museum and Library, and its explorations; the Navy,
with its Observatory, its laboratories and its explorations ; and in
addition to these, the Smithsonian Institution, with its systematic
promotion of all good works in science, have accomplished more
than is ordinarily placed to their credit. Many hundreds of vol-
umes of scientific memoirs have been issued from the Government
printing office since 1870, and these have been distributed in such
a generous and far-reaching way that they have not failed to reach
every town and village in the United States where a roof has been
provided to protect them. :
It may be that some one will accuse the Government of having
usurped the work of the private publisher. Very little of value
in the way of scientific literature has been issued during the same
period by publishers, except in reprints or translations of works
of foreign investigators. It should be borne in mind, however,
that our Government has not only published the results of investi-
gations, but has supported the investigators and provided them
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 89
with laboratories, instruments and material, and that the me-
moirs which it has issued would never, as a rule, have been ac-
cepted by private publishers.
I do not wish to underrate the efficiency of American men of
science, nor the enthusiasm with which many public men and cap-
italists have promoted our scientific institutions. Our countrymen
have had wonderful successes in many directions. They have
borne their share in the battle of science against the unknown.
' They have had abundant recognition from their fellow-workers
in the Old World. They have met perhaps a more intelligent
appreciation abroad than at home. It is the absence of home ap-
preciation that causes us very much foreboding for the future.
In Boston or Cambridge, in New York, Philadelphia, Bal-
timore, Washington, Chicago, or San Francisco, and in most of
the college towns, a man interested in science may find others —
ready to talk over with him a new scientific book, or a discovery
which has excited his interest. Elsewhere, the chances are, he
will have to keep his thoughts to himself. One may quickly re-
cite the names of the towns and cities in which may be found ten
or more people whose knowledge of any science is aught than
vague and rudimentary. Let me illustrate my idea by supposing
that every inhabitant of the United States, over fifteen years of
age, should be required to mention ten living men eminent in sci-
entific work, would one out of a hundred be able to respond?
Does any one suppose that there are three or four hundred thou-
sand people enlightened to this degree?
Let us look at some statistics, or, rather, some facts, which
it is convenient to arrange in statistical form. The total number
of white inhabitants of the United States in 1880 was about forty-
two millions. The total number of naturalists, as shown in the
Naturalist's Directory for 1886, was a little over 4,600. This
list includes not only the investigators, who probably do not ex-
ceed five hundred in number, and the advanced teachers, who
90 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
muster, perhaps, one thousand strong, but all who are sufficiently
interested in science to have selected special lines of study.
We have, then, one person interested in science to about ten
thousand inhabitants. But the leaven of science is not evenly dis-
tributed through the national loaf. It is the tendency of scientific
men to congregate together. In Washington, for instance, there
is one scientific man to every 500 inhabitants, in Cambridge one
to 850, and in New Haven one to 1,100. In New Orleans the
proportion is one to 8,800, in Jersey City one to 24,000, in New
York one to 7,000, and in Brooklyn one to 8,500. I have before
me the proportions worked out for the seventy-five principal cities
of the United States. The showing is suggestive, though no doubt
in some instances misleading. The tendency to gregariousness
on the part of scientific men may, perhaps, be further illustrated by
a reference to certain societies. The membership of the National
Academy of Sciences is almost entirely concentrated about Bos-
ton, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and New Haven.
Missouri has one member, Illinois one, Ohio one, Maryland, New
Jersey and Rhode Island three, and California four—while thirty-
two States and Territories are not represented. A precisely sim-
ilar distribution of members is found in the American Society of
Naturalists. A majority of the members of the American Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Science live in New York, Massa-
chusetts, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Michigan, Min-
nesota, Chio, Illinois and New Jersey.
It has been stated that the average proportion of scientific
men to the population at large is one to ten thousand. A more
minute examination shows that while fifteen of the States and Ter-
ritories have more than the average proportion of scientific men,
thirty-two have less. Oregon and California, Michigan and Del-
aware have very nearly the normal number. Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, Colorado and Florida have
about one to four thousand. West Virginia, Nevada, Arkansas,
oa a ae a Oe eee ee She Fen
a a r ae . ues i
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 91
Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama and the Caro-
linas are the ones least liberally furnished. _ Certain cities appear
to be absolutely without scientific men. The worst cases of des-
titution seem to be Paterson, New Jersey, a city of 50,000 in-
habitants, Wheeling, with 30,000, Quincy, Illinois, with 26,000,
Newport, Kentucky, with 20,000, Williamsport, Pennsylvania,
and Kingston, New York, with 18,000, Council Bluffs, Iowa,
and Zanesville, Ohio, with 17,000, Oshkosh and Sandusky, with
15,000, Lincoln, Rhode Island, Norwalk, Connecticut, and
Brockton and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with 13,000. In these
there are no men of science recorded, and eight cities of more
than 15,000 inhabitants have only one, namely, Omaha, Ne-
braska, and St. Joseph, Missouri, Chelsea, Massachusetts, Co-
hoes, New York, Sacramento, California, Binghamton, New
York, Portland, Oregon, and Leadville, Colorado.
Of course these statistical statements are not properly statis-
tics. I have no doubt that some of these cities are misrepresented
in what has been said. This much, however, is probably true,
that not one of them has a scientific society, a museum, a school
of science, or a sufficient number of scientific men to insure even
the occasional delivery of a course of scientific lectures.
Studying the distribution of scientific societies, we find that
there are fourteen States and Territories in which there are no sci-
entific societies whatever. There are fourteen States which have
State academies of science or societies which are so organized as
to be equivalent to State academies. |
Perhaps the most discouraging feature of all is the diminutive
circulation of scientific periodicals. In addition to a certain num-
ber of specialists’ journals, we have in the United States three
which are wide enough in scope to be necessary to all who attempt
to keep an abstract of the progress of science. Of these, the Amer-
ican Fournal of Science has, we are told, a circulation of less than
Soo; the American Naturalist, less than 1,100, and Sczence. less
92 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
than 6,000. A considerable proportion of the copies printed go,
as a matter of course, to public institutions, and not to individuals.
Even the Popular Science Monthly and the Sctentific Amert-
can, which appeal to large classes of unscientific readers, have
circulations absurdly small.
The most effective agents for the dissemination of scientific
intelligence are, probably, the religious journals, aided to some
extent by the agricultural journals, and to a very limited degree
by the weekly and daily newspapers. It is much to be regretted
that several influential journals, which ten or fifteen years ago
gave attention to the publication of trustworthy scientific intelli-
gence, have of late almost entirely abandoned the effort. The
allusions to science in the majority of our newspapers are singu-
larly inaccurate and unscholarly, and too often science is referred
to only when some of its achievements offer opportunity for witti-
cism.
The statements which I have just made may, as I have said,
prove, in some instances erroneous, and, to some extent, mislead-
ing, but I think the general tendency of a careful study of the dis-
tribution of scientific men and institutions is to show that the peo-
ple of the United States, except in so far as they sanction by their
approval the work of the scientific departments of the Government,
and the institutions established by private munificence, have little
reason to be proud of the national attitude toward science.
I am, however, by no means despondent for the future. The
importance of scientific work is thoroughly appreciated, and it
is well understood that many important public duties can be per-
formed properly only by trained men of science. The claims of
science to a prominent place in every educational plan are every
year more fully conceded. Science is permeating the theory and
the practice of every art and every industry, as well as every de-_
partment of learning. The greatest danger to science is, per-
haps, the fact that all who have studied at all within the
— S
“py
=>
ee
é
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 93
last quarter of a century have studied its rudiments and feel
competent to employ its methods and-its language, and to form
judgments on the merits of current work.
In the meantime the professional men of science, the scholars,
and the investigators seem to me to be strangely indifferent to the
questions as to how the public at large is to be made familiar
with the results of their labors. It may be that the tendency to
specialization is destined to deprive the sciences of their former
hold upon popular interest, and that the study of zodlogy, bot-
any and geology, mineralogy and chemistry will become so
technical that each will require the exclusive attention of its .
votaries for a period of years. It may be that we are to have no
more zodlogists such as Agassiz and Baird, no more. botanists
such as Gray, and that the place which such men filled in the
community will be supplied by combinations of a number of
specialists, each of whom knows, with more minuteness, limited
portions of the subjects grasped bodily by the masters of the last
generation. It may be that the use of the word naturalist is to
became an anachronism, and that we are all destined to become,
generically biologists, and, specifically, morphologists, histologists,
embryologists, physiologists, or, it may be, cetologists, chirop-
terologists, odlogists, carcinologists, ophiologists, helmintholo-
gists, actinologists, coleopterists, caricodlogists, mycologists,
muscologists, bacteriologists, diatomologists, paleo-botanists, crys-
tallographers, petrologists, and the like.
I can but believe, however, that it is the duty of every sci-
entific scholar, however minute his specialty, to resist in himself,
and in the professional circles which surround him, the tendency
toward narrowing technicality in thought and sympathy, and
above all in the education of non-professional students.
I cannot resist the feeling that American men of science. are
in a large degree responsible if their fellow-citizens are not
fully awake to the claims of scientific endeavor in their midst.
N
94 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
I am not in sympathy with those who feel that their dignity
is lowered when their investigations lead toward improvement
in the physical condition of mankind, but I feel that the highest
function of science is to minister to their mental and moral wel-
fare. Here in the United States, more than in any other country,
it is necessary that sound, accurate knowledge and a scientific
manner of thought should exist among the people, and the man
of science is becoming, more than ever, the natural custodian of
the treasured knowledge of the world. To him, above all oth-
ers, falls the duty of organizing and maintaining the institutions
for the diffusion of knowledge, many of which have been spoken
of in these addresses—the schools, the museums, the expositions,
the societies, the periodicals. To him, more than to any other
American, should be made familiar the words of President
Washington in his farewell address to the American people:
‘¢ PROMOTE, THEN, AS AN OBJECT OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE,
INSTITUTIONS FOR THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE.
IN PROPORTION AS THE STRUCTURE OF A GOVERNMENT GIVES
FORCE TO PUBLIC OPINIONS IT SHOULD BE ENLIGHTENED.
Prat
SY
SY
SS
SSS
WILLIAM STIMPSON.
AANA
YY
SON
ANS
\
\,
‘\
SOME AMERICAN CONCHOLOGISTS.* :
By Wixii1AmM H. DALL.
I had selected another theme as the subject of my address on
‘this occasion. But the press of engagements which had to be
met prevented the completion of the work required by my first
choice, and in looking about for a substitute which would require
less original research I remembered that we have not anywhere
an epitome of the biography of those naturalists who began in
this country the study of the mollusca and who may be truly said
to be the pioneers of American conchology.
There was the more propriety in the selection of this topic. at
the present time since in the year 1887 came the seventieth
anniversary of the publication in the United States of the first
paper on the American shells, by an American, which ever
appeared. We can regard it as forming the extreme limit which
might have been attained by a single life, mature enough in 1817
to have appreciated in some measure the dawn of conchological
investigation in America. The only naturalist whose life nearly
coincided with this period, the late Dr. Isaac Lea, passed over to
the majority about a year ago, and, as it happens, his attention
was not called to what the French call ‘‘ the beautiful Science”
until 1825.
The contributions of American investigators to the sum of our
knowledge of the mollusca have been numerous and important.
Many American publications are among the classics of this branch
of science.f
*Annual presidential address, delivered at the Eighth Anniversary
Meeting of the Biological Society, January 28, 1888, in the lecture-room
of Columbian University.
+ Consult Binney (W. G.): Bibliography of North-American Conchol-
ogy, previous to the year 1860, prepared for the Smithsonian Institution,
95
96 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
But it is not to their publications that I desire to direct your
attention, nor to the reputation, due to their labors, acquired for
the United States among foreign investigators. It is to the men
themselves, the circumstances of their lives, their struggles in an
inappreciative age, their unwearied and self-sacrificing devotion to
the study of nature. |
Of course, in an address of this Sort, there is only time for the
briefest mention of ‘many facts of interest and value to the biog-
rapher ; and it would be quite impossible to do even as much as
_ this for all those who have a right to appear on a complete record.
So I have confined my attention to some of those. who may fairly
be considered as pioneers, reserving for another occasion those still
active, and many other worthy names.
Following the example of Coues and Goode in their classifi-
cation of the students of vertebrate zodlogy, I may divide the
study of mollusca in this country into three periods, although
these are connected by many intermediate links. The infancy of
the science, with a Linnean classification, has no representation
in American conchological literature, which sprang, full-grown,
like Minerva from the head of Jove, from the Lamarckian school
Part i. Washington, Smithsonian Institution, March 1863; Part ii, June,
1864, 8vo, viii, 650, and iv, 298 pp. Also Tryon (G. W.): A Sketch of the
History of Conchology in the United States (Am. Journ. Science, xxxiii,
March 1862, pp. 13-32), and List of American Writers on Recent Con-
chology, with the titles of their memoirs and dates of publication. New
York, Bailliére, 1861, 8vo, 68 pp. |
There are also a number of portraits of the more distinguished Con-
_chologists given in the first and second volumes of the American Journal
of Conchology, though these are not always as good as might be wished.
The above-mentioned works, which contain almost no biographical de-
tails, and various dictionaries and encyclopedias have been freely con-
sulted for the material used in this address, but a good deal of it has been
the result of personal inquiry, letter-writing. and even advertisement in
the newspapers for dates and other missing details. To numerous cor- -
respondents I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks for data
furnished and which would probably in a few years have been irretrievably
lost.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 97
of Europe. The first period might fitly bear the name of its in-
augurator, Thomas Say. It is characterized by a rapid advance
in the determination of the fauna, the classification of the species,
and the exploration of vast areas. It extended from 1817 to
1841.
The second period should bear the name of Dr. A. A. Gould.
It was inaugurated by his report on the Invertebrata of Massa-
chusetts, and characterized by the broader scope of investigation,
the interest in geographical distribution, the anatomy of the
soft parts, and the more precise definition and exact discrimination
of specific forms, as exemplified in his writings.
The third period would be appropriately called after Dr. Wil-
liam Stimpson, who eagerly adopted the radical changes in classi-
fication rendered necessary by the discoveries of Loven, and
stood ready to welcome the theory of evolution with all the light
it shed in dark places.
Though violently opposed to evolution, the teachings of Agas-
siz did much to hasten the fruition of the new school of students.
For the rational methods of teaching and investigation which he
devised or made popular, the present era is greatly in his debt.
This period can hardly be said to have been introduced by any
epoch-making work, but gradually the old methods were discarded
for the new.
The latter were fully exemplified by such works as Morse’s
‘‘ Pulmonifera of Maine” (1864), Stimpson’s ‘* Hydrobiine ”
(1865), and a long list of subsequent publications.
Of men belonging to the Sayian period may be mentioned Say,
Lesueur, Barnes, Green, Morton, Couthouy, Warren, Anthony,
Nuttall, Haldeman, and Conrad. ,
Rafinesque was sud generis, and Lea links this period with the
next. 3 5
Of the Gouldian period are Gould, Amos Binney, C. B.
Adams, Carpenter.
98 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Of the Stimpsonian period I can only refer to Bland, whose
place is here rather than with Gould ; and lastly, Stimpson himself.
Tuomas Say.
Thomas Say was born at Philadelphia, of Quaker ancestry,
July 27, 1787. His father, as was usual in those days, united to
the profession of a physician the duties of an apothecary. Young
Say received a very rudimentary education in one of the Quaker
schools and at the ‘‘ Friends’ Academy ” at Weston, a few miles
from Philadelphia. Ata later time he studied pharmacy under
his father’s supervision, and was established in that business with
another person whose steady habits it was supposed would ensure
success. Among his acquaintance Say’s name was always
associated with honor and veracity. Conscious of rectitude him-
self, ingenuous and sincere, he took for granted that others were
so, and, as is too often the case, he fell a victim to his trust in
others. Having endorsed the business paper of ostensible friends,
through their failure he was involved in financial ruin. His heart
was not in business, he attended to it with indifference, and, from —
his school days, was drawn irresistibly toward a study of animated
nature. March 21, 1812, he became a member of the Academy
of Natural Sciences, then in the process of transformation from
a social club to an association of naturalists. The president,
William Maclure, seems to have been a warm and intimate friend
of Say, and assisted him pecuniarily, for he became the first
curator of the embryo museum and lived on its premises for sev-
eral years, part of the time subsisting on such frugal fare as might
be obtained for twelve cents a day! His time was devoted to
study and his reputation as a naturalist was already somewhat
spread, for he was selected by the publishers to furnish several
articles on American Natural History to the American edition of
Nicholson’s British Encyclopedia, a work which rapidly reached
its third edition. In the winter of 1816-17 appeared the second
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 99
volume, in which the article ‘‘ Conchology,” consisting of fifteen
pages and illustrated by four plates, was prepared by Say, and has
the honor of being the first paper on American Conchology by
an American which appeared in this country. It contained a
general statement of the principles of the science as then under-
stood, followed by descriptions of American land and fresh-water
shells to the number of thirty-one species. The article was
issued separately, with a title page, as ‘‘ Descriptions of Land
and Fresh-water Shells of the United States.” The second edi-
tion, issued the following year, contained some improvements,
and the third edition (1819) had the article considerably en-
larged, as it forms twenty pages of the fourth volume of the
series.*
The readiness with which Say responded to the requests of
others, his liberality in communicating his knowledge to those
who sought it, and his agreeable social qualities were the cause
of so many interruptions that he was led to devote to study the
hours which he should have given to repose, and often worked
all night. This injudicious course resulted in serious derange-
ment of the digestive organs, and weakened his constitution.
These causes, together with habits of rigid austerity in diet, were
probably instrumental in bringing about his premature decease.
In 1818, Say, Ord, Maclure, and Peale made an expedition to
the sea islands of Georgia and the country east of Florida, then
under Spanish rule. Later, Say was appointed chief zodlogist to
the two expeditions to the headwaters of the Mississippi, etc.,
commanded by Major Long. The same modesty which led him
to decline a professorship in an institution of learning on the
ground of inadequate scholarship led him to decline the position of
*The first edition is very rare. A copy is said to exist in the library of
the U. S. Naval Academy. The second edition occurs in the library of the
Boston Atheneum and the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. The
original manuscript is in the archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia.
100 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
historian of Long’s expedition after the death of Dr. Baldwin, the
first appointee. This modesty led to habits of retirement, and ,
withdrew him from society, except that of his private friends,
among whom he was idolized. His domestic virtues were beyond
eulogy, and his disposition was so truly amiable, his manners so
charming, that no one, having once formed his acquaintance,
could cease to esteem him.
These qualities led him to be influenced by those whom he
admired, and who possessed a more pushing and self-assertive
disposition. It is probable that the great mistake of his life was
due to influence thus exerted by his friend and patron, Wm.
Maclure.
About the year 1824 the recurrence of one of those waves of
sentiment, which, like spots on the sun, appear at intervals, with
a certain regularity, to obscure the common sense of the most be-
nevolent and enlightened of mankind, led to the disinterested,
though foolish, investment by Robert Owen of large sums in a
socialistic enterprise. At the village of New Harmony, in a
malarious situation on the Wabash river of Indiana, the sun of
righteousness, letters, and science was to rise and illuminate the
benighted Western world. Mr. Maclure became convinced of the
truth of the gospel according to Owen, and, in 1825, set out for the
New Jerusalem, involving in his train his friend Sey and several
other naturalists. With them went several ladies of intelligence
and beauty, one of whom, Lucy Sistare, became the devoted wife
of Say, and long survived him.* Ina little more than a year the
community went to pieces, one founder retiring to Europe, and
the other to Mexico, disgusted with the intractability of human
nature. It is sufficient to quote a criticism by the son, Robert
Dale Owen, himself a member of the community, as given in his
autobiography fifty years later:¢ ‘*I do not believe that any
*She died in 1886, according to Mr. Schwarz.
+ Threading my Way, by Robert Dale Owen. 8vo. New York, Carleton
& Co., 1874; p. 290.
a we eS a oP os
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 101
industrial experiment can succeed which proposes equal remuner-
ation to all men, the diligent and the dilatory, the skilled artisan
and the common laborer, the genius and the drudge. What may
be safely predicted is that a plan which remunerates all alike
will, in the present condition of society, ultimately eliminate
from a co-operative association the skilled, efficient, and industri-
ous members, leaving an ineffective and sluggish residue, in whose
hands the experiment will fail, both socially and pecuniarily.”
But Say had become involved for life. He had married, he
had accepted the agency of the property, the duties of which
compelled his presence on the spot; he had no other means of
support, and therefore resigned himself with his usual philosophy
to await the course of events, appropriating all his moments of
leisure to his favorite pursuits, and preserving unruffled the’
serenity of his mind. Mrs. Say prepared drawings and litho-
graphs, and on a little hand-press the early numbers of the
‘«¢ American Conchology ” were printed.
The malaria began to influence his health. Had he felt free to
follow his medical advice or the affectionate solicitation of his
friends, he would have returned to the more genial climate of his
native city. But a sense of duty predominated over the claims
of affection and the terrors of death, and he remained to become
a sacrifice to a fever, which carried him off on the roth of Octo-
ber, 1834. 2
I have seen no description of Mr. Say’s personal appearance,
but his portrait* indicates that his face and expression were in
harmony with his amiable character.
* National Portrait Gallery, vol. iv. Copied in Am. Journ. Conchology,
vol. i, 1865. Biography, by Ord, in LeConte’s edition of Say’s American
Entomology, and in Waldie’s Select Circular Library, vol. v, 1835, by B.
H. Coates, M. D. It seems evident from the hypercritical and patronizing
tone of Ord’s biography that his old friendship for Say had been severely
wrenched, if not broken, by the personal controversies which raged so
violently at Philadelphia, and involved nearly all the scientific workers, or
those interested in the progress of science, of which Philadelphia was
then the American centre. <A better biography of Say is greatly needed.
‘
102 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
His conchological work was far above the average of its day,
and fully abreast of the knowledge of the time.
His monument,* erected in 1846 by Alexander, brother of
William Maclure, in the garden of the Maclure mansion at New
Harmony, bears the following appropriate lines:
Votary of Nature, even from a child,
He sought her presence in the trackless wild.
To him the shell, the insect, and the flower
Were bright and cherished emblems of her power;
In her he saw a spirit all divine,
And worshipped like a pilgrim at her shrine.
CHARLES ALEXANDER LESUEUR.
Second, in point of time, among those who published in
America on American and other mollusks, is Charles Alexander
Lesueur,f born at Havre-de-Grace, France, Jan. 1, 1778.
He grew up with a love for natural history so great that in
order to accompany the scientific expedition of the *‘ Geographe ”
under Baudin in the year 1800 he enlisted as a landsman among
the crew. Another enthusiast who had, as it were, forced him-
self upon the expedition was Francois Péron, who discovered the
unusual talents of Lesueur as an artist and succeeded in getting
him transferred to the position of zodlogical draughtsman, where
those talents could be put to their proper use. Henceforth the
two young men were inseparable friends. The commander of
the expedition turned out to be most unfit for his position. Be-
sides exhibiting great inhumanity to his subordinates, it is alleged
that he was no better than a thief and appropriated to his own
emolument the stores of the expedition. He died at last, with
many of the others, and finally of the scientific staff only Péron
and Lesueur returned to France in 1804. Six years later Péron
*Recently described by Mr. E. A. Schwarz in Proc. Ent. Soc., Wash.,
vol. i, No. 2.
t See Memoir, by George Ord, in Silliman’s Journal, second series, vol.
viii, p. 189, 1849.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 103
died in the midst of his labors. Lesueur, inconsolable, was in-
duced to take a voyage to the Antilles and the United States to
remove the melancholy which oppressed him. He arrived in the
United States in 1816 and settled ‘in Philadelphia the following
year, where he taught drawing and pursued his studies, being
very cordially received by the resident naturalists. After a resi-
dence of nine years in Philadelphia, where he was in a situation
most congenial to his tastes and useful to science, he was impelled,
through a mistaken sense of duty, to join the settlement of
Socialists at New Harmony, Indiana. The presence of Mr. Say
rendered the new situation endurable for a time, but with his
death in 1834 the delusive expectation that human virtue would
increase in the ratio that human individuality was stifled faded
completely away, and the position was no longer bearable. He
departed for New Orleans and for France, where his tastes and |
acquirements found their opportunity of fruition at Paris, near
the Jardin des Plantes, and afterward at Havre, where a museum
was established, of which he was appointed curator in 1845. He
was attacked by sudden inflammation of the lungs, which carried
him off on the 12th of Dec., 1846, in the 68th year of his age.
Lesueur was a man of unobtrusive and modest manners and
social and amicable disposition. Frugal himself, he was gen-
erous to others, even in cases where prudence would justify re-
serve. He suffered from robbery, perpetrated under the guise of
friendship, yet with. the remnant he had left, and the infirmities
of age coming upon him, he shared with others whose necessities
were greater than his own.
Lesueur was more of an ichthyologist than a conchologist, but
his paper on Firola, in vol. 1 of the Journal of the Academy of
Natural Sciences, was the second paper on mollusks published
in the United States and the first on exotic mollusks which
appeared here.
104 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
DANIEL HENRY BARNES.
The Rev. Daniel Henry Barnes, of the Baptist denomination,
was born in Canaan, N. Y., April 25, 1785, and was killed by
falling froma stage coach between Nassau and Troy, N. Y.,
- October 27, 1828. He graduated at Union College in 1809, and
took charge for three years of the classical school there, at a later
time. Afterward he was professor of languages in the Baptist
Theological Seminary, and in 1824 was associate principal of the
New York High School for Boys, an institution he is said to have
originated and conducted with great ability. He declined calls
to the Presidency of Waterville College, Maine, and the Colum-
bian University, of Washington, D.C. He was a man of high
reputation for character and culture, and one of the chief pro-
moters of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, now the
New York Academy of Sciences. He assisted Webster in the
preparation of his dictionary, and published several early papers
on the Unxzontde and Chitons, of which he described several
forms, while others have been named in his honor by several
naturalists.
JjJacoB GREEN.
Another of the earliest contributors to molluscan literature in
America was Dr. Jacob Green, who was born July 26, 1790,
at Philadelphia, and died there February 1, 1541. He was the
son of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College in 1812, and
grandson of the Revolutionary patriot, the Rev. Jacob Green,
who was President of the College of New Jersey in 1757. Our
conchologist graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1806,
was professor of chemistry and natural history at Princeton 1818-
22, and then professor of chemistry in the Jefferson Medical Col-
lege, of Philadelphia, until his death. While his contributions
to conchology were not numerous they were of a high order of
merit, and on other subjects, such as chemistry, paleontology
wey ai a alla a lil as face es. eS
7 Seen r
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 105
(Trilobites), and botany, his work procured him a wide-spread
and excellent reputation.
JoHn WARREN.
It may not be amiss to mention here an old Englishman named
. John Warren, who for many years dealt in shells and curiosities
in Boston. About/1857 he was still extant. I have little per-
sonal information about him, but remember him as a stout, florid
old gentleman, who supplied Miss Sarah Pratt and other Boston
amateurs with handsome shells at high prices. In 1834 he pub-
lished a small quarto edition of Lamarck’s genera of shells,
illustrated with 17 plates, which he entitled ‘‘ The Conchologist.”
He did no original work, but, singularly enough, in Carus and ©
Englemann’s Bibliography, he is confounded with Dr. J. C.
Warren, the distinguished surgeon of Boston, who published |
some papers on molluscan anatomy.
SAMUEL GEORGE MoRTON.
Among those who have promoted the study of mollusca from
the paleontological side, one of the earliest and most distinguished
names is that of Samuel George Morton.* Born in Philadelphia
Jan. 26, 1799, of Irish ancestry and of a family in which the
gifts of education were highly prized and abundantly enjoyed, he
early lost his father, and at the age of sixteen entered a counting-
room to be prepared fora mercantile career. His desire for study
monopolized his leisure, and in 1817 he entered the medical
school of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in
1820 with honors, and afterwards pursued his studies at Paris
and in Edinburgh. In 1826 he returned to Philadelphia, where
he practiced his profession and pursued his scientific studies, and
the following year he married Rebecca Pearsall. His career was
terminated on the 15th of May, 1851, by an attack of pneumonia,
—
* See Silliman’s Journal, 2d series, vol. xiii, p. 153, March, 1852.
106 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY’ OF WASHINGTON.
but not until his name, through his scientific work, had become
familiar to scholars in both hemispheres. His synopsis of the
organic remains in the Cretaceous formation of the United States
gave him a high reputation and materially advanced the science.
Morton was enthusiastic and energetic, but neither vain nor arro-
gant. He was drawn into the early controversies which involved
the Philadelphian group of naturalists, and appears in them as
the especial champion of Say and Conrad. He had a literary
turn and strong religious convictions, both of which are percep-
tible in his scientific publications.
Tuomas NuTTALL.
Although he was especially distinguished in the domain of
botany, yet by his shell collections in various parts of America,
and somewhat belated studies of this conchological material, it
becomes proper to include in this summary, a notice of Thomas
Nuttall. Born in Settle, Yorkshire, in 1786, he was in very
humble circumstances, and as a journeyman printer had few
opportunities for mental development. Yet he was endowed
with a strong, clear intellect, the faculty of self-denial, and the
passion for study and for the investigation of nature. A hope of
improving his position in life and of finding opportunity for study
of the natural sciences brought him to the United States in 1808,
when only 22 years of age. Through the influence of Barton,
the botanist, he was led to take up the study of plants, and a large
part of his life was thenceforth devoted to exploration and re-
search. In1817 he already had been admitted to several scientific
societies of high standing. In 1822 he succeeded Peck in charge
of the botanic garden at Cambridge, Mass. In 1842 a small
estate near Liverpool was left him by a relative, on the condition
that he resided upon it at least nine months of every year. He
then returned to England, where he died at the age of seventy-
three, September 10, 1859. Durand says of him:* ‘‘He wasa
* Biographical Notice, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., vii, p. 297, 1860.
’
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 107
remarkable looking man; his head was very large, bald, and
bore marks of a vigorous intellect; his forehead expansive, but
his features diminutive, with a small nose, thin lips, and round
chin, and with gray eyes under fleshy eyebrows. His height
was above the middle, his person stout, with a slight stoop; and
his walk peculiar and mincing, resembling that of an Indian.
Nuttall was naturally shy and reserved in his manners in general
society, but not so with those who knew him well. If silent or
perhaps morose in the presence of those for whom he felt a sort
of antipathy, yet, when with congenial companions, he was
affable and courteous, communicative and agreeable.” * * *
‘¢T have frequently seen him in social circles when he was the
delight of the company, from his cheerful and natural replies to
all questions, and his voluntary details on the subject of his
travels and adventures.” * * * ‘Nuttall was extremely
economical in his habits and careless about his dress. None of |
his Philadelphia friends, I believe, ever knew where he resided,
or in what manner he lived.” The profession of science is not a
very profitable one, yet, in spite of the few opportunities he had
for accumulating, he had succeeded, through the strictest saving,
in laying aside enough for his old age, even if he had not in-
herited the estate of Nut Grove, which was encumbered with
annuities and burdened with a heavy income tax.
Nuttall’s adventures and privations while exploring among
hostile Indians, or during long voyages, were many and exciting,
but he declared to his friends that hardships were cheaply pur-
chased if they brought him the opportunity for travel and the
contemplation of nature, which he found a source of constant
delight.
108 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
J. P. COUTHOUY.
Josrpn Pirry Cournovuy.
Among the early papers on mollusca in the Journal of the
Boston Society of Natural History none are more finished and
satisfactory than those by Joseph Pitty Couthouy. Born in Bos-
ton January 6, 1808, of French extraction, I learn that he joined
the Boston Latin School with the class which entered in 1820.
His tastes were for a seafaring life; he shipped on board his
father’s vessel and rose rapidly in his profession. He married
Mary Greenwood Wild, March 9, 1832. He became a member
of the Boston Society of Natural History April 6, 1836, and in
the reference to his first paper, read October 5, 1836, I find him
styled Captain Couthouy. A year later the United States explor-
ing expedition under Wilkes was projected, and, full of enthusiasm,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 109
Couthouy came on in person and applied to President Andrew
Jackson for a position on the scientific corps. The President
said he could not seriously entertain the application as the list of
officers was already complete. To which the irrepressible young
sailor replied, ‘‘ Well, General, ’ll be hanged if I don’t go, if I
have to go before the mast!”* This pleased ‘‘ Old Hickory,”
who told him, * Go back to Boston and I will see if anything can
be done for you.” There, a few days after his return, his commis-
sion as Conchologist of the Scientific Corps was received. He
sailed with the expedition August 18, 1838. After leaving
Samoa his health suffered. Wilkes, who was preparing a narra-
tive of the expedition, demanded that Couthouy should turn all
his notes and drawings over to his commander. Couthouy re- |
fused, as he considered that his subsequent work would be
crippled by the absence of notes and drawings already made, and -
that as a member of the scientific corps he was entitled to retain
his papers until the end of the voyage. He was thereupon sus-
pended by Wilkes and ordered home from Honolulu in 1840,
‘¢ for disobedience of orders.”
He had made many valuable drawings and notes, many of
which are preserved in the report on the Mollusca and Shells of
the expedition. He had numbered his notes with a serial num-
ber, and a tin tag, similarly numbered, was attached to the
specimen, which was preserved in spirits for future anatomical
study and identification. The authorities in Washington had
appointed a reverend gentleman who knew nothing of science,
with a fat salary, to unpack and take care of the specimens sent
home by the expedition. This gentleman, finding that the pres-
ence of some lead in the tinfoil tags was whitening the alcohol,
carefully removed all the tags and put them in a bottle by them-
selves without replacing them by any other means of identifi-
cation. Twenty years ago I saw this bottle of tags on a shelf at
* 7. @., aS a common sailor.
*
110 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
the Smithsonian and heard its mournful history. Prominent con-
chologists resident in the United States were favored, for a con-
sideration, with many rare specimens before any of the expedition
naturalists had returned. Some of those contemporary with the
events have told me of the prizes secured in this immoral man-
ner, unworthy of a true naturalist, though doubtless the tempta-
tion was great.
The result of such proceedings may be imagined. Couthouy
found that the shells to which many of his notes related could
not be identified, and others had disappeared altogether. //He
worked over the mass that remained until the return of the expe-
dition, when, to crown all his misfortunes, the pay of the natu-
ralists was reduced forty-four per cent., though low enough
previously. For Couthouy, who had a wife and two children to
support, it was the last straw. He declined to attempt the report,
and his papers and collections, after sundry vicissitudes, were put
into the hands of Dr. A. A. Gould, who bears willing testimony
to the value of Couthouy’s work. After this he returned to his
profession as a master in the mercantile marine, visiting South
America and the Pacific. In 1854 he took command of an ex-
pedition to the Bay of Cumana, where he spent three years in
the unsuccessful search for the wreck of a Spanish treasure ship,
the San Pedro, lost there early in the century. Our next trace of
him is shortly after the outbreak of the rebellion. He volunteered
in the navy, and, August 26, 1861, was appointed acting volun-
teer lieutenant. Five days later he was ordered to command the
U.S. bark Aznugfisher ; December 31, 1862, to command U.S.S.
Columbia, which was wrecked, and Couthouy made prisoner.
After three months at Salisbury he was exchanged, and, May 29,
1863, ordered to the Mississippi squadron to command the moni-
tor Osage, but was transferred to U. S. steamer Chillicothe.
On the 3d of April, 1864, while off Grand Ecore, Louisiana,
on the turret of his vessel, he was shot from an ambush on the
eT ee tee
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 111
shore, and died the following day. The dispatches announcing
his death bore testimony to his value as an officer. He was eulo-
gized by Admiral Porter and his fellow officers of the flotilla.
Those who knew Couthouy describe him as active and enthu-
siastic, with reminders of his French ancestry in his physiognomy
and manner; of middle height, dark complexion, and more trim
in his dress and refined in his ways than would have been ex-
pected from one who had always followed the sea. One friend
says of him: ‘** As brave and gallant a soul as ever trod a deck,
and a lively and always entertaining companion.”
I am informed that he left a son, Joseph P., and two daughters
in Boston, and the family is not extinct there. His signature to
some documents at the Navy Department is in a handsome flow-
ing hand. He was a good linguist, speaking Spanish, French,
Italian, and Portuguese with fluency, and had even mastered sev- |
eral dialects used among the Pacific Islands.
I have not yet come on the track of any published portrait of
Couthouy, and none of the biographical dictionaries or cyclope-
dias refer to him. I have therefore gone into detail a little more
fully than I should otherwise have done to preserve from oblivion
the memory of a patriotic officer and a good conchologist.
The sketch portrait which accompanies these notes, in default
of a better, was derived from an unsatisfactory photograph, the
only thing available, taken between 1861 and 1863 and kindly
lent to the writer by a surviving relative.
Joun Goutp ANTHONY.
A naturalist who has left his mark on the classification of our
fresh-water shells was John Gould Anthony, who was born in
Providence, Rhode Island, May 17, 1804, and died in Cambridge,
Mass., Oct. 16, 1877. Mr. Anthony had few educational advan-
tages, leaving school at the age of twelve years, and, going to
Cincinnati, engaged in business, where he continued for thirty-
112 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
five years. In 1863 he was placed in charge of the mollusk col-
lection at the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy in Cambridge by
Prof. Louis Agassiz, whom he accompanied to Brazil on the
Thayer expedition in 1865. Mr. Anthony was a man of small
and delicate frame, with a well-shaped head, whose brilliant dark
eyes were a marked feature in his countenance. He suffered in
later years from an affection which impaired his sight, and at
times prevented him from doing any work. ‘To this cause is due
the fact that some of his later work was occasionally wanting in
the precision and accuracy which characterized that of an earlier
time. He wrote a very beautiful, clear hand, and his labels were
as elegant as if engraved on copper. The attractiveness of the
Cambridge collection is largely due to his unwearied efforts. A
portrait of Mr. Anthony, though not a very good one, was pub-
lished in the American Journal of Conchology, vol. ii, part 2,
1866. His collection was added to that of the museum at Cam-
bridge. 3
SAMUEL STEHMAN HALDEMAN.
Samuel Stehman Haldeman was born at Locust Grove, Penn-
sylvania, Aug. 12, 1812, and died at Chickies on the roth of
September, 1880. :
He studied in a classical school at Harrisburg and for two years
at Dickinson College, but did not graduate. In 1836 he was
called to assist the late H. D- Rogers in the geological survey of
New Jersey, and from 1837 to 1842 was engaged in geological
work on the State Survey of Pennsylvania. In 1851 he was pro-
fessor of natural science in the University of Pennsylvania, and
from 1869-80 professor of comparative philology in the same -
institution. He was a member of the National Academy of
Sciences. His papers number over two hundred titles, and in-
clude such subjects as chess, the natural sciences, and especially
philology. He was a distinguished philologist, but to American
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 113
conchologists his memory will always be grateful, since he was
the first to illustrate a work on American mollusks with the beau-
tiful engravings on copper, which were the product of Lawson’s
burin. These illustrations, though issued as early as 1840, are
as fine’as anything which can be found in the literature to the
present day. Haldeman was short and thickset, with a very
peculiar voice, piercing dark eyes, and a pleasant and unaffected
manner. He was in easy circumstances, and the freedom which
this gave him resulted in a wide and somewhat desultory range
of study, and heightened some personal. peculiarities of mind.
Timotuy ABBOTT CONRAD.
Distinguished among conchologists and paleontologists alike
was Timothy Abbott Conrad, born in New Jersey in 1803, who
died at Trenton Aug. 9, 1877. Information in regard to him I
have found rather difficult to obtain, but it would seem that he
was always interested in the natural sciences, especially geology
and paleontology, and in 1837 was appointed one of the geolo-
gists to the State of New York, and prepared the report for that
year. He was paleontologist to the survey in 1838-41. He pre-
pared paleontological reports on the collections of the U. S.
exploring expedition under Wilkes, of Lynch’s U. S. expedition
to the Dead Sea, the Mexican boundary survey, and some of the
Pacific Railway explorations. He never married, and during the
latter part of his life lived on a small property near Trenton,
coming into Philadelphia frequently to pursue his work at the
Academy. He was of spare proportions, rather shy and reserved,
wrote an abominable hand, and was very careless about his letters,
which were largely on scraps of paper without date or location.
He drew many of his own plates on stone, and his peculiar style
of illustration is very recognizable. Though his contributions to
science were multitudinous and long continued, his native care-
lessness, brief diagnoses, and errors of date and citation gave his
114 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
work among the more conservative conchologists a. reputation
perhaps less than its deserts. His defects were chiefly constitu-
tional, rather than wilful ; he had an acute and observant eye, and
an excellent, if sometimes hasty, judgment on matters of geology
and classification. When we consider his work with that of the
naturalists of the French ‘‘ New School” of the present day, there
seems in comparison little to complain of in Conrad’s methods.
Early in life he undertook several journeys to the South especially
for collecting purposes, and several naturalists contributed to his
expenses with the view of receiving series of the fossils. An
unfortunate controversy arose from the conflicting claims to the
right and priority of description of many of these species, to
which Conrad’s extreme carelessness no doubt in a large part
contributed. At all events the conflict raged with great violence
for several years, and burdened the literature with many syno-
nyms. ‘The matter was still further complicated by the fact that
some of his friends, among whom Morton and Say have been
mentioned, to preserve, as they supposed, Conrad’s rights, wrote
and published certain descriptions from his material during his
absence and without his knowledge, of which he was obliged, for
their sake, to assume the responsibility on his return. To this
day the dates of publication of the various parts of his ‘* Tertiary
Fossils” are unknown to the public, and were not remembered
by the author within a range of several years. Conrad dabbled
in literature, and printed a little volume of poems for distribution
among his friends. I have heard that all his invaluable docu-
ments and manuscripts were sold or destroyed as waste paper
shortly after his death through the ignorance of his heirs.
CoNSTANTINE SAMUEL RAFINESQUE-SCHMALTZ.
One of the most singular figures in the portrait gallery of
scientific men, eccentric as many of them have always been con-
sidered, is that of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz. He
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 115
was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, Oct. 22, 1783,
and died at Philadelphia, Sept. 18, 1840, of cancer of the
stomach. His father’s name was Rafinesque, and he was of
French extraction, but during the hostilities between the French
and Neapolitans, which arose about the time he settled in Sicily,
he added the name of his mother, to his own and represented
himself as an American. He arrived in the United States when
only nineteen years of age (1802), and returned to Europe in
1805, after which, according to his own account, he was engaged
in commercial pursuits and scientific studies at Palermo. He
travelled furiously, and collected wherever he went. In 1815 he
returned to this country, but the vessel which brought him
was wrecked on the coast of Connecticut, and his collections and
property were lost, leaving him in a state of poverty from which
he never was able to emerge. He was, however, received by
American naturalists and others as became his acquirements, and,
in 1819, was appointed professor of botany and natural history in
Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, which remained
his headquarters, in spite of many pedestrian journeys, until 1826,
when he removed to Philadelphia, where he remained until his
death. His multitudinous writings have been reviewed by Gray,
Haldeman, and Tryon in the American Journal of Science,
and by Amos Binney in his Terrestrial Mollusks of the United
States.*
Rafinesque was a marked example of the adage, ‘* Great wit to
madness nearly is allied,” and the workings of a mind of unusual
acumen, brilliancy, and activity were always clouded by a cer-
tain incoherency due to his highly excitable and versatile tem-
perament. He possessed talents which, properly regulated,
would have carried him to the front rank of scientific workers.
* See Silliman’s Journal, vol. 40, 1st series, p. 221, 1841; also vol. 42, pp.
280-91, 1842, and vol. xxxiii, 2d series, p. 163, March, 1862; and Terr.
Moll., 1, pp. 41-54.
116 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
In 1836 we find him insisting, in his Flora Telluriana, that new
species and new genera are continually produced by deviation
from existing forms. Every variety is a deviation which becomes
a species as soon as it is fixed sufficiently to constantly reproduce
its kind. Many of the genera he suggested are fully recognized
to-day, though by his contemporaries regarded as worthless. But
from about 1819 a marked deterioration was noticed in his work,
which finally became tinged deeply with a sort of monomania.
Societies and journals were obliged to refuse his writings, which
poured forth in an ever-increasing flood. When he could obtain
means he printed for himself, in shabby and miserable form it is
true, but still he printed and projected journals and works which
died still-born or never saw the light. His madness seems to have
culminated in one of his publications where he describes twelve
new species of thunder and lightning.
Of his personal appearance we have the following amusing
notes from Audubon’s journal :
‘¢ A long, loose coat of yellow nankeen, on which the inroads
of time were plainly visible, stained as it was with the juice of
many a plant, hung about him like a sack. A waistcoat of the
same, with enormous pockets and buttoned up to the chin, reached
below over a pair of tight pantaloons, the lower parts of which
were buttoned down to the ankles. The dignity he acquired
from the broad and prominent brow which ornamented-his coun-
tenance was somewhat diminished by the forlorn appearance of
his long beard and the mass of lank black hair which fell from
his shoulders.” After relating the distance he had walked he
expressed his regret that his apparel should have suffered, but at
the same time he eagerly refused the offer of any clean clothes,
and it was with evident reluctance he accepted an invitation for
ablution. ‘The surprise of the ladies of Audubon’s family was
involuntarily manifested in the exchange of glances which spoke
volumes. Soon, however, their astonishment was converted into
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 117
admiration at the ease and enlightenment of his conversation.
Plants and animals with which he was unfamiliar aroused in him
a sort of delirium or ecstacy. At night Audubon was surprised
by an uproar in the naturalist’s apartment. On reaching it to
ascertain the cause, he found his guest divested of all clothing,
rushing about the room engaged in a sanguinary contest with the
bats which had entered by the open window. His weapon was the
handle of Audubon’s favorite violin, which had been demolished
in the fray. Without noticing the entrance of his host he con-
tinued his extraordinary gyrations until he was so exhausted that
he could hardly use his voice to request that Audubon would ob-
tain a specimen for him, as he was convinced they were of a new
species.
Notwithstanding this unpromising beginning, Rafinesque re-
mained three weeks in Audubon’s family, who became perfectly
reconciled to his oddities and found him a most agreeable and in-
telligent companion. One evening, however, he suddenly dis-
appeared, without a word to anyone, and it was only after some
weeks that a letter was received which assured his entertainers of
his gratitude and his safety.
In contrast to his carelessness about his personal appearance,
the older Silliman speaks of his beautiful and exact chirography,
and says that his communications were always in. the neatest pos-
sible form. Even in his direst poverty he always retained friends
and admirers. It is certain that he must have possessed many
lovable qualities. |
In this connection we may call to mind a friend, Charles A.
Poulsen, of Philadelphia, who was devoted to conchology and had
a fine collection. Mr. Poulsen translated Rafinesque’s ‘* Mono-
2
graph of the Bivalve shells of the river Ohio” in 1832, and for
years his cabinet was resorted to in the vain hope of positively
determining some of Rafinesque’s ill-defined species. Mr. Poulsen
died in Philadelphia in 1866, and I have heard that his collection
118 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
was dispersed. many specimens being acquired by the late well-
known conchologist, Cc. M. Wheatley, of Phenixville, Penn-
sylvania.
Isaac LEA.
Dr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, whose long and active life
gave him among the younger generation the title of the Nestor
of American Naturalists, was born in Wilmington, Delaware,
March 4, 1792, and died at his home in Philadelphia in his ninety-
fifth year, Dec. 8, 1886. His ancestors came from Gloucester-
shire, England, accompanying William Penn on his second visit.
His taste for natural history manifested itself at an early age, and
was fostered by his mother, who was fond of botany, and by his
association with Vanuxem, then a youth, who was devoted to
mineralogy and geology, then hardly organized as sciences.
Their studies were undirected ; but, in 1815, they became mem-
bers of the Academy of Natural Sciences, then about three years
old. Though engaged in business, young Lea became an active
member of the Academy, and published a mineralogical paper in
its journal in 1817. This was followed by a very long series of
contributions to mineralogy and conchology, recent and fossil, |
which have made his name familiar to naturalists all over the ©
world.
He married, in 1821, Miss. Frances A. Carey, daughter of Mat-
thew Carey, the well-known economist, and became a member of |
the publishing house of Carey & Sons, from which he retired in
1851. Mr. Lea’s married life was exceptionally long and happy,
lasting fifty-two years, and blessed with a daughter and two sons,
who still survive. One of these sons is the well-known student
of ecclesiastical history, while the other has long stood at the head ©
of American photographic chemists.
In 1825 began those studies of fresh-water and land shells,
especially the Unios, with which Dr. Lea’s name will always be
associated. In 1836 he published his first ‘‘ Synopsis” of the
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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, VES
genus, a thin octavo of fifty-nine pages. The fourth edition of
this work appeared in 1870, when it had grown to 214 pages
quarto.
Dr. Lea was a member of most American and many foreign
scientific societies. He visited Europe and studied his favorite
mollusks atall the museums. There he made the acquaintance of
Férussac, Brogniart, Gay, Kiener, and other distinguished men,
whose names now sound like echoes from a past epoch. Up to
1874 he continued ever busy on the Unionidae, and the number of
new forms, recent and fossil, made known by him amounts to
nearly 2,000. Not content with figuring and describing the
shells alone, he figured the embryonic forms of thirty-eight
species of Unio, and described the soft parts of more than 200.
He also investigated physiological questions, such as the sensi-
tiveness of these mollusks to sunlight and the differences due to
sex. His observations on the genus Unio form 13 quarto vol-
umes, magnificently illustrated. Dr. Lea was president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1860;
he presided over the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadel-
' phia for several terms, and was given the degree of LL. D. by
Harvard College in 1852. |
His scientific activity extended over more than sixty years.
He was active in affairs and vigorously participated in those con-
troversies in which Say, Conrad, Morton, and others were en-
gaged half a century ago. Of these the echoes only have come
down to us, but there is plenty of evidence that the battle was
often hot and the victory energetically contested.
Dr. Lea had an intellectual and, in later years, a most vener-
able presence. He was ever anxious to interest the young in
scientific pursuits, and was notably active in charitable and relig-
ious enterprises. In his youth he manifested more than ordinary
artistic talent, much like his distinguished contemporary, Alvan
Clark.
120 © BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
It is impossible to do justice to such a life as Dr. Lea’s in the
proper limits of an address of this sort. It is of the less impor-
tance in the present case, because an excellent bibliography of his
works, preceded by a biographical sketch and an admirably
etched portrait, has been published by the U. S. National
Museum,* to whom Dr. Lea bequeathed his invaluable collec-
tion of minerals and shells.
Avucustus AppDIsSON GOULD.
Among those, next to Say, who have beneficially influenced
the study of mollusca in this country, and interested young
people in that pursuit, no name stands higher than that of
Augustus Addison Gould. He was born in New Ipswich, New
Hampshire, April 23, 1805, and died of cholera in Boston on the
15th of September, 1866. His father was originally named
Nathaniel Gould Duren, but, on account of an inheritance, re-
versed the order of his surnames. ‘The father was a musician,
artist, and engraver, noted for his elegant penmanship, and of a
good Chelmsford family; but not in affluent circumstances.
From him Dr. Gould probably derived his facility as a delineator
of shells. In early life young Gould knew privation, but he per-
severed in his endeavors for an education, and succeeded in car-
rying himself through college, graduating at Harvard in 1825,
and in medicine in 1830. :
He devoted his energies largely to his profession, which he
regarded as the work of his life, and in which he soon rose to
deserved eminence. But natural science claimed his leisure
hours, and to increase them he often robbed himself of sleep. He
taught botany and zoédlogy at Harvard for two years, was one of
the founders and earnest supporters of the Boston Society of
Natural History, and original member of the National Academy,
* Bulletin No. 23, compiled by N. P. Scudder.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 121
_ and president of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1865, and
until his death. A brother was a member of the well-known
firm of Gould & Lincoln, publishers, and through them a number
of Dr. Gould’s works were republished during his lifetime. It is
unnecessary to enumerate his works—the mollusca of the Wilkes
exploring expedition, and the magnificent posthumous work on
American land shells, edited by Dr. Gould for the executors of
Amos Binney, would have given him lasting fame. But the work
which was most useful to American science was his classical
Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts, published by the
State in 1841, and adorned with fine copper-plates from his own
drawings. This was practically devoted to the mollusks, and
served as a manual for New England shells, excellent in every
way, and free from unnecessary technicality or pedantic expres-
sions. ‘The speaker well remembers the value this book had for
him in his boyish days, and it is said that to it Stimpson
owed the impulse which led him, in spite of obstacles, to devote
himself to science. |
Dr. Gould was tall, spare, with dark gray eyes, and hair orig-
inally dark, but gray at the time I first knew him. He was the
ideal of the ‘‘ Good Physician,” with a winning, sympathetic
manner; quiet, and slightly reserved to strangers, but with a
living spring of gentle humor for his friends. Full of kindliness,
true piety, self-denial, and noble impulses, no one could know
him, in the midst of his interesting family, without loving and
honoring the man as well as admiring the scientist. The clear,.
straightforward and exact quality of his work made it easy of
comprehension, and there is no knowing how many persons were
inspired by it to a study of the animals he described. He was
particularly able in his study of the smaller forms of land shells,
which he drew with wonderful accuracy and artistic taste. A
good portrait of Dr. Gould was published in the Annual of
Scientific Discovery for 1861 and afterward reprinted in the
132 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
American Journal of Conchology, vol. 1, part 4, 1865.* This
picture, though well executéd, wants the winning expression
which was characteristic of his face.
Amos BINNEY.
The first to project and illustrate in the highest style of the art
a work on the Helicide of the United States, doing for the land-
shells what Haldeman had attempted for the fresh-water gastro-
pods, was Amos Binney, of Boston, born October 18, 1803, who
died at Rome, Italy, February 18, 1847, leaving his work still
incomplete. He graduated at Brown University in 1821, and in
medicine at Harvard in 1826, but his health proving precarious
he devoted himself to commercial pursuits with remarkable suc-
cess, reserving his leisure for science and art, of which he was
passionately fond. He was one of the founders and a liberal
giver to the Boston Society of Natural History, which elected
him its president from 1843 until his death. He was active in
establishing the American Association of Naturalists and Geolo-
gists, which has since developed into the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
As a member of the Massachusetts General Court} he was
instrumental in securing the organization of the zodlogical and
botanical commissions to which we owe the classical Massachu-
setts Reports by Harris, Emerson, Storer, and Gould.
At his death his work on the Terrestrial Mollusks of the United
States was unfinished, but he provided in his will for its comple-
tion, a work for which his executors designated his friend and
townsman, Dr. Gould, as editor. This work is unsurpassed in
elegance of execution by any similar publication to the present
* A brief notice of Dr. Gould’s life appeared in those copies of the second
edition of the ‘‘Invertebrata” which-were distributed by his family.
There is a notice by Dr. Jacob Bigelow in the transactions of the Suffolk
County Medical Society in 1866.
+ So the legislature is styled in that State.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 133
day. The premature death by pneumonia of Dr. Binney cut off
many promising plans for the promotion of science and art in
America. Those interested in land shells, however, do not need
to be told that his son, Mr. William G. Binney, has well sus-
tained his father’s reputation in the same field. Dr. Binney was
above the average height, robust, well formed and refined in
appearance. His hair and eyes were very dark, and his expres-
sion grave and reserved. This and the somewhat severe tone of
his voice was apt to convey to those who did not know him an
impression of hawteur, which did not correspond to the real feel-
ings of the man. An excellent biographical sketch is given by
Dr. Gould in the first volume of the Terrestrial Mollusks, which
was published in 1851. Dr. Binney was buried at Mount Au-
burn, where the monument which commemorates him is one of
those to which the stranger’s attention is always attracted.
CHARLES BAKER ADAMS.
Charles Baker Adams, one of the most industrious and best
known American conchologists, was born in Dorchester, Massa-
chusetts, on the eleventh of January, 1814. Of a family of six
children he was the only one spared to his parents. When four
years old his father, Mr. Charles J. Adams, removed permanently
to Boston, where he engaged in business. At an early age the
boy showed great interest in chemistry and natural history, in |
which he was encouraged by his. parents, who gave him the use
of a room for a laboratory and furnished the means for procuring
chemicals and apparatus. The time usually given to play by-
most lads of his age was largely occupied by young Adams in
experimenting with reagents or studying and arranging the vari-
ous objects of natural history which he collected in excursions
with his father or received from friends. - He studied in the Bos-
ton schools, at Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered Yale
College in October, 1830. In September, 1831, he removed to
124 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Amherst, and joined the sophomore class, graduating in 1834
with the highest honors. Shortly afterward he entered the Theo-
logical Seminary at Andover, but in 1836 he left his studies of
divinity to join Professor Hitchcock in prosecuting the geological
survey of the State of New York. ‘This work being terminated
by the illness of Professor Hitchcock he returned to Amherst and
busied himself, for several years, partly as a tutor at Amherst and
partly by delivering lectures on geology at various educational
institutions. In September, 1838, he became professor of chem-
istry and natural history at Middlebury College, Vermont, and
the following February married Mary, daughter of the Rev.
Sylvester Holmes, of New Bedford, Mass.
In 1845 he became State Geologist of Vermont, and continued
the operations incident to that office for three years. Under his
unremitting labors as a popular teacher in the college and his
geological work in the field his naturally delicate constitution
suffered, and he was obliged to seek a less rigorous climate. He
visited the island of Jamaica in the winter of 1843-4, and in 1847
resigned his professorship at Middlebury to accept that of zodlogy
and astronomy at Amherst. In the winter of 1848-49 he again
visited Jamaica, and in November, 1850, he went to Panama, re-
turning by way of Jamaica the following spring. Anxious to
pursue further his investigations on the mollusk-fauna of the West
Indian islands, Prof. Adams left for St. Thomas by way of Ber-
muda in December, 1852, arriving on the 27th, but in his weak
condition became a victim of the pernicious malaria of that island,
and, though tended with solicitude by his St. Thomas friends, died
the 18th of January, 1853. <A tablet was placed over his grave
by the residents of St. Thomas as a memorial of their esteem and
admiration for his character. ‘The Professor’s widow, four sons,
and a daughter survived him.
Prof. Adams was of middle height, slender and delicate in ap-
pearance, with fine expressive eyes and a winning countenance.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 125
In his domestic relations he was gentle and affectionate ; in his
friendships, faithful and generous. His earnestness and ability as
a teacher gave him popularity and success in his college duties,
while his private character was above reproach. He was quiet
and studious in his habits, but had the true New England genius
for hard work; having in his laboratory at the college an old
green lounge, where’it is said he sought repose in the early morn-
ing hours after many a night devoted to original research. Indeed,
it is commonly reported among those who knew him that he re-
linquished to Nature only so much of his time as she imperatively
demanded and fairly burned his candle at both ends. Notwith-
standing his quiet ways, he was not a man to be imposed upon,
and among the college legends, still passed from class to class
at Amherst, are several which relate the signal discomfiture of
would-be shirkers of their duties, which made him the terror
of the lazy men in his classes.
Professor Adams’ work was distinguished by care and accu-
racy, by a philosophical grasp unusual at that day, and which,
had he been unhampered by the current theories of the creation
and immutability of species, would have given him an even
higher rank among naturalists. He monographed the mollusk-
fauna of Panama, and did more than any other single naturalist
toward making known the riches of the West Indian region. He
emphasized the study of the geographical distribution of animals,
and as a collector was unparalleled both in enthusiasm and suc-
cess.
His remarkable collection (probably even now standing third
or fourth in the United States in point of interest and value, and
its number of contained types) he left under liberal conditions to
Amherst College, where it still remains. His publications are
among the classics of American conchology, and well bear com-
parison with many more pretentious works. Like most Amer-
ican naturalists Prof. Adams was never in affluent circumstances,
126 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
and the success of his labors was largely due to unremitting self-
denial.*
Puitip PEARSALL CARPENTER.
Philip Pearsall Carpenter, who, by his valuable labors on
American mollusks and his residence in America, is fairly to be
enrolled on. thé list of American conchologists, was born in
Bristol, England, Nov. 4, 1819, and died at Montreal, Canada,
May 24,1877. He belonged to a family whose members have
been renowned for their devotion to science, education, liberalism
in all good things, and works of benevolence and charity. He
described himself as a born teacher, but a naturalist by chance.
But his interest in his favorite study developed early. When only
twelve years old he had accumulated a large cabinet and mas-
tered the classification of the day. He studied at the University
of Edinburgh and at Manchester College, York, which became
affiliated with London University, from which he received his de-
gree in 1841. In 1846-58 he labored in the ministry at Warring-
ton, and during this period prepared his classic Memoir on the
Mazatlan Shells, and his report to the British Association on the
state of our knowledge of the mollusk-fauna of the western coast
of America. In December, 1858, he visited the United States
and traveled extensively. In the winter of 1859-60 he came to
the Smithsonian Institution, where he spent some five months at
work upon the shell collections and delivered the lectures on Mol-
lusca which were afterward printed in the Smithsonian Report.
In 1860 he returned to England, where he married Miss Minna
Meyer, of Hamburg. This union, though entered into somewhat
late in life, was most happy. In 1863 he prepared a supplement
to his British Association Report of 1856, which has been most
useful to students of our west coast shells.
* His portrait and an appreciative biogiaphical sketch by Thomas Biand, ©
of which I have made unsparing use, may be found in the American Four-
nal Li Conchology, vol. 1, pp. 191-204, 1865.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. ; 127
In October, 1865, he left England for Montreal, which ‘was
thenceforth his home, and where his valuable collection, pre-
sented by him to McGill University, is suitably housed in the
Peter Redpath Museum of that institution. During the period of
his activity in Montreal he devoted himself largely to a mono-
graphic study of the Chztonzde, with results of the utmost im-
portance to their proper classification, but of which only a concise
abstract has yet been published, though a large mass of MSS.
had been prepared at the time of his death.
Dr. Carpenter received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
from the New York State University in 1860. He wasa man of
slight frame, below the middle height, and of striking personal
appearance. He was ‘brimful of enthusiasm not only in his
studies, but in all that related to good health, morals, and practi-
cal religion. His audacity in confronting and attacking abuses
was unparalleled, and, like most reformers, he met with much op-
position and made many active opponents. But the rich charity
of his nature, his single-minded devotion to what he believed to
be right, and his disregard of his personal interests in all that
concerned the promotion of reforms, made even the bitterest op-
ponents concede him elements of character of which any man or
community might be justly proud.*
THOMAS BLAND.
Thomas Bland, one of our best known naturalists, was born
October 4, 1809, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, England. His
father was a physician and his mother related to Shepard, the
naturalist. Hewas educated at the famous Charter-House school,
London, and was a classmate of Thackeray. Subsequently he
studied and practiced law. He went to Barbados, West Indies,
* An excellent memoir of Dr. P. P. Carpenter, accompanied by a good
portrait, was prepared by his brother, the Rev. Russell Lant Carpenter,
_ and published by C. Kegan Paul & Co., London, in 1880.
128 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
in 1842, and later to Jamaica; visited England in 1850, and in
the same year accepted the superintendency of a gold mine at
Marmato, New Granada. While a resident of Jamaica, it was
visited in 1849 by Prof. C. B. Adams, with whom Mr. Bland
cultivated a warm friendship. Stimulated by the enthusiasm of
Adams, Bland began those investigations of the land shells for
which he afterward became so distinguished. In 1852 he came
to New York, which for most of his subsequent life became his
home. Here his business lay chiefly in the direction of the affairs
of mining companies, with several of which he was connected.
He was a man of rather dark complexion, with brilliant dark
eyes; somewhat bowed by ill health, induced by his long resi-
dence in the tropics, he seemed rather below the middle height.
He was of a studious and rather grave demeanor, but notably
courteous, and always ready to assist young students or others
interested in his favorite pursuit. He avoided controversy, and
in spite of his extreme modesty was several times called to posts
of honor and responsibility. By those privileged to know him
he was held in high esteem, which was not lessened by his bear-
ing under the adversity which unfortunately clouded his later
years. Mr. Bland was the author of more than seventy papers
treating of the Mollusks, especially of the United States and of
the Antilles. His work was not confined to the description of
species, but comprised valuable contributions to their anatomy,
classification, geographical distribution, and the philosophy of
their development. No American conchologist has shown a
more philosophic grasp of the subject, and his discussion of the
distribution of the land shells of the West Indies, published in
1861, gave him a wide reputation. He several times returned to
this subject in later years, and always with marked success.
Since 1869 Mr. Bland was associated with Mr. W. G. Binney
in several important works on the terrestrial mollusks of North
America. Mr. Bland was a fellow of the Geological Society,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 199
and for many years an active member of the New York Lyceum
of Natural History. He died after an illness of several years’
duration in Brooklyn, N. Y., August 20, 1885. A convenient
bibliography of his papers was prepared by Mr. Arthur F. Gray
in 1884, and his portrait is to be found in the American Journal
of Conchology, vol. ii, pt. 4, 1866.
~ Wiiram Stimpson.
In the case of William Stimpson we have a good instance of |
how not merely disadvantageous circumstances may be defied
but positive opposition conquered by what may be called an in-
nate devotion to the study of nature. He was born in Roxbury,
now within the charter limits of Boston, Feb. 14, 1832. His
parents were Herbert H. Stimpson, who, I am informed, was of
Virginian origin, and Mary Ann Brewster, of a good New Eng-
land family. Mr. Stimpson dealt in stoves and ranges, in part-
nership with his brother Frederick, at Congress and Water
streets, Boston, for many years. He was a successful business
man, though not liberally educated, and introduced certain im-
provements into cooking ranges, of which one kind was long
familiar to Boston housewives under the name of the ‘‘ Stimp-
- son range.” The early education of the son was in the com-
mon schools, and in his sixteenth year he seems to have
shown unusual mental powers, as we find him entering the
upper class of the Boston High School in September, 1847,
from which he graduated the following July. Even before this
time he had become deeply interested in natural history. A
copy of Gould’s Invertebrata of Massachusetts having fallen into
his hands his attention was directed towards these animals. He
presented himself to the author of, the work to find out if it were
possible for a copy to be had for his very own. Dr. Gould, with
his never-varying kindness, gave him an order on the State libra-
rian for one of the books, and the exulting joy with which the
130 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
boy marched out of the State House with the coveted volume
under his arm was never forgotten by him and often related in
after years. But Dr. Gould’s kindness did not stop here; he
brought young Stimpson to the notice of Agassiz, then in the
first flush of successful teaching at Cambridge, and introduced
him to the Boston Society of Natural History. His relatives
were anxious that the boy should go into business ; his excursions
to the sea-shore and the dredging work which, unaided, he had
already begun, were looked on with no favorable eye, and only
the urgent representations of some of those who had become in-
terested in the boy and saw in him a capacity for better things,
saved him from a fate he detested. As a compromise he was sent
out with a civilengineer to learn that profession, but his em-
ployer declared he was too fond of hunting for land shells to
make a good surveyor, and advised that he be allowed to follow
the career which his inclinations so strongly declared for. He was
allowed to. enter the Latin School in 1848. The following sum-
mer he managed by some means to get off on a fishing smack
bound for Grand Manan, and devoted his whole energies to the
collection and study of the marine animals of that vicinity. Still,
in the face of strong opposition, he succeeded in joining the work-
ers at Agassiz’ laboratory in October, 1850. Wherever he went
his enthusiasm and lovable qualities raised up friends, and through
their aid an appointment was secured to him as naturalist to
the North Pacific exploring expedition under Ringgold (later com-
manded by Captain John Rodgers, U. S. N.), which was sent
out by the United States in 1852. With a paid appointment in
Government service, those who had persistently opposed his
ambition began to give way and confess that there might be some-
thing in it after all, though doubtless laying greater stress on that
‘¢ something” for which Stimpson cared least.
He joined the expedition Nov. 23, 1852, and was absent four
years, during which he yisited Japan, Bering Strait, and many
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 131
other localities of the greatest interest to the naturalist. No gen-
eral report on the voyage has yet appeared, and Stimpson’s report
on the crustacea with its beautiful illustrations still remains in
manuscript.
He began to work up his materials at Washington, and for pur-
poses of study visited Europe, dredged on the British coast, and
made hosts of friends across the Atlantic.
His preliminary studies of the radiates and crustacea of the ex-
pedition ensured his place among the most promising of the
young naturalists of the day, and were expressed in elegant Latin.
He prepared and published the investigations into marine life
made at Grand Manan, and was the leader of an enthusiastic
band of students who gathered in the museum of the Smithsenian
Institution for work under the influence of Henry and Baird, kept
bachelor’s hall together under the sobriquet of the Megatherium |
Club, and instituted the first biological society in Washington
under the name of the Potomac-side Naturalists’ Club. Most of
them subsequently reached distinction in the pursuit of science.
About 1860, Stimpson received the honorary degree of M. D.
from the Columbian University. He was afterwards a member
of the National Academy of Sciences, instituted while the country
was in the midst of its fiercest military struggle. On the twenty-
eighth of July, 1864, he married Miss Annie Gordon, of Ilchester,
Maryland.
Robert Kennicott, of Illinois, whose name rouses affectionate
remembrance in the minds of all who knew him, was Director of
the Chicago Academy of Sciences, whose establishment and pro-
gress were for the most part due to his enthusiasm, ability, and
persistence. He had been a member of the Megatherium Club,
and was a devoted friend of Stimpson. He was about to under-
take those explorations in Alaska from which he never returned.
He knew that his undertaking was arduous, and its outcome un-
certain. His child, the Academy, must be provided for, and its
132 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
fate not left to accident. Stimpson was the man for the post and
was selected. The institution was thriving, with a large mem-
bership, an excellent collection, and the nucleus of a library. In
June, 1866, the building and nearly all its contents became a prey
to fire. But the trustees had suitably insured the collection and,
with the growing prosperity of the Society, due largely to Stimp-
son’s social tact and attractive personality, the Academy purchased
ground, put up a fire-proof building, and rose like a Phoenix with
new vigor from the ashes.
Here Stimpson assembled as in a sure harbor the manuscripts,
collections, engravings, and drawings of a lifetime.
He had the finest and most complete collection of East Amer-
ican invertebrates which had ever been brought together, with a
vast amount of illustrative material from Europe, the Arctic re-
gions, and other parts of the world. Books and specimens which
he did not own were freely lent to him by the Smithsonian and
by Eastern naturalists, for was he not a scientific missionary, a
biological bishop, zz partzbus infidelium, in the land where the
almighty dollar reigned supreme? And more important still, the
Academy was fire-proof. :
A manual of marine invertebrates of the coast from Maine to
Georgia was in preparation for the Smithsonian Institution ; there
was already much manuscript and many beautiful engravings.
All the Smithsonian shell-fish in alcohol were there ; Pourtalés
sent his unspeakable treasures newly ravished from the depths of
ocean. On every hand a wealth of material, a host of indulgent
friends and correspondents, a prospect of good work for science,
education, patriotism.
On the 8th of October, 1871, a small fire broke out in South
Chicago, which was not extinguished. In forty-eight hours the
Queen City of the Northwest was practically in ashes.
The temple of religion, the refuge of the sick and destitute,
the palace of the millionaire, the shanty of the day-laborer, the ,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 133
sanctuary of trade, the gambler’s hell, the hospital, the home, and
the grog-shop—withered, crumbled, or evaporated into thin air,
before a power stronger than them all. 3
After this universal destruction, when granite became flour,
bricks ran to glass, iron shrunk like wax before the roaring and
devouring element, all that was left of Stimpson’s lifework, of the
building and its treasures of art and nature, was a heap of ashes,
the calcined foundations, and the clay pipkin of a mound builder,
once rescued from a western tumulus to illustrate the arts of bar-
barism, and now, in this hour of universal wreck, surviving
every product of civilization.
The blow was too heavy. The spirit indeed was valiant, but
the body was frail. He had long suffered from weakness of the
lungs, with periods of low. spirits characteristic of the ailment.
After an attempt to work on the Gulf Stream with the Coast
Survey in the winter of 1871-2, he returned broken down, and
died at Ilchester on the 26th of May, 1872.*
Dr. Stimpson was of middle height, slender, with brown, curly
hair, and merry eyes, whose expression was rather heightened
than impaired by the glasses he habitually wore. His bearing
was that of a scholar, rather retiring, except with friends, when
the boyish exuberance of his spirits had full sway. Those who
had the privilege of his companionship will carry an abiding
memory of his abilities as a naturalist, and his noble and lovable
characteristics as a man.
The number of persons brought under review in the preceding ._
pages (omitting Poulsen and Warren) is eighteen, a number too
small to afford many statistical generalizations.
Eight of the men were college bred, ten of them acquired their
education in the common schools, or had even fewer early advan-
* See memorial notice by J. W. Foster in Chicago Tribune of June 12,
1872. Reported from the proceedings of the Academy.
134 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
tages. Two were wealthy by inheritance, two became so by
business enterprises, fourteen had a modest or insufficient in-
come, and were obliged to work their way through life; of these
five were college bred. Seven were devoted to science among
other interests; with eleven science was the mainspring of their
lives. The average age attained was sixty years; of those de-
pendent on their own industry about 58 years. Divided accord-
ing to their absorption in scientific pursuits we find those who
devoted all their energies to science averaged 62.27 years, the
others 55.7 years of life.
The only lesson which may be said to be absolutely clear is,
that naturalists are born, and not made; that the sacred fire can-
not be extinguished by poverty nor lighted from a college taper.
That the men whose work is now classical, and whose devotion
it is our privilege to honor, owed less to education in any sense
than they did to self-denial, steadfastness, energy, a passion for
seeking out the truth, and an innate love of nature. These are
the qualities which enabled them to gather fruit of the tree of
knowledge. Let us see to it that their successors, while profit-
ing by that harvest, fail not in the virtues which made it possible.
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW FOX FROM SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA.
Vulpes macrot?s sp. nov.
LONG-EARED FOX.
By Dr. C. Hart MErRRIAM.
‘(Read Feb. 11, 1888.)
The fox which is the subject of the present communication
was killed at Riverside, San Bernardino county, California,
November 1, 1885. It differs so strikingly from the other North
American foxes that detailed comparison is unnecessary. It is a
small animal, the single specimen before me being a little less
in size than the Kit Fox ( Vulpes velox), agreeing in this respec:
with the California Island Fox ( Urocyon littoralis), from which
latter animal, however, it differs generically. Its most notice-
able external peculiarity consists in its large ears, which character
alone suffices to distinguish it from its North American congeners.
It is not a little surprising that so large a mammal as a fox,
inhabiting so well explored a region as California, should have
escaped notice till the present time; and the fact is still more
remarkable from the circumstance that the animal here described
differs so notably from its nearest relatives. For these reasons,
and others derived from a study of the specimen with a view to
the known laws of geographical variation, I am led to the belief
that it is a Mexican species, finding its northern limit in southern
California. The place where the present specimen was killed
(Riverside, San Bernardino county) is only a hundred miles
from the Mexican boundary.
135
136 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
The following diagnosis is sufficient for purposes of identifi-
cation :
VULPES MACROTIS sp. nov.
Type No. 179? male, young adult, Merriam Collection.
2324
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER I, 1885. F. STEPHENS.
EXTERNAL CHARACTERS.—Size, small, equalling or a little
less than that of Vulpes velox; ears long and broad, relatively
much larger than in any other North American fox, and well
haired on both sides; muzzle, legs, and tail long and slender,
the latter a little longer than the body, and about as slender as
in Urocyon virginianus. Soles well haired, the plantar tuber-
cles being entirely concealed.
Cotor.—Upper parts grizzled-gray, palest on the head and
darkest on the back; terminal fourth of tail nearly black; sides,
upper surface of legs, and pectoral band pale fulvous; under
parts white mixed with pale ochraceous-buff. In the only speci-
men at hand the general color is almost as pale as that of V. velox.
This is due to the fact that the pure white sub-apical zone of each
hair is much enlarged, while the black terminal portion tapers
rapidly into a much attenuated, awn-shaped point, the result
being that the white predominates over the black. The dorsal
hairs are short for a fox, and the pale buff of the under fur shows
through, thus completing the combination which gives to the
back its grizzled-gray appearance. There is no indication of a
dorsal stripe on either back or tail. The convex surface of the
ear is well covered with short fur which is pale fulvous in color,
and mixed with iron gray, except at the base posteriorly where
the gray is nearly absent. .The margin of the ear is white, as
are the long hairs bordering it inside. Between the white border
and the grizzled fulvous of the upper surface of the ear there is’
an indistinct dark line. The base of the ear in front is covered
by a dense growth of fur and hair which completely hides the
“cay ic ee aah at cal ce a
Alans Sta ay ah
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW FOX. 137
meatus. The lower lip is bordered by a narrow margin of
blackish hair, which curves upward around the commissure, and
extends forward about one-fourth the length of the upper lip.
The chin and throat are entirely white. The whiskers are
black, and the hair about their bases is darker than on other
parts of the face.
Mecidecaoaas from the dry Skin.
(All measurements in millimeters).
Total length, . : ; ; ; : : ; 850.
Head and body, : . ‘ : i ; ‘ 510.
Tail to end of vertebre, ‘ ‘ : : ° 290.
Tail to end of hairs, ; ; ; ; ; . 340.
Hind foot, ; ; - ; 110.
Height of ear from crown, : . ‘ : ; 68.
CRANIAL CHARACTERS.—The skull is that of a young adult,
and probably is not quite full grown; the zygomatic breadth,
therefore, is less than it would be in a more aged specimen.
Unfortunately, a considerable portion of the occipital region,
including both condyles, is broken away; hence the basilar
length and several important ratios cannot be taken. The facial
part of the skull is much produced and attenuated, the muzzle
being relatively longer and more slender than in any other. North
American fox, and the palata. region correspondingly narrowed.
The anterior palatal foramen extends posteriorly to a point op-
posite the interspace between the canine and first molar. The
palatine bones are truncated anteriorly at the post-palatal for-
amina. The zygome arch upward more strongly than usual in
the genus, and the audital bull are conspicuously larger, deeper,
and more rounded, which condition, doubtless, is correlated with
the great development of the external ears.
138 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Cranial Measurements.
Basilar length,
Occipito-nasal length,
Greatest zygomatic breadth,
ihe breadth across parietals,
BY ef between mastoids,
Least breadth at interorbital constriction,
ne “ ‘¢ postorbital notch,
Distance between postorbital processes,
Palatal length,
Greatest length of nasals,
Breadth of muzzle at canines, ‘
rf i ‘* midway between canines cane Teo of zygome,
‘Length of lateral series of teeth (on alveolz),
Breadth of palate between canines,
6c a3 “c 66 1st premolars,
[a4 6c 73 6e 4th premolars,
G6 ce 66 ee 2d molars,
Length of mandible,
Height of coronoid process “URES adigie:
Length of lateral series of teeth (on alveolz),
Length of molariform series,
* Cannot be ascertained because the condyles are broken off.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
A.
Page.
Address, seventh presidential ....... iseeedasores xiii, 9-94
Address, eighth presidential................. xxii, 95-134
Alaska, travels int. ....... 00: ....0.c0000 645 f atecoedauvena diate: xi
Alcine cemetery... ie Res BORE: xx
Almiqui (Solenodon cubanus)........... ..cceccceeeeeeeee x
Amblystoma, description of larval form............... x
Amendment to constitution, 20... 0.0... ccc cece cee eesees xi
Amphiuma, Vertebre@® Of, .........-scecssccccccssececsesce see ix
Ant-decapitating parasite. ................ccecsessse sess xviii
Ant nests and their inhabitants, .................08 000 ix
Anti-pyretics, remarks OD ................ccceeeeveeceeees viii
Aplodontia, a new species of, ........ ipcceeowh en sennese vii
PPRDOMB av ecsesctngnecstscte wovlonpicurn eadeocotadatoneratciiies xxi
Araujia albans as a butterfly catcher........... ..... xiv
Arvicola (Chilotus) pallidus. xxi
Autumnal hues of the Columbian flora............... xi
B.
Bacteria, parasitic, and their relation to Sapro-
jo RPE pet Eee pres seat AD Sa BUR xii
Bacteria, peptonizing ferments among............... x
Baird, announcement of death of.................. xviii
Baird memorial meeting. .............::00 cesses seeeeeees xxiii
Baker, Dr. Frank, the foramen of Magendie......xu
Some unusual muscular variations in
the Human ‘body: 5.06057 12h ei sse earetcaetends xv
Baker, Dr. Frank, and J. L. Wortman, recent
investigations into the mechanism of the
LE a gi 01: | ie pea erry ay pee 1 a aeeind Ht Unen Saie viii
Barnard, Dr. W. 8., effects of kerosene on ani-
mal and vegetable life..................0 Viii
Barrows, Walter B., does the flying fish fly ?...xviii
Freshet notes on the Rio Uruguay............xix
Shape of bill in snail-eating birds.............xxi
Bat, new species from western states. ......... xii, 1-4
Bean, Dr. Tarleton H., the trout of North
Bis a” i ey ay ie aan ix
American and ‘tacdiien work in deep-
sea ichthyology compared........... 0.2.2... xv
The young forms of some of our food
ODOM orc5 sac estecders xix
A new species of Thyrsitops from the
New England fishing banks.................. xix
Beginnings of American CEPR the third cen-
WOE a ceasstch i 5 Macy awkasde sm ee mc eb ahaa hedevkast ooksas 9-94
Beyer, Dr. H. G., remarks on atenics vets a viii
An atldged method of instructing the
tts Lit ak SHORE RE ey aiawine- cor BST Ap CGS ONS i eee xi
The preservation of bottled museum
BYOCHAGIR ic cs.. see Faverkhontand ses eueces xv
Action of caffeine upon the kidneys......... xvi
Page,
Bill, shape of, in snail-eating birds xxi
Biological notes on southern California,..........xvii
Bind, New to Tapes. v5 ici.cicwvicek ss coisstvavesocdne dwanec xvii
Birds, new species from Sandwich Islands........ xiv
Bird rocks of the gulf of St. Lawrence............ xviii —
Blackfish of our southern waters, ...........0s00s0000 xvi
Bobolink, ravages of, in rice fields ................. xvii
Botanical section, .........:ccsscese scccosccsssseccceeseve-eXXV
Botanical terms, SOMG......5.005 sce vecicesbecsecooccsucasce xix
PRUTIAIO, GHG Indl Of 555.5524) cocsctcscccocsgscuveghccachedee » xiii
Cc.
Caffeine, action of, on the kidneys xvi
Carrier Shell, protective devices in....... Sad pe tae xviii
Cervide, rapid disappearance of the shedan-
tlers of.. ke des suum \useeass san csseht teawepys Rk
Cetacea, the ‘aherhoaeias of Lei ddalvn eS asidlgcus deve PEE «
Cetaceans, works published on, since 1886.......... xx
Chickering, Prof. J. W., Jr., travels in Alaska.......xi
Civilization as an exterminator of savage races..xvii
Collins, Capt. J. W., novel facts in the nat-
ural history of the codfish................00: -sseseees XVI
Contagious Sea new method of producing
immunity from............ denecbidnescssad enseel@ tk
Cope, Prof. E. D., a new fi of iain
from the District of Columbia.............. xiv
Hyoid apparatus in urodele batrachians. ..xiv
Corea, the country and the people... .........-.....00 xv
Crozier, A. A., on some botanical terms............Xix
Crustacean tracks on strata of upper Cambrian
(Potsdam) age... dsivesdianesss swopec eee
Curtice, Dr. Cooper, # ‘ths timber: ne of Pike's
Peak...... SOOT ew ee SOOee wee eeeeee ose seccee Perry ® 4
D.
Dall, William H., exhibition of Lingula pyra-
PAO GH 255 cdo oj ain dadseoIocd twndbbde vaca tohes ER 2
Superficial anatomy of species of pecten.....ix
Amendment to constitution... ............. fe
Historical notes on the department of
molluscs of the National Museum......... xi
Recent-geological explorations in south-
western FIOriGa. a. 5.055552 ccdcss escecess'ns etessen xvi
A genus of bivalve molluscs (Cyrenella)
new to North America.............01ssesesess xvii
Deltoids, peculiar sexual characters viii
140
‘ Page.
Diospyros kaki, Japanese persimmon ...... xix
Does the flying fish Ty: 2 o.isecissssiviscet 5.03.5 cccees xviii
Dynastes tityus, abnormal abundance of... seer
E.
Eggleston, Dr. Edward, queries concerning
certain plants and animals known to the first
colonists of North America..................ceeeeeees xvi
Elbow joint, recent Cun mecha-~
nism of.. Hee Se ce éyasvou Wad
Endoceras, fossil over eight feet i in Sasa: cadiaiete xxi
Eskimo art, representations of animal life in.....xvi
EVOtOMYS Carolinensis........ secre scene sve ccvene escacepes XV
F.
Fasciation in Ranunculus and Rudbeckia............ “3
Fauna and flora of the Great Smoky Mountains..xix
Fenesica tarquineus ............ces.sceeccesees seoves soeeecses vii
Fish fauna of the south temperate or notalian
DOB ia. sass pessseee nosaeiccorsscee eve xix
Fish, explanation of past failures in the culture
of the Salmonide.. Bs PDS s&s
Fish, new species of Thyrsitops trond the ibe
England fishing banks, .,.............c00-scees seceerees xix
Fishes, Japanese chromolithographs of........... xviii
Fishes, young forms of some of our food......... xix
Flora columbiana, additions and changes for 1885
viii
Florida, recent geological explorations in......... xvi
Flying Fish, does it fly? .....00. .-csccseeseceeenesseees xviii
Foramen of Magendic.........cccecees nce cc cecees seoeeees xii
Fox, description of a new species from Califor-
BEB woh kiks hades sy ascbene 30h boauoeaswapes tphecbwoes 135-138
Freshet notes on the Uruguay ...... -...csceeeeeeenes xix
G.
Geological horizon of unplaced faunas........... xviii
Gill, Prof. Theodore, characteristics and fam-
ilies of Iniomous fishes...............0.e000 viii
TeeNiOSMOUS fiSNES,......cceeee.scceesercee ceececeeeres x
The fish fauna of the south temperate
or nobalian-TEAQUM, 665.5555 Osi Bea dive see sieves xix
The phylogeny of the Cetacea.................. xx
Goode, G. Brown, exhibition of Japanese
chromolithographs of fishes.............. Xviii
The beginnings of natural history in
America; the third century................. 9-94
Grasses, NEW SPeCICS Of. ......ceceeceeesercee soneeeer recess vii
Grasses, recent collection of Mexican......... .... xiv |
Grasses, notes On Western..........ceceersseeeeeeeeees XVili
Gray Squirrel, new subspecies from Minnesota, viii
Great Auk..
Great Smoky Mountains, PSA and flora of .....xix
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Page.
H.
Hallock, Charles, hyper-instinct in animals....... vii
The transcontinental range of the moose...xv
The great Roseau swamp in north-western
WEPNCBOUS 6555! Labs ces cuaess: sadansr shes sescr tee
Hesperomys anther (a new pices sieebae’ xvi, 5-8
Hill, R. T., the true geological horizon of
some hitherto unplaced faunas, with special
reference to the Cretaceous of Texas............ xviii
Hopkins, ©. L., notes relative to the sense of
smell in the turkey buzzard.. Wye > 4
+ ne weoees
Hornaday, William T., the last of the buffalo .. xiii
Civilization as an exterminator of savage
POOR Sic csicnavonensnaapesdsiagavaaisssuiicsbacssesaiyeh xvii
How the great northern sea cow (Rhytina) be-
came exterminated ............. bidasushteuds dul woods xxi
Howard, L. Q., a Rock Creek philanthropist......xv
An ant-decapitating parasite... xviii
PIV OL OPRY CRE, fais its sa cunsins pokecpapankeassasnkiohanis xv
Hyoid apparatus in Urodele Batrachians........... xiv
Hyper-instinct in animals................06 csses eoceenees vii
#
Ichthyology, American and European work in
GeGp SHA, COMPBLOES oo. os aoiscs 5s cerpencanpenssateuness xv
Iniomous fishes, characteristics and families of, viii
Insects, some geographical variations in.......... xix
JAPANESE PETSIMMON. .........cceverecces eae cased soeseeee: xix
dOtnt Comminsionin.. \.62.i6; Lon cokeeeteeses hore onadbaek vi
Jouy, P. L., Corea; the country and the peo-
WUD ici ven ranssus tabseoncaststue ‘ed Pasa Dee eeebabe xv
A bird new to Japan (Pitta oreas)........... xvii
K.
Kerosene, effects of on animal and vegetable
life.
Kidder, Dr. J. H., exhibition of concretions
and grass Dalls.......00...seesesseees
Knowlton, F. H., additions to, and changes in,
the flora columbiana for 1885................ viii
Fasciation in Ranunculus and Rud-
xvii
The recent shower of pollen in Washing-
ton, the so-called ‘* sulphur shower ”’....xvii
ty
L.
Lagenorhynchus, revision Of ZENUS.......0..+++++0+ ep
Lepidoptera, occurrence of nocturnal, at sea...... xv
Lingula, a fossil preserving the cast of the ped-
uncle
eeeeesee . secccccee me ‘
a Abt ne el oe
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
Page.
Lingula pyramidata, ...... 2.0... sccsesescceeceeeee tee ceeves ix
Lucas, Frederick A., notes on the vertebre of
Amphiuma, Siren, and Menopoma......... ix
Osteology of the spotted Tinamou, No-
CHUTE WAC ULOR, oie ioe oss ote asec ces ecvnies xii
Occurrence of nocturnal Lapdopters at
GOW. ccacadsts <ccies cavcscsavsus sayccvuaes er tareas aoe Seeib XV
The os-prominens in Dirds.........001 .seeees: xvii
The Bird Rocks of the gulf 4 St. Law-
POMC 1 UBST coos ses ccs Hi RaPivanas cccavere xviii
An alcine cemetery, the fenihie place of
the Great Auk on Funk Island.............. x
Lynx, some distinctive cranial characters........... ix
M.
Marsilia quadrifolia ........... Jdvokedonclnness senedaverebaeen xi
Mason, Prof. Otis T., representations of animal
life in Eskimo art.. re 4 2
McDonald, Col. Marshall, ‘Railnaiions of iad
failures in the culture of Salmonide............... xix
McGee, W. J., the overlapping habitats of
Sturnella magna and 8, neglecta in Iowa....... xxi
Menopoma, vertebree Of. 2.0... ...cceee. conscesseaes sescsenes ix
Merriam, Dr. C. Hart, a new bat (Vespertilio
ciliolabrum) from the West............ xii, 1-4
Description of anew: pocket gopher from
Californie sie Ra Geant a ed has otha xii
A new species of wood rat (Neotoma bry-
anti) from Cerros Island, Lower Cali-
A new species of wood mouse (Evoto-
mys carolinensis) from the mountains
Of Northi-Carotine sii nae aeindapeiines xv
A new species of mouse from New Mex-
ico (Hesperomys anthonyi)........... xvi, 5-8
Ravages of the bobolink in the rice fields
of the south........ isu Sips hedada tones ve oceac xvii
Fauna and flora of the Great Smoky
Mountains, in North Carolina and Ten-
NNCEBBOE, ... cveccdsevece xix
Description of a new field mouse (Arvicola
pallidus) from the Bad Lands of north-
western’ Dakota... ..6.... 0. .ccicece! seeces MD rces xxi
A new species of Aplodontia from Cali-
A new sub-species of gray squirrel from
central Minnesota
A new species of fox from California, 135-138
4 “Molluscs, historical notes on department of, in
National Museum.............., xi
Molluscs, a genus of bivalve new to North
; POG Kies kes battens cpp easeutavee hep Vekodbuas shia xvii
Moose, transcontinental range Of...........-..seeeeeees xv
xxi
dus), from Dakota.........
_ Mouse, new species from New Mexico (Hesper-
; omys anthony))........ + see XVi, 5-8
= description of a new sepia semen palli-
141
Page.
Mouse, new species from North Carolina (Evo-
tomys carolinensis) ........ Wanens Senin Seesee Beskatcchich xv
Mouse, period of gestation in caged white........ xix
Musical Sounds, effects on animals,................... ix
Muybridge, E., photographs of animals in
MEEBO viies rece scares tbtinesdenvees.xsigacesenene Mpateonn scott x1V
N.
Neotoma bryanti, a new wood rat.......... tas, xiv
Norris, Dr. Basil, U. S. A., description of
larval form of an Amblystoma, ...............ceceeeee x
Nothura maculosa, osteology Of...........csssseerseee- xii
O.
Occurrence of nocturnal lepidoptera at sea........ XV
CERORRS TOR BBB. ioc cak ven! ‘cacase’ tdcdiicccccuteiveusoccs iv, xii
OMicers for LE6B i tT ciswetks sav esecs sack yadaes V, xxi, xxii
Ceepromunors tt Was, i sles cebs oecduwatassearcosvss xvii
P.
Palo La Cruz (wood of the Cross)............sesceseesees x
Pecten, superficial anatomy of species of....... Pros b
Photographs of animals in motion. .................. xiv
Pitta oreas, a bird new to Japan ...........6......00. xvii
Placenta, evolution of, in mammalia................, xix
Plane tree and its ancestors, .........sscccscesseeves ceoee vii
Pollen, recent shower of, in Washington.......... xvii
Pocket gopher, new sub-species.............. piscduscuss xii
Potomac drinking water, biological analyses of. viii
Potomac water, quantitative variations in the
Pornd Wie Oi: i BEGG. sas, ecdsesepvencdcenneagvdc teeta xvi
Preservation of bottled museum specimens........ xii
Protective devices in carrier shell, .................. xviii
R,
Raptores, feeding habits of young.............0006 xxi
Rathbun, Richard, temperature charts of At-
lantic coast surface Water............scccsesseseservoes xiii
Rau, Dr, Charles, announcement of death of...xviii
Rhytina, how exterminated ..................0085 ev estan MAL
Riley, Prof. C. V., a carnivorous butterfly
larva, Fenesica tarquineus..........2... +0... vii
Biological notes from southern Califor-
Ps Scns’ eadvc G Yodvoasesineceppdreinntracaniuuebiags xvii
Rock Creek philanthropist............sccsecosccsssesceees XV
Roddy, H. Justin, feeding habits of some young
raptores v's xxi
Roseau Swamp, the great, ...............2.. cesses coesses Rs 3
Rostrhamus sociabilis, ..... 22... ...ceesese seeees peeraee xxi
Ryder, John A., the evolution of the mamma-
lian placenta............ atretese pedsvceess areiveete isd as aoe
142 BIOLOGICAL
Page.
S .
Salmon, Dr. D. E., and Dr. Theobald Smith.
A new method of producing immunity
from ContagiOUS CiSCASES.......-recesee veeees vii
Notes on some biological analyses of
Potomac drinking-water...........eecsereeees viii
Saturday lectures, 1886, ............cceseee ceeeeeeeneneres xxii
Saturday lectures, 1887...........eseceeeeceeeeeeeeeeenes xxiii
Scudder, N. P., the period of gestation in the
common caged White MOUSE...........eeceee sseereere xix
Seaman, Prof. W. H., notes on Marsilia quad-
TAL OU 5 soos snc: nn taped bp solec scnamocueg edn Renn encs snes sen:isebes xi
Sexual characters in the Deltoids............-.-.0+++ viii
Siren, vertebrae Of........:ccececeesseeeeecereee eee eeenee sarees ix
Shufeldt, Dr. R. W., some early, and as yet
unpublished, drawings of Audubon............-.. viii
Smith, John B., some peculiar secondary sex-
al characters in the Deltoids and
their supposed functions...........66..eeeeee viii
Ant’s nests and their inhabitants............... ix
Abnormal abundance of Dynastes tityus.....x
Some geographical variations of insects ....xix
Smith, Dr. Theobald, parasitic bacteria and
their relation to Saprophytes..............+- xii
Quantitive variations in the germ life of
Potomac water during 1886................44 xvi
Peptonizing ferments among bacteria....... Xx
Smith, Dr. Theobald, and Dr. D. E. Salmon,
a new method of producing immunity
from contagious Gisease............ cee. sees vii
Notes on some biological analyses of Po-
tomac drinking-water............... «Vili
Snake, new species from District of Coleieinies. xiv
Solenodon cubanus, exhibition of a living
BPCCIMEN Of ...... se0sssseceessssccensesenees snseseceseoens evnees :
Stearns, Prof. R. E. C., instances of the ef-
fects of musical sounds on animals.. ...... ix
The asclepiad plant (Araujia albans) as a
butterfly catcher .......5...-ccdcereccces veceessar xiv
The protective devices of the carrier shell,
Xenophora, ..........068 aiaked cabsoaubstecainauees xviii
Stejneger, Leonhard, new birds from the
Sandwich Talanday sf <)ssi oc iieceer liens aawece xiv
How the great northern sea cow (Rhytina)
became exterminated.........5 cece sone sedees xxi
Sturnella magna and §. neglecta, overlapping
habitats in Towaiis...o5 asiiinciceiecsGias: <feeb cooest xxi
Sul ph wy: BHO WEE? | s56 sas} ssic0 oc nckavesavedenaveressadss xvii
Sweden, recent progress of zodlogy im............+. xi
sift
WONIGKOMIOUS DSNGB.L, ice. ssevar nc suecswnpaesstasdoaninesess x
Temperature charts of Atlantic coast puttecd
PRON cashes coach spe etesewnsies: cha caansia ne asta aecekeniss. xiii
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Page.
Thyrsitops, new species from the New England
DROID MBI KS ibs ceouviipciiesdtne sek keguacess deans tukensets xix
Timber line of: Pike's Peak... ccsssicsespooencesnve spcs'es xx
Tropidonotus bisectus...,....... ...00 Beg hana one kl
TTOUt Of -NOrth \AMAGIIGE vos isssascsspssadsux sespecsioerionss ix
True, F. W., some distinctive cranial char-
acters of the Canadian lynx .............c000 ix
A revision of the genus Lagenorhynchus...,..x
Exhibition of a dies Solenodon cu-
banus.. eaaas piekecuaaae
The blackfish ore our pees payee Saas xvi
Review of some of the more important
works on cetaceans published since 1886. xx
Trybom, Dr. Filip, on recent progress of zoOl-
ORS IB WOOT sai csscctsnnia sadeascas ahuswaees sacaberecsausel xi
Turkey buzzard, sense of smell in..,...............04. xx
V.
Van Diemen, H. E., the Japanese persimmon
(Diospyros Kak) «ics cstecccsieessssessve crassa xix
Exhibition of cluster of fruit of the date
palm (Phoenix dactylifera) ............0...00005 xx
Vasey, Dr. George, new and recent species of
North American grasses. . ....ccsseccseeeseeses vii
A recent. collection of Mexican grasses
made by Dr. EB. Palmer .o.isci is csies ss. xiv
Notes on western QTasses.......seseecess eevee ‘xviii
Vespertilio Ciliolabrum..........ccseesesseseseeeeees xii, 1-4
Ww.
Walcott, C. D., crustacean tracks found on
strata of upper Cambrian (Potsdam) age. xii
A fossil lingula preserving the cast of
the peduncle, from the Hudson Ter-
rane, near Rome, N. Y........ sesseseeeeeeeees xx
Exhibition of section of fossil endoceros
over eight feet in length.......... vide conmetets xxi
Ward, Prof. Lester F., the plane tree and its
BUICEBLOLB. viises ovia'sa sess sad seas inwsdonnasepuns cases vii
Exhibition of specimen of the Palo la
Cruz, or Wood Of the CrOSS. .........00+seeeeeee: x
Autumnal hues of the Columbian flora.......xi
White, Dr. C. A., the rapid disappearance of
the shed antlers of the Cervide xx
Wortman, J. L., and Dr. Frank Baker on recent
investigations into the mechanism of the el-
bow joint........
xX.
Xenophora, protective devices in
bi a.
PROCEEDINGS
OF . THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
VOLUME. V.
FEBRUARY II, 1888, TO JANUARY I0, 18go0.
wt
WASHINGTON:
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
_ 1890
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE.
R. E. C. STEARNS, Chairman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, L. O..HOWARD,
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON
Il
CONEERN ES
PAGE
Officers and Committees for 1389 2° 0 oo cae a as iv
Officers: and ‘Cominittees: for: 1S9e 50 ee ae ee eee
Joint @Garmitaion: for 2890 3 eo ee eR eae vi
’ Proceedings, February 11, 1888, to January 24,1890 . . . ~ vii-xxiv
Addresses and Communications :
Deep Sea Mollusks and the Conditions under which they
Lave; by Wi i. Dall (May 2, 1800") 5 i So ae ee
The Course of Biologic Evolution, by Lester F. Ward (May
Ry LOMO 8G Po ae Se Ee Pe Sache NA Se
*Author’s separates of the papers especially enumerated were published on the dates
given in the parentheses following the author’s name.
III
LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF .WASHINGTON.
ELECTED JANUARY 12, 1889.
OFFICERS.
PRESIDENT.
LESTER F. WARD.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
CHARLES V. RILEY, RICHARD RATHBUN,
FRANK BAKER, C. HART MERRIAM.
SECRETARIES.
JOHN B. SMITH,* FREDERIC A. LUCAS.
x TREASURER.
FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
COUN CHIL:
LESTER F. WARD, President.
FRANK BAKER, RICHARD RATHBUN,
TARLETON H. BEAN, CHARLES V. RILEY,
WILLIAM H. DAULL,T JOHN B. SMITH,
THEODORE GILL,t R. E. -C. STEARNS,
G. BROWN GOODE,t FREDERICK W. TRUE,
- F. H. KNOWLTON, CHAS. D.. WALCOTT,
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, ‘CHARLES A. WHITE,t
C. HART MERRIAM, GEORGE VASEY.
STANDING COMMITTEES—1889.
Commuttee on Communications.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, Chazrman.
L. O. HOWARD, : CHAS. D. WALCOTT.
Committee on Publications.
. C. HART MERRIAM, Chairman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, R. BK. C. STEARNS.
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
Committee on Trees and Shrubs of Washington.
LESTER F. WARD, Chairman.
WILLIAM MITH, FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
GEORGE VASEY, F. LAMSON SCRIBNER.
Members of Joint Commission.
LESTER F. WARD,
C. HART MERRIAM, RICHARD RATHBUN,
* Mr. Smith resigned his office in February and Mr. L,. O. Howard was elected by the
Council to fill the vacancy.
+ Ex-Presidents of the Society.
IV
LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ELECTED JANUARY 10, 1890.
OFFICERS.
PRESIDENT.
LESTER F. WARD.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
CHARLES V. RILEY, FRANK BAKER,
C. HART MERRIAM, RICHARD RATHBUN.
SECRETARIES. . ;
L. O. HOWARD, FREDERIC A. LUCAS.
TREASURER.
FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
COUNCIL. 5
LESTER F. WARD, President. :
TARLETON H. BEAN, C. HART MERRIAM,
FRANK BAKER, RICHARD RATHBUN,
WILLIAM H. DALL,* CHARLES V. RILEY,
THEODORE GILL, ; R. E. C. STEARNS,
G. BROWN GOODE,* FREDERICK W. TRUE,
L. O. HOWARD, CHAS. D WALCOTT,
FRANK H. KNOWLTON, < - CHARLES. A. WHITE,*
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, GEORGE VASEY.
STANDING COMMITTEES—r18g0.
Committee on Communications.
. FREDERIC A. LUCAS, Chairman.
L. O. HOWARD, CHAS. D. WALCOTT.
Commuttee on Publications.
R. EB. C. STEARNS, Chatrman.
FREDERIC A. LUCAS, L. O. HOWARD,
RICHARD RATHBUN, FRANK H. KNOWLTON.
Committee on Trees and Shrubs of Washington.
LESTER F. WARD, Chatrman.
WILLIAM SMITH, FRANK H. KNOWLTON,
GEORGE VASEY, THEODORE HOLM.
* Ex-Presidents of the Society.
Vv
JOINT COMMISSION OF THE SCIENTIFIC
SOCIETIES OF WASHINGTON.
The following gentlemen represent for the year, 1890, their
respective Societies upon the Joint Commission formed in:
February, 1888.
Anthropological Society...DR. ROBERT FLETCHER,
WASHINGTON MATHEWS,
Cor. GARRICK MALLERY.
Biological Society... LESTER F. WARD,
, C. Hart MERRIAM,
R. RATHBUN,
Chemical Soctety..........-.... Dr. C. A. CRAMPTON.
F. W. CLARKE,
H. W. WILEY.
Geographic Soctety............... G. G. HUBBARD,
HENRY GANNETT, |
: - EvERETY HAYDEN.
Philosophical Society............ Capr. C. EF. Dutron,
; W. C. WINLtOcK,
Marcus BAKER.
VI
=e
Ser ay ee ER ee ee
PROCEEDINGS.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST MEETING,
February 11, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two members present.
The President announced the death of Dr. ‘Asa Gray, of
Cambridge, and of Mr. G. W. Tryon, of Philadelphia.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam presented a communication entitled A /
NEw Fox FROM CALIFORNIA.* Discussed by Mr. Ward and
Mr. Fernow. : |
Mr. Robert T. Hill read a paper on THE VARIATIONS OF
EXOGYRA COSTATA, and a second paper entitled GRYPHEA
' PITCHERI. Discussed by Dr. Dall.
Prof. C. V. Riley read a communication on THE INSECTI-
VOROUS HABITS OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW.T Discussed by
Mr. Fernow and Mr. Hallock.
A paper by Dr. Theodore Gill—THE CHARACTERS OF THE
FAMILY ELACATIDA {—was read by Dr. T. H. Bean.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND MEETING,
February 25, 1888.
Vice-President Ward in the chair, and thirty-four members
present. :
* 1888. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a new Fox from Southern
California [ Vulpes macrotis] <Proc.. Biol. Soc. Washn., Vol. iv, pp.
135-138.
t 1889. Riley, C. V. The Insectivorous Habits of the English Spar-
row <Bulletin No. 1. Division of Ornithology, U.S. Dept. Agric., pp.
-T11-133. Issued June 24, 1889.
¢ 1888. Gill, Theodore. The Characteristics of the Elacatids <Proc.
U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. x, 612-614, 1887, pl. xxxix. Issued Sept. Ig. 1888.
VIil BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. F. W. True read a paper on the CHANGES IN THE CAT-
ALOGUES OF AMERICAN MAMMALS SINCE 1877.
On motion of Mr. Goode, Mr. True was requested to com-
plete the review for presentation at a future meeting,
Dr. TI. H. Bean presented a paper entitled DistrrBuTIon
AND SOME CHARACTERS OF OUR SALMONIDAH.* Discussed by
Dr. Vasey, Dr. Merriam, and Messrs. Goode, Cope, and. True.
Dr. Cooper Curtice read a paper on SOME EARLY STAGES IN
THE LIFE HISTORY OF TANIA PECTINATA.t Discussed by a
number of members, among them Messrs. True, Cope, Riley,
Mason, Goode, Howard, Merriam, and VanDeman.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD MEETING,
March 10, 1888.
The President in the chair, and thirty-five members present.
‘Mr. F. W. True completed his review of the CHANGES IN
THE CATALOGUES OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS SINCE
1877. Discussed by Messrs. Goode, Dall, and Merriam.
Dr. Theodore Gill presented a review of THE CLASSIFICA-
TION OF THE COTTOIDEOUS FISHES.f{
Dr. George Vasey read a paper on the FOREIGN TREES AND
SHRUBS CULTIVATED IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Dis-
cussed by Messrs. True, Vasey, Riley, Stejneger, and VanDe-
man.
Dr. C. H. Merriam read a DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES
OF AMERICAN SKUNK.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOURTH MEETING
March 24, 1888.
Vice-President Riley in the chair, and thirty ss ae members
present.
* 7888. American Naturalist, April.
+ 1888. The Life History of 7znia pectinata < <Science, Vol. xi, p. 1 137,
March 23, 1888.
t+ 1889. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.
MR ano ee ee en
PROCEEDINGS. IX
Dr. Cooper Curtice read a paper on TAa‘NIA FIMBRIATA, A
NEW PARASITE OF SHEEP.*
Mr. Charles Hallock presented a paper entitled THE REVER-
SION OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS TO A WILD STATE. Dis-
cussed by Dr. Merriam, Prof. Cope, Dr. Curtice, and Mr.
VanDeman.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH MEETING.
April 7, 1888.
The President in the chair, and thirty-nine members present.
The President announced that the Council recommend that.
the Society participate in the joint commission of the scientific
societies of Washington, and, upon motion, it was resolved
that the Society adopt the recommendation of the Council.
The President appointed Messrs. Richard Rathbun and C.
Hart Merriam to act with himself as commissioners from the
Biological Society.
Captain J. W. Collins read a paper entitled THE Work OF
THE SCHOONER GRAMPUS IN FisH CULTURE.+ 3
Mr. Chas. D. Walcott presented a communication on CAm-
BRIAN FOSSILS FROM MOUNT STEPHENS, N. W. TERRITORY
_ OF CANADA. 4
Prot C. V. Riley gave SOME NOTES FROM EMIN PASHA’S
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
Dr. Theobald Smith presented a paper on THE DESTRUC-
TION OF PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN THE ANIMAL ORGANISM.
Discussed by Dr. Salmon.
* 1888. Tenia fimbriata; The Tape-worm in Sheep. < Science,
Vol. xi, p. 261, June 1, 1888.
Also, Rept. Bureau Animal Industry, Dept. Agric., 1887-1888, pp. 167—
187, plate. . :
t 1888. Forest and Stream, May Io.
¢ 1888. Am. Journ. Sci., Vol. 36, pp. 161-166.
x : BIOLOGICAL. SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH MEETING.
April 21, 1888.
The President in the chair, and thirty-five members present.
Mr. F. W. True read a communication on THE AFFINITIES
OF THE WHITE WHALE. Discussed by Dr. Merriam and Dr.
Dall.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam presented notes on A BAT NEw TO
THE UNITED STATES, AND NEW LOCALITIES FOR OTHER
NortuH AMERICAN MAMMALS. Discussed by Mr.’ True.
Prof. C. V. Riley read a paper entitled NorEs on PLATY-
PSYLLUS.* Discussed by Mr. Dall.
Dr. Geo. Vasey read Part II of his paper on FoREIGN TREES
AND SHRUBS CULTIVATED IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Discussed by Messrs. VanDeman, Ward, and Riley.
ONE HUNDRED AND: [TWENTY-SEVENTH MEETING,
May 5, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two members present.
Dr. R. E. C. Stearns read a paper on INSTANCES OF MuTa-
TION IN SPECIFIC DISTRIBUTION AMONG SHELLS. Discussed
by Mr. Lucas.
Mr. C. L. Hopkins preacsited NOTES UPON POLLENATION OF
THE NAVEL ORANGES. Discussed by Messrs. Ward, VanDe-
man, Alwood and Dall. ,
Dr. C. Hart Merriam read A DESCRIPTION OF A NEW
MEADOW Mouse WITH REMARKS ON THE SUB-GENUS
Prpomys.t Discussed by Mr. True.
Prof. L. F. Ward presented a communication entitled ON
SOME ae ee OF THE FLORA OF THE POTOMAC
FORMATION.
‘
* 1889. ‘Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 300.
+ 1888. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a new Prairie Meadow
Mouse (Arvicola austerus minor) from Dakota and Minnesota < Am.
Nat., July, 1888, 598-601, figs. of skull and teeth.
PROCEEDINGS. : x
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH MEETING,
May I9, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-two members present.
Mr. F. W. True read some NOTES ON THE HAWAIIAN BAT.
Discussed by Mr. Stejneger.
Mr. W. TT. Hornaday read a paper on MAN-EATING CROCO-
DILES.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam presented notes on THE NoRTH AMER-
ICAN KANGAROO-RATS BELONGING TO THE GENUS DIPODOMYS.
Discussed by Mr. True, Prof. Cope, and Prof. Riley.
Mr. F. A. Lucas read a paper on THE AFFINITIES OF
CHAMaAiA. Discussed by Mr. Stejneger:
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH MEETING,
June 2, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-four members present.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton read a paper on THE FossiL Woop OF
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. Discussed by Messrs.
Ward, Gill, Merriam, and Rathbun.
Mr. W. B. Alwood presented a paper on THE ARTIFICIAL
POLLENATION OF WHEAT.
Mr. F. A. Lucas noted SomME Aukouceures IN THE RIBS
oF Brirps.* Discussed by Dr. Gill.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH MEETING,
October 20, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-nine members present.
Mr. L. O. Howard exhibited. and explained AN APPARATUS
FOR THE STUDY OF UNDERGROUND INSECTS AND PLANT
Roots. Discussed by Dr. Merriam and Mr. Ward.
* 1888. The Auk, July.
XII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. Lester F. Ward read a paper on THE KiNG DEvIL.*
Discussed by Dr. Merriam and Messrs, Seaman and Ulke.
Mr. Jno. B. Smith read a paper entitled SOME REMARKS ON
SEXUAL CHARACTERS IN LACHNOSTERNA.t Discussed by
Messrs. Ward, Ulke, and Mann.
Dr. Theodore Gill gave a review of THE FAMILIES OF
FisHEs. Discussed by Messrs. Ward, Mann, Stejneger, Dall,
and Fernow.
ONE HUNDRED AND ‘THIRTY-FIRST MEETING,
November 3, 1888.
The President in the chair, and twenty-one members present.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton presented a paper on Fossi1, Woop
AND LIGNITES OF THE POTOMAC FORMATION.{ _
\ Mr. W. H. Dall read a paper entitled T= MODIFICATIONS
OF THE GILL IN UNIVALVE MOLLUSKS.§
Dr. Theodore Gill described THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
FAMILY SCATOPHAGIDS. .
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEw SprEcres oF ARVI-
COLA FROM THE BLACK HILLs oF DAKOTA.||
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND MEETING.
November 17, 1888.
The President in the chair, and forty persons present.
Mr. Lester F. Ward read a paper on A COMPREHENSIVE
* 1889. Botanical Gazette, Vol. XIV, pp. 10-17, January,
7 1888. Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 180, December.
{ 1888. The American Geologist, Vol. III, No. 2. pp. 99-106.
21889. Results incorporated in Report on Blake Gasteropods, Bull.
Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. XVIII.
|| 1888. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a New Species of Meadow
Mouse [Arvicola longicauda] from the Black Hills of Dakota <Am.
Nat., Oct. 1888, 934-935, figs. of teeth.
PROCEEDINGS. XIII
TYPE OF Fossil CRYPTOGAMIC LIFE FROM THE ForT UNION
GRovups.*
Dr. Cooper Curtice described the SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN
TRICOCEPHALI.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD MEETING,
December 1, 1888.
Vice-President Ward in the Chair, and twenty-eight persons
present.
Dr. Gill read a paper ON THE RELATIONS OF THE PSYCHRO-
LUTIDA.+
Dr. C. Hart Merriam gave a description of A NEw GRoUND
SQUIRREL FROM CALIFORNIA.{ Discussed by Prof. Riley and
Mr. True. .
Mr. F. W. True made some REMARKS ON THE DEER OF
CENTRAL AMERICA.§ Discussed by Dr. Merriam.
Prof. C. V.. Riley read a paper entitled NOTES ON THE
ECONOMY OF THALESSA AND TREMEX.||
Mr. B. E. Fernow discussed THE CAUSES OF CONFIGURA-
TION OF TREES. Discussed by Prof. Riley and Mr. Ward.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH MEETING.
December 15, 1888.
Vice-President Ward in the chair, and twenty-nine persons
present.
* 7888. Abstract in Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Sci. Vol. XX XVII, pp. 199-201.
7 1888. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.
'{ 1888. Merriam C. Hart. Description of a new Spermophile ve
California. (Spermophilus beldingi). <Amnnals N. Y. Acad. Sci.
317-321, fig. skull. Separates issued December.
2 1888. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., pp.. 417-424.
'1888. Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 168.
*@
XIV BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. L. F. Ward read a paper on FortTUuITOUS VARIATION
AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE GENUS EUPATORIUM, WITH EXHIBI-
TION OF SPECIMENS.* Discussed by Dr. Merriam, Mr. Goode,
Prof. Riley; and by Messrs. Stejneger, Vasey, Mann, and
Seaman. : : :
Prof. Riley read a NOTE ON A HUMAN PARASITE.
‘Mr. E. S. Burgess presented a paper on the discovery of
ASTER SHORTII NEAR WASHINGTON. Discussed by Dr.
Vasey.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH MEETING,
December 29, 1888.
Vice-President Merriam in the chair, and forty-nine members
present.
Dr. Theobald Smith read a paper on CONTAGION AND IN-
FECTION FROM A BIOLOGICAL STANDPOINT. Discussed by Dr.
Prentiss and Dr. Schaeffer.
Mr. F. A. Lucas presented some NOTES ON THE DISEASES
OF MENAGERIE ANIMALS. Discussed by Dr. Merriam, Dr.
Salmon, Prof. Atwater, and Messrs. Goode, Hornaday, and
True. :
‘Mr. Th. Holm read NoTes ON HYDROCOTYLE AMERI-
CANA.T . | ;
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH MEETING,
January 12, 1889.
(Ninth Annual Meeting.)
The President in the chair, and forty members present.
The following amendment to the Constitution was proposed
by the President : ;
* 1889. Abstract in Nature (London), July 25, p. 310.
ft 1889. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xi, pp. 455-462, Plates xlvi, xlvii.
ws.
PROCEEDINGS. : XV
In Article X, first line, substitute for ‘‘two,’’ the word
‘‘three,’’ so that the phrase shall read ‘‘ the annual fee [shall
be] three dollars.”’
The annual reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were read
and accepted.
The following beard of cfficers was elected for the ensuing
year :
President—Lester F. Ward.
Vice-Presidents—Prof. C. V. Riley, Richard Rathbun, Dr. C.
Hart Merriam, and Dr. Frank Baker.
Secretaries—F. A. Lucas, Jno. B. Smith.
Treasurer—F. H. Knowlton.
Additional Members of the Council—Dr. 'T. H. Bean, Dr. R.
E. C. Stearns, F. W. True, Dr. Geo. Vasey, C. D. Walcott.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH MEETING,
Jantiary 26, 1880.
The President in the chair, and twenty-seven persons
present. |
Dr. Cooper Curtice read a paper ON THE SHEEP TICK—
MELOPHAGUS OVINUS LINN.* Discussed by Prof. Riley, Mr.
Howard, and Dr. Merriam.
Dr. George Vasey gave some notes on NEW SPECIES OF
NorTH AMERICAN GRAMINE: OF THE LAST TWELVE YEARS.
Discussed by Mr. Ward.
Mr. Th. Holm presented a communication ‘entitled Con’TrI-
BUTIONS TO THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE GENUS CAREX. Dis-
cussed by Dr. Vasey, and Messrs. Ward, Coville, and Mann.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam called attention to A NEw SPECIES oF
Pika (LAGomys).+ Discussed by Mr. Knowlton.
* 1890 (?). In process of publication in Bull.—, Bureau Animal In-
dustry, U. S. Dept. Agric.
+ 1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a New Species of Pika
(Lagomys schisticeps) from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
<North American Fauna, No. 2, Oct. 1889, 11-13, pl. viii, figs. 1-6
(skull).
XVI BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH MEETING,
- February 9, 1889. 3
The President in the chair, and thirty-seven persons
present.
The amendment to the constitution proposed at the canes
meeting was brought up for discussion and adopted.
Mr. B. T. Galloway described A DISEASE OF THE SyCa-
MORE.* Discussed by Mr. Crozier and Dr. Vasey.
Dr. Thomas Taylor exhibited and Described A NEw FREEz-
ING MICROTOME.t Discussed by Dr. Th. Smith.
Mr. A. A. Crozier discussed THE INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN
POLLEN ON FRuItT. Discussed by Prof. Riley, and Messrs.
Seaman and Hopkins.
Mr. J. N. Rose read a paper on THE GEOGRAPHICAL Dis-
TRIBUTICN OF THE 5 UMEETEE ERAS S .[ Discussed by Dr. Mer-
-riam.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam gave a description of A NEw AND RE-
MARKABLE VOLE FROM BRITISH CoLUMBIA.§ Discussed by
Mr. True.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH MEETING,
| February 23, 1889.
The President in the chair, and twenty-six persons present.
The President announced that the council had elected Mr.
L. O. Howard recording ahaa in place of Jno. B. Smith
resigned.
~
* 1888. Repreduced in a paper by Miss E. A. Southworth in Ann.
Rept. Dept. Agr. — |
tT 1888. Science, Dec. 21.
$1888. Coulter and Rose. Revision of the N. A. Umbelliferzee. <Her-
barium of Wabash College, December.
% 1889. Merriam, C. Hart. [Included in] Description of a new Genus
(Phenacomys), and four new Species of Arvicoline. <N. Am. Fauna,
No. 2, Oct., 18809, 27-35 pls. ii, iii, iv, vi, and vii.
CP ARRON ty PO ME Re eh, SO A ee
PROCEEDINGS. | XVII
Mr. EK. M. Hasbrouck gave a communication entitled A
NEw SPECIES OF MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. Discussed
by Dr. Merriam. :
Mr. M. B. Waite read two short fapers under the titles —
NOTES ON MELAMPSORA HYDRANGEA! AND NOTES ON THE
SEED-VESSELS OF THE Lop-REED, PHRYNE LEPTOSTACHYA.
Discussed by Mr. Ward.
Mr. C. D. Walcott gave a note ON THE GENUS OLENOIDES
oF MEEK.* Discussed by Mr. Ward.
Mr. LL. Stejneger presented some NOTES ON PaLLAs’ Cor-
MORANT.+ Discussed by Mr. Lucas.
Mr. F. V. Coville read a paper entitled THE Fruit oF
STIPA SPARTEA. Discussed by Dr. Curtice and Mr. Waite. _
Dr. Merriam exhibited specimens of a new species of Ground
Hog or Marmot of the genus Arctomys.}t |
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH MEETING,
March g, 1889.
The President in the chair, and thirty-four persons present.
Prof. W. B. Barrows read a paper on DANGEROUS SEED-
PLANTING BY THE CROW. Discussed by Drs. Merriam
and Vasey, and Messrs. Seaman, True, Ward, and Howard.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEw SPECIES OF GROUND
SQUIRREL FROM WESTERN ARIZONA.§
Mr. C. D. Walcott presented a communication entitled THE
GENUS OLENELLUS OF HALL.||
* 1888. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 442.
fT 1889. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.
$1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a New Marmot [Arctomys
dacota] from the Black Hills of Dakota. SN. Am. Fauna, No. 2, Oct.
1889, 7-9, pl. viii, figs 7 and 8.
% 1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Description , a new Species of Ground
Squirrel [Zamias leucurus| from the arid lands of the Southwest.
<N. Am. Fauna, No. 2, Oct., 1889, 19-21.
|| To be published in roth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv.
XVIII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTyY-FIRST MEETING,
March 23, 1889.
The President in the chair, and thirty-four persons present.
Mr. W. H. Seaman read a paperon OUR PRESENT KNOWL-
EDGE OF THE ROTIFERA. Discussed by Mr. Knowlton.
Mr. C. L. Hopkins presented A Pornt oF DEFINITION rela-
tive to the use of the terms hybrid and cross.
Mr. W. H. Dall described THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS IN
CERTAIN FORMS OF GASTEROPODA.* .
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND MEETING ,
April 6, 1889.
The President in the chair, and fifteen members present.
On account of the small attendance and the absence of paper-
readers (due to very inclement weather), the program was
rostponed until the following meeting.
Onr HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD MEETING,
: Set 20, 1889. |
The President in the chair, and twenty-one members present.
The death of Dr. J. H. Kidder, an active member of: the .
Society was announced by the President.
Mr. J. F. James presented a paper entitled THe Erfrecr oF
-RAIN UPON EARTH-WORMS.} Discussed by Drs. Merriam and
W. H. Fox, and Messrs. True and Ward.
Mr. F. W. True read a paper on the OccURRENCE OF
SOWERBY’S WHALE ON THE COAST OF NEw JERSEY. Dis-
cussed by Drs. Merriam and Curtice.
*1889. Incorporated in Report on Blake seman tees Bull. Mus.
Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Mass., Vol. XVIII.
T 1889. en: Nat. , August. Baca Dec. 15, 1889.
TES ee TMC Ore, ae ee
PROCEEDINGS. XIX
_ Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A Nkrw GENUS AND TWO
NEW SPECIES OF LEMNING MOUSE OR VOLE FROM BRITISH
AMERICA.* (Phenacomys celatus and P. latimanus). Dis-
cussed by Mr. True.
Mr. Th. Holm spoke on THE GERMINATION OF SARRACENIA,
RHEUM, PELTANDRA, HEMEROCALLIS, AND CYPERUS. Dis-
cussed by Mr. Ward.
ONE HUNDRED AND FOoRTY-FOURTH MEETING,
May 4, 1889.
The President in the chair, and twenty-eight members
present. é
Mr. W. T. Hornaday exhibited and discussed a living speci- |
men of THE BLACK-FOOTED FERRET (Puforius nigripes.
Discussed by Dr. Merriam.
Mr. B. E. Fernow read a paper on ANNUAL RING-
GROWTH IN TREES. Discussed by Dr. Vasey, and Messrs.
Vandeman, Ward, and True.
Dr. Theobald Smith presented a communication on PARA-
sITIC Prorozoa (Coccidia) IN THE RENAL EPITHELIUM OF
THE Mousk.t Discussed by Drs. Baker and Curtice.
Mr. H. E. VanDeman described THE Tropica, FRuits
OF THE LAKE WoRTH REGION.
=
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH MEETING,
May 18, 1889.
The President in the chair, and thirty-one members present.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described Two NEw SPECIES OF
SPERMOPHILE FROM THE DESERTS BORDERING THE LOWER
* 1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of /henacomys celatus. <N.
Am. Fauna, No. 2, Oct. 1889, 33-34.
7 1889. Journal. Comp. Med. and Surg. July.
a. BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
COLORADO RIVER IN CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA. (.Spermo-
philus mohavensis and S. neglectus).* Discussed by Mr. True.
Dr. Cooper Curtice presented a paper entitled How EnTozoA
CAUSE DISEASE. Discussed by Mr. Seaman, and Dr.. ‘Th.
Smith.
Mr. F. W. True exhibited and discussed A SKULL OF A
FEMALE NARWHAL WITH TWO WELL-DEVELOPED ‘TUSKS.
Discussed by Drs. Curtice> Merriam, Gill, and Messrs. Ward,
True, and Murdoch.
Mr. I,.. O. Howard presented NOTES ON SPIDER BITEs.t
Discussed by Drs. Merriam, Fletcher, Smith, Marx, and Fox.
_ ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH MEETING,
June 1, 1889.
The President in the chair, and thirty members present.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam presented A REVISION OF THE
GRASSHOPPER MICE AND PocKET MICE wiTH DESCRIP-
TIONS OF NEW SPECIES.{ Discussed by Mr. True.
Mr. C. D. Walcott read a paper entitled DESCRIPTIONS OF
NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF LOWER CAMBRIAN FOs-
SILS.$
* 1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a new Spermophile from
Southern California [Sper mophilus mohavensis|. <N. Am. Fauna, No.
2, Oct. 1889, 15-16. ¢
1889. Merriam, C. Hart. Desceipeiot of a new Spermophile from
Northwestern Arizona [,Spermophilus Res J, <N, Am. Fauna, No.
2, Oct. 1889, 17.
+ 1888. Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 347.
t 1889. Merriam C. Hart. Descriptions of two new species and one
new subspecies of Grasshopper Mouse, with a diagnosis of the genus
Onychomys, and a synopsis of the species and subspecies. <N. Am.
Fauna, No. 2, Oct. 1889, 1-5, pl. I and figs. in text.
1889. Merriam C. Hart. Preliminary Revision of the N. A. Pocket
Mice (Genera FPerognathus et Cricetodipus Auct.) with descriptions of
new species and subspecies aud a key to the known forms. <N. Am.
Fauna, No. 1, Oct. 1889, 1-29, pl. I-Iv. |
Z 1889. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 12, pp. 34-46.
i
PROCEEDINGS. ’ be |
Mr. J. F. James read a paper on THE FLORAS OF SOUTH-
ERN OHIO AND EASTERN MARYLAND. Discussed by Messrs.
Dall, Gill, Fernow, Merriam, and Ward,
Mr. V. A. Moore presented some NOTES ON THE Mor-
PHOLOGY OF PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM.
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH MEETING,
“October 19, 18809.
The President in the chair, and twenty-four members present.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEW SPERMOPHILE FROM
THE PAINTED DESERT, ARIZONA.
Mr. Th. Holm presented a paper on the ANCESTORS | OF
LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFER4. Discussed by Dr. Vasey, and —
Messrs. C. D. White, and Ward.
Dr. Theodore Gill spoke ON THE DACTYLOPTEROIDEA.
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH MEETING,
November 2, 188g.
The President in the chair, and twenty-seven members
present.
Prof. C. V. Riley read a paper on THE REMARKABLE IN-
CREASE OF VEDALIA CARDINALIS IN CALIFORNIA.
Dr. W. H. Dall read NOTES ON THE GENUS GEMMA,
DESHAYES.
Dr. George Marx read a paper entitled A NEw SPIDER AND
ITs INFLUENCE ON CLASSIFICATION.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam presented a communication entitled
REMARKS ON THE SPOTTED SKUNKS (GENUS SPILOGALE)
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. Discussed by Mr.
True and Dr. Gill.
eD.G 2 | BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH MEETING,
November 16, 1889.
(Postponed Ninth Anniversary Meeting.)
The ninth anniversary meeting (postponed from its regular
date on account of Mr. Dall’s illness) was held in the law
lecture hall of Columbian University, Nov. 16, 1889. A large
audience of members and guests was present.
The former President, Mr. W. H. Dall, delivered an address
entitled DEEP SEA MOLLUSKS AND THE» CONDITIONS UNDER
WHICH THEY LIVE.*
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH MEETING
November 30, 18809.
The President in the chair, and thirty-eight members
present.
Dr. D. E. Salmon read a paper entitled GENERAL REMARKS
ON TEXAS FEVER.T
Dr. Theobald Smith followed with a paper on THE MIcRo-
ORGANISMS OF TEXAS FEVER.{ The discussion upon both
papers was participated in “s Prof. Riley, and Drs. Curtice,
Salmon, and Smith.
Mr. C. D. Walcott described A NEw GENUS AND SPECIES .
OF BRACHIOPOD FROM THE TRENTON LIMESTONE.S
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIRST MEETING,
December 14, 1889.
The President in the chair, and one hundred and four per-
sons present.
' * Published in this volume. See pp. I-22.
+ 1890. Report Proceedings Public Health Assoc. for 1889 (In press).
¢ 1889.. Medical News, Nov. 4.
% 1889. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 12.
PROCEEDINGS. XXITIL
Dr. C. Hart Merriam delivered an address on the GENERAL
RESULTS OF A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE SAN FRAN-
ciscO MOUNTAIN REGIONS. Discussed by Messrs. Walcott,
Diller, VanDeman, and Ward.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SECOND MEETING.
: December 28, 1889.
Vice-President Merriam in the chair, and nineteen members
present.
Dr. A. F. A. King read a paper on THE FLIGHT OF YOUNG
Birps. Discussed by Messrs. VanDeman, Merriam, Simpson,
and Wood. |
Mr. M. B. Waite spoke ON A METHOD BY WHICH THE.
SEEDS OF PILEA PUMILA ARE EJECTED.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam described A NEW REpD-BACKED
MOUSE FROM COLORADO.
Mr. Th. Holm presented a paper on the GENERIC CHARAC-
TERS OF THE GRAMMINEA AND CYPERACEA. Discussed by
Messrs. Waite, Merriam, Howard, and Seaman.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD MEETING,
January 10, 18go0.
(Tenth Annual Meeting).
The President occupied the chair, and nineteen members
were present. :
The annual reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were
read and accepted. :
The following board of officers was elected for the ensuing
year :
President.—Lester F. Ward.
Vice-Presidents.—Prof. C. V. Riley, Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
Richard Rathbun, and Dr. Frank Baker.
XXIV BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Secretaries.—F. A. Ijicas, and L. O. Howard.
Treasurer.—F. H. Knowlton.
Additional Members of the Council_—C. D. Walcott, F. W.
True, Dr. T. H. Bean, Dr. Geo. Vasey, and Dr. R. E: C.
Stearns.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOURTH MEETING.
January 24, 18g0.
(Tenth Anniversary Meeting.)
The tenth anniversary meeting was held in the law lecture
room of Columbian University, January 24, 1890; one hun-
dred and three members and guests present.
The President, Lester F. Ward, delivered his annual address
on the subject THE CouRSE oF BIoLOGIC EVOLUTION.”
* Published in this volume. See p. 23.
DEEP SEA MOLLUSKS AND THE CONDITIONS
UNDER WHICH THEY EXIST.*
By WILLIAM HEALEY DALL.
I propose on the present occasion to lay before you a state-
ment of the conditions which characterize the life of Mollusks
in the Deep Sea, so far as they are known to us, and to discuss
briefly the effect of these conditions upon the animals subjected .
to them; the contrast which their life presents to that of shallow-
water mollusks ; the peculiarities preserved or the modifications
induced by the special environment ; together with some notes
on interesting or remarkable forms discovered in deep water.
Once for all, it must be understood that exploration of the
deep sea fauna has only begun; that the area swept by the
trawl and dredge compared with that which remains unknown,
is almost infinitesimal; and, of the material secured by
dredging, a large portion is fragmentary and imperfect. In,
short what we know about the deep-sea mollusks can only be
regarded as a foretaste of that knowledge which future years
may be expected to supply.
In an address of this sort bibliographical references would be
out of place. I will only say that the literature of the subject is
almost wholly confined to the publications of the last twenty
years, and consists in large part of the reports by various spec-
* Annual] Presidential Address delivered at the Ninth Anniversary
Meeting of the Biological Society, November 16, 1889, in the law lecture
room of the Columbian University.
2 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ialists on such voyages as those of the British vessels, Lightning,
Porcupine, Valorous and Challenger; the French 7alisman, and
Travilleur; the Norwegian, North Atlantic Expedition ; and
the explorations of our own Coast Survey, Fish Commission,
and Navy on the Blake, the Fish Hawk, the Albatross, and
other well known vessels. ‘The most distinguished naturalists
of this country and of Europe have added to their reputation
by the investigation of the wonderful fauna revealed by these
explorations. The most extensive and important single series
of Scientific Reports ever published as the result of a single
expedition are those which bear the name of the Challenger
upon their capacious covers. Next to these come the Reports
of the United States Fish Commission, under the leadership of
Prof. Baird, and then follows a host of minor documents which
it is impossible to enumerate at the present time.
What I have to present to you this evening is rather a dis-
cussion of conditions and principles than an exhibit of particu-
lar facts or observations.
In order that their existence may be maintained the abyssal
mollusks require oxygen to zerate their circulation, food to eat,
and a foothold upon which they may establish themselves. It
_is necessary that the conditions should be such as will not pre-
vent the development of the eggs by which successive genera-
tions are propagated, and that they do permit it may be
assumed from the very fact that mollusks in large numbers
have been shown beyond all question to exist on the oceanic
floor wherever this has been explored.
Formerly when dredging with the usual appliances in small
boats, one hundred fathoms (six hundred feet) was considered
extremely deep. If one stands at the foot of the great Wash-
ington obelisk and looks up, the idea of collecting a satisfac-
tory representation of the insects and plants on the ground at.
- eee
Seren:
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3
its base by dragging a six foot trawl or dredge by a line let
down from the apex of the monument, strikes one as prepos-
terous. Yet the monument is less than one hundred fathoms
high. Multiply this height ten or fifteen times and the idea
seems, if possible, still more unreasonable, yet it is a fact that
successful dredging has been done from a height above the sea-
bottom of not less than twenty-five times the height of the
Washington monument. Living animals have been secured
from a depth equalling the distance from the Capitol to Rock
Creek, or from the Washington monument to the mansion at
Arlington, that is to say about two and a half miles.
It is therefore evident that in speaking of dredging, we must
revise our terms and define them so as to conform more nearly
to the new conditions under which such work is done. _
The waters immediately adjacent to the shores were long
ago divided by Forbes and other pioneers in marine exploration
into zones or areas according to the conditions characterizing .
them ; as, for instance, the Laminarian zone or region of brown
kelp, the Coralline zone or region of stony alge, &c. But for
general purposes and to contrast the areas of the whole sea,
one with another according to their chief characteristics, we
may now divide the entire sea bottom into three regions.
The first is that to which light can penetrate and therefore
where marine vegetation can exist. This is the Litoral region
and in a general way, modified by especial conditions at par-
ticular places, it may be regarded as extending from the actual
shore out to the limit of one hundred fathoms. Beyond this it
is practically certain that no light reaches the bottom of the ~
sea and no sea weeds grow. Outside of this the borders of the
continents slope gradually to the bottom of the ocean, which
is found usually at a depth of about 2,500 fathoms.
On the upper parts of these continental slopes the conditions
4 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
are often very favorable for marine life. Currents of compara-
tively warm water, like the Gulf Stream, sweep along bring-
ing fresh pure water and supplies of food to the animals along
their track. The division between the abysses and the slopes
‘is rather a matter of temperature than of mere depth. But
the temperature itself is somewhat dependent on the depth,
the influence of the great warm currents rarely extending
below seven or eight hundred fathoms and this depth corre-
sponds roughly to a temperature of about forty degrees Fah-
renheit. Below this it diminishes as the depth increases, at
the rate of about one-tenth of a degree to one hundred fathoms
until the freezing point is reached, though there is no reason
to suppose that the abyssal water ever actually becomes con-
gealed. :
To this cold dark area of the Ocean bottom has been applied
the name of the Benthal or Abyssal region.
To the region, chiefly on the continental slopes, between the
Litoral and Abyssal regions, I gave some years ago the name
of the Archibenthal Region.
These divisions have been recognized by various writers and
have had several terms applied to them. Those I have men-
tioned seem to me as characteristic as any, and in some respects
more convenient than any I have heard used.
Let us now consider the conditions under which life exists
in the Abyssal and Archibenthal regions. It may be premised
that the differences between them are largely of degree and
not of kind and do not require that the two BeRIOnS should be
considered separately. |
The chief characteristics reside in the composition of the sea
water, including its contained gases; in the dynamic status of
the deeps, especially in relation to’ temperature and pressure ;
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. . 5
in the mechanical qualities of the materials of which the
oceanic floor is composed ; and, lastly, in the food supply. |
As determined by physicists and chemists the water of the
deep sea varies in the proportions of mineral salts, carbonic
acid and air contained in it very much as does the surface
water. In general at the surface the warmer water of the
tropics has the more salt and the less nitrogen. When carried
by currents to the Polar regions, and cooled, this tropical wat:r
sinks to the bottom carrying its excess of salt along with it.
The Polar waters are less saline and contain more nitrogen.
The proportion of atmospheric air in the water is found strictly
related to the temperature, the pressure at great depths being
regarded as having no bearing on the question. The amount of
oxygen in the sea water diminishes gradually as we descend
from the surface until about 350 fathoms is reached, when it
ceases to change or at most increases slightly until the bottom
is attained. |
Carbonic acid, according to Tornce, does not exist in a free
state in sea water, but only in the form of carbonates or to a less
degree of bicarbonates. Unless the decomposition: of animal
matter in some manner sets free the carbonic acid, this con-
clusion is one which cannot be adopted without question, espe-
cially when we consider the great difficulties which are en-
countered in any attempt to obtain, or when obtained to ana-
lyze, abyssal water. ‘The effect of erosion on the shells dredged,
from the deeps, even when they contain the living animal, is
so strongly marked, the devices for protection against erosion
are so recognizable in various species, that the biologist may
well call the physicist to a halt, while the latter re-examines his
data. It is certain that erosive agencies, of which the effects
are indistinguishable from those known to be due to carbonic
acid in other instances, are extremiely active in the deeps.
/
6 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
In general it seems as if we might safely assume that the com-
position of abyssal sea water shows no very important differ-
ences from that of other sea water and that the animals exist-
ing in it are not exposed to any peculiar influences arising from
- this source alone. , |
- This cannot be said of the physical conditions. Everyone
knows how oppressive to the bather is the weight of the sea
water at only a few feet below the surface, and how difficult it
is to dive, still more to remain on the bottom, if only for a few
seconds. :
But it is difficult to convey any adequate idea of the pressure
at such a depth as 2,000 fathoms, or about two miles below the
surface..
Rope made impervious by tarring is said to have become
reduced one-third in its diameter by a descent into these depths.
Any hollow object not pervious or elastic, is at once crushed.
There is no doubt that at some points on the ocean floor the
pressure may amount to several tons to the square inch.
If we recall that the average pressure in steam boilers is pro-
bably much less than one hundred pounds to the square inch
it may help toward an appreciation of the abyssal conditions.
The inevitable conclusion is, therefore, that all the animals
living under these conditions must have their tissues so consti-
tuted as to permit the free permeation of the water through
every part in order that the pressure may be equalized. How
this is possible without putting an end to all organic functions
is perhaps the greatest mystery of abyssal life. How can a
large egg, like those of various deep-sea animals, pass through
the stages of segmentation and development, with every mole-
cule of its structure in actual contact with ordinary sea water —
and every solid particle subjected to a pressure of say a thou-
sand pounds to the square inch ?
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7
Such questions are much easier to ask than to answer, in fact
no attempt at an answer has, so far as I am aware, ever been
offered to biologists.
The looseness of tissue necessary to such a permeation is
conspicuous in abyssal animals, whose flabby and gelatinous
appearance when they reach the surface is notorious. It is
perhaps most noticeable in the fishes, which nevertheless are
often armed with formidable teeth. But under the great : pres-
sures of the deeps it is quite conceivable that each of these
loose and half dissolving muscles may be compressed and re-
duced to a condition resembling steel wire ; and that the organ- ©
ization thus sustained may be as lithe and sinewy in its native
haunts as its shallow water relatives are in theirs.
It is well known how great an influence on the distribution
of shallow water species is exerted by the temperature of the
water in which they live. No doubt the differences of temper-
ature affect the nervous system, the rate of muscular contrac-
tion, and the motions of the cilia by which in mollusks many
of the functions of life are aided or wholly carried on.
But itis probable that the influence of temperature is far
more effectively exerted upon the development of the ova, and
hence upon the propagation of the species, than directly upon
the parents. It is probable that most adult mollusks could
endure a very wide range of temperature if the individuals
were subjected to the changes by extremely slow degrees. But
it has been shown that a difference of one or two degrees below
a certain point on the thermometric scale, will destroy the em-
bryos of Ostrea or prevent their development so that they
perish. In this way the spread of the species may be effectu-
ally checked, though the adult shellfish may flourish without
difficulty in the same region.
In the shallower parts of the Archibenthal Region, a few great
8 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
currents, like the Gulf Stream, may reach, for a small part of
their course, the ocean floor and sweep it clean of sediment and
detritus, if not entirely of living beings. Such mechanical
effect as is produced must be of a rather steady and uniform
nature for considerable periods and in no respect resemble the
crushing and grinding which take place on every exposed beach
on which the sea rolls up. In fact, regarded as individuals,
the mollusks in the path of the Gulf Stream and other great
currents, have little or nothing to fear from the mechanical at-
trition which plays so large a part in the shallows. On the
other hand wherever the force of the stream is not sufficient to
sweep the bottom clean, the supplies of oxygen and food
brought by it to the colonies along its path so far exceed the
normal for quiet waters, that the animals thus favored flourish
and multiply in a manner never seen in quiet deeps.
The influence of darkness upon the inhabitants of the
Abyssal Region has often been expatiated upon. The absence of
visual organs or their preternaturally excessive development
- beyond the normal of the groups to which the individuals
belong is evidence enough that the deeps are markedly darker
than the shallows. But this evidence proves too much for the
Claim that the deeps are mathematically dark. | Whatever
notions may be entertained or conclusions deduced by the
physicist from the premises, the presence of large and remark-
ably developed eyes in many abyssal animals shows that light
of some sort exists even on the oceanic floor. It is inconceiva-
ble that these organs should be developed without any light
and if the experiments and reasoning of the physicist result in
the apparent demonstration of absolute darkness in the depths,
the facts of nature show that in his premises or his experiments
there lurks some vitiating error. It is ridiculous to suppose |
that the phosphorescence of certain animals in the deep sea
es
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 9
fauna isa factor of sufficient importance to bring about the
development of enormous and exquisitely constructed eyes ina
multitude of deep sea species. A greater or general phospho-
rescence, such as would amount to a general illumination, has
never been claimed by any scientific biologist and, as a theory,
requires a mass of proof which seems unlikely to. he
forthcoming. : 7 | | | :
In general then we find the physical conditions simpler than
_ those of the shallows and yet much more energetic. The effect
of temperature is marked in the distribution of life over cold
and warmer areas of sea bottom. ‘he relative importance of
the effects of pressure, partial darkness and of the quietness of
abyssal waters, our knowledge is yet too imperfect to allow us |
to precisely estimate. All’doubtless have their effect ; some of
the effects are more obvious than others, but it is by no means
certain that the most obvious are necessarily the most impor-
tant to the organisms concerned. aes
The mechanical character of the sea bottom is of greater im-
portance than is generally realized. In a very small propor-
tion of its extent the sea bottom is composed of bare or nearly
bare rock. Away from the shores such a bottom is usually
situated in the trough of some great current like the Gulf
Stream, and then seems to be nearly bare of animal life. In
other cases it may be found on the walls of sub-marine cliffs,
which for obvious reasons can hardly be explored for marine
life with our present appliances. ,
The rest of the bottom consists of solid matter in different
stages of sub-division, from something which may be described
as calcareous gravel to an impalpable mud which may or may
not be dotted with concretions of manganese, iron or other
mineral matter. The gravels are chiefly confined to the archi-
benthal region, the true deeps are generally carpeted with a
10° BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
viscid layer of the finest possible calcareous mud or clay. The
latter formation is meagre in its fauna as clay is when it occurs
in shallow water.
Certain forms of mollusk-life flourish in a soft bottom espe-
cially the Vuculide and their allies which are notably abundant
in the depths as well as in the muddy shallows of the Litoral
Region. Others require some solid substance upon which to
perch, a stone, a bit of wood, a spine from some dead Kchi-
noderm, something they must have for themselves and for their
eggs which shall raise them above the muddy floor. In regions
where such objects are rare or absent on the sea bottom such
mollusks are equally rare or wanting. Most ingenious are the
shifts made in many cases, as when we find Lefetella safely
housed in the tubes of dead Annelids or Hydroids, and Chor-
istes taking refuge in the empty ovicapsules of rays or sharks.
Small hermit crabs take to the tooth-shells (Dentalium) or to
the tubular Pteropods (Cuvierina); or Amalthea roosts on an
Echinus spine and builds for itself a platform as it grows, re-
calling the arboreal houses of some Oriental savages.
In the Archibenthal Region there is a more or less constant
drift of debris from the adjacent shallows which gradually
forms banks of considerable magnitude. ,
The action of erosion and solution for some reason seems less
potent here than in either the shallower or the deeper parts of
the sea. In the shallower parts the excess of motion, in the
deeps the excess of the eroding agent, may account for this.
The fact is known to me from the study of many specimens
from both regions and is Beyond question.
A feature in forming certain of these banks, to which atten-
tion has hitherto not been directed, is worthy of mention. This
is the habit of certain fishes, which exist in vast numbers, of
frequenting certain areas where they eject the broken shells. of
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 11
mollusks, corals, barnacles and other creatures which they have
cracked, swallowed and cléansed of their soft tissues by diges-
tion. We have learned from Darwin of the marvelous work of
the earthworm in Britain. The ejectamenta of a single fish of
moderate size in ove day would far exceed the accumulations of
many earthworms for much longer time. Now, in examining
critically large quantities of material dredged from the bottom
I have found that from certain areas almost entirely composed
of these ejectamenta. In the interstices some small creatures
. hide but the tooth marks of the fish were upon nearly every
fragment. As for a pint of fragments of a given species, this
bottom-stuff wotd rarely contain half a dozen specimens
which had been taken alive by the dredge (most frequently the |
species did not occur at all living in the material so dredged),
it was obviously impossible that the shells could have been
captured and afterward voided on the same spot. It seemed
more likely from all the facts that these fishes after feeding to
repletion repair in large schools to certain areas to enjoy the
pleasures of digestion. There would be nothing improbable in
the fish of a limited region preferring some special locality for
this purpose; and the result might be the accumulation of a
veritable bank, of which nearly the whole had at some time or
other passed through the intestine of a fish. At all events,
whatever explanation be offered of them, it is certain that such
accumulations do occur at certain localities, as shown by the
dredgings of the Fish Commission off the eastern coast of the
United States.
The last condition remaining to be considered is that of the
food supply. It has long since been pointed out that marine
vegetation ceases to exist within a limit of six hundred feet
below the surface. Whatever light exists in the depths, it is
not of a nature to meet the needs of vegetation. Whether any
12 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
other factor joins with the absence of light to discourage algal
growth is yet unknown but not intrinsically improbable. The
mollusks which belong to groups known as phytophagous in
shallow water, in the deeps appear to live chiefly on foramini-
fera which they swallow in immense quantities: ‘The results
of this diet are evident in the greatly increased caliber of the
intestine relatively to the size of the animal, in the diminution
of the masticatory organs, teeth and jaws, and in the prolonga-
tion of the termination of the intestine as a free tube to a
length which will carry the effete matters out of the nuchal com-
missure, and thus free from their injurious effects the branchial
organs, which are usually seated in this space. The quantity
of nutriment in the protoplasm of foraminifera is so small that
a much larger mass in proportion of these organisms must be
swallowed and their remains consequently ejected afterward,
than if the food consisted of the tissues of alge.
But the great mass of abyssal mollusks are members of those
groups which in shallow waters are normally carnivorous, and
to a great extent prey upon one another. In the deeps how-
ever this reciprocal destruction is unnecessary.
Those who have become familiar with surface collection on
the sea alone can realize the immense quantity of organisms
which exist in the water on or near the surface. These are
frequently numerous enough to reduce the water to the consist-
ency of soup, for miles in extent and to a considerable depth.
Millions of these creatures are constantly sinking from the
region where they naturally belong, either from injury or ex-
haustion, and thus raining slowly but constantly upon the
bottom. ‘This fact is not mew and is admitted to be unques-
tionable by all biologists. Hence in many regions of the sea
bottom the resident fauna have, as it were, only to hie still and
hold their mouths open.
PRESIDENTIAL. ADDRESS. 13
One of the facts which attracted my attention when I first
begun to study deep sea mollusks was the singularly small
number which showed signs of having been drilled or attacked
by other mollusks. Apart from those showing the marks of fish
teeth or the dental machinery of echinoderms, it is extremely
rare to find drilled bivalves or univalves such as make up the
great mass of the jetsam on every sandy beach. Such cases
occur, but the occurrence is always exceptional and the holes
which are most often found in abyssal shells are those which are
due either to the friction of some hermit crab or to the ero-
sive properties of the secretions of certain annelids which .
fix their irregular tubes upon the outer surface of the shell.
These injuries cannot easily ‘be confounded with the circular
drill holes of carnivorous gastropods.
Having handled more deep sea mollusks than any other
naturalist now living, and spent, probably, more time over
material procured by the dredge from shallow water, than any-
one else of my acquaintance, I do not feel that I am presump-
tious in affirming the remarkable difference which obtains in
this respect between the dead material from the Litoral and
from the extra-Litoral regions, respectively. 3
This brings me toa conclusion which I have siasehets pub-
lished with less detail. The animals belonging to the mollusca
which are found in the Archibenthal and Abyssal regions,
especially the latter, do not live in a perpetual state of conflict
with one another. A certain amount of contention and
destruction doubtless goes on, but on the whole the struggle
for existence is against the peculiarities of the environment
and-not between the individual mollusks of the area concerned.
It is an industrial community, feeding, propagating and dying
in the persons of its members ‘and not a scene of carnage
where the strong preys upon his molluscan brother who may
14 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, |
chance to be weaker. Depredations on this community are
doubtless committed by deep sea fishes and echini, perhaps
by other organisms, but the inroads are not so important as to
seriously modify the course of evolution and influence specific
- characteristics.
Hence the course of evolution and modification, though still
complex, is certainly much less so than in the shallower parts
of the ocean. For this reason we may hope to penetrate more
deeply into its mysteries with deep sea animals than with those
less fortunately situated. In this opportunity, to me, lies the
. chief importance of research into the biology of deep sea mol-
lusks. Nowhere else may we hope to find the action and reac-
tion of the contending forces less obscure, and modification in
most cases has not extended so far that we cannot compare the
deep sea forms with their shallow-water analogues and draw
valuable conclusions.
While we are not yét ina position to formulate conclusions
covering all the details of abyssal mollusk-life in certain in-
stances results suggest themselves. ,
Deep sea mollusks of course did not originate in the depths.
They are the descendents of those venturesome or unfortunate
individuals who, by circumstances carried beyond their depth,
managed to adapt themselves to their new surroundings, sur-
vive and propagate. Many species must have been eliminated
to begin with. Others more plastic, or more numerous in in-
dividuals, survived the shock and have gradually spread oyer
great areas of the oceanic floor. In accordance with these not
unreasonable assumptions we should expect to find among the
newer comers at least some characters which were assumed un-
der the stress of the struggle for existence in the shallows, and
which, through specific inertia, Have not become wholly obso-
lete in the new environment. We should also expect to finda
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15
certain proportion of Archibenthal species in any given area,
identical with or closely related to the analogous Litoral region
forms of the adjacent shores.
In the Abyssal region alone should we expect to find that
any considerable proportion of the fauna has lost all its litoral
characteristics, assumed characters in keeping with its environ-
ment and become disseminated over the ocean bottom through-
out a large part of its extent. These expectations in the main
are fairly satisfied by the facts as far as the latter are positively
ascertained. ‘ |
With the lesser need of protection from enemies and competi-
tors would necessarily be related a less rigorous elimination of
characters which in struggle and competition might prove
sources of weakness. The limits of uninjurious variation
would be relaxed at the same time and to the same extent.
We find as we should expect that the deep sea ‘mollusks are
more variable in their ornamentation and other superficial
characters than those from shallow water. In some species the
balance of characters is fairly well maintained ; in others vari-
ation runs riot, and it is impossible to say what amount of it
should constitute a basis for specific subdivisions among indi-
viduals. |
In general deep sea shells present pale or delicately tinted
color patterns, are white, or owe their color to the tinting of
the epidermis. This may be due directly to the absence of
light. Sunlight, when present, seems to have a stimulating
effect in developing colors as is shown by the greater bright-
ness of tropical litoral shells whatever their colors. It ope-
rates indirectly by promoting the development of color in algze
which are fed upon by phytophagous mollusks, and affect the
coloration of the latter directly through the assimilation of the
coloring matter of the food, mechanically.
te BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘Indirectly, through the influence of protective mimicry, the
coloration of shells which frequent beas of seaweed or rocks
covered with stony algze, is often modited in harmony with
‘the environment even when the species is not phytophagous.
- In the deeps these influences are wanting and the develop-
ment of color is necessarily the result either of uneradicated
hereditary tendency, or of some physical features of the en-
vironment which operate mechanically and are not yet under-
stood.
The colors chiefly effected by deep sea mollusks are pink or
reddish straw color, salmon color, and various shades of brown.
These are found in the shell and are more or less. permanent.
The epidermis of deep sea shells is usually pale yellowish, but
frequently is of a delicate apple green, such as is seen in many
fresh water species ; and sometimes of a beautiful rich dark
chestnut brown, a color also not rare among land and fresh
water species. The most common pattern when any exists is
that formed by squarish dark spots which occasionally become
fused into bands. Among the Archibenthal species found in
depths from roo to 300 fathoms this pattern of brown squarish
spots arranged in spiral series is notable in such forms as
Scaphella junonia, Aurinia dubia, Halia priamus, Conus mazet,
etc. Instances of the green epidermis are afforded by the vari-
ous species of Muculide, Turcicula and Buccinide.
The thick and solid layers of aragonite, of which many
shallow water species are chiefly built up, are represented in
deep water forms by much thinner layers, while the nacreous
layers. are, if not more solid in abyssal shells, at least more
brilliant and conspicuous, perhaps because less masked by
aragonitic deposits. A very large proportion of the deep water
shells are pearly and derive their beauty from the brilliance of
their nacre.. : |
“Cg ae tle guts ial a
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 17
In the matter of sculpture the mechanical effect of the pres-
sure operates against the development of weight and thickness
in benthal shells since the whole must be permeable. It is
probable too that the soft and sticky character of the abyssal
ooze would put the possessor of an unusually heavy shell at a
considerable disadvantage in getting about on the bottom. Any
impermeable shelly structure on the ocean floor would have to »
be strong enough to sustain without crushing a weight hardly
less than that borne by the rail under the driving wheel of an
ordinary locomotive. It is sufficiently obvious from a mere
statement of the case, that none of them can be impermeable.
The heavy knobs or arborescent varices of shallow water
Murices are represented in their deep water congeners by ex-
tremely thin and delicate spines and slender processes. ‘These |
are probably all reminiscences of shallow water ancestors, as it
is dificult to imagine any cause which in the abysses would
lead to a development of such defenses de novo.
The sculpture most usual on deep water shells is of a kind
which serves to strengthen the structure, much like the ridges
which give rigidity to corrugated iron work or the curves used
by architects in wrought iron beams. Spiral or longitudinal
hollow riblets, a transverse lattice work of elevated laminze
such as are developed for similar reasons on the frail larval
shells of many gastropods, a recurvature of the margin of the
aperture in forms which in the Ljitoral region never develop
such recurvature ;—thése are instances in point.
Beside these there are small props and buttresses developed
which serve the same purpose of strengthening the frail struc-
ture at its points of least resistance. Such is the garland of
little knobs so commonly found in front of the suture in
abyssal shells of many and diverse groups.
18 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
It is not intended to suggest that the methods above indi-
cated have not been developed also in shallow water forms and
for similar reasons. ‘The distinction which I would point out
is that in Litoral species, as a rule, these devices are subsidi-
ary to the much simpler course of strengthening the shell by
adding to its thickness. In the abyssal forms, for reasons
already explained, this mode is not practicable and conse-
quently we have the one without the other.
The operculum is generally horny in abyssal mollusks, fre-
quently disproportionately small, compared with that of con-
generic litoral species, and in a remarkably large number of
cases is absent altogether.
The genus most abundantly represented of all is Mangzlia,
_ which is entirely without an operculum, and affords a conspicu-
ous example of the obsolescence of protective devices, origi-
nally acquired in shallow water, resulting from long residence
in the deeps. ©
In the Unio and Melania of fresh water streams and the
pondsnails of our lakes and ponds, the waters of which from
the decay of vegetable matter are overcharged with carbonic
acid, we find a dense thin greenish epidermis developed as a
protection against erosion. In the deep sea where every por-
tion of the shell must be permeated by the surrounding element
to equalize the external pressure, and where carbonic acid
exercises its usual malign influence on the limy parts of all
organisms, we find a strikingly similar protective epidermis de-
veloped in most unexpected places. ‘Thus it comes about that
in the Zrochi, Pleurotomide and other characteristic abyssal
animals we find those puzzling and remarkable counterparts of
land and fresh water shells which have astonished every student
of the mollusca who has seen them. ‘These deep water species
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 19
imitate in almost all superficial characters of the shell the
biologically wholly different pondsnails and landsnails.
Similar exigencies of the environment have provoked similar
mechanical responses in the shelly parts, a result wholly in
harmony with the modern postulates in biological science.
As might be expected ot descendents with modification there
are greater similarities between the larval shells of benthal spe-
cies and those of their shallow water relations, than between
the parts of the shell, which are of later growth in the same
forms. There is one notable difference however. In the deep
water forms the nucleus is frequently larger than in their shal-
low water analogues. It would seem as if the conditions of
the depths were such, that, of a small number of large larvee,
more are likely to survive than of a larger number of smaller
ones ; or at least that that form of larval growth is more useful
to the species.
These details will serve to show the multiplicity of facts to
be accounted for and the opportunity for advancing science by
a study of abyssal conditions and their effects upon the animals
subjected to them. Without claiming any unique importance
for the theories advanced in the foregoing remarks it may still
‘be said that the subject is one of the very greatest interest.
Perhaps experiments upon shallow water forms, artificially
subjected to pressure may at some future time enable us to
penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of life in the abysses.
The attempt to prepare a summary of bathymetrical data for
the deep sea fauna of any region yet investigated, is most un-
satisfactory in its outcome from the paucity of data. Most of
the species of any collection are represented by the shells alone,
which may have been—as millions are daily—disgorged by
fishes, and never have lived at the depth from which they were
7 | BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
dredged. We are yet ignorant as to whether the abyssal and
archibenthal faunze shade gradually into one another, as seems
most probable ; or whether there is any line of depth, coinci-
dent with a temperature limit, which really fixes a boundary
for the abyssal fauna.
Then, again, the difficulty and time involved ina cast of
over one thousand fathoms are so much greater than if it were
made in half that depth, that it is impossible to say what pro-
portion of the disparity in population between the Archibenthal
and Abyssal areas, which dredgings seem to indicate, is due to
the fact that the latter have been far less efficiently explored.
The only thing of which I feel confident is that it is yet too
early for extensive numerical comparisons or deductions based
wholly on statistics. I shall therefore content myself here
with a very modest table, which is intended to illustrate the
peculiarities of the collection made during the past ten years
by the U. S. Steamer Blake and recently reported on by me.
It is probable that it isa fair example of abyssal mollusk
faunas, but this cannot be claimed with certainty.
The first table shows the general numerical results for the
Blake collection, assorted among the great systematic groups
and the three bathymetric zones or areas. "The second table
shows the proportion to the whole population of the abyssal
region borne by those genera which exceed a single species.
The result here shown is that less than thirty-seven per cent. of
the genera comprise more than sixty-eight per cent. of the spe-
cies; and out of these, three families, Pleurvotomide, Ledide,
Dentaliide farnish nearly twenty-eight per cent. of the species
of the abyssal fauna collected by the Blake.
NEN Sn SPE Mee Pee ede Ee ea eee
PRESIDENTIAL
ADDRESS.
TABLE I.
General Numerical Results.
Groups feiho Fadl oth = Species in the | * Sue: ns Abyssal! Fauna
a I ae | rigs | Ke ae iB
| Litoral Archib. Abyssal) Two | All | Fami-
Area Area hive renee Bud lies Genera
Brachiopods . 7 13 8 12 3 8 2 2 3
Pelecypods 52 1 “1790 98 | 114 31 | 64 | I0-| -15 19
Seaphopods.,. 2 35 17 28 | Hn Ge 5 I 2
Gastropods . | I1ig | 491 | 280] 222 $3 168 282.1529 41
Totals 180 | 709 | 403 | 376} 129 | 250 | 49| 47 65
TABLE I.
Genera represented by more than one Species in the A byssal Area.
Genera. skin Genera. Piet
Mangilia 17 Fluxina 2
Margarita . 5 Liotia . ; 2
Pleurotoma 4 Leptothyra . 2
Drillia . 3 Cocculina 2
Marginella 3
Seala 3 Leda 5
Calliostoma 3 Limopsis . 3
Triforis 3 Pecteén . 3
Acteeon > 3 Abra 2
Utriculus . 2 Myonera . 2
- Fusus 3 2
Columbella 2 Dentalium 8
Benthonella 2 Cadulus 4
Total, 24 Genera and 87 Species.
| For the naturalist of to-day the most interesting feature of
abyssal life is not that it furnishes him with singular and
archaic forms, useful in his study of extinct genera; nor the
beauty and rarity of the creatures living under such unusual
conditions. - The most important characteristic of abyssal life is,
that it, and it alone, exhibits a fauna in which reciprocal strug-
gle is nearly eliminated from the factors inducing variation and
ped BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
modification. [here is no mimicry or sexual selection, where
all is dark. Indeed, if it could be shown that the deeps are
absolutely dark, the acknowledged development there, by
some animals, of large and supersensitive eyes, might be a
proof of the Lamarkian doctrine of development consequent
on effort, as opposed to the views of Darwin, that it is solely
the result of selection conscious or unconscious and the sur-
vival of the fittest.
In the struggle for life of the abyssal animal, he is pitted
against the physical character of his environment, and not
against his neighbor or the rest of the fauna. _ Hence we should
have, and really do have, the process of evolution less ob-
secured by complications in the abysses than is possible else-
where. From a study of these animals in the light of their
environment, much may be hoped toward the elucidation of
great questions in Biology, and naturalists everywhere should
strive to promote deep sea dredging as essential to the progress
of Science.
fe
pee aia 8s *, Be K
SE AESS 7 AERIS I Tt Ns BA NEN. 2 EOE Lee ae ne Hane
Ve ae ee
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION*.
By Lester F: Warp.
That organic forms are the product of evolution is now not
only generally accepted by educated people, but is also fairly
well understood as a general proposition. But the special na-
ture of the evolutionary process, particularly the modus operandi
of the laws of development, is only vaguely or crudely com-_
prehended by any but specialists in some branch of biology,
and is not clearly understood by:all of these. In proof this I
recall a lecture by Henry Ward Beecher, delivered in this city
within a year of his death, in which he attempted to expound
the modern scientific doctrine of evolution, but in which he
showed that he had no adequate idea of what is meant by the
arborescent, much less by the dichotomous character of the
process of organic development, and seemed to suppose that
the progress from monad to man had been one continuous
ascending series. He mentioned, for example, as among the
ancestors of man, a number of animals belonging to the Ungu-
lata, Carnivora, etc., which are known to be entirely off the
anthropogenetic line. . .
Such crude exposition of so important a law as that of evo-
lution can only react against the progress of its acceptance as
a scientific truth, and there seems to be great need that the ex-
*Annual Presidential Address delivered at the Tenth Anniversary
Meeting of the Biological Society, January 25, 1890, in the law lecture-
room of the Columbian University.
24 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘
act nature of this law be worked out, and that all attempts to
popularize it be correct and be accompanied by the necessary
qualifications and an explanation of important subordinate
laws. Only thus can the coarse and repugnant conceptions
which seem to be taking possession of the popular mind be
removed.
EXTINCTION OF TRUNK LINES OF DESCENT.
It is especially important that the first great qualifying prin-
ciple, which I propose to call the law of the extinction of trunk
lines of descent, be made clear, since it lops off at one stroke,
the most serious of all popular misconceptions. I shall assume
that the principle of genealogic dichotomy is clear to the minds
of all, since it is nothing more than the simpie law of toco-
gonic descent as exemplified in every human genealogy and
every family register applied to all life, except that it relates to
species instead of individuals.
Sympodial Dichotomy.—But while organic phylogeny is, in
a certain sense, arborescent and dichotomous it cannot be
directly compared to any ordinary tree nor even to a plant that
branches in a strictly forking or dichotomous manner, such as
an Anychia, for example. It resembles more nearly that form
of indeterminate growth which is termed symfodzal, in which,
instead of the two forks being equal and divergent, one of
them has to be regarded as the main trunk and the other as a
branch, but in which the branch possesses the greater vigor
and vitality and virtually becomes the main trunk, the true
stem dwindling, and either dying out entirely or continuing as
a reduced and degenerate form. There are many plants, such
as the common grape-vine, the houseleek, the heliotrope, and
the for-get-me-not, that exhibit this sympodial dichotomy.
Die dea Soe tate lid
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 25
Types of Structure.—In studying the operation of this law
in biology a‘number of important facts are to be noted. It is
first necessary to consider what may be called types of structure.
These, in our illustration of sympodial dichotomy, represent
first, the main trunk, and afterward the successive branches
which become virtually the main trunk. Except in parasitism
and other anomalous cases, the development along the main
trunk is in the nature of an ascending series of forms, in the
sense that the structure grows more and more perfect. There
is a differentiation of organs and functions and an integration
of parts into organisms of higher and higher capacity, but all
are constructed upon the same general plan and represent a.
single and uniform type. This process of perfectionment in-
the organisms of original type constituting the main trunk
proceeds as far as the nature of that type of structure will
permit. ‘The branch which is to constitute the new and higher
type is ultimately developed out of this original trunk, but
there is no fixed time for its appearance. The original type
may have reached its maximum development and remained
stationary for any length of time, or it may have already be-
gun to decline before this takes place. In fact it may never
take place, but such organisms perish and leave us no history.
The branch must possess a higher type of structure, otherwise
it must dwindle and also disappear. To give it fresh vigor and
power to continue the stock it must have acquired, through the
known laws of variation and selection, some advantageous char-
acter not possessed by the original type, to which its superior
vigor isdue. It then in turn continues to develop and goes on
improving in the same manner as the main trunk did before it,
until, like that, it reaches the maximum limit to its capacity
for progress, 7. ¢., until nothing more can come from that type
of structure. Like its ancestor, too, it then remains stationary
26 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
for an indefinite period and eventually declines, and either per-
sists in a degenerate form or dies out altogether. A second
branch endowed with still higher capacities is developed from
the first and this repeats the process, and so on indefinitely,
higher and higher types being successively developed, carrying
up the system by this process of ascending sympodial
dichotomy.
Persistence of unspecialized Types.—I\t often happens that the
highest organisms of the more ancient types become extinct
while the lower or less perfect ones persist and are found min-
gled with organisms of the higher types that are the dominant
forms of life at subsequent epochs. This fact has led those
who did not understand the law of types, as just stated, into
doubts relative to the fact of development, since the certainty
that organisms belonging to types that still exist, but of much
higher rank, formerly inhabited the globe gave rise to the
belief that there has been degeneracy instead of progress. To
escape this error it is necessary to understand that progress
takes place primarily through the development of new and
higher types of structure, embodying successively higher and
higher capacity for improvement, and that the archaic forms
belonging to lower types, and therefore, as it were, upon a
lower plane of life, unable to compete with those of higher
type, are repressed and only appear among the latter as hum-
ble, and, as regards their own ancestors, really degenerate
forms. _
We thus have a series of epochs in the earth’s history dur-
ing each of which a different type has predominated, each later
type being higher in its capacity for improvement than its pre-
decessor. You are all more or less familiar with the successive
reigns of articulates in the Cambrian, mollusks in the Silurian, ~
fishes in the Devonian, reptiles in the Mesozoic, and mammals
’
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 27
in the Cenozoic; and you have doubtless frequently heard
astonishment expressed at the great perfection to which the
articulated type attained in the Trilobite, the molluscan type
in the Ammonite, the piscine type in the Ganoid, the reptilian
type in the Dinosaur, and the mammalian type in the masto-
don, the highest expressions of all of which belong to geologic
periods, and whose living representatives, with few excep-
tions, belong to the humbler forms of life.
DEVELOPMENT IN PLANTS.
As a specialist only in the lower of the two great kingdoms
it is not my place to enter into details respecting the working
of these several laws in the animal kingdom, even if I were
competent to do so. My illustrations must therefore be chiefly
drawn from plants.
It is well known that the three principal groups of modern
cryptogams, the ferns, Lycopodiaceze, and Equisetaceze, repre-
sent the degenerate descendants of a vegetation which formed
extensive forests in Carboniferous time, and Hugh Miller, Dr.
Lindley, and some more recent authors have used this fact’ in
the manner above referred to, as demonstrating that the life-
series of the globe is as likely to be a descending as an ascend-
ing one, and that development as a general principle is not
proved. Of course it is now well understood that natural se-
lection does not necessarily produce an ascending series, as for
example, in parasitic degeneration. But the principle which I
have formulated to-night of type degeneracy has been almost
entirely ignored, although it is alone able to explain the most
important facts that seem opposed to evolution in general.
The modern degenerate cryptogamic vegetation is one of those
facts and to it I must devote a few moments of explanation.
’
28 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The so-called natural system of classification in botany is
based primarily upon the reproductive function. As founded
by Jussieu it was exclusively so based, but De Candolle under-
took to introduce a new principle, viz., that of the structure of
the axis or trunk, by which he separated exogenous from
endogenous plants, and supposed that this line could be drawn
between monocotyledons and dicotyledons, erroneously includ-
ing the gymnosperms in the latter of these groups. The
weight of his authority not only long retarded the discovery of
the true position of the gymnosperms as the immediate de-
scendants of the crytogams, but it had the further effect of
barring out the important truth which vegetable paleontology
has at last made clear that there once existed a large class of
exogenous cryptogams.
Origin of Exogeny.—It has long been known that the Stig-
marias of the coal measures possessed an exogenous structure,
and as early as 1839 Brongniart discovered that the stems of
Sigilaria elegans consisted of a medullary center surrounded
by a thin exogenous zone within a thick cortex. The woody
zone was shown to be composed of distinct wedges separated
by. medullary rays. Itis now known that nearly or quite all
coal plants having the external characters of Sigillaria have
this exogenous zone. It was also early discovered that certain
coal plants with the general appearance of Calamites exhibit
an exogenous structure, and it was at first supposed that these
must be something very different, and they were accordingly
called Calamodendron. Professor Williamson has shown that
all true calamites have an exogenous structure of a very defi-
nite character. He has also proved that the distinction drawn
between Sigillaria and Lepidodendron based on this character
is not tenable, since some true Lepidodendra also show the
woody zone and medullary rays.
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 29
When Brongniart had made the discovery referred to he
changed his mind with regard to the plants of the coal meas-
ures, and ever afterward maintained that Sigillaria and
Calamodencron must be phanerogams, referring them to the
Coniferae. This complete reversal of his former logical and
correct views was due to the preconceived opinion that
exogenous growth was necessarily correlated with coniferous
and dicotyledonous plants, as taught by De Candolle, and there
is still a French school of vegetable paleontologists, who, as dis-
ciples of Brongniart, continue to maintain that Sigillaria must
be placed in an entirely different class from Lepidodendron, and
Calamodendron from Calamites, and who are disposed to deny
the cryptogamic character of all forms possessing an exogenous
structure. —
Now the truth seems to be that in the process of develop-
ment in plants the exogenous structure has been attained in
varying degrees along several ascending lines, and that there is
a different kind of exogeny in the calamite, the lepidophyte,
the cycad, the conifer, and the dicotyledon, while some-
thing resembling exogeny has been shown to. occur
in certain fossil ferns and in certain living monoco-
tyledons. Exogenous cryptogams probably no longer exist.
The reign of the cryptogam has come to an end. It
occurred in remote Carboniferous times when these plants
constituted the greater part of the earth’s vegetation. It was
then that certain types of the Lycopodiaceze and Equisetaceze
became forest trees and were supported by exogenous trunks.
These types have long since disappeared according to the law
of the extinction of trunk lines of descent, and it is only the
earlier and simpler types that have come down to us according
to the law of the persistence of unspecialized types. The
filicine, equisetian, and lycopodian types continued to develop
30 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
until they reached the highest state attainable by plants having
that structure. They even acquired the exogenous character,
but only in a rudimentary form. 7
It would be wholly misleading to place the exogeny of these
plants on a par with that of the modern exogen. Inthe pine and
the oak, as every one knows, the bulk of the trunk consists of
what we call wood, that is, of concentric layers of thick-
walled vascular cells, giving to the trunk great strength and
resistance, and although in the great sequoias and in the
cork-oak the cortical portion, or bark, may attain a thick-
ness of over a foot, still this is a relatively small portion of
the entire trunk, and contributes comparatively little to
its support. Now, if we imagine a tree in which the bark
constitutes the bulk of the trunk and the wood only
a comparatively narrow zone close to the central pith, we
shall have some idea of the exogenous cryptogamic forest tree
of the Carboniferous age. Something approaching it can be
seen on a small scale in the first year’s growth of a modern
exogen, and in most herbaceous plants of that type, and we
have another approach to it in the trunks of living cycads.
But when we speak of such thick bark it must not be sup-
posed that we mean the dry corky and flaky exterior which is
popularly called bark. ‘This, in the modern exogen, consti-
tutes the greater part of the bark of old trees, but is really the
cast-off and, toa greater or less extent, dead matter pushed
outward by the annual growth of the bast and liber, or the
true live bark of the tree. For every exogen is also an en-
dogen outside of the cambium layer. The bark grows by the
deposition of new matter to its interior. It was even so with
the exogenous cryptogam, only the endogenous or cortical por-
tion, z. e., the bark, then constituted the greater part of the
trunk, whereas it now forms only a thin zone at the periphery-~
ace te Z
ie
Rae es ri ea, Res
- ee. ee SO
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 31
_
This difference of degree is so great that it practically
amounts to a difference of type, and far back in early Carbon-
iferous time the new type had begun to appear, seemingly
along two independent lines, the one typified by the form
called Noeggerathia and leading to the modern Cycadacez,
the other by the form called Cordaites leading to the modern
Coniferze, which two great families rivaled each other for the
mastery of the vegetable world during Mesozoic times.
Origin of Phenogamy—Gymnospermy.—It is, however,
doubtful whether this great advance in the direction of strength
and stability of trunk would have alone sufficed to give these
new types the victory in the struggle with the tree-ferns, ca-
lamites, and lepidophytes of that epoch. Correlated with it
was a still greater advance in the structure of their reproduc-
tive organs. The highest types of modern cryptogams only
occupy the stage called hefevospory, i. e., the possession of two
kinds of spores, the microspore, or male, and the macrospore,
or female spore. ‘That stage was reached by all the higher
types of Carboniferous cryptogams. But bya series of steps,
which recent researches have enabled us to trace in living
forms, the passage was made in that early day from heterospo-
rous cryptogamy to true gymnospermy, and the barrier was
crossed which separates the cryptogam from the phanerogam.
The origin of true flowers, albeit they were minute, incon-
spicuous, and devoid of color, fragrance, or beauty, took place
at that ancient date. They were some such flowers as our
sago-palms and our pines and cedars have to-day. Many fruits
have: been preserved for us in the coal measures and some of
them closely resemble those of the ginkgo or maiden-hair tree.
There are other strong proofs that the earliest Coniferze be-
longed to the yew tribe of the ginkgo type, a type which is
now nearly extinct, having but this single living representa-
oe BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
tive. It was this type, and not the true pines and firs, that
represented the conifers during the Jurassic period when the
cycadean vegetation predominated over all other forms. And
yet this solitary survivor of that long line of ancestors, this
waning, tottering, dying ginkgo, with its perfect nut and ample
deciduous foliage, may be properly regarded as the highest
type of conifers, while the pines, spruces, and junipers must be
looked upon as somewhat lower types, persisting according to
the law already explained.
Angiospermy.—The next great step was from gymnospermy
to angiospermy, the beginnings of which are buried in obscu-
rity. In the gymnosperm the tender developing ovuie and
maturing seed is exposed to every rude element that besets the
life of a plant. Thus exposed it is impossible for it to attain
that delicacy of organization necessary to the highest perfec-
tion of vegetable growth. Protection of the germ thus early
became the great desideratum. When it was first attained we
know not, but there are some uncertain indications that angio-
spermous plants existed in Carboniferous time. Butif so they
did not belong to the higher or exogenous types. The strug-
gles for the protection of the trunk on the one hand, and for
the protection of the germ on the. other, were independent
struggles. Progress toward exogeny had nothing to do with
progress toward angiospermy, and if the latter was attained
during Carboniferous or early Mesozoic time it was attained
only by endogenous plants, and the earliest angiosperms were
endogens and not exogens. ‘That is, the lower type from the
standpoint of internal structure became the higher type from
the standpoint of floral structure. Progress could therefore
only be slow. What was gained by the one was lost by the
other. Not until both these steps should be taken by the same
type of plants could any new departure take place, and the
ECT ae Ee ne ee
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. Se
history of plants shows that it was not until this combination
occurred that the great revolution in the vegetable world was
brought about.
Exogenous Angtospermy.—The time came at last, we know
not at what precise period, when exogenous plants acquired a
closed ovary. This is the highest type of vegetation yet
reached, and the proofs of its potency confront us every time
we behold a modern forest of dicotyledonous trees. The great
variety, beauty, strength, and grandeur of this now dominant
vegetation amply attest the efficacy of exogeny combined with
angiospermy in the attainment of vegetal perfection. Yet the
time that elapsed from the beginning of either of these ad-
vances, taken alone, to that at which their fortunate combina-
tion took place was enormous. Not in the great coal period
nor its closing Permian stage; not in the Trias which suc-
ceeded did there come forth a single exogenous plant whose
germ was thus protected. The great and abundant fossil
floras of the Rhetic and Lias of India, Australia, Bavaria,
Sweden, and their near equivalents in Virginia and North
Carolina, the Connecticut valley, and in both Old and New
Mexico, have none of them yielded a trace of any such plant.
The same is true of the equally abundant Oolitic floras of York-
shire, France, Italy, Siberia, and Japan. Not even the highest
Jurassic strata of any part of the world have with certainty
produced an exogenous angiosperm. ‘The oldest formation at
which such plants occur is that on which our own city, the
nation’s capital, stands, viz., the Potomac formation, whose
geological position is doubtful as yet, but if Jurassic, centainly
represents the extreme uppermost part of thatsystem. By the
author of its flora, Professor Fontaine, it is regarded as the
equivalent of the Wealden, which is now commonly supposed
to be the fresh water equivalent of the Neocomian or lowest
34 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
member of the Cretaceous. So late did this now overshadow-
ing type of plant life appear upon the globe. The rapidity
with which it advanced, conquering and supplanting all rivals,
may be better understood when we remember that it forms
eighty-five per cent. of the flora.of the Dakota group, which
corresponds to the Middle Cretaceous.
A new and vigorous type of vegetation had been developed,
the genealogical vine had put forth a fresh branch, the plant
world had acquired a new lease of life, and it seems to us,
looking back over its history, to have actually taken a leap for-
ward at about this epoch, and ever after to have marched on
with enormous strides.
Development of Floral Envelopes.—The resources of improve-
ment in organization were, however, not yet exhausted. ‘The
germ was, indeed, now protected, and might acquire within its
safe chamber all the subtle shades of perfection possible, but
the delicate floral organs by which the fecundation of this
germ was accomplished were still exposed, as indeed, it would
seem, toa greater or less extent, they must always be. Yet
means of their better protection were possible and were grad-
ually adopted.
Apetaly.—The very earliest flowers were probably destitute
of any protecting envelopes (achlamydeous), and some such
still exist, but most of the lowest types of dicotyledonous
plants are provided with one floral envelope, sometimes reduced
to a few mere scales, sometimes with several distinct sepals in
a whorl around the essential organs, sometimes with these
united at the base, and occasionally with a bell-shaped, funnel-
shaped, or even tubular calyx. Such plants are called apeta-
lous or monochlamydeous. Paleontology shows that those
forms which are now apetalous, especially those in which the
flowers are borne in catkins, or are nearly altogether naked,
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 35
prevailed in early times over those provided with two sets of
floral envelopes, which is far from being the case at present.
Our law, too, is here again exemplified in the great perfection
attained in those early times by such apetalous trees as the
poplar, the plane-tree, the fig-tree, the laurel and the sassafras.
Polypetaly.—The next step was the development of a second
floral envelope, which, however, had its beginnings in small,
strap-shaped, or even bristle-shaped petals. In our current
botanies as prepared by Gray, De Candolle, and Bentham and
Hooker, the plants having separate petals, or polypetalous
plants, such as the rose, buttercup, mallow, etc., are placed
before those having the corolla all in one piece, like the morn-
j ing-glory, honeysuckle, etc. This position is given them to in-
dicate that the authors of these books regarded them as of
higher rank. But the geological history of plants teaches that
such, at least, was not the order of nature in their develop-
ment. It shows that polypetalous plants were very early
developed. We find them at the earliest epoch at which
dicotyledons begin to appear in any great abundance. It is
true that we rarely find the flowers, and cannot say with cer-
tainty that they were the same as they are to-day. It is quite
possible that trees of Cretaceous time whose leaves resemble,
those of modern polypetalous genera may have then had
wholly apetalous flowers, but this is as yet mere speculation.
In this group we have another fine illustration of the law
_which I have stated, according to which the highest attainable
development of any given type of structure is early and rapidly
acquired. Weare in the habit of regarding our magnolias,
our tulip-trees, and the Australian eucalypts, as among the
finest specimens of polypetalous plants, and yet the genera
Magnolia, Liriodendron, and Eucalyptus appear and are rather
prominent in the Middle Cretaceous floras of Europe, Green-
36 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
land, and America. There was some doubt until recently
whether the Eucalyptus really was an American type, so re-
mote is its present home. But during the past summer a mem-
ber of this Society, Mr. David White, has conclusively demon-
strated that these trees flourished in abundance on what is now
Martha’s Vineyard during the Cretaceous age. “They probably
extended over the entire western world in that vast antiquity
before the human race had made its appearance on our planet.
Gamopetaly.—There was one other step to be taken, the
step from the polypetalous to the gamopetalous flower, from a
corolla consisting of numerous distinct petals forming a whorl
around the stamens and pistil within the calyx, to a corolla con-
sisting of a single piece in the form of a bell, a funnel, or a
tube, more and more completely protecting the essential orgatis.
The older botanies call such plants monopetalous, emphasizing
the fact that the corolla is of one piece, but wholly ignoring
the process by which it became so. In fact, by placing this
group after the polypetalous one they suggest that they are
lower in rank and that monopetalous plants may have become
polypetalous by division of the corolla into numerous petals.
The German investigators, however, have shown by embryologi-
cal study that the movement has been in the other direction, the
petals of polypetalous plants, having, as it were, united into a
corolla, and this is confirmed by paleobotany in showing that
polypetalous plants antedated monopetalous ones in the history
of plant development. The later botanies, therefore, so far
recognize this truth as to adopt the term gamopefalous to ex-
press this union or wedding of the petals.
The progress from polypetaly to gamopetaly had only begun
when the geological record closed. Only a few gamopetalous
fossil plants have been discovered. There is reason to believe
that there were persimmons, whortleberries, olives, and arrow-
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 37
woods, during Tertiary times, but most of these have small
flowers, and in some of the | living representatives the lobes of
the corolla are cleft nearly to the base, suggesting that at an
earlier period in their history they may have really been poly-
petalous. The more typical Gamopetale, with tubular ,or
funnel-form corollas are for the most part unrepresented in the
fossil state, and we must regard these plants as among the
latest products of development in the vegetable kingdom.
Nature of Vegetal Development.—I have now endeavored to
trace the progress of development in the vegetable kingdom
from its earliest beginnings in cryptogamic life to its highest
and latest expression in the gamopetalous dicotyledon, with a
view especially to showing by what particular steps it has taken
place, and how the two laws of the extinction of trunk lines
of descent and the persistence of unspecialized types have com-
bined to bring about the varied and abundant vegetation with
which the earth is clothed. I have sought to emphasize the
fact that this evolution has not been in a single ascending se-
ries, that the plants that have one after another succeeded to the
mastery have each in turn attained the highest development
possible to their respective types of structure and have then
surrendered their sceptre forever to the new and more perfect
types evolved from them, and have usually dwindled down to
comparative insignificance but persisted on in some of their
lowest forms. I have wished to make clear and patent the im-
portant but rather recondite and popularly little understood
truth that biologic progress takes place through this
sympodial dichotomy, and not by true dichotomy, much
less by the ordinary monopodial branching represented
by the common figure of a tree. In other words the
phylogenetic tree is something considerably different from
the common genealogical tree. It further and especially
4
38 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
differs in being exceedingly irregular in the intervals of branch-
ing. Expressing the process in time we observe that vast
periods pass in waiting for the working out of the most simple
principle, which, when once hit upon, produces a complete
and rapid revolution in an entire departinent of life. I can
liken it in this respect only to the progress of mankind as
brought about by great mechanical inventions made at irregu-
tar intervals and producing undreamed-of revolutions in the
whole industrial frame-work of society. The length of the
stationary periods in biologic evolution is determined by no
fixed law. When a type of structure has advanced as far as it
is capable of developing it remains stationary as long as noth-
ing interferes with its continuance. If no change should
take place in its environment it might continue for an
indefinite period. As, by hypothesis, it can advance no
farther it can only vary inthe direction of deterioration or
extinction. The type of structure once fixed can never
change. Only the degree of vigor, luxuriance, or abund-
ance can undergo modification. Deterioration is everywhere
illustrated by the present cryptogamic vegetation. The
‘Carboniferous forests of Lepidodendron and Calamites are
represented by our little club-mosses and scouring rushes, al-
though they must have descended from trunk lines which had
not yet acquired the exogenous structure. Extinction is ex-
emplified by the absence of exogenous cryptogams in the liv-
ing flora, as also of most of the later cycadean and coniferous
types. There are several interesting cases of partial and rap- ~
idly approaching extinction. Among such may be mentioned
the maidenhair-tree, the mammoth and redwood trees, and
also, it would seem, the tulip and plane trees, all of which in
their turn dominated the vegetable kingdom, but now, though
undiminished in vigor or structural perfection, have been re-
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 39
stricted in range, reduced in number, and nearly crowded out
of existence.
We have seen that the deterioration or extinction can be
only brought about by a change of environment. The only
cause for the predominance of a type is its greater adaptation
to the existing environment. If undisturbed any given type
of structure will equilibrate in the direction of greater adapta-
tion until this is no longer possible. But complete adapta-
tion, as I long ago pointed out,* is impossible. It is always
possible for a new type to appear which shall respond more
exactly to the surrounding conditions. The environment, it is
true, may undergo unfavorable changes. ‘The climate may
change, or the type in its migrations may encounter unfriendly _
influences. Most effective of all is the ever-changing influence
of the contemporary life with which a type must come into
competition. It must, as we have seen, eventually encounter as
a rival in the race for life, the new type which is to succeed it,
endowed with elements of new life and with fresh powers both
to overcome hostile influences and to utilize the resources of na-
ture. Such superior types, as already shown, are ever and
anon arising, proceeding from quarters least anticipated, ap-
pearing without regularity either as to place or time, springing
sympodially frem the original trunk, rising impicusly above
their parents, and ultimately cvershadowing, repressing, crush-
ing, and extinguishing the former lords of the vegetable king-
dom. Such in brief is the generalized history of the rise and
fall of empires in the world of plants.
What has thus far been said is perhaps sufficient to render
clear to most minds the peculiar and complicated character of
biologic evolution in general, and to show how widely it differs
* American Naturalist, February 1881, p. 89.
40 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
not only from the current crude popular conception of it, but
also from the ideas which prevail among well informed and
even scientific persons. I need not, I am sure, apologize in
this age of specialists, for having confined myself almost ex-
clusively to that kingdom of life with which I am most
familiar. I believe that I can safely assume that the zoologists
present, in whatever branch, have been able to parallel all the
illustrations which I have given by similar ones in their own
departments, leading to the same general conclusion.
EXTRA NORMAL DEVELOPMENT.
Thus far I have only taken account of what may be called
the normal or legitimate causes of such advantageous modifica-
tions of structure as have resulted in the successive upward
steps which organic life has taken in the course of its history.
But there is:another class which may be called extra-normal,
abnormal, or even illegitimate causes. Normal or legitimate
causes are such as result in the production of -characters which
are of direct use to the organism. In extra-normal or illegiti-
mate causes the characters produced are such as have only an
indirect effect. Thus in the vegetable kingdom normal devel-
opment tends chiefly in the direction of strengthening the
stem, increasing the foliar surface, and protecting the germ and
reproductive organs, z. ¢., in the direction of strength, nutri-
tion, and reproduction, these being the three prime essentials
of existence. The various modes of strengthening the trunk,
and especially the attainment of complete exogeny, as seen in
the trees of the present day, directly improved the conditions
of existence and the chances for further development. The
gradual attainment of broad appendicular expansions called
leaves increased more and more the power to decompose the
Xi
wt
Se. Aerie
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 41
carbonic dioxide of the air which is the chief nourishment of
plants. The separation of the sexes, the transition from spore-
bearing to seed-bearing plants, the development of a closed
ovary for the protection of the germ, and of floral envelopes
for the protection of the stamens and pistils, all tended to per-
fect the reproductive function and render a higher type possible.
These influences were therefore all normal and legitimate in
acting directly upon the essential properties of the organism ;
and had no extra-normal or illegitimate influences come in to
modify the results these direct ends would have been the only
ones attained. Vegetation would doubtless have still been
green as now, there would have been forests of large trees with
strong solid trunks and umbrageous foliage: there would have
been green grass and rushes, rank and luxuriant herbage,
stately palms and graceful ferns, even as now, but this would
have been all. Twoof the leading features of the actual vege-
tation would have been wanting, viz., showy and fragrant
flowers and highly colored, pleasantly flavored, and nutritious
fruits.
A large, showy, or fragrant blossom is of no direct use to a
plant. Indeed its nourishment is an expense to the normal
growth of the plant. Still greater is the cost of the abundant
nutritious matter in many fruits. In both these cases the value
to the plant is indirect, and when we study the subject deeply
we find that the cause of the development of such organs is
a sort of teleological or final cause. Beautiful flowers and
edible fruits are extra-normal or illegitimate products of nature,
and those who fail to see this have but a crude and imper-
fect conception of the course of evolution.
Fortuttous Variation.—In a certain sense every influence
that affects an organism is legitimate, and we have seen that
the several great types have been brought into existence by
42 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
the improvement of the special opportunities offered by the en-
vironment. We have also seen that these opportunities have
presented themselves at long and irregular intervals, and, as it
were, by chance. In this sense there is only a difference of
degree between these normal and legitimate influences and
those which I have called extra normal or illegitimate. Their
occurrence was fortuitous. They were the result of accidental
variations in an advantageous direction seized upon by nature
for the creation of higher types of life.
There is a school of evolutionists who maintain that this is
the only way in which ‘progress takes place. This is held to
be the strictly Darwinian view, as opposed to the Lamarckian
>
view that the ‘‘ appetencies,’’ as Lamarck called them, z. e.,
the individual efforts, strivings, and struggles of the organism
in advantageous directions, aid in determining what the new
and improved type shall be. In a paper which I had the
honor to read before this society over a year ago on ‘‘ Fortui-
tous Variation as illustrated by the genus Eupatorium’”’ * I
endeavored to show that this fortuitous variation was often
successful even when no apparent advantage could result there-
from. ‘The tendency to vary is in all directions, as from the
center toward the surface of a sphere, and variation will take
place in every direction which does not prove so disadvantage-
ous as to render life impossible. In by far the greater number
of cases the advantage or disadvantage is slight or imperceptible,
and changes go on without improvement or deterioration,
causing a great number of equally vigorous forms to arise, all
differing more or less from one another. This accounts chiefly
for the varied and manifold in nature, and but for this law,
hitherto, so faras I am aware, unobserved, nature would be
* See abstract (all that was published) in Nature (London) for July
25, 1889 (Vol. XL, p. 310).
oe :
ewan ;
Pe eee eee ae ee ae eae
: THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 43
monotonous and uninteresting. From the esthetic point of
view, therefore, this is the most important law of biology.
What is its importance from the scientific point of view? As
you probably all know, there has been going on during several
years past a very lively discussion of the principle of natural
selection, and that principle has been vigorously attacked by a
large and highly respectable class of working naturalists. Its
vulnerable points have been fearlessly exposed and its de-
fenders have been put to their wits’ end to save it from serious
impairment. It has seemed to me that their mode of defense
was ill-chosen and that its weakness consisted in claiming too
much for natural selection, more than it can justly be shown to
accomplish. ‘The weakest link in the chain is the first one, as
Darwin himself admitted, and it seems strange that he, who
maintained that the variations which natural selection seizes
upon to the advantage of the organism are fortuitous, should
not have conceived that these might go on as they begun for a
long time and result in important changes that were neither
beneficial nor injurious. Those who question the principle of
natural selection insist with apparent justice that the incipient
changes due to accidental variation during a single generation
are utterly inadequate to perpetuate and multiply themselves,
that their utility must be infinitesimal and practically nil; and
they pertinently ask how the machinery of natural selection
was ever set in motion. Strange as it may seem, the de-
fenders of natural selection have thus far found no better
answer to this argument than to deny its force and to maintain
that every variation, however slight, if in the direction of
utility, begins to operate from its inception and goes on increas-
ing with cumulative strength. This answer is not satisfactory
and its inadequacy has been sufficiently proved. It should
be abandoned and some other substituted, and until this is
44 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
done natural selection will continue to lack a solid basis upon
which to rest.
But it seems to me that there is an answer to the objection,
and one which fully meets it. This answer is nothing more
nor less than the patent fact already stated that fortuitous vari-
ation actually does go on at all times, in many directions, and
to great lengths, without any perceptible change in the degree
of adaptation which the varying forms have to their environ-
ment. I have shown how this takes place in one important :
genus of plants, and it would be easy to extend the observa-
tion to almost any other genus. I doubt not that the animal
kingdom is also full of examples.
Here then we have the solution of by far the worst difficulty
in the way of natural selection. The beneficial effect need not
be assumed to begin at the initial stage. It need not be felt
until well-formed varieties have been developed without regard
to any advantage in the particular differences which they’ pre-
sent. There seems to be no flaw in this mode of solving this
- paramount problem, and if it is objected that it amounts to a
new explanation of the origin of species, I am ready to admit
it, and I believe that more species are produced by fortuitous
variation than by natural selection. Natural selection is not
primarily the cause of the origin of species ; its mission is far
higher. It is the cause of the origin of types of structure, such
as those whose history I have endeavored to trace, and through
which alone biologic evolution takes place.
Extra-Normal Influences in the Vegetable Kingdom.—Re-
turning from this important digression to the subject of extra-
normal influences in the vegetable kingdom, let us inquire
more closely into their exact nature. As already remarked,
the most important are those which have resulted in the devel-
_opment of beauty and fragrance in flowers and of bright colors
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 45
and agreeable flavors in fruits. But these are by no means all,
and we must thus account for most burs, spines, thorns, and
other-forbidding features, viscid and glandular hairs, as in the
sundew, and irregular and peculiar forms of leaves, especially
such as are seen in the pitcher-plants, and a great variety of |
other structures not connected with the reproductive function.
What then are these supra-normal or illegitimate causes
which result in such peculiar products? In the first place they
_consist in special changes in the environment which are seized
upon to the advantage of the plant. Plants in view of their
stationary character, had especial need of two things, viz.,
cross-ferttlization and dissemination. Growing together without
power to change their position and mingle with remoter forms,
there was perpetual danger that close interbreeding might de-_
teriorate or destroy the stock. The seeds of such stationary
organisms perpetually falling in the same spot tended to choke
one another and to weaken and restrict the species. Every
normal and legitimate means of averting these two dangers
had been adopted by the earlier types of vegetation. The
spores of cryptogams and the pollen of conifers were made so
light that the winds would take them up and waft them to
_ great distances. Certain grasses and other herbs were endowed
with the peculiarity of being uprooted by the wind at the
proper season and blown for miles over the plains, scattering
their seeds. And even water had become and still remains a
medium for the transportation of both pollen and seed from
place to place and from shore to shore. But still these instru-
mentalities fell far short of the needs of the vegetable world in
these directions. At last, and nearly at the same period in the
earth’s history, two new, and, one may almost say, unexpected
agencies came forward, adapted respectively to the supply of
these two prime necessities of the plant—viz., zmsects and dzrds.
46 ; BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Origin of Showy and Fragrant Flowers.—Away back in the
dim darkness of the coal period when tree-ferns, calamites,
and giant club-mosses, combined with arche-typal yews to
people the steaming swamps of a hot, cloud-laden island world,
there existed a strange form of insect which can only be com-
pared to the cockroaches of our day, but which seems to have
embodied in its structure the beginnings of all the varied types
of insect life, the promise and prophecy not only of our dragon-
flies and beetles, but also of our flies, bees, and butterflies.
And during the long ages that followed, while the plant life’
was passing through the history which I have briefly sketched,
the insect world was experiencing a similar unfolding, and new
and improved types, very much as in plants, were coming into
existence, attaining their maximum development, and giving
way to still higher ones, until some time in the late Jurassic or
early Cretaceous age forms began to appear which were
adapted to obtain sustenance from the pollen, and perhaps -
from the stigmas of flowers. To do this they were obliged to
pass from flower to flower and would unavoidably carry the
dust that adhered to their heads, wings and feet from .one
flower to others more or less remote. Cross-fertilization, that
‘“secret of Nature’’ discovered by Sprengel, was thus effected,
and new vigor was instilled into those forms which for any
reason had been so fortunate as to attract these winged friends.
We can figure to ourselves a rivalry springing up among plants
as to which should offer them the greatest inducement, and
through the action of natural selection, which here found a
typical field for its normal operation, the entire nature of flow-
ers underwent a rapid change. To continue the figurative ex-
pression, all flowers vied to excel in beauty and attractiveness ;
for these tiny insects possess esthetic tastes which do not ma-
-terially differ from those of mankind.
{
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION, 47
To size, showiness, and beauty of coloration, was often added
fragrance which was especially successful with moths and other
nocturnal insects. Many special inducements were held out.
Sweet and nutritious nectars were secreted from the petals to
lure on the unsuspecting creatures, and deep, and peculiar
grooves, sacs, and spurs were developed to hold this nectar in
large quantities. These nectaries were so adjusted that no. bee
could enter without passing directly over the stigma and brush-
ing upon it the precious dust of other flowers. Wonderful
contrivances thus came into existence to secure this supreme
end of plant being, and the present world of flowers was ulti-
mately evolved.
The profound modification accomplished by this agency was
not confined to size, color, fragrance, and the secretion of nec-.
tar. The forms of flowers underwent in many cases a complete
change, and an infinite number of wonderful irregularities ap-
peared, varying from the slightest differences in the petals to
the amazing abnormalities of the orchids, all calculated to
adapt plants to the useful ministrations of insects, sometimes,
: as in the yucca, to those of a single species of insect without
which reproduction is impossible.
And thus it has come about that the form of every flower
has its special meaning which can be interpreted by those who
have penetrated this great secret. We hear of the language of
flowers—that the rose signifies beauty, the daisy innocence, the
violet modesty, the myrtle love—but science has discovered a
new and real language which the flower not only speaks but
writes in clear characters, and which the botanist deciphers
and reads by much the same methods that the assyriologist em-
ploys when he deciphers and reads the arrow-head inscrip-
tions upon the tablets of Nineveh.
It is thus that flowers are accounted for by modern science
48 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
in all their beauty and variety. The old idea that they were
made for man to admire and enjoy is exploded, and yet it re-
mains true that they were made to be admired and enjoyed by
creatures capable of admiration and esthetic pleasure. It is
not true that any flower was ever ‘“‘ born to blush unseen’’ or
‘“waste its fragrance on the desert air.’’ ‘There is a standard
of taste so universal that what pleases the bee, the ant, and
the butterfly, also pleases the senses of man. Biology has
overthrown the anthropocentric theory as astronomy has the
geocentric, and every creature lives in and for itself and shares
with man to some degree the sublime attributes of mind and
soul.*
Origin of bright-colored and sweet-flavored fruits.—In seek-
ing the origin of fruits we have to consider an almost parallel
history of development to that which we have been studying
in accounting for flowers. But here we must look to another
kind of animal life, chiefly to the great family of birds. There
were probably no bright-colored or sweet-flavored fruits until
the close of Mesozoic time, because the future birds were as
yet reptiles crawling over the ground or swimming in the wa-
ters, albeit some of them already possessed the inchoate attri-
butes of their avian successors. Moreover, the vegetation of
that early period was incapable of employing the intervention
of winged life for its distribution. At first it consisted exclu-
sively of spore-bearing plants whose dissemination was chiefly
affected by the wind, and which depended upon the infinite
multiplication of spores to make up for defective means of dis-
tribution. Later came on the gymnospermous types of cyca-
dean and coniferous life, neither of which are now to any great
extent adapted to the uses of the feathered world. Paleon-
* Here and later on I use the term sow/ in the sense of conscious desire
strong enough to induce active effort for its satisfaction.
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 49
tology, both vegetable and animal, thus doubly confirms the
view that fruits, in the sense here employed, had their origin
simultaneously with the appearance of birds, as flowers did
with that of flower-frequenting insects, toward the close of
Mesozoic time. Attracted by their bright colors correlated
with pleasant flavors, birds learned to visit the plants that bore
such fruits. _ Flying thence to distant parts and voiding the
hard seeds of berries and stones of drupes, they became the
effective instruments for the dissemination of these forms.
The great problem of distribution was thus solved by bird
life as was that of cross-fertilization by insect life, and just as
plants vied with one another to attract insects to their flowers,
so did they also vie with one another to attract birds to their.
fruits. Here again it was the universal esthetic faculty that
enabled the ancient bird life to prepare the earth for human
habitation, and yet, no more than in the previous case was
man the final cause. So uniform is the standard of taste
throughout the psychic world that what contributes to the
pleasure of a bird or an insect also supplies some esthetic want
in the race of men.
ABNORMALITIES OF SEX.
There is one other abnormal or supra-normal influence in the
organic world which is so important and so well illustrates the
principle now under consideration, that it seems proper briefly
to advert to it. I refer to the causes which in many cases, par-
ticularly in the animal kingdom, make one sex differ so widely
from the other. | ees
An array of facts taken from asexual life and from the very
early stages of sexuality converge to show that primarily and
normally the female is the main trunk line of development,
50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
while the male is merely accessory, and need have no impor-
tance apart from the reproductive function. Such restriction
actually exists in a great many of the lower organisms and in
some that are quite highly organized, while throughout the in-
vertebrate world the physical superiority of the female is the
rule and that of the male is almost unknown. Female super-
iority’is also the rule and male superiority the exception among
all vertebrates except birds and mammals, and sometimes
occurs even in these. Normal or legitimate development
would make it universal. But in most birds and mammals,
the opposite state of things exists, viz., male superiority, and
we are so much more familiar with these two highest types of
life that the impression is almost universal that the male sex is
in some way the primary and dominant one. I shall not waste
your time in attempting to refute this popular impression.
Those who defend it simply display their lack of acquaintance
with the lower forms of life. My own attention was drawn to
the subject by certain remarkable phenomena presented by
plants, but a study of the very early stages of animal life is
sufficient, with the least reflection, to set the whole question
at rest.*
The problem is, therefore, to account for this apparently
abrupt reversal of the normal process of development as it
went on prior to the advent of birds and mammals. What
was the extraneous and illegitimate agency which began to
operate early in the development of avian and mammalian
life? The one term which most nearly expresses it is sexual
selection, proposed by Darwin. In my opinion the discovery of
the principle of sexual selection. has equal if not higher rank
* For a fuller, though popular, treatment of this subject, see the Horune
for November, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 266.
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 51
than that of natural selection, since its influence when fully
understood will be found to be as great, and to Darwin alone
is due the entire credit of making it known: Strangely enough
_ Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, who simultaneously and indepen-
dently worked out the law of natural selection, is disposed, as
shown by his recent work on Darwinism, to reject sexual selec-
tion altogether-as a factor in biology ; yet to my mind, it re-
mains debatable which of these two great laws has exerted the
more profound effects in modifying the course of organic devel-
opment. It certainly cannot be said of natural selection that
it has produced a complete revolution in that course, or has, so
to speak, reversed the wheels of biologic progress, as sexual
selection has done ; not in the sense of producing a retrograde
movement, but in that of shifting the axis of evolution, if I
may be allowed the expression, from its normal position to a
wholly abnormal one, and raising toa prime factor what was
originally a mere incident in the history of organic life.
Female Selection.—But by sexual selection Darwin meant
only female selection, which would be the more accurate ex-
pression. It was not until the era of birds and mammals that
the female really began to exercise a choice, or if, as is proved
in a few cases, the females of lower creatures did exercise a
choice, the result was the same as in the higher, the superiority
of the males.
You all understand this law too well to make any explana-
tion of its operation necessary, and I only desire to bring it
forward as one of the most important of all the abnormal or
illegitimate influences that have brought about the present
state of things. I also wish to point out its analogy to the
other two influences which I have considered. For here again,
size, strength, and beauty, as displayed in the males of so
many animals and birds, are the products of a dawning and
52 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
growing esthetic sentiment, the expression of a developing
taste, which is so nearly identical with the most highly devel-
oped tastes of mankind that there are no higher objects of
human admiration than the gorgeous plumage of birds or the
graceful forms of animals—than, for example, the feathers of
the-ostrich or the antlers of the stag.
Male Selection.—The reign of female selection has been a
long one, and throughout the two classes of animals in which
it is chiefly displayed it still prevails in full force. It is proba-
bly still the dominant influence in the human race, even among
its highest types, though here resulting more in mental than
in physical superiority in men.
But there are signs that this may not always’remain so. I
long ago pointed out * that among the higher races of men a
form of male selection has already begun to exert a strong
influence. In civilized life the choosing is not left wholly to
women, and with the progress of culture and refinement this
mutuality of selection grows more and more marked. That
male selection will prove equally effective with female selection
is already proved by the ever increasing beauty of women
under its influence ; and those who think men perverse because
they prefer beauty to all other qualities, or women trivial
because they make their personal appearance a leading aim of
life, have never learned the great law of nature which over-
rules all the trite maxims of the purists, that beauty means
worth—perfection—and that beautiful companions insure per-
fect offspring, an improved posterity, and a better and nobler
race, of men as well as women. And this is why the love of
and preference for the beautiful has a higher and a deeper
sanction in the everlasting order of things than can be given
by any church, any court of law, or any code of morals.
* Dynamic Sociology, 1883, Vol. I, p. 613.
\
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION, 53
THE PSYCHIC ELEMENT.
In all the cases considered of what I have denominated
extra-normal or illegitimate influences affecting the course of
biologic evolution, there is revealed to the careful student a
common principle to which their peculiar character is due; a
certain element of power and independence which gives to
them both their anomalous and eratic character among organic
laws, and also their remarkable efficacy and success in accom-
plishing the ends of evolution itself. What is this common
principle, this element of power? It is expressed in the single
word psychic—I had almost said, in the one word mz7zd.
Philosophers correctly identify these conceptions, and any-
thing that transcends the purely vital partakes of the attributes of |
mind. This new force, manifesting itself in at least three
prominent ways at almost the same time in the earth’s history,
and, producing such astonishing revolutions, was the psychic
force beginning to respond to a long process of cephalization,
or brain-enlargement, in the animal world. It represents the
birth of the soulin nature; it was the response to a demand.
for the satisfaction of wants, of instincts, of tastes; it was the
first expression of purpose and of will. For these are the at-
tributes which led the bee to seek the nectar from the flower,
the bird to visit the brilliant cluster of fruit, or the female of
the higher creatures to choose the most beautiful male for its
mate. And these are psychic qualities and represent the sub-
jective half of the world of mind—the great heart of nature.
The strictly biologic record properly closes here. ‘To show
that this same force continues to produce its unlooked-for effects
at a higher stage of development, operating from the objective
side, through the intellect, or head of nature, and that the re-
sults have here been as much more surprising and. far-reaching
as the organisms through which they were aceomplished were
54 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
higher in the scale of development,* though an easy task,
would not only carry me too far, but would trench upon the
domain of anthropology and belong more properly to a sister
society.
Cosmic Epochs.—Taking a retrospective view of the entire
field of evolution and bearing in mind its uneven course as I
have sought to depict it, there may be discerned, standing out
prominently above all the minor fluctuations, a few great cos-
mic crises or epochs, in which the change appears so abrupt
and so enormous as to suggest actual discontinuity. Three
such cosmic epochs belong to the history of life on the globe.
The first was the origin of life itself. The second was the
origin of soul or will in nature. The third was the origin of
thought or pure intellect. While I do not say that any of the
factors producing these epochs came suddenly into existence,
or that any definite lines exist separating life from soul or soul
from intellect, theoretically speaking, the general fact remains
that they are practically distinct principles, having diverse
effects, originating at widely different periods in the earth’s
history, and succeeding one another in the order named. Of
these three great principles, life, soul, and intellect, and of the
cosmic epochs which they have produced, I have in the closing
part of this address, attempted to consider the second only,
and I have chosen it chiefly because its bearing upon evolution
appears to have been wholly ignored or misunderstood. Soul
or will is simply desire in the act of seeking satisfaction, and I
once presented the evidence to show that this is a true natural
force,t obeying all of the three Newtonian laws of motion ;
but its effects, compared with the other forces of cosmic and
* This is the ‘‘indirect method of conation.’’? See Dynamic Sociology,
Vol. II, p. gg.°
{t Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II, p. 95.
THE COURSE OF BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 5d
organic evolution, appear to us erratic or even spasmodic.
Nevertheless its potency is far greater and the ends attained
through it are upon the whole the same. It owes this charac-
ter to the fact that it is a psychic force as distinguished from
either physical or wital forces. Its study is therefore a part of
psychology, and from it we should learn that psychology is
simply a branch of biology and its study should begin with
animals and not with man. Finally, the peculiar character of
this psychic influence is due to its being a product of higher
organization. Mind is to biology what protoplasm is to chem-
istry. Psychology is transcendental biology.*
* So called by Auguste Comte, who refused to recognize it as a distinct.
science. See his Philosophic Positive, Vol. IV, p. 342.
ea
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
A.
PAGE
Address, ninth presidential. ...... 2-22
Address, tenth presidential. .... oa SOS
Africa, Central, notes from Emin Pasha’s
travels in | cS dais crete puto tgs wyies ale AS ix
Alwood, W. B., the artificial Pollenation
OF WER Se a a ae ee os xi
Amendment, Constitutional, proposed. . . xv
Amendment adopted «62534 6 sos ee xvi
Ancestors of Liriodendron tulipiferz . . xxi
Animals, domesticated, Reversion of to a
WEE Ae a se oe eee es ey ix
Animals, menagerie, diseases of. . . . . xiv
Atetomype Mente... ss ee xvii
Aryicola austerus minor. ......... x
Arvicola, from Black hills of Dakota, new
GOCIOE Se es is Ss xii
Artvicola ‘Jongicauds =). 2 xii
Aster Shortii, near Washington. .... xiv
B.
Bacteria, Pathogenic, in the Animal or-
ganism, destruction of. ......... ix
Barrows, W. B., dangerous Seed-planting
yt Sane Cow 6 On ay xvii
Bat, new tothe U. S., and new localities
for other N. A.mammals......... x
Bat, Hawaiian, noteson.......... xi
Bean, T. H., distribution and some char-
acters of our Salmonide........ viii
Biologic Evolution, the course of, Tenth
Presidential-address (22 So Se, 23-55
Biological Survey of the San Francisco
mountain region, results, &c. ... . xxiii
Bitde, Right of youtieu 28 Ss xxiii
Birds’ ribs, abnormalities in. ...... xi
Brachiopod, new genus and species from
the Trenton limestone... . .. . . xxii
‘Burgess, E. S., Aster Shortii near Wash-
PORE Ce erred eh ge ee xiv
C.
Carex, Morphology of genus; contribu-
RUNES SE ae aoe ene Sak ses hoe xv
Catalogues of American mammals,
Chatizes in since ' 1877509 es yee viii
Chameea, the affinities of. .... i Oe
Coccidea, parasiticin the mouse... . . xix
PAGE
Collins, J. W., the work of the Schooner
Grampusin fish culture. ........ ix
Commission of Scientific Societies of
Washiagtote 3.3 6.0%, ti a oe tee aa vi
Committees, Standing. . 20... 0s. Vv
Configurations of Trees, causes of. . * * xiii
Contagion and infection from a Biological
Standpoint: 6st oe is Ree xiv
Cormorant, Pallas’, noteson....... xvii
Cottoideus fishes, classification of. . . . viii
Council and: Officers 3600 le Vv
Coville, F. V., the fruit of Stipa spartea . xvii
Cricetodipus and Perognathus, revision
[3 CR RRO Se TORE aS aE Neh cor erga xx
Crocodiles, Man-eating. ...:...... <a
Cross and hybrid, Definition of... . . . xviii
Crows and seed planting. ........ xvii
Crozier, A. A., the Influence of foreign
pollen on fast). sor Se ee xvi
Cryptogamic life, fossil, comprehensive
type of, from the Ft. Union groups. . xii
Curtice, Cooper, Some Early Stages in the
life history of Teenia pectinata. . vili
On Teenia fimbriata a new parasite
Of sh@ep. 5 oo a as ix
Sexual Differences in ‘Tricho-
Senhal oe eae Aes xiii
On the Sheep-tick Melophagus
ap he 4+ | aan leh agin een ATEN I SS Se ap xv
How Entozoa cause disease. ... . xx
Cyperaceze and Graminez, generic charac-
PETS GP or a ai ee ee xxiii
Cyperus, etc,, germinationof. ... . .xix
D.
Dall, W. H., the Modifications of the Gill
The reproductive organs in certain
forms of the Gasteropoda. . . . xviii
Presidential address, Deep-sea Mol-
lusks and the conditions under
which they live. ...... xxii, 2-22
Notes on the genus Gemma Des-
HAVER eM Re ia ts a apie aoe es xxi
Dactylopteroidea, remarks on...... xxi
Death of George W. Tryon. ....... vii
Death of Asa Gray...... Pas bering tates vii
Death of Dr. J. H. Kidder. ....... xviii
58 BIOLOGICAL
PAGE
Deer of Central America, Remarks on. . xiii
PIOWAE MAC ENE Ci cae ho is gt he oe xii
Differences, sexual, in Tricocephali. . . xiii
Diseases of menagerie Animals..... xiv
Distribution, geographical, of Umbelli-
ee PR lint ny ete sg Teeny atbis xvi
E.
Elacatidee, family characters of. ..... vii
Blection of Officers. ....... xxiii, xxiv
Eupatorium, fortuitous variation as illus-
trated in said genus, ete... 5. 2s: ie SLY
Evolution, Biologic, the course of, Tenth
Presidential Address. ..... xxiv, 23-55
Exogyra costata, variationsof....... vii
F.
Fernow, B. E., the causes of the configu-
PAIN “OL AL OCS re ctu coe ste eS xiii
Annual Ring-growth in trees. . . . xix
Ferret, blackfooted, (Putorius nigripes) . xix
Fever, Texas, micro-organisms of. . . . xxii
Fever, Texas, general remarks on. . . xxii
Fish culture, work of Schooner Grampus . ix
Bishes; fais of ee i as xii
Hight of young birds 8 ag xxili
Floras of Southern Ohio and Eastern
VFR PIC sas see ics win nace ts Eman g xxi
Fossils, Cambrian from Mt. Stephens, N.
W, sterritery. of; Canada.) un ei a, ix
Fossil wood of the Yellowstone, National
PA ke Sot py oi tre sen ae git Fe ed wee ote xi
Fossil wood and Lignites of Potomac for-
TALGALOU ia wie utes « Neteg Weer pee Depes aos xii
Fossil cryptogamic life, a comprehensive
type of, from the Ft. Union Groups. . . xii
Fossils, Lower Cambrian; new genera
and species described 2.0 2. kk xx
Rox, new Calitoria si. 0 fo he wae vii
Fruits, tropical, in the Lake Worth Re-
ra Ral 1 Bee geet Chey Pn RY Na as BR Pau hae yg eS. Bt xix
RATE Of Stipa epatted yen ee xvii
Fruit, influence of foreign Pollen... .. xvi
Go)
Galloway, B. F., a disease of the Syca-
MOTE ea loge stig Aga oon Was pices xvi
Gasteropoda, reproductive organs in cer-
SOLU SOTANS OF oie oi de hs cl eee xvili
Gemma, notes on the genus. ....... xxi
Germination of Sarracenia, Rheum, Pel-
tandra, Hemerocallis and Cyperus. . . xix
Gill, Theodore, the characters of the fam-
Ty: ACRE Ag a hs sek vii
The Classification of the Cottoide-
OUS BSB sens he 2 ey eet viii
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
PAGE
The characteristics of the family
Scatopnagigee Piemioo. si— se eee xii
The families of Fishes. ...... xii
On the relations of Psychrolutide . xiii
On the Dactylopteroidea. ..... xxi
Univalve Mollusks, the modifica-
RIONS OPS hig sa we a aes xii
Graminez, N. A., new species of the last
DWEIWOC: VORTE tisk ots te ei eat ee am aia XV
Graminez and Cyperaceze, generic char-
ROCCE OF gee tee see eae xxiii
Grampus, Schooner, work of in Fish cul-
[ASPs WeRUnt eden Shins eam E a eae oleae aL mR var ti grente ix
Gray, Asa, “death-of 20.5 sec oe die vii
Ground hog or Marmot of the genus
AS CRNYS Yih e eres ee een ae ae Xvi
Ground squirrel, new species from West-
ern AsIzOna ss cota pets Pe Bian ek xvii
Gryphea: i pitcherit: © a tae se ee vii
Fi.
Hallock, Charles, the Reversion of domes-
ticated Animals to a wild state. .... ix
Hasbrouck, EK. M.,a new species of Mary-
land Yellow-throat . 0. 205i ees xvii
Hemerocallis, etc., germination of. . . . xix
Hiel, Robert T., the variations of Exo-
pcdnthte os os As ese vii
E On Gryphea pitcheri........ vii
Holm, Th., notes on Hydrocotyle ameri-
cre LL: RR ed ne OO Ae REO nee Mh eee i xiv
Contributions to the Morphology of
THE PORN COMES ee ates XV
The Germination of Sarracenia,
Rheum, Peltandra, Hemerocallis,
ana. Cyperna > See xix
Ancestors of the Liriodendron tulipi-
FOUR ee Pr ae a a ee ea xxi
Generic Characters of the Gram-
ineze and Cyperacee... .-. . xxiii
Hopkins, C. L., notes upon Pollenation of
the navel oranges’... ae x
A point of definition in the use of
the terms hybrid and cross. . . xviii
Hornaday, W. T., Man-eating Crocodiles . xi
The black-footed ferret, Putorius
PWIA POS. ee ewe et cia xix
Howard, lL. O., on an apparatus for the
Study of underground Insects and plant
POS ei ae ik Cine, cot ake eet bar ee pea ag xi
Hybrid and cross, Definition of. .... Xvili
Hydrocotyle americana, notes on... . . xiv
ri
Infection and contagion from a Biological
Stand point oi eye saa ie xiv
PN ee a ae aa ey ST ee
gs ls ail
oa See 3 ial a
ALPHABETICAL
PAGE
Insects underground, Apparatus for Study
of, and plant-roots
fia. reg stl Ree Os cas Samat et Ue xi
James, J. F., the effect of Rain on Earth
Wort Pig oe xviii
The Floras of Southern Ohio and
Eastern’ Maryland. ....... xxi
K.
Kangaroo ‘rats, Dipodomys........ xi
Kidder, Dr. J. H., death of announced . xviii
King, Dr. A. F. A., on the Flight of young
yo gt Site Mere cee Rese. = ae es aa A ie Sts Xxili
Knowlton, F. H., the fossil wood of the
Sac ia National Park... . xi
Fossil wood and Lignites of the
Potomac “formation .° 2°. 0 8: xii
L.
Laechnosterna, sexual characters in... . xii
Lagomys schisticeps from the Sierra
Nevada, sOaliforate cf oo ee Se eS XV
Lignites and fossil wood of Potomac for-
pee hc 0 ele gat eget aeiire ie ah ar ees acs out taN ee, AER xii
Liriodendron tulipiferce, Ancestors of. . xxi
Lueas, F. A., the affinities of Chamae . . xi
On. abnormalities in the Ribs of
MER 5 esis 1S Be Uo, xi
Notes on the Diseases of menagerie
Amiga 2.5 peak i . xiv
M.
Mammals, changes in Catalogues of
WANOVI CO 8S iy MeN AER ites SS viii
Marmot or ground hog of the genus
RAAT ora RS er ae xvii
Marx, George, a new Spider and its influ-
ence on classification. ......... xxi
Meeting, Ninth Annual. ......... xiv
Meeting, postponed Ninth Anniversary . xxii
Meeting, Tenth Annual,1890...... xxiii
Meeting, Anniversary, Tenth. . .°. . . xxiv
Meiampsora, hydrangeze noteson. . . . xvii
Melophagus ovinus, sheeptick. .... . xv
Merriam, C. H., on a new Fox from aks
og | ERRORS Ea. SARC dey ie a * vii
Description of a new species of
American’ Skunk. 2 2.000.302. viii
Description of anew meadow Mouse
with remarks on the sub-genus
POTN et ree Pre ah a
A Bat new to the United States and -
new localities for other North
INDEX. 59
PAGE
Notes on the North American Kan-
garoo Rats belonging to the genus
FMpONOM YE OL he COS, ap |
A new species of Arvicola from the
Black hills of Dakota. ...... xii
New Ground Squirrel froni Cali-
ro | UM ER i ioc eae cea fo tg gle BATAAN, oes? xiii
A new species of Pika (Lagomys) .
A new and remarkable Vole from
British Columbia
A new species of Ground Hog or
Marmot of the genus Arctomys . xvii
A new species of Ground Squirrel
from Western Arizona... ... xvii
A new genus and two new species
of Lemming Mouse or ich eye
British Columbia . . xix
Two new species of Spermophile
from the deserts bordering the
Lower Colorado river in California
and Arizona. (Spermophilus mo-_
havensis and §. neglectus) . pack
Revision of the Grasshopper Mice
and Pocket Mice with descriptions
Of thew specter i. 2) Ki i rg xx
Remarks on the spotted Skunks
(genus Spilogale,) with descrip-
tions ofnewspecies. ....... xxi
A new Spermophile from the
Painted Desert, Arizona. .... xxi
A new Red-backed Mouse from Col-
orado
General results of a Biological Sur-_
vey of the San Francisco Moun-
TAU MEO oo cae: See xxiii
Mice, Grasshopper and Pocket, new spe-
cies arid revision: of foie) Sao xx
Microtome,.new freezing. ......%.: xvi
Micro-organisms of Texas fever. .... xxii
Mollusks, deep-sea, and the conditions
under which they live, ninth Presi-
detitial address oo 555 oe xxii
_ valve
Moore, V. A., notes on the morphology of
Podophyllum peltatum......... xxi
Morphology of the genus Carex, contribu-
SORBET FS ee a Xv
Morphology of Podophyllum. peltatum,
TEE GRIM S65 Soe acter Woe hee pemeey sy. © 3
Mouse, Meadow, new with remarks on the
sub-genus Pedomys............ x
Mouse, Meadow, new from Dakota... .
Mouse, Lemming, new genus and two new
species of, from British America... . xix
Mouse, parasitic protozoa (Coccidea) in
3 2 ole ale ea aS SETTER ES ca ee ae ke xix
American mammals
Mouse, new Red-backed from Colorado . xxiii
60 BIOLOGICAL
N.
PAGE
Narwhal skull, female, with two tusks. . xx
O.
Gifacers and. Councils.) 00.8 oe a aes v
Officers elected, 1889... .--.--+-++:-> XV
Officers elected, 1890... ...----+:- xxiii
Olenellus, Hall’sgenus. . .°.-...--. xvii
Olenoides, the genus, of Meek. .... . xvii
Oranges Navel, notes on pollenation of. .x
Organs, reproductive, in certain forms of
Rasteronoga: eo. ei ek ee es xviii
Onychomys, synopsis of species, &c. . . xx
PR,
Parasite, sheep, a new, Tenia fimbriata . . ix
Parasite, human,noteon......... xiv
Parasitic protozoa in the renal epithelium
GE THE MORSE sire viney oh ie noe xix
Pedomys, sub-genus.........-.-.. -
Peltandra, etc.,germination of. ..... baba
Perognathus and Cricetodipus, revison of . xx
OR BIERITIMRGR, iS cs ie IR xvi
Phenacomys celatus... 2.2.5... xix
Phenacomys latimanus. .......... xix
Phryne leptostachea, seed vessels of . . . xvii
Pika (Lagomys,) a new species. ..... Xv
Pilea pumila seeds, how ejected. . . ..xxiii
Plant roots, apparatus for study of... .. xi
Platypsylius, motes On. 2... 2 ys x
Podophyllum peltatum, notes on morphol-
se ee chit cee RR Soh PNR are ae xxi
Pollen, foreign, influence of on fruit. . . xvi
Pollenation of wheat, artificial. ..... xi
Potomac formation, fossil woods and lig-
Ps Woe aii 61 GesstR Ride eth gt PC ACA Wea ebay le Gattis Ror xii
Protozoa parasitic in the renal epithe-
litims of the Mouse...) 30 ee a xix
Psychrolutide, onthe relationsofthe. . . xiii
Putorius nigripes, black-footed Ferret. . xix
R.
Rats, Kangaroo, the N. A. belonging to
the genus Dipodomys........ fe!
Red-backed Mouse, new, from Colorado . xxiii
Reproductive organs in certain forms of
GastGronodd: fin ca i Ser, a eee xviii
. Reversion of Domesticated animals to a
WUCE SEALE 5k gd a OA TRAM ix
Revision of pocket and grasshopper Mice
and descriptions of new species. . . . xx
Rheum, etc., germination of. ...... xix
Ribs of Birds, abnormalities in
Riley, C. V., on the Insectivorous habits
of the English Sparrow. ..... vii
Some notes from Emin Pasha’s
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
PAGE
travels in Central Africa. ..... ix
Notes on Platypsyllus......... x
Notes on the economy of Thalessa
and. Tremexe 26 Sse eae xiii
Note on a human Parasite. .... xiv
The remarkable Increase of Vedalia
cardinalisin California. ..... xxi
Ring growth, annual, in trees. ..... xix
Roots of plants, Apparatus for study of,
WHS TONNE eee eas xi
Rose, J. N., the geographical distribution
of the Umbellifere........... xvi
Rotifera, present knowledge of. .... xviii
Ss.
Salmon, D. E., general remarks on Texas
Salmonide, distribution and some charac-
COTS OF he a
San Francisco Mountain region, Biologi-
cal survey, resultsof. 23 20. 26.0% _ xxiii
Sarracenia, etc., germination of. .... xix
Scatophagide, family characteristics of . . xii
Seaman, W. H., our present Knowledge
of the Rotiera is. ere ere Xviii
Seed-planting, dangerous, by. the Crow . xvii
Seed vessels of the Lop-seed, Phryne
leptostachya
Seeds, of Pilea pumila, how ejected. . . xxiii
Sexual characters in Lachnosterna. . . . xii
Shells, mutations in distribution of species . x
Skunk, American, description of a new
species
Skunks, Spotted, genus Spilogale, re-
marks and descriptions of new species . xxi
Smith, J. B., Remarks on sexual char-
acters in. Lachnosterna
Nixie CAN. xii
Smith, Theobald, the destruction of
pathogenic Bacteria in the animal
OLPaltisw! 235 3 sei Pe Pie
Contagion and infection from a
Biological standpoint. ...... xiv
Parasitic protozoa (Coccidea) in the
renal Epithelium of the Mouse. . xix
Sparrow, English, insectivorous habits of . vii
Spermophilus Beldingi. ......... xiii”
Spermophile, new species of, in the Col-
orado. Gesert region: eo ek xix
Spermophilus neglectus. ..-....... xx
Spermophilus mohavensis ........ xx
Spermophile, new from Arizona..... xxi
Spider: bites, “notes on cfs Bs ss XxX
Spider, new and its influence on classifica-
ClO Ss 8 a, . Xxi
Spilogale, apotted Skunks, desstrptta at
new species andremarks, etc. ..... xxi
Squirrel, Ground, new California. . . . . xiii
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 61
PAGE PAGE
Squirrel, Ground, new species from West- cultivated in the District of Co-
CPT SR UIBOM A ch SE ee ae ky xvii TMM oP ES tL a ee viii, x
Stearns, Robt. E. C., instances of Muta- Notes on new species of North
tions in distribution of shells. ...... x American Graminez of the last
Stejneger, L., noteson Pallas’ cormorant . xvii twelve. yeate...: care Se ie xv
Stipa spartea, fruit of... ....... xvii | Vedalia cardinalis, remarkable increase
Survey, biological, of the San /Erancisco Of, TH CUO Ses xxi
Mt. Regions, results,ete. -2..... xxiii | Vole, from British Columbia, a new and
Sycamore, Disease of... 2.2... xvi TRINOSRADIC OPER ee xvi
Vole, or Lemming mouse, new genus and
Tz two new species from British America . xix
‘ WUIpOR -miecrotis | eae a vii
Teenia pectinata, some early stages in :
the life: history of 6 Perera viii Ww.
Teenia fimbriata, a new parasite in sheep . ix :
Tanias leugwras 23. ee Fe Eee xvii | Waite, M. B., notes on Melampsora =
Tape-worm in sheep, Tzenia fimbriata. . . ix hydrangee. . ee xvi
Taylor, Thomas, a new freezing Micro- Notes on the seed-vessels of the Lop- s
RT ie ie negate ae che abe ee ei seed, Phryne leptostachya oe ae eves
Thalessa and Tremex, economy of, notes Ona Method by which the seeds of
Sik eee ee re ae eer xiii Pilea pumila are ejected. . . Le xxiii
Tick, sheep, Melophagus ovinus. ... . xv | Ward, Lester F., on some characteristics
Travels in Central Africa, notes from of the Flora of the Potomac for-
Finsin’® Pashia iene ise ihe ee et ix mation Mies a Ae Ue ae Mtn a eS =
Trees and shrubs, foreign, cultivated in the The King Devil rege ean cont ar _: xii
District of Columbia. ........ viii, x A comprehensive type of ' Fossil
Trees, configuration of, causesof. .. . . xiii Cryptogamic life from the Fort 3
Trees, annual ring-growth. ....... xix capa: Sade’ ea Nas guna eA xn
Tremex and Thalessa, notes on the econ- Fortuttqus’ Variation, as ittustrated
OME GE ese 2 ene eee toe xiii by the genus Eupatorium, with
Tricocephali, sexual differences in. . .
Tropical fruits in the Lake Worth region . xix
True, F. W., changes in the Catalogues of
American Mammals since 1877. . viii
The affinities of the White Whale. . .x
Notes on the Hawaiian Bat. .... xi
Remarks on the Deer of Central
AMiCTICa 8 Seok ee Ae pe ee xiii
An occurrence of Sowerby’s Whale
on the coast of New Jersey. . . xviii
A skull of a female Narwhal with
two well developed tusks. .... xx
Tryon, Geo; W., Geath of 8s. en: vii
VU.
Umbelliferze, geographical distribution
Pee Grae Ore eee ee bed ie xvi
Vv.
VanDeman, H. E., the tropical fruits of
the Lake ‘Worth ‘fegion .°o02......05. S. xix
Variation, fortuitous, as illustrated in the
genus. Mupatonuar2 sic: oat i xiv
Vasey, George, foreign trees and shrubs
SPecimens . 5h a ee xiv
Tenth Presidential address, the
course of Biologic Evolu-
RACE ee Oe Ags Cope XXiv, 23-55
Walcott, Charles D., Cambrian fossils from
Mt. Stephens, N. W. territory of .
Canada
The genus Olenellus of Hall. . . . xvii
On the genus Olenoides of Meek . . xvii
Descriptions of new genera and
species of Lower Cambrian fossils . xx
A new genus and species of Brachio-
pod from the Trenton limestone . xxii
Whale, White, affinitiesof. .......... x
Whale, Sowerby’s, on the coast of New
JOTSOY. eee as; PO a XVvili
Wheat, artificial pollenation of. ..... xi
Wood, fossil, of the Yellowstone National
ere Or as eee Re eee, Pa 5
Wood, fossil and lignites in Potomac for-
PIT Co C42 7 anes ieretenk gt yal call epee Mens egies 5 soon xii
Worms, earth, effect of rainupon.. . . xviii
¥
Yellowthroat, new species of Maryland . xvii
ecrid
if
Pet; he es C
™ ETE TE tg
* Sy Seg
An
a ies
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
VOLUME VI.
FEBRUARY 8, 1890, TO DECEMBER 26, I89gI.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
1892
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE.
CHARLES D. WALCOTT, Chairman.
R. E. C. STEARNS, F. H. KNOWLTON,
T. S. PALMER, BP. Vi COVIELE: .
II
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
ERRATA FOR VOL. VI.
Page VIIL., line 7, for Zheory to Evolution, read Theory of Evolution.
Page IX., line 11, for refuted, read discussed, in the sentence: < Mr.
Howard refuted Mr. Mann’s statement.”
Page XI., line 11, for Pribylov, read Pribilof; idem page XVI., line
21; page 73, second column, line 3; page 74, first column, line
21; page 77, first column, lines 35 and 38 ; second column, lines
10, 26, and 28.
Page XII., line 2, for Zenth Annual, read Eleventh Annual Meeting.
Page XVIIL., line 5, for Mojave, read Mohave.
Til
e ert
if
i Be Fa ee
a
Shieh Por in gl ole tek cian a at aan a aa
rey bf . has
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Officers and: Committees for 189i 9.6 gs as Se a ee iv
Proceedings, February 8th to December 26th, 1891 . . . . . . V-xix
Addresses and Communications:
On Dynamic Influences in Evolution, by Wm. H. Dall (read
Match Sth S00) 6: 8a OATES NG ee eee
Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarckism, by Lester F. Ward
(TARDATY AAU, ZOOL ck ew ds hee Che a en ev ee ae ee mes
Itt
LIST OF THE OFFICERS AND COUNCIL
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ELECTED JANUARY IO, 1891.
OFFICERS.
PRESIDENT.
C. HART MERRIAM.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Cc. V. RILEY, RICHARD RATHBUN,
FRANK BAKER, C. D. WALCOTT.
SECRETARIES.
L. O. HOWARD, F. A. LUCAS.
TREASURER.
F. H. KNOWLTON.
COUNCIL.
C.|HART MERRIAM, President.
FRANK BAKER, RICHARD RATHBUN,
T. H. BEAN, THEOBALD SMITH,
WM. H. DALL,* R,. BE. C. STEARNS,
THEO. N. GILL,* F. W. TRUE,
G. BROWN GOODE,* GEORGE VASEY,
L. O. HOWARD, C.D. WATLLOTT.
F. H. KNOWLTON, LESTER F. WARD,*
F.. A. LUCAS, C. A. WHITE,*
\
C. V. RILEY.
STANDING COMMITTEES—180r1.
Delegates to the Joint Commission of Scientific Societies of Washington.
Cc. HART MERRIAM,
LESTER F. WARD, RICHARD RATHBUN.
Committee on Communications.
RICHARD RATHBUN, Chairman.
W. B. BARROWS, JOHN MURDOCH.
Commtttee on Publications.
Cc. D. WALCOTT, Chairman.
R. E C. STEARNS, T. S. PALMER,
F. H. KNOWLTON, BV. COVILLE,
Committee on Trees and Shrubs.
LESTER F. WARD, Chatrman.
GEORGE VASEY, THEODORE HOLM,
F. H. KNOWLTON, F. V. COVILLE.
” * Ex-Presidents of the Society.
IV
* Fi; Pui it
0 EG TERE TT ORO Maker et Soa Re
PROCEEDINGS.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTH MEETING, '
February 8, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty-eight members and
guests present.
The following active members were elected on recommenda-
tion of the Council: T. W. Stanton, U. S. Geological Survey ; ~
Dr. E. Roome, Columbian University.
Dr. Frank Baker presented a communication upon AN
UNDESCRIBED MUSCLE FROM THE INFRACLAVICULAR REGION
oF MAN. Discussed by Drs. Merriam and Riley.
Mr. C. D. Walcott presented a note upon A NEw GENUS
AND SPECIES OF OSTRACOD CRUSTACEAN FROM THE LOWER
CAMBRIAN.*
Dr. Cooper Curtice read a paper on Tax MOULTINGS OF
THE CATTLE Tick (/xodes bovis).+ Discussed by Drs. . Riley
and Theobald Smith.
Prof. Lester F. Ward spoke of FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN
THE WINTER TIME.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIXTH MEETING,
February 22, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty members present.
Mr. F. V. Coville presented a paper on THE NEW ARRANGE-
MENT OF GENERA IN THE HERBARIUM OF THE DEPARTMENT
OF AGRICULTURE.{ Discussed by Messrs. Riley and Ward.
* Tenth Annual Report of the Director U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. I, 1890,
Pp. 625, 626.
tJournal Comp. Med. and Vet. Archives 1890, p. 313; oe in
_ Veterinarian 1891, p. 680.
' { Bot. Gazette, xv, 1890, p. 68.
VI BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Dr. T. H. Bean presented NOTES ON SOME FISHES FROM
BRITISH COLUMBIA.*
Dr. Merriam read a paper on the EVIDENCE OF SONORAN
ORIGIN OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF THE GULF STATES.
Discussed by Messrs. Ward, Gilbert, Coville, and Dall.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVENTH MEETING,.
March 8, 1890.
f
The President in the chair, and forty-one members present.
Mr. B. T. Galloway read a paper giving the results of some
observations on an apple disease caused by the fungus Gym-
nosporangium macropus. Discussed by Messrs. Van Deman
and Marlatt.
Mr. C. L. Hopkins presented some NOTES ON THE ANIMAL
LIFE ABOVE THE SNOW LINE ON MT. SHASTA.+ Discussed by
Messrs. Mann, Riley, Howard, Diller and Hasbrouck.
Dr. W. H. Dall read a paper entitled ON DyNAmic INFLU-
_ ENCES IN EvoLuTion.{ Discussed by Messrs. Coville, Mann,
Fernow and Ward.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHTH MEETING,
March 22, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty-nine members present.
Dr. C. H. Stowell was elected an active member.
Dr. D. W. Prentiss read a paper entitled CHANGE IN THE
CoLOR OF HUMAN Hair,§ CHANGE IN THE CoLoR OF PLUM-
AGE OF BIRDS, AND IN THE FuR OF MAMMALS.||
_ * Proceedings U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. xii, pp. 641, 642.
T Insect Life, Vol. 2, p. 355.
{ Proc. Biological Society, Vol. vi, pp. I-10.
2 Phila. Med. Times, xi, 1880-81 ; also, Therap Gazette, Detroit, Mich.,
1889, viii.
|| Journal Amer. Med. Assoc. xiii, 1889.
Se SP ee eae
as %y4 eat ial Jas
, i
*PROCEEDINGS. VII
Prof G. B. Goode read a paper on the COLORS OF FISHES.*
Prof. C. V. Riley spoke on the CoLors oF INSECTS.
The papers were briefly discussed by Messrs. Mann, Dall,
Seaman and Ward. 7 i
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINTH MEETING,
April 5, 1890.
The President in the chair, and twenty-five members
present. |
Dr. Theobald Smith read a paper entitled SomE ILtus-
TRATIONS OF FERMENTS AND FERMENTATION AMONG Bac-
TERIA.+ Discussed by Professor Atwater.
Dr. R. R. Gurley presented a paper on the AMERICAN
GRAPTOLITES.
ONE HUNDRED AND. SIXTIETH MEETING,
April 19, 1890.
The President in the chair, and forty-five members present.
Dr. C. W. Richardson was elected an active member of the
Society.
Dr. Merriam presented a paper entitled Historica RE-
VIEW OF THE FAUNAL AND FLORAL DIVISIONS THAT HAVE
BEEN PROPOSED FOR NORTH AMERICA. Discussed by Dr.
Dall.
Prof. J. F. James read a paper entitled VARIATION WITH
ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO CERTAIN PALEOZOIC GENERA.
Discussed by Professor Ward.
Dr. Dall exhibited some ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF THE
Fur SEAL AND STELLERS’ SEA Cow,{ and gave an account
of them.
* Trans. Am. Fisheries Society, 1890.
t Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie u Parasitenkunde, vii, 1890, p. 502.
{Report U. S. Coast Survey and Geodetic Survey, 18go.
VIII BIOLOGICAL, SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIRST MEETING,
May 3, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty-six members present.
Mr. J. R. Edson was elected an active member.
Dr. Robert Reyburn read a paper entitled THE LIFE
HISTORY OF MICRO-ORGANISMS WITH. ITS RELATION TO THE
THEORY TO EvoLuTion.* Discussed by Dr. Theobald Smith,
Dr. Salmon, Mr. True, Mr. Erwin Smith, Dr. Shaeffer, Mr.
Seaman and Dr. Dall.
Dr. Vasey read a paper entitled A NEw Grass GENUS.T
Discussed by Messrs. Holm, Coville and Prof. Ward.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SECOND MEETING,
May 17, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty-six members present.
Mr. T. S. Palmer read a paper entitled SomE EARLY VIEWS
OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES. Discussed by
Dr. Merriam.
Mr. F. W. True exhibited a specimen of Lophiomys imhausiz.
Discussed by Dr. Merriam.
Prof. W. H. Seaman read a paper entitled THE PLACE OF
BIOLOGY IN THE PuBLIc ScHoors.t Discussed by Profs.
Chickering and Ward, Dr. Baker and Messrs. Waite and
Howard.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THIRD MEETING,
May 31, 1890.
The President in the chair, and twenty-six members present.
Dr. C. H. Merriam exhibited specimens of sundry new
species of NORTH AMERICAN MAmMAIS. Discussed by Dr.
Gill.
* American Monthly Microscopical Journal, June, 1890.
t Bot. Gazette, xv, 1890, p. 106.
{ The American Anthropologist for October, 1891.
\
3
PROCEEDINGS. Ix
Dr. Theodore Gill presented a paper on the CHARACTER-
ISTICS OF THE HALOSAUROID FISHES.*
Dr. J. N. Rose read a paper entitled Coulterella, A NEW
' GENUS OF ComposIT#.+ Discussed by Messrs. Seaman, Vasey
and T.. S. Palmer.
Prof. Jos. F. James spoke on ORGANISMS IN ST. PETER’S
SANDSTONE.
Mr. B. P..-Mann made some remarks upon the AUTHORSHIP
OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY, published
by Department of. Agriculture.
Mr. Howard refuted Mr. Mann’s statement.
/
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOURTH MEETING,
October 18, 1890.
The President in the chair, and twenty-eight members
present.
Mr. H. E. Van Deman spoke of CULTIVATED FRUITS IN
THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA.[ Discussed by Dr.
Salmon.
Dr. Theo. N. Gill presented a communication on the SUPER
FAMILY CYCLOPTEROIDEA.§
Prof. Lester F. Ward spoke on the subject of AMERICAN
TRIASSIC FLORA. ||
_ ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIFTH MEETING,
November 1, 1890.
The President in the chair, and thirty-seven members
present.
Mr. Nathan Banks was elected an active member.
* American Naturalist, xxiii, 1889, pp. 1015, 1016. (Pub. May, 18go.)
+ U.S. Cont. Nat. Herb. i, 1890, p. 71. :
t Ann. Report U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1890, pp. 410, 411.
2 Proc. U. S. N. M. xiii, 1890, pp. 361-376; pl. 28-30.
|| Geological Society of America, iii, 1891, pp. 23-31. Abstracts in
Science, Vol. xviii, Nov. 20, 1891, pp. 287, 288, and Proc. A. A. A. §.,
Vol. xi.
x ' BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. F. V. Coville read a paper entitled FRUITING OF THE
GINKGO AT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Discussed
by Dr. Riley, Mr. Seaman and Mr. Fernow. ;
Dr. Marx spoke of his recent INVESTIGATIONS OF THE
Poison GLANDS OF LATHRODECTUS. Discussed by Drs. >
Riley, Dall.and Theobald Smith.
Prof. Jos. F. James read a paper called FucoIpS AND
OTHER PROBLEMATIC ORGANISMS. Discussed by Mr. Lucas,
Dr. Dall, Prof. Ward and Mr. Mann.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTyY-SIXTH MEETING,
November 15, 1890.
The President in the chair, and forty-three members present.
Dr. Merriam presented a communication entitled Lire IN
THE LAvA BEDS AND CANONS OF SNAKE RIVER, IDAHO, IN
OcTOBER.* Discussed by Messrs. Walcott and Howard.
Mr. Theodore Holm spoke of the VEGETATIVE PROPAGA- |
TION OF DICENTRA CUCULLARIA.T
Dr. Dall presented some PALEONTOLOGICAL NOTES FROM
THE NORTHWEST COAST.{
Mr. Lucas described a Foot DISEASE OF CAPTIVE BIRDS.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVENTH MEETING,
November 29, 1890.
The President in the chair, and forty-seven members present.
The following new active members were elected: Jno M.
Stedman, Merwin M. Snell and Rev. Alexis Orban. |
Dr. T. H. Bean presented a paper on THE DEATH OF
SALMON AFTER SPAWNING.§ ~ Discussed by Dr. Gill, Prof.
Goode, Mr. Stejneger, Drs. Dall and Merriam.
*(In part.) North American Fauna No. 5, July, 1891, pp. 6-7.
} Bull. Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. xviii, 1891, pp. 1-11, pl. exi-cxiii.
{ Nautilus, Philadelphia, Vol. iv, 1890, No. 8, pp. 87-89, December.
% Forest and Stream, November 27, 1890.
eee
RP Tes LF
PROCEEDINGS. XI
Dr. Theobald Smith spoke ON Sprcies AMONG BACTERIA.
Discussed by Mr. True, Dr. Gill, Drs. Riley, Curtice, Mr.
Banks.
Mr. Sudworth presented a communication entitled NorsEs
ON NOMENCLATURE. Discussed by Dr. Merriam.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH MEETING.
December 13, 1890:
The President in the chair, and twenty-five members present.
Mr. A. B. Baker was elected an active member. :
Mr. Wm. Palmer read a paper on THE OCCURRENCE OF
THE ASIATIC CUCKOO ON THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. _ Dis-
cussed by Dr. Dall.
Dr. Riley presented some NEw NOTES. ON THE ae
PHYLLOXERA.
Mr. True spoke on THE TEETH OF THE MUSKRAT.
Mr. Ijicas read a paper on THE WING OF METOPIDIUS.
Discussed by Mr. True.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINTH MEETING
December 27, 1890.
The President in the chair, and twenty-six "members
present.
The following active members were elected: J. M. Holzin-
ger, Frederick C. Test.
Dr. Cooper Curtice presented a communication entitled A
PRELIMINARY STUDY OF ‘TICKS IN ,THE UNITED STATES.
Discussed by Dr. Smith.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam exhibited A NEw RABBIT FROM THE
SNAKE PLAINS OF IDAHO.*
Dr. W. H. Dall read a paper entitled ON THE TOPOGRAPHY
OF FLORIDA WITH REFERENCE TO ITS BEARING ON FOossIL
FAuNAS.+
* (Lepus idahoensis) North American Fauna No. 5, July, 1891, pp. 76-78.
T Bulletin 84, U. S. Geol. Survey. (In press.)
XII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
OnE HUNDRED AND SEVENTIETH MEETING,
(Tenth Annual.)
The President in the chair, and forty-two members present.
The annual reports of the Secretary, and Treasurer were
read and accepted.
The following board of officers was elected for the ensuing
year :
President—C. Hart Merriam.
Vice-Presidents—C. V. Riley, Frank Baker, Richard Rath-
bun, and C. D. Walcott.
Secretartes—l,. O. Howard and F. A. Lucas.
Treasurer—F. H. Knowlton.
Members of Council—F. W. True, T. H. Bean, R. E. C.
Stearns, Theobald Smith, and Geo. Vasey.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIRST MEETING,
January 26, 1891.
(Eleventh Anniversary Meeting.)
The eleventh anniversary meeting was held in the law
lecture-room of Columbian University, January 26, 1891,
in the presence of members and invited guests.
The President, Lester F. Ward, delivered his annual address
on the subject NEO-DARWINISM and NEo-LAMARCKISM.*
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SECOND MEETING,
February 7, 1891.
The President in the chair, and twenty-five members present.
The President announced the following committees for the
ensuing year :
Joint Commission—C. Hart Merriam, Lester F. Ward, Rich-
ard Rathbun.
* Published in this volume. See pp. 11-71.
he es hl
PROCEEDINGS. XIII
Committee on Communications—Richard Rathbun, Walter
B. Barrows, John Murdoch.
Committee on Publications—C. D. Walcott, R. E. C. Stearns,
F. H. Knowlton, T. S. Palmer, F. V. Coville.
Committee on Trees and Shrubs—Lester F. Ward, Geo.
Vasey, F. H. Knowlton, Th. Holm, F. V. Coville.
Mr. C. D. Walcott presented a paper on the DIscovERY
OF VERTEBRATE LIFE IN LOWER SILURIAN (Ordovician)
STRATA.* Discussed by Dr. Gill.
Prof. Henry F. Osborn gave a REVIEW OF THE DISCOVERY
OF CRETACEOUS MAMMAIS.}+ Discussed by Dr. Gill.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THIRD MEETING,
February 21, 1891.
The President in the chair, and twelve members present.
Dr. Cooper Curtice read a paper entitled Some LirrLeE
KNown WorMS IN CATIrLE. Discussed by Mr. Holzinger.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOURTH MEETING,
March 7, 189r.
The President in the chair, and twenty-five members
present.
Mr. F. A. Lucas exhibited and described some young
HoOATzINS. Discussed by Dr. Dall.
Mr. Lucas also drew attention to a SPECIMEN OF BISON
LATIFRONS FROM PEACE CREEK, FLORIDA.
Dr. Bean spoke of the FISHES OF GREAT SOUTH Bay.{ |
Mr Rose spoke of A NEw ASTER FROM SOUTHERN CALI-
FORNIA.§ Discussed by Mr. Holzinger and Mr. Waite.
*Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. Vol. iii, 1891 (in press). See also Proc. Phila.
Acad.
+ American Naturalist, xxv, July, sfiox: pp. 295-611. See also Proc.
Phila. Acad.
t Nineteenth Report of the betivninsicts of Fisheries of New York,
1891, pp. 237-281.
2 Bot. Gazette, Vol. xvi, 1891, p- I13.
XIV . BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. Sudworth presented a communication on the COLOR
AND ODOR OF FLOWERS IN ATTRACTING INSECTS. Dis-
cussed by Messrs. Howard and Marlatt.
Mr. Stedman exhibited and described a fine specimen illus-
trating the-EMBYRO OF A CHICK WITH TWO PROTOVERTEBRA.
Dr. Merriam spoke of DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL AND
VEGETABLE LIFE. Discussed by Dr. Curtice and Messrs.
Waite, Test and Holzinger.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIFTH MEETING,
March 21, 1891.
Ex-President Ward in the chair, and twenty-eight members
present.
Mr. W. A. Taylor was elected an active member.
‘Dr. Dall presented a paper on the AGE OF THE PEACE
CREEK BONE BEDS IN FLORIDA.*
Dr. Shufeldt read a communication on A COLLECTION OF
Fossi, BIRDS FROM THE EQuus BEDS OF OREGON.
Mr. F. A. Lucas spoke of A’ POINT IN THE ANATOMY OF
HESPERORNIS.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton presented a communication entitled
WHat ARE CYPRESS KNEES? Discussed by Prof. Ward and
Mr. R. L. Garner.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIXTH MEETING.
April 4, 1891.
Vice-President Walcott in the chair, and thirty-two mem-
bers present.
Dr. Cornelius B. Boyle was elected an active member of the
Society.
* Bulletin 84, U. S. Geol. Bieta (In press).
+ To be published in the Acad. of Nat. Sciences of Phila. Abstracts
<Amer. Nat. Sept. 1891, pp. 818-821. The Auk, Vol. viii, Oct., 1891,
Pp. 365-365.
.
:
:
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PROCEEDINGS. xXV
Dr. Bean read a paper on KENNERLY’S SALMON.* Dis-
cussed by Dr. Dall, Mr. C. D. Walcott and Mr. Waite.
Dr. Theobald Smith made some REMARKS ON RECENT
BACTERIOLOGICAL PROGRESS IN THE PREVENTION AND CURE
' OF DISEASE.
Dr. V. A. Moore spoke of the PRODUCTION oF IMMUNITY IN
GUINEA PIGS WITH STERILIZED CULTURES OF HoG CHOLERA
BACILLUS. “Discussed by Drs. Curtice, Schaeffer and Sal-
mon, and Mr. Walcott.
Mr. EK. M. Hasbrouck read a MONOGRAPH OF THE CARO-
LINA PARRAKEET.Tt
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SEVENTH MEETING,
April 18, 1891.
Vice-President Riley in the chair, and twenty members
present.
Prof. L. H. Dewey, was elected an active member of the
Society.
Mr. Van Deman presented a communication on THE RECENT
INTRODUCTION OF DATE PALMS.}
Dr. Curtice read a paper entitled PRACTICAL VALUE OF IN-
VESTIGATING PARASITES OF LIVE STOCK.
Prof. Lester F. Ward spoke of SomE FLORIDA PLANTS.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-EIGHTH MEETING,
May 2, 1891.
Vice-President Riley in the chair, and twenty-eight members
present.
Dr. Gill spoke of the CLASSIFICATION OF THE APODAL
FISHES.§ Discussed by Mr. Lucas.
* Forest and Stream, July 9, 1891.
+ The Auk, Oct., 1891, pp. 369-379.
tAnn. Report, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1890, p. 415.
% Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, Vol. xiii, 1890, pp. 157-242.
XVI | BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Mr. Galloway read.a paper entitled RECENT PROGRESS IN
THE STUDY OF PLANT DISEASES. Discussed by Dr. Erwin F.
Smith. | 7
Dr. Frank Baker presented some NOTES ON DWARFS. Dis-
cussed by Messrs. Ward, Gill and Riley.
Mr. F. A. Lucas read a paper, by Mr. Chas. Hallock, en-
titled DisTRIBUTION OF FISHES BY UNDERGROUND WATER
CouRSsES.* Discussed by Dr. Gill.
Mr. F. C. Test presented some NOTES ON THE DENTITION
OF DESMOGNATHUS.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINTH MEETING,
May 16, 1891.
Vice-President Riley in the chair, and twenty-two members
present. :
Prof. Riley read a paper on THE MEXICAN ARROW WEED
AND JUMPING BEAN.+ Discussed by Dr. J. N. Rose, Prof.
Ward, and Dr. Vasey.
Mr. J. M. Holzinger read a paper entitled INCENTIVES TO
NATURAL HIsToRY STuDy. :
Mr. Wm. Palmer described THE DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN
MAMMALS, BIRDS AND PLANTS ON THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS.
Dr. Vasey read some NOTES ON THE RECENT FIELD WORK
OF THE BOTANICAL DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRI- |
CULTURE. :
Mr. Lucas presented some REMARKS ON A NEW TORTOISE
FROM THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.{
ONE HUNDRED AND HIGHTIETH MEETING,
October 17, 1891.
The President in the chair, and fifty-three members present.
Mr. W. T. Swingle was elected an active member of the
Society.
* Amer. Angler. : :
} Scient. Amer., June 13, 1891; Amer. Nat., July, 1891, pp. 673-675.
} Nature, June 4, 1891, p. 113.
t
PROCEEDINGS. XVII
Mr. F. V. Coville read a paper entitled Foop PLANTS OF
THE INDIANS OF THE DEATH VALLEY REGION. Discussed
by Mr. Van Deman, Dr. Merriam, and Dr. Vasey.
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt presented some NoTes ON PALEOPA-
THOLOGY.* Discussed by Mr. Lucas and Mr. Gilbert.
Mr. Wm. Palmer read a paper on THE FATE OF THE FUR
SEAL IN AMERICAN WATERS.t Discussed by Dr. Dall, Dr.
Merriam, Mr. Lucas, Dr. Bean, and Dr. Schaeffer.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIRST MEETING,
October 31, 1891.
The President in the chair, and thirty members present.
The following were elected active members of the Society:
Mr. A. G. Masius, Prof. B. W. Everman, Dr. W. F. Morsell,
Dr. C.-W. Stiles. ?
Dr. Theo. Gill presented a communication on THE CLASSIFI-
CATION OF THE TETRAODONTOIDEA.}
Dr. ‘I’. H. Bean made some remarks on SOME FISHES NEW
TO NEw ENGLAND WATERS.§ Discussed by Dr. Gill and Mr.
Barrows. —
Mr. W. B. Barrows read a paper on CUCKOO STOMACHS AND
THEIR CONTENTS.
Dr. N. H. Egleston read a paper on THE TEMPERATURE
OF TREES. | : .
Dr. C. W. Stiles presented some NOTES ON PARASITES—
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECHINORHYNCHUS GIGAS.|| Discussed
by Mr. Howard and Dr. Merriam.
* The Popular Science Monthly, 1892.
t Forest and Stream, Oct. 29, 1891.
t Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, xiv, 1891.
2 Forest and Stream, Dec. 17, 1890.
|| American Journal for Comp. Med. and Vet. Archives, Dec., 1891.
French translation in Comp. rend. de la Soc. de Biologie, Paris, 1891,
pp. 764-766.
XVIII BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SECOND MEETING,
November 14, 1891.
The President in the chair, and thirty-one members present.
Mr. TI’. S. Palmer read a paper entitled Tr WINTER ASPECTS
OF THE MojJAVE DESERT REGION.
Dr. V. A. Moore spoke of a case of ECHINOCOCCUS IN
SwINE.* ' Discussed by Drs. Smith and Stiles.
Dr. C. W. Stiles presented a paper entitled NoTEs ON PARA-
sirEs, describing Coccidium bigeminum and Filaria gasterostet.+
Prof. Lester F. Ward spoke of HAECKEL’S RADIOLARIA OF
THE CHALLENGER EXPEDITION, and presented a communica-
tion entitled THREE DAyS IN THE Tropics. ‘The latter was
discussed by Dr. Merriam and Mr. Coville.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THIRD MEETING,
November 28, 1891.
The President in the chair, and thirty-six persons present.
The following active members were elected on recommenda-
tion of the Council:
Mr. W. EH. Clyde Todd and Mr. J. D. Figgins.
Dr. George Marx, read a paper on THE STRUCTURE AND
CONSTRUCTION OF THE GEOMETRIC SPIDER WEB. Dis-
cussed by Dr. Th. Gill.
Mr. David White presented a paper entitled SomE PECULIAR
- FORMS IN AN UPLAND CARBONIFEROUS FLORA.{ It was dis-
cussed by Prof. Lester F. Ward:
Prof. F. H. Knowlton presented a paper on FRUITING
FERNS FROM THE LARAMIE GROUP. Discussed by Professor
Ward, Mr. C. D. Walcott and Dr. Cooper Curtice.
* Amer. Journal of Comp. Med. and Vet. Archives and Annual Report
of the Dept. of Agriculture, 1891.. Report on Animal Parasites for 1891,
C. W. Stiles.
+ Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, 1892. Note preliminarie sur quelques
Parasites, Bull. d. 1. Soc. Zool. d France, 1891, pp. 163-165.
{ Bulletin 98, U. S. Geological Survey. (In press.)
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PROCEEDINGS. — XIX
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FOURTH MEETING,
December 12, 1891.
The President in the chair, and thirty-eight members
present. | :
Mr. F. V. Coville read a paper entitled A REVIEW OF
KUNTZE’S REVISIO GENERUM PLANTARUM. Discussed by
Mr. J. N. Rose and Dr. C. Hart Merriam.
Mr. EK. M. Hasbrouck presented some REMARKS ON DI-
CHROMATISM. Discussed by Dr. W. H. Dall, Dr. Erwin F.
Smith, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and Mr. F. W. True.
_ Prof. Lester F. Ward spoke of RECENT DISCOVERIES OF
Potomac Fossi, PLANTS NEAR WASHINGTON.
ONE HUNDRED AND KIGHTY-FIFTH MEETING,
December 26, 1891.
The President in the chair, and twenty-six members present.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton presented a paper entitled A Foss.
BREAD-FRuIT TREE FROM THE SIERRAS OF CALIFORNIA.
Discussed by Prof. Ward.
Prof. Lester F. Ward presented a communication entitled
ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE ON THE TRANSMISSION OF Ne:
QUIRED CHARACTERS.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam made extended REMARKS ON THE
AFFINITIES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SQUIRRELS, CHIP-
MUNKS, SPERMOPHILES, PRAIRIE DOGS, AND MARMOTS.
Discussed by Dr. Erwin F. Smith, Dr. Stiles, Dr. Dall, and
Professor Ward.
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ON DYNAMIC INFLUENCES IN EVOLUTION.
By Wan. H. DALL,*
It is generally admitted that in the doctrine of Natural
Selection we have a theory which accounts for the perpetuation
of favorable variations in organic beings and their progeny,
and for the elimination in the long run of those which vary in
unfavorable directions. It is equally admitted that the origin
of variation is not accounted for by this theory. In order to
round out our conception of the mode of evolution of the or-
ganic universe it is necessary that this deficiency should be
supplied, and that to it should be added some conception of the
mode by which variation is sustained in any given direction
until it has reached a point where its usefulness is sufficiently
marked to enable the selective process to operate. Besides
this it is hardly doubtful that there are many characters devel-
oped in organisms, especially those of the lower rank, in which
selection of any sort is but little concerned. |
It is not necessary to recapitulate the names of those who
have turned to the relations between the organism and its
environment as the only nidus of the influences sought. Such
an enumeration would comprise nearly all American biologists
of prominence and many. foreign naturalists.
On the other side of the Atlantic a small but not unimpor-
_ tant number of biologists, of whom Weismann and Lankester
may be taken as spokesmen, have recently endeavored to show
*Read before the Biological Society of Washington, Mar. 8, 18go.
ve BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
that the current of hypothesis most favored in America, though
not confined to our naturalists, is running in a wrong direc-
tion, although they do not seem to have any satisfactory alter-
native to offer.
For convenience in discussion those who accept the ideas re-
ferred to, in greater or less degree, may be termed Dynamic
Evolutionists. Their position has been very fairly and tem-
perately stated by Osborne in his article on the paleontological
evidence of the transmission of acquired characters.* With-
' out attempting to speak for others I have felt that a statement
of the position to which I have been led by my own studies
might not be without use in the present status of the question.
In the first place, in opposition to the notion that characters
acquired in other than the embryonic or larval condition are
not transmitted to the progeny ;—I maintain that a direct or
indirect transmission of acquired characters is absolutely es-_
sential to any theory of evolution and that, speaking broadly,
the whole system of Darwinism must stand or fall with this
hypothesis. It is as axiomatic as the ‘‘ survival of the fittest ’’
itself.
It therefore becomes necessary to define what is: meant by
)
‘“acquired characters’’ and their ‘‘ transmission.”’
The environment stands in a relation to the individual such
as the hammer and anvil bear to the blacksmith’s hot iron.
The organism suffers during its entire existence a continuous
series of mechanical impacts, none the less real because invisi-
ble, or disguised by the fact that some of them are precipi-
tated by voluntary effort of the individual itself. So far as re-
*Nature Jan. 9, 1890, p. 227; Science, 1890, p. 110. The name Neo-
Lamarckian is objectionable, as it tends to connect with the modern
hypothesis the different and obsolete theory of the distinguished French
naturalist.
ON DYNAMIC INFLUENCES IN EVOLUTION. 3
sults are concerned, for the ground to strike the horse’s hoof
would be the same as for the horse to strike the ground with
his hoof; direction and dynamic value of shock being as-
sumed to be equal in the two cases. Since individual organ-
isms usually appear free to wander about or ‘remain quiescent,
the idea that they are under constant stress does not ordinar-
ily suggest itself. To this habit of superficial observation I
ascribe the slowness with which the dynamic element in evolu-
tion has received recognition, though pointed out clearly so
long ago, by Herbert Spencer.
That which distinguishes the organic individual from the in-
organic fragment of matter is the complexity of its reaction
to these impacts, which reaction we term physiological in con- —
tra-distinction to the simply mechanical, though both, at bot-
tom are doubtless similar.
The characters which develop in an organism in response to
these impacts are acquired, but that which is transmitted
is a facility of response in the same line, which may, under
favorable circumstances, lead to a similar response in the
progeny, and, in the course of time with a continuation of
similar impacts through successive generations, promote and
establish the physiological habit which is the directive influ-
ence toward the regular development of the characters in
question. : F
It is, I believe, generally admitted that such is the case in
relation to mental stimuli and reactions in man and some of
the higher animals and that the growth of intellectual life in
the human race depends upon it. |
It is a matter of indifference, dynamically, whether the par-
ticular series of impacts concerned in developing a special
physiological response is the result of conscious effort by the
organism or not; but, as it is highly unlikely that any volun-
4 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
tary effort, no matter how seconded by habit, should be as con-
stant and unceasing as the impacts due to ordinary mechanical
forces, we should expect the responses due to conscious effort
to be feeble in intensity and numerically féw in comparison
with those arising from the dynamic forces undirected by con-
sciousness.
The dynamics of the environment, so far as we are able to
understand them, in their principal features must be remark-
ably constant. ‘The weight and consistency of the water or air
which forms the surrounding medium, the character of the
supporting surface, the range of temperature, the supply of
light, the friction of adjacent bodies, the attraction of gravita-
tion, vary within comparatively narrow limits, when consistent
with organic existence. We should therefore expect that
their influence would on the whole be conservative and tend
toward the preservation of the main characteristics of organ-
isms once brought into substantial equilibrium with their
surroundings.
On the other hand, owing to the very narrowness of the
limits within which life is possible, the dynamic variations,
within those limits, to which organic forms are subjected be-
come relatively more important. It is probable that since the
initiation of life upon the planet no two organisms have ever
been subjected to exactly the same dynamic influences during
their development. Differences of impact necessarily imply dif-
ferences in response, hence a certain amount of variation is the
inevitable result. It is absolutely impossible that any two in-
dividuals can be or ever have been strictly similar and the ap-
plication of a conception of exact similarity to any two actual
beings becomes more and more difficult as the complexity of
their organization is increased.
The origin of variation therefore presents no difficulties ;
EY Pe ome, es
ON DYNAMIC INFLUENCES IN EVOLUTION. 5
rather the presence of two strictly similar beings, could it be
shown, would border on the miraculous.
The question which demands an answer is, how are the
small necessary and admitted differences stimulated to develop
into the obvious differences which are recognized by systematic
biologists ?
To this I~would answer that the reactions of the organism
against the physical forces and mechanical properties of its
environment are abundantly sufficient, if we are granted a sim-
ple organism, with a tendency to grow, to begin with; time
for the operation of the forces; and the principle of the sur-
-vival of the fittest.
It is often assumed in discussing variation that the possi-
bility of variation is equal in every direction. A considera-
tion of the dynamic conditions of life show that this’is not the
case, or at least, if we grant its theoretic truth, in practice it
never can be true. Under any conditions which would permit
it, the resulting organic forms would all be sub-spherical, and
would have to pass their existence in constant rotation.
The moment that any one of them came to rest it would be-
gin to be subjected to unequal stresses relatively to its different
parts. Light, gravity, friction, opportunities for nutrition,
would be unequally distributed, with the result of forcing an
unequal growth, development, and specialization of its regions.
Inequality of form once established, if it were*a moving or- _
ganism, friction and resistence of the circumambient medium .
would confirm the inequality and put individuals of its kind at
a disadvantage when they varied toward the original shape.
Flexure of an elongated body would mechanically institute
changes analogous to segmentation, as pointed out by Spencer.
Any organic mass possessed of mechanical continuity must de-
velop surface tension and initiate a superficial film.
6 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
The fact that these portions of matter are organic, in no re-
spect releases them from the common servitude of matter to
the laws of mechanics through the operation of physical
forces.
If then development of structure is constrained to operate
within a limited field, which can hardly be denied, all those
calculations based upon the assumption that the field is unlim-
ited fall to the ground and may be safely disregarded as
irrelevant. 7 }
The operations of biologic selection may be divided into two
categories, 1st. those in which fitness and unfitness are deter-
mined by the perfection in adjustment of the individual to the
mechanics of the environment, which will include the great
mass of the lower organisms ; and 2nd., those in which intelli-
gence becomes a factor. The latter will include all forms of
sexual selection, mimicry, protective coloration, and every
case in which discrimination on the part of pursuer or pursued
may come into play. It is by no means necessary that the or-
ganism which becomes modified should possess even conscious-
ness, but one of the two parties to the modification, at least,
must possess intelligence of a certain grade. The mental,
qualities of the insect are necessary to the modification of the
colors of the orchid, as far as they serve to attract its attention
or direct its movements, while the modifications of the stigma
or pollen mass to facilitate cross fertilization, fall into the other
category.
While the operations of the first. category must always have
been active, and probably were not supplemented by those of
the second category for an immense period of time, yet I be-
lieve the latter also to be very ancient. It is probable, how-
ever, that influences of the second category operate more
rapidly and are productive of much greater diversity in devel-
vie etn cE et
ae LA aN ee
ON DYNAMIC INFLUENCES IN EVOLUTION. 7
opment than could ever have been expected from the unas-
sisted working of the physical forces.
Passing from these general considerations to those of a more
special character, the contention of Weismann that ‘‘not a
single fact hitherto brought forward can be accepted as proof’’
of the transmission of acquired characters demands attention.
This reminds one of the familiar statement of twenty years
ago that the Darwinians had not brought forward a single in-
stance of the conversion of one species into another species.
If the Dynamic Evolutionist brings forward an hypothesis
which explains the facts of nature without violence to sound
reasoning, that hypothesis is entitled to respect and considera-
tion until some-better one is proposed or some vitiating error
is detected in it. No one has yet ‘‘ proved ”’ that one species
is developed out of another species in the sense in which
Weismann uses the word proof in his criticism. But plenty of
facts which support the hypothesis that acquired characters are
transmitted in the sense hereinbefore explained have been ac-
cumulated, of which Osborne’s paper, above cited, affords evi-
dence in one direction. Can anyone believe that the perma-
nent limb-callosities of the horse and deer, for instance, are
selective developments of fortuitous larval corns? Our knowl-
edge of the physiology of any animal, except too or three
which have been domesticated for ages, and excepting’ man, is
so contemptibly meagre that it cannot be quoted as evidence
on either side.
The question has been much obscured by the attempt to
quote the effect or non-effect of mutilations upon progeny, on
one side or the other.
For the Dynamic hypothesis only those characters can be
considered which arise from permanent physiological reactions
due to the impact of external forces. Mutilations rarely fall
8 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
into this category and are essentially sporadic. In the case of
circumcision, so often cited, they affect, at most, half the indi-
viduals of a race and only half of any one generation.
There is not a particle of reason to believe that the excision
of a trifling scrap of cuticle from an infant would lead to any
physiological reaction worthy of attention. One might with
greater warrant seek such an effect in the growth of hair and
of the nails in civilized races accustomed to trim them.
Neither case has been shown to afford valuable evidence.
There is no reason to deny that a pathologic incident of suf-
ficiently fundamental character may effect the progeny of an
individual, but it is of no consequence to the ‘Dynamic hypo-
thesis whether it can be proven or not.
Experience shows that it is not single mutilation or loss of
substance which results in permanent physiological reactions
so much as continued impacts which lead to locally increased
nutrition or local anaemia.
The objection to reasoning drawn from pathologic cases is
not that it is not or may not be true, but that the cause affects
only individuals in trifling numbers.
The forces invoked by Dynamic hypothesis, on the other
hand, affect every individual of a race and every generation
as long as the environment continues unchanged. Sporadic
modifications. must always be finally swallowed up in the gen-
eral average of the organic type, unless carefully selected by
intelligent agencies. The steady pressure of telluric forces
lets no individual escape.
On the coast of California the soft tertiary sandstones are
drilled by several species of boring mollusks, Pholas, Lithophagus
and Petricola. Inthe course of time the borers die and leave their
closely fitting cells untenanted. Into these safe retreats the
young of several non-boring bivalves are in the habit of retiring.
ey Lh oe ee ee
ER VE Ae a Ee. a eee
ON DYNAMIC INFLUENCES IN EVOLUTION. 2
As they grow they become too large to escape by the
hole through which they entered. Grow they must but the
stone walls of their dwelling permit growth only in certain
directions. The collector breaks the rock and finds Kel/a,
Tapes or Rupellariec with the outward conformation of the an-
tecedent borer. Those which refused to conform, if any, have
died. Here we have a case where characters have been as-
sumed under an abnormal stress analogous to a pathologic or
traumatic mutilation. The progeny of these nestlers would
probably exhibit no traces of their parents’ deformity. But
the pressure of the physical forces on this progeny would be,
though invisible, as constant and effective in its results as the
rock seemed to be with the nestlers. These results in propor- —
tion to their harmony with the environment produce upon the
observer the impression which is implied when he speaks of
‘
the appearance of such species as ‘‘ normél.’’
In my paper on the hinge of Pelecypods and its develop-
ment,* I have pointed out a number of the particular ways in
which the dynamics of the environment may act on the char-
acters of the hinge and shell of bivalve mollusks.
In a paper now in preparation for publication I have shown
how the initiation and development of the columellar plaits in
Voluta, Mitra and other Gastropods, is the necessary mechani-
cal result of certain comparatively simple physical conditions ;
and that the variations and peculiarities connected with these
plaits perfectly harmonize with the results which follow with
inorganic material subjected to analogous stresses. +
Attention once directed to this class of influences and their
effects and it is certain facts will accumulate not less numerous
*Am. Journ. of Science, Dec., 1889, p. 445.
10 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
and convincing in their establishment of the theory than those
which have been taken as ‘‘proof’’ of the survival of the
fittest.
Nore. Since this paper was delivered before the society: the
discussion of the subject has been continued in the pages of
Nature. YI have been interested to note that Prof.’ Lankester
(in the issue for Mar. 6, 1890, page 414) like the skilled tacti-
cian he is; has begun building bridges in his rear which may
serve as a means of retreat from his present untenable posi-
tion. He now explains that by the ‘‘ transmission of acquired
characters’’ he means the obsolete theory of Lamarck in its
purity, which, so far as I have followed the discussion, nobody
has proposed to uphold. Why he has continued to oppose the
Dynamical theory by arguments intended to demolish a totally
different hypothesis, he does not explain.
Mr. Romanes has also pointed out that recent admissions of
Dr. Weismann are fatal to the ingenious hypothesis and as-
sumptions with which that gentleman’s name has been chiefly
connected (Vature, Mar. 13, 1890, p..429.)
In fact these and other signs indicate that the most able of
those who have through haste or conservatism been disposed.
to ignore dynamical influences in evolution, will before long
join in the procession, and lend their undoubted abilities to the
perfection and elaboration of the only theory yet propounded
which fully and efficiently supplements that of Natural Selec-
tion and closes the too obvious gaps which have hitherto
existed in the intellectual structure of the modern theory of
organic evolution.
RAT Dee Lm ee ee ae eee
NEO-DARWINISM AND NEO-LAMARCKISM.*
By LkESTER F. WARD.
INTRODUCTORY.
In casting about for a subject on which to address this
Society I have encountered serious difficulties. A presidential
address to a Biological Society should, as it seems to me, fol-
low one of two courses. It should either relate in its general |
aspects to the subject with which its author is most familiar,
and so coordinate the facts within his specialty as to correlate
them with the sum-total of biological science ; or else, it should
be an exposition of and commentary upon the most prominent
problem of biology which at the time of its presentation, is en-
grossing the attention of the scientific world. One year ago I
realized these two alternatives as clearly as I'do now, and I felt
then that while the second of them was not more appropriate
than the first, the overwhelming prominence of one great biolog-
ical question almost demanded that I should sink my individual
preferences and, as a matter of sheer duty, undertake to grap-
ple with that question. But I have always believed and often
said that the Biological Society should choose as its president
one who represents the whole science of biology, and that it
made a mistake in selecting a narrow specialist, and a special-
ist in a department which has the reputation of not keeping
* Annual Presidential Address delivered at the Eleventh Anniversary
Meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, January 24, 1891, in
the Law Lecture Room of the Columbian University.
12 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
pace with the rest of the science, and I felt that if compelled
to listen to views growing chiefly out of that narrow specialty,
it was in some degree its own fault. But in view of the fact
that the Society saw fit to repeat its mistake, and that I last
year presented the problems of botany and its geologic history,
there seems no escape from that duty which still confronts me
of closing with the great problem of heredity which continues
to occupy the foreground of all biological discussion.
There is strictly speaking only one prominent question ‘be-
fore the biological world and that is the question whether qual-
ities that are acquired after birth are capable of being trans-
mitted to descendants. Darwinism in its original entirety, as
expounded by Darwin himself, admits such transmission. But |
by the new school of Neo-Darwinists this is denied. On the
other hand Lamarckism, as expounded by Lamarck, explains
all change through the transmission of functionally acquired
characters, the law of natural selection not having been per-
ceived by Lamarck. But Neo-Lamarckism, as I understand it,
while recognizing natural selection as the more potent of the
two agencies, also recognizes that the increments of change im-
pressed upon individuals during their lifetime or brought about
by individual efforts or habits are also perpetuated in some
measure through heredity and form an important factor in
the general process of organic development.
STATUS OF THE PROBLEM.
From the appearance of the Origin of Species in 1859 until
within the past four or five years it had been the opinion of
nearly all naturalists that the existing forms of animals and
plants were the result mainly of two cooperating causes, one
of which may be called functional and the other selective. ‘The
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 13
multitudinous infinitesimal effects wrought by both of these
causes upon the form and character of organisms were
believed to be cumulatively perpetuated by heredity in the
modification of species and the production-of new and altered
forms of vegetable and animal life. Prior to the date named
the few who conceived that existing forms might be modifica-
tions of ancestral ones ascribed the changes wholly to the first
of these causes, the functional. Mr. Darwin showed that this
could not account for all cases, and in pointing out, simul-
taneously with Mr. Wallace, the existence and mode of opera-
tion of the selective agency he made the most important con-
tribution yet brought forward to the science of biology.
At the date of Darwin’s death, 1882, the general doctrine of |
evolution and the theory of development in biology had been
accepted by so nearly the entire body of scientific men that it
was scarcely worth the effort to conciliate the small remnant
who still adhered to the special creation hypothesis. The
only question was: By what agency or agencies is evolution
accomplished ?
It would carry me too far to attempt to pass in review the
various theories of the pre-Darwinians—Treviranus, De Mail-
let, Goethe, Buffon, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Erasmus Darwin, and
the anonymous author of the Vestiges of Creation. ‘This task
has been admirably performed by Professor Haeckel in his
History of Creation, and in the later editions of the Origin of
Species Mr. Darwin has collected quite a number of sporadic
adumbrations not only of the law of evolution itself but even
of that of natural selection. I shall be obliged to confine my-
self almost exclusively to the one great mind, who far more
than all others combined, paved the way for the new science of
biology to be founded by Darwin, namely, Lamarck. His life.
was chiefly devoted to the systematic and structural investiga-
14 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
tion of animals and plants and his earlier works gave little
indication of philosophical tendencies, but his Philosophie
—Zoologique,* which appeared in 1809, showed that he had
reasoned deeply about the objects he had so long studied, and
in this work is contained the whole of his celebrated system of
the transmutation of species.
LAMARCKISM.
Although most of the members of this Society are doubtless
familiar with the general character of the Lamarckian philos-
ophy, and many have probably read this work, the nature of
my subject seems to demand that some of the more general
principles of Lamarckism be set forth. A few paragraphs
from the work in question will accomplish this better than any
_ attempt at exposition. The following quotations will serve to
show the sweeping character of Lamarck’s generalizations,
and when we remember the time at which they were written
it will not appear strange that his views attracted so few ad-
herents and -had to wait half a century for a respectful
hearing.
‘‘Tn order to judge’’ says Lamarck ‘‘ whether the idea that
has been formed of a sfecies has any real foundation, let us
‘return to the considerations which I have already set forth ;
they show:
ist. That all the organized bodies of our globe are true
products of Nature, which she has successfully brought forth
(exécutés) in the course of long periods of time ;
2d. That in her march Nature has commenced, and is still
daily commencing to form the most simple organized bodies,
* Philosophie Zoologique, etc. Par Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de
Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck. Nouvelle Edition, revue et précédée
dune introduction biographique par Charles Martins. Paris, 1873,
2 vols. 8°. :
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. ee Fi)
and that she only forms these latter directly, that is, only
these first Sketches of organization that have been designated
by the expression spontaneous generation,
3d. That these first outlines of the animal and of the plant
formed at suitable places and under appropriate circumstances,
and possessing the attributes of incipient life and organic
movement, have themselves little by little developed organs
and in time multiplied these as well as parts ;
4th. That the power of growth in each part of the organ-
ized body being inherent in the first effects of life, it has given
rise to the different modes of multiplication and reproduction
of individuals, and that in this way the progress acquired in
organization and in the form and diversity of parts has been
preserved ;
5th. That by the aid of sufficient time, of circumstances
which have been necessarily favorable, of the changes which
all points on the surface of the globe have successively under-
gone in their condition, in a word, by the power which new
situations and new habits possess to modify the organs of bodies —
and of life, all the organisms that now exist have been insensi-
bly formed such as we see them; |
6th. Finally, that under the influence of such an order of
things, living bodies having undergone each of the changes,
greater or less, in their structure and in their parts, what is
called species thus insensibly and successively brought about
among them has only a relative constancy in its character and
cannot be as ancient as Nature herself.’’ *
It will be seen that both the mutability and the transmuta-
tion of species are distinctly formulated. But in order to make
this more clear he elsewhere says:
* Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 81-83.
16 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘«In the same climate very different situations and exposures
cause individuals thus placed at first simply to vary; but in the
course of time the continual differences of situation of the indi-
viduals of which I speak, living and reproducing under the
same conditions, bring about in them differences which become
in some sort essential to their existence, so that at the end of
many generations which succeed each other those individuals
which belonged originally to another species find themselves
transformed into a new species, distinct from the other.’’ *
The two great causes to which he ascribes this transforma-
tion are: 1, what he calls the ‘‘circumstances,’’ and 2, the
‘‘habits’’ of- the creatures transformed, and to enforce this
idea he lays down the following ‘‘ zoological principle’’ the
fundamental truth of which, he says, appeared to him incon-
testable : .
‘‘Progress in the structure (composition) of the organization
undergoes here and there in the general series of animals
anomalies brought about by the character of the habitat
(ctrconstances a habitation), and by that of habits contracted.’’+
Between the ‘‘ circumstances’’ and the ‘‘ habits,’’ however,
Lamarck perceived a casual relation, and this he expressed in
the following argumentative form :
‘The true order of things to be considered in all this con-
sists in recognizing :
ist. That every permanent change of any consequence in
the circumstances under which each race of animals finds
itself effects within it a real change in their needs ;
2d. That every change in the needs of animals necessitates
for them other actions to satisfy the new needs, and hence,
other habits ;
* Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 79-80.
ft Op. cit., Vol. I, P. 145.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 17
3d. That every new need necessitating new actions to satisfy
it requires of the animal experiencing it either the more fre-
quent employment of such of its organs of which it previously
made less use, which develops and enlarges considerably, or
else the employment of new parts to which the needs insensi-
bly give rise within it through efforts of its internal sense.’’*
In all this Lamarck does not expressly say that these trans-
formations are perpetuated by heredity, although this is clearly
implied, otherwise they would not be permanent. But he now
proceeds to embody the general principle in what he calls a
law, the first law of organic life, to which he adds-a second law
in which the principle of heredity is distinctly formulated. Al-.
though these two great Lamarckian laws have been frequently
quoted in biological discussions, especially within the past three
or four years, it seems essential to the completeness of the
present exposition to introduce them. They are as follows:
First Law: ‘‘In every animal which has not passed the limit
of its development the more frequent and sustained exercise
(emplot) of any organ gradually strengthens that organ, de-
velops and enlarges it, and gives it a power proportioned to the
duration of such exercise ; while the continued lack of exercise
(usage) of an organ gradually enfeebles it, deteriorates it,
progressively diminishes its power, and finally causes it to dis-
appear.”’
Second Law: ‘‘All that nature has caused individuals to ac-
quire or to lose through the influence of the circumstances to
which their race has found itself for a long time exposed, and
consequently, through the predominant exercise of certain or-
gans, or through a failure to exercise certain parts, it preserves
through heredity (géxération) to the new individuals that are
*Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 234-235.
18 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
produced by them, provided the changes acquired are common
to the two sexes, or to those that have produced these new
individuals.” * |
These laws are enforced by considerable iteration and all the
facts and illustrations that he could command. He condenses
his first law into the following form :
‘‘The frequent exercise of an organ which through habit
has become permanent increases the capacity of such organ,
develops it, and causes it to acquire dimensions and power of
action which it does not possess in animals that exercise it
less.’”’ +
The second law is re-stated in the following language :
‘« Every change acquired in an organ by an habitual exercise
sufficient to have brought it about, is preserved thereafter
through heredity (génération) if it is common to the indi-
viduals which, in fecundation, unite in the reproduction of
their species.’’ {
Such is Lamarckism pure and simple, which it seems neces-
sary to set forth at first hand before approaching those modern
phases of the problem which have grown out of it. It is obvi-
ous that it deals only with the first of the two agencies in bio-
logic progress mentioned at the outset, namely the functional ;
and Lamarck, although he clearly grasped the law of compe-
tition, or the struggle for existence, the law of adaptation, or
the correspondence of the organism to the changing environ-
ment, the transmutation of species, and the genealogical de-
scent of all organic beings, the more ‘complex from the more
simple ; he nevertheless failed to conceive the selective princi-
ple as formulated by Darwin and Wallace, which so admirably
complemented these great laws.
* Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 235-236. ft Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 247.
t Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 258-259.
~
|
%
e
ia
y
Ht
a
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 19
The cogency of Lamarck’s reasoning, especially when we
consider the time at which he wrote, is sufficiently apparent
to all, but it may not be without interest to note the manner
in which it struck so excellent a judge as Professor Huxley
as late as 1876. In contrasting it with the views of Cuvier
who maintained the fixity of species and their special crea-
tion, Professor Huxley says: ‘‘It is impossible to read the
‘Discours sur les Revolutions’ of Cuvier, and the ‘ Principes’
of Lamarck without being struck with the superiority of the
former in sobriety of thought, precision of statement, and
coolness of judgment. But it is no less impossible to consider
the present state of biological science without being impressed
by the circumstance that it is the conception of Lamarck |
which has triumphed and that of Cuvier which has been van-
quished . . . It is not too much to say that the facts of
biology known at the present day are all consistent with and
in favor of the view of species entertained by Lamarck, while
they are unfavorable to, if not incompatible with, that advo-
cated by Cuvier.’’*
DARWINISM.
Darwin was acquainted with Lamarck’s views when he
wrote the Origin of Species, and notwithstanding the fact that
whenever he refers to Lamarck, as he does in several of his
letterst he does so in a very disparaging way, he must have
been greatly influenced by them, or at least by views of the
same import expressed by others as well as by Lamarck, but
especially those of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, who
anticipated, rather from the standpoint of the poet and seer,
the truths to which Lamarck was led by a life-long study ‘of
living things.
* Am. Cycl., Art. Species.
+ Life and Letters, Vol. I, p. 542, Vol. II, p. 198.
20 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
But Darwin, like most other thorough naturalists, was little
satisfied with the Lamarckian theory, because it left, as all
now admit, so much still unexplained, but instead of reject-
ing it in toto, as most other naturalists did, he sought, and
happily succeeded in finding the principle on which the
remainder of the facts could be accounted for; or, at least,
the greater part of them, for it seems that however deeply
we may probe the secrets of nature there will ever remain a
few residual phenomena that refuse to submit to our canons.
It is certainly unnecessary that I should occupy your time
with any extended exposition of the law of selection, and I
will content myself with the following bare definitions :
Natural selection is the general law that variations are con-
stantly occurring in organized beings, and that such of these
variations as prove advantageous to the species are preserved
through heredity and transmitted to posterity while those
which are not advantageous or are disadvantageous to the
species are not preserved nor transmitted ; the cause of such
selection being the fact that advantageous variations tend to
increase the chances that the individuals possessing them will
reach the reproductive age and continue longer to reproduce,
and will hence leave a larger number of offspring than those
individuals which had not varied or had varied in an equivo-
cal or unfavorable manner.
Artificial selection is the act of man in intelligently select-
ing the individuals that possess in the highest degree the
particular qualities that he desires to produce as the parents
of the animals or plants which he wishes to domesticate or
cultivate. The eminent success obtained by man in this way
is the certain proof that the qualities of the parents are trans-
mitted to their offspring, and explains the efficacy of natural
selection. |
ers . a
EF ee ee) Pe ated
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 21
Sexual selection is the law that one sex, usually the
female, exercises a choice between the individuals of the
other, whereby those individuals possessing the selected qual-
ities stand a much greater chance to have the opportunity of
transmitting them to their offspring. This law explains the
greater ornamentation of the males in so many. species, since
most such characters are peculiar to one sex and only appear
at maturity. Sexual selection also checks the tendency of »
natural selection to extreme variation in certain directions,
since the sexes are well known to prefer their opposites,
which causes the offspring to occupy a mean between the
extremes. ‘This effect is very marked in the human race, but
is doubtless operative among the lower animals. As I pointed ©
out in last year’s address, sexual selection has wrought a
great revolution in the relative size, strength, and beauty of
the two sexes, and reversed in birds and mammals the normal
law of female superiority which prevails in most of the lower
departments of life.
ACQUIRED CHARACTERS.
It will be readily perceived from what has been said of the
two great principles of transformism, the functional, as set
forth by Lamarck, and the selective, as elaborated by Darwin,
that the fundamental distinction between them is that in the
former the transforming qualities which are to be cumulatively
transmitted through heredity to the descendants of a given
ancestral pair are acquired during the lifetime of these indi-
viduals, whereas in the latter the transforming increment is a
merely accidental modification arising from unknown causes
and hence called spontaneous. The theory is that such spon-
taneous variations are constantly taking place in all individ-
22, BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
uals, some in one direction and some in another, and that all
except the advantageous ones are immediately lost, while
such as tend to increase the chances of survival in the strug-
gle for existence are preserved. Nature has thus provided,
through this survival of the fittest, for the maintenance of the
equilibrium between the organism and the environment, and
also for the increase of structural adaptation and vital power,
independently both of the effort of the individual to conform
more exactly to its surroundings and of the reaction of the
organism upon the impinging environment.
There has never been any doubt of the perfect transmissi-
bility of these spontaneous modifications, or, as they have been
called, fortuitous variations. ‘They belong to the essential na-
ture of the organism, and have, as we shall see later on, been
ingeniously explained as originating in the very germ itself.
But with regard to functional modifications, or as they are
more commonly called, acquired characters, grave doubts have
arisen in the minds of many naturalists as to whether they are
capable of being inherited by the descendants of those in which
they have been superinduced. They are in a certain sense for-
eign to the organism, external and superficial, and the great
question has been how they can succeed in so affecting the -
reproductive germs of the parents as to reappear in the off-
spring. That Darwin believed in the transmission of func-
tionally acquired characters is attested not only by many
passages in which this belief is expressly stated but by the
bringing together by him of more facts in support of it than
have been given by all other writers combined either before
or since. And although’ the greater part of his work was
naturally directed to the establishment of the hitherto un-
known, but as he believed, more important law of selection,
“nevertheless Darwinism proper must be made broad enough
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 23
to embrace both of the great agencies of organic transforma-
tion, the functional and the selective.
It is hardly necessary to add that pure Lamarckism has
nothing whatever to do with such a question as whether acci-
dental modifications produced upon an organism, such as mu-
tilations from whatever cause, are inheritable, since these are
not due to continuous interaction between organism and envi-
ronment, are not the objects of the creature’s efforts, and are
not acquired by any functional or habitual activities. And yet it
is no exaggeration to say that at least one-half, probably much
more, of the space devoted by the Neo-Darwinians to the sup-
posed refutation of Lamarckism has been directed to proving
that acccidental mutilations are not transmitted to. offspring.
I do not deny that there is a doctrine of the transmissi-
bility of mutilations, and Darwin and others have collected a
large body of facts pointing strongly in that direction, while
Brown-Séquard is believed by many to have demonstrated
that hereditary epilepsy may be artificially superinduced. in
guinea-pigs by lesions of the brain. And it may be that
Lamarck, coming upon similar facts, gave them a certain cre-
dence, but, as we have seen from typical passages quoted from
his work, these cases are not capable of being used in support
of his general philosophy, which rests entirely upon the
effects of functional activities exerted in response to secular
alterations in the surrounding conditions of existence.
Whatever of truth, therefore, there may be in the doctrine
of the transmissibility of suddenly or accidentally acquired
characters, it is clearly outside the present discussion and
need not be further touched upon.
After the doctrine of natural selection had been clearly ex-
plained it was found to be so simple and at the same time so
far-reaching that it began to be questioned whether much that
24 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
had been formerly attributed to the other agency ought not to
be credited to it instead ; and it cannot be denied that this in-
quiry tended to broaden the field of the selective at the ex-
pense of that of the functional principle. So clear and certain
are the workings of the former that it is considered safe to
credit it with every fact that can be explained by it, even
though it be also explicable by the other law.
But it was not allowed to rest here. The difficulties in the
way of accounting for the transmission of qualities originating
after the birth of the parents appeared to some so great that
they began to doubt whether in fact such a thing is really
possible. Of course, there were many popular and superficial
writers on evolution who fail to distinguish the two principles
and talked as though all development was due to natural
selection, so that to the unscientific and popular mind evo-
lution and natural selection were largely synonymous and
_ vaguely comprehended, as is, in fact, still to a large extent,
the case. Other better informed people, including some
naturalists of note, were so dazzled by the new idea that they
lost sight of the old one, and habitually ignored the func-
tional element without criticising it or taking any account of
it. It appears to have been against this class that Mr. Her-
bert Spencer’s brilliant exposition of the principle which, in
characteristic language, he calls ‘‘direct equilibration ’’ was
directed. To this I shall have occasion to revert.
For the present I propose to confine myself to those writers
who clearly comprehend the nature of the two principles, and
who either gravely doubt for what seem to them sufficient rea-
sons, or else deny altogether the efficacy of functional modifi-
cation and the doctrine of the transmission of acquired charac-
ters. The limits of an address such as this preclude any effort
to make the discussion historically exhaustive by enumerating
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 25
all the investigators who from the first to last have taken this 3
view, or some modified form of it, and I shall be content to
name among Germans Du Boise Reymond, Pfltiger, His, and
Weismann, and among Englishmen Galton, Wallace, and Ray
Lankester ; while what I shall have time to say relative to
the nature of the objections raised by these authors will be
chiefly confined, for the present, to the views of Galton and
Weismann.
THEORIES OF HEREDITY.
It must, however, be premised that inasmuch as the objec-
tions raised against the doctrine of the transmission of ac-.
quired characters are based upon the difficulties encountered
in attempting to explain how such characters can impress
themselves upon the germ, all those who have doubted or de-
nied such transmission have approached the subject from the
side of embryology, which makes their arguments difficult to
_ explain to biologists in general and still more so to the general
public. The laws and processes of heredity are still in the
stage of mystery, and their mysterious character has led to
many erroneous beliefs and popular superstitions. , It is a sig-
nificant fact that all the mysteries that have been thus far
cleared up by science—astronomical, physical and chemical
mysteries—have been shown to be the expressions of previ-
ously unknown laws of matter and force, and to rest upon a
purely material and mechanical basis. The chief obstacle to
their comprehension has been the minuteness of the material
elements in action—a minuteness far beyond the capacity of
the most powerful artificial aids to the senses—so that their
secrets have had to be wrung from them by ingenious and
multiplied experiments upon their effects. Now, the ultimate
26 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
reproductive elements, though doubtless many times larger
than any chemical molecule, even the most complex, such as
those of protein and other organic compounds, are doubtless
still far too minute to be observed by the highest powers of
the microscope, and if the entire history of the formation of a
new organic being is ever to be learned it must be by a suc-
cessful study of the actions of such minute objects. But this
is infinitely more difficult than the study of the actions of
inorganic elements, since they take place within an organism
whose destruction destroys their vital character.
In view of the history of the less complex sciences it is
natural that biologists should insist that the phenomena of
heredity are due to the activities of the ultimate material
reproductive elements, and not to any vague and occult force
or deus ex machina. Consequently we find that the only
theories of heredity that have been put forth have been based
on this assumption.
One of the earliest, and certainly the most celebrated of such
theories is Darwin’s pangenesis, published in 1867.* Accord-
ing to this theory, which is doubtless familiar to most of you,
the ultimate reproductive elements, called gemmules, are given
off from the cells of all parts of the body and collect in the
germ-cells and sperm-cells, so that the fertilized ova contain
literal representatives of every organ and every part of both
parents, which in the new being return to their respective
locations and cause the repetition in each of the exact qualities
possessed by the parental organs or parts, subject, of course,
to the modifications due to a conflict or cooperation between
the gemmules of the two parents, equalizing a character where
they are different, and emphasizing it where-they are alike.
* Variations of Animals and Plants under Domestication. Vol. II,
Chaps. XXXVII, XXXVIII.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. - 27
It will be readily seen that this theory adapts itself to the
broadest conception of heredity and, if true, accounts for the
transmission of functionally produced modifications as well as
the selection of such accidental ones as prove advantageous.
But to the ordinary mind this strictly materialistic explanation
of heredity seems crude and is to a large extent unintelligible,
and the doctrine of pangenesis has gained few adherents
among scientific men. ‘They fail as a rule to comprehend
Mr. Darwin’s gemmules and to understand how they should
behave in the manner required by the theory.
Very much of this difficulty, however, is cleared away by
the admirable exposition of Mr. Herbert Spencer of the na-
ture of what he calls physiological units. To the biologist the |
organic unit is the cell and when he has explained the nature
and action of cells he thinks he has gone far enough. But the
facts of heredity cannot be explained by any phenomena man-
ifested by cells. Between the cell or morphological unit in
biology and the molecule of a highly complex organic com-
pound, such as albumen,—the highest class of chemical units—
no intermediate element had hitherto been recognized. Mr.
Darwin’s gemmule is clearly such an intermediate element,
and the question at once arose, is there any such? Mr. Spen-
cer has, I think, shown beyond the possibility of doubt that
there is and must necessarily be such an element—a unit which
is not chemical, since it possesses life, and which is not the
morphological unit or cell, but is that of which the active part
of every cell consists, and is appropriately termed the physio-
logical unit. I have elsewhere* undertaken to show that life
may have resulted from a process of chemical recompounding,
* American Naturalist, Vol. XVI, December, 1882, p. 976. Dynamic
Sociology, New York, 1883, Vol. I, p. 311.
28 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
and may actually constitute the leading property of the high-
est organic compound protoplasm, and I venture to suggest
here that the gemmules of Darwin and the physiological
units of Spencer may be nothing more than the molecules of
protoplasm, which, as I have explained, are so immensely
complex that any required degree of difference in their essen-
tial constitution may easily exist.
The only other theory of heredity which time will warrant
my mentioning now is that of Professor Haeckel, published in
1876 and known as ‘‘the perigenesis of the plastidule.’’ ‘To
avoid the possibility of misstatement, I will give this theory
in the words of its author, as epitomized in the latest (8th)
edition (1889) of his Schopfungsgeschichte (pp. 200-201):
‘“The perigenesis-theory was founded by me in 1876 in a
memoir ‘on the wave-reproduction of vital particles or the
perigenesis of plastidules,’ and as a ‘ provisional attempt at a
mechanical explanation of the elementary processes of devel-
opment,’ and especially of heredity. (In the second part of
my collection of popular lectures, Bonn, 1879, pp. 25-80). The
perigenesis-hypothesis seeks to explain heredity by a simple
mechanical principle, namely, by the well-known principle of
transmitted motion. I assume that in every process of repro-
duction not only is the special chemical composition of the
plasson or plasma transmitted from the parent to the offspring,
but also the special form of molecular motion which belongs
to its physico-chemical nature. In harmony with the funda-
mental laws of modern histology and histogeny, I assume that
this plasma (either the caryo-plasma of the cell-nucleus or the
cytoplasma of the cell-body) is alone the otiginal bearer of
all vital activity, and hence also of heredity and reproduction.
In all plastids (as well the anucleated cytodes as the genuine
nucleated cells) this plasma or plasson is composed of plasti-
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 29
dules or plasma-molecules, and these are ‘probably sur-
rounded by aqueous envelops ; the greater or less thickness
of these aqueous envelops, which at once separate and bind
the neighboring plastidules, determines the softer or harder
condition of the flowing plasson’ (p. 48).
‘ Heredity is the transmission of plastidule motion, whereas
adaptation is change of plastidule motion’ (p. 55). This
motion may in its general aspects be conceived as a ramified
wave-motion. In all protists or unicellular organisms (proto- —
phytes and protozoans) this periodical movement of the mass
goes on in a correspondingly simple manner while in all
tissue-bearing or multicellular creatures (metaphytes and
_ metazoans) it is combined with a mutual generation of the -
plastids and a division of labor of the plastidules.’’
It will be observed that although this theory of heredity
lays special stress upon the idea of motion, thereby recogniz-
ing the element of force, it is nevertheless based like all others
upon the existence of ultimate material elements different on
the one hand from the chemical molecules and on the other
from cells, and intermediate between these. The gemmule of
Darwin, the physiological unit of Spencer, and the plastidule
of Haeckel are the same in essence, and the study of the phe-
nomena of these ultimate elements of biology open up a new
and most promising field of research into which scarcely any
investigator has as yet deliberately entered. :
We are now prepared to consider the objections of Galton
and Weismann to the doctrine of the transmission of function-_
ally acquired characters.
VIEWS OF MR. GALTON.
The earliest expression of Mr. Galton’s views, so far as I
am aware, is contained in a paper ‘‘On Blood-Relationship ”’
30 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
presented by him on June 13, 1872, to the Royal Society of
London and published in its proceedings.* In this paper
stress is laid upon the distinction in embryonic development
between what he calls the ‘‘patent’’ and the ‘‘latent’’ ele-
ments, and he argues from the facts of reversion and atavism
that the greater part of the parental elements in heredity are
latent in the germ, but prepared to express themselves in
more or less remote decendants. Although he addresses
himself to the anthropologist rather than the biologist, and
claims only to be making a contribution to the difficult sub-
ject of kinship, he nevertheless evinces a clear grasp of the
embryonic conditions of the problem, and as we shall see,
anticipates, some of the more exact conceptions of Weismann..
He does not wholly deny the possibility of the transmission
of acquired characters,. but says that ‘‘the effects of use and
disuse of limbs, and those of habit, are transmitted to pos-
terity in only a very slight degree.’’
In this respect Mr. Galton makes only a slight advance
toward the conclusions of Weismann in the much more elabo-
rate paper which he read before the Anthropological Institute
_ of Great Britain on November 9, 1875, and which appeared in
the December number or the Contemporary Review for that
year, and also in an expanded form in the Journal of the Insti-
tute (Vol. V, p. 329).) In this paper which is entitled ‘‘A
Theory of Heredity,’’ he, however, approaches the main ques-
tion with much greater directness. ‘‘’The facts’’ he says ‘‘for
which a complete theory of heredity must account may con-
veniently be divided into two groups; the one-refers to those
inborn or congenital peculiarities that were also congenital in
one or more ancestors, the other to those that were not con-
genital in the ancestors, but were acquired for the first time by
*Vol. XX, p. 394.
3, Se eee
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 31
one or more of them during their lifetime, owing to some change
in the condition of their life. ‘The first of these two groups is
of predominant importance, in respect to the number of well-
ascertained facts that it contains, many of which it is possible
to explain in a broad and general way, by more than one theory
based on the hypothesis of organic units. The second group
includes much of which the evidence is questionable or difficult
of verification and which, as I shall endeavor to show, does not
for the most part, justify the conclusion commonly derived from
it.’ He further says that his theory ‘‘is largely based on the
arguments and conditions brought forward by Mr. Darwin in
support of pangenesis; nevertheless the conclusions in this
paper will be seen to differ essentially from his own. Pan-
genesis appears more especially framed to account for the cases
which fall in the second of the above-mentioned groups which
are of a less striking and assured character than those of the
first group, and it will be seen that I accept the theory of pan-
genesis with considerable modification, as a supplementary and
subordinate part of a complete theory of heredity, but by no»
means for the primary and more important part.’’
He employs the term s#7p ‘‘in a special sense—to express
the sum-total of the germs, gemmules, or whatever they may
be called, which are to be found, according to every theory of
organic units, in the newly fertilized ovum—that is in its
earliest pre-embryonic stage.’’ In defending the theory of
organic units he says: ‘‘We must bear in mind that the
alternative hypothesis of a general plastic force resembles that
of other mystic conceptions current in the early stages of
many branches of physical science, all of which yielded to
molecular views, as knowledge increased.”’
The paper is an exceedingly luminous contribution to the
subject, and the theory advanced may be designated in general
32 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF’ WASHINGTON.
terms as the doctrine of natural selection or survival of the
fittest among the organic units constituting the stirp, to de-
termine which shall become manifest in the offspring and which
shall lie latent to reappear or not in later generations. As the
-stirp contains organic units that have lain latent in previous
generations and may become patent in the generation in ques-
tion, the theory accounts for reversion, atavism, and the whole
train of facts in heredity that have so long puzzled the scientific
investigator. We are at present only concerned with so much
of it as relates to the transmission of acquired characters. The
following passage expresses his views on this point: ‘‘ We have
thus far dealt with three agents—(1) the stirp, which is an or-
ganized aggregate of a host of germs; (2) the personal struc-
ture, developed out of a small portion of these germs; and (3)
the sexual elements, generated by the residuum of the stirp.
The cases before us are those which are supposed to prove that
2 reacts on 3—that is, the personal structure upon the sexual
elements. The first and largest class of these cases refer to |
adaptivity of race. It is said that the structure of an animal
changes when he is placed under changed conditions ; that his
offspring inherit some of his change; and that they vary still
further on their own account, in the same direction, and so on
through successive generations, until a notable change in the
congenital characteristics of the race has been effected. Hence
it is concluded that a change in the personal structure has re-
acted on the sexual elements. For my part, I object to so
general a conclusion.’’ And he proceeds to elaborate his
reasons for such objection. Passing over these for want of
time I will conclude this exposition of Galton’s views by quot-
ing the following passage :
‘‘’The conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing arguments
is, that we might almost reserve our belief that the structural
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 33
cells can react on the sexual elements at all, and we may be
confident that at the most they do so in a very faint degree ;
in other words that acquired modifications are barely, if at all,
inherited, in the correct sense of that word. If they were not
heritable, then the second group of cases would vanish, and we
should be absolved from all further trouble about them ; but
if they exist, in however faint a degree, a complete theory of
heredity must account for them. I propose, as already stated,
’ to accept the supposition of their being faintly heritable, and
to account for them by a modification of pangenesis.”’
I am not aware that Mr. Galton has modified the views here
expressed since the date of that paper, but in all his subsequent
ones, as well as in his work on ‘‘ Hereditary Genius’’ (1879)
he continues to emphasize the paramount importance of the
latent elements in heredity,’ and the superiority, as he forcibly
expresses it, of nature over nurture.
TEACHINGS OF PROFESSOR WEISMANN.
The vigorous onslaught which has been made upon the doc-
trine of the transmission of acquired characters, since the date
of Mr. Galton’s papers, and apparently without a knowledge
of them, by Prof. August Weismann of the University of Frei-
burg has probably aroused a greater amount of interest among
scientific men than any other event that has transpired since
the appearance of Darwin’s Ovigin of Species. Professor Weis-
mann is an embryologist and histologist and has conducted a
series of prolonged and successful investigations upon several |
groups of lowly organisms. But he has looked beyond the
special facts which are immediately connected with his re-
searches and has, thought out for himself all the deeper prob-
' lems of biology. Besides making himself complete master of
34 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
the whole field of that science as generally accepted he has co-
ordinated its facts and drawn from them a number of new and
brilliant conclusions which have set the world to work on
entirely new lines of investigation.
Professor Weismann was logically led to the conclusion that
acquired characters cannot in any conceivable way be trans-
mitted. ‘The first of the series of essays which have produced
such a sensation, that on the duration of life, was originally
read before the Association of German Naturalists and Physi-
cians at Salzburg in September, 1881, and a short abstract of
it appeared in /Vaturve for April 5, 1888 (Vol. XX XVII, p.
541). It was in this paper that he elaborated the theory that
unicellular organisms are potentially immortal. The second
of the series, that on heredity, was his inaugural address as
Pro-rector of the University of Freiburg, delivered June 21,
1883. It was in this that he first attacked the doctrine of the
transmission of acquired characters, and in it and the preceding
essay may be found the germs of all his later theories. The
remaining six essays appeared at intervals from 1883 to 1888.
Abstracts and reviews of them occured in Mature and the
English magazines, and long before the appearance in 1889 of
the admirable work containing an English translation of the
whole series with numerous additions and amendments by the
author and notes by the translators,* the controversy had be-
gun in which so many of the most eminent biologists of Europe
and America have taken part. |
Professor Weismann’s general course of reasoning is some-
what as follows: It is universally admitted that all the higher
organisms consist of tissues made up of cells and that these
* Essays upon Heredity and kindred biological problems. By August
Weismann. Authorized translation edited by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar
Schonland, and Arthur E. Shipley. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1889.
a Ws BON
i SS Are Te Geen ae aae t
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 35
cells do not differ essentially from those which are found lead-
ing an independent existence and are termed unicellular or-
-ganisms. Many of these unicellular organisms reproduce by
the process known as fission or division ; that is, they split or
divide into two equal parts each of which becomes a new or-
ganism exactly like the original. These halves exist for an
appointed time, increase in size until they are each equal to the
original cell before division, and then divide again, so that
what was formerly one now becomes four. Each of these four
repeats the process, and so on, thus multiplying ina geometri-
cal ratio. But if we follow any one of these lines of descent we
observe that the last of the line contains some of the same mat-
ter that was in the first, and none of the matter has ceased to
live. Unless destroyed by some external cause all of the sub-
stance of the original cell will continue to live for any conceiv-
able length of time. It is ‘‘ potentially immortal.’’ Now, the
theory of descent as a universal organic principle, which Weis-
mann fully accepts, explains all the life of the globe as result-
ing from previous life through some form of reproduction. Fis-
sion is the simplest form of reproduction, and it is found that
it is the common form of cell-reproduction within the tissues of
the higher animals. All growth is brought about by it or some
modification of it. A study of the phenomena of reproduction
in the lower organisms shows that it takes place ultimately
through some similar process, which, however greatly modi-
fied in its details, consists essentially in the actual transmission
of the reproductive cell-substance from parent to offspring, and
Weismann maintains that the reproductive cells, like those of
unicellular organisms, are immortal or perpetual, and that
nothing can get into the body of the offspring except through
that of one or other of its parents. This is his fundamental
doctrine of the continuity of the germ-plasm. The impregnated
36 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
ovum contains the germ-plasms of the two parents, and out of |
it the embryo is formed. ‘The embryo develops independently
of the mother by a circulation of its own, and no-external in-
fluences can by any conceivable method affect or change the
characters of the offspring.
But it is well known that variation takes place, that the off-
spring does not always resemble either parent, and that changes
go on so great as to result in the creation of new species, new
genera, and entirely new types of life. All this Weismann ad-
mits. How does he explain it? Primarily by natural selec-
tion, but he does not stop with that. It has always been ad-
mitted that natural selection did not explain the cause of varia-
tion. Weismann attempts to do this, and his reasoning is
exceedingly ingenious. |
The original reproductive cells are assumed by him to con-
sist of an indefinite number of units which he calls germ-plasms,
and their presence is explained on the assumption of their pre-
servation from ancestral organisms. Asexual reproduction is
of course incapable of producing variation, and he maintains
that sexual reproduction has been developed and exists solely
for the purpose of insuring variation.
Relative to the constitution of the germ-plasm he says:
‘‘ Every detail in the whole organism must be represented in the
germ-plasm by itsown special and peculiar arrangement of the
groups of molecules (micelle of Nageli) and the germ-plasm
not only contains the whole of the quantitative and qualitative
characters of the species, but also all individual variations as
far as these are hereditary : for example the small depression
in the center of the chin noticed in some families.. The physi-
cal causes of all apparently unimportant hereditary habits or
structures, of hereditary talents, and other mental peculiarities,
must all be contained in the minute quantity of germ-plasm
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 2 he
which is possessed by the nucleus of a germ-cell ; not indeed,
as the preformed germs of structure (the gemmules of pangene-
sis), but as variations in its molecular constitution ; if this be
impossible, such characters could not be inherited’’ (pp. 100, |
IOI),
The union of two germ-cells from-entirely different indi-
viduals always multiplies the number of ancestral germ-plasms
bytwo. The excess is kept down by the removal of the second
polar body, as he supposed was proved by its not taking place
in parthenogenesis. But the part removed as well as the part
retained contains germ-plasms from both parents alike and
hence the offspring must partake of the nature of both.
These ancestral germ-plasms exist in the reproductive cells
in vast numbers, and in the removal of half of them at each
union of the sexes, there must remain not merely those of the
immediate parents, but those of previous generations. If we
were theoretically to conceive that at the outset only a single
.germ-plasm existed from each parent, then the second genera-
tion would transmit four, the third eight, and so on in a
geometrical ratio, until they would become so numerous as’
to require the removal of a portion and ultimately always of
half the ancestral germ-plasms at each act of reproduction.
Says Professor Weismann: ‘‘ These different qualities are
what I have called the ancestral germ-plasms, i. e., the germ-
plasms of the different ancestors, which must be contained in
vast numbers, but in a very minute quantities, in the nuclear
thread. The supposition of a vast number is not only required
by the phenomena of heredity but also results from the com-
paratively great length of the nuclear thread ; furthermore it
implies that each of them is present in very small quantity.
The vast number together with the minute quantity of the
ancestral germ-plasms permit us to conclude that they are,
38 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
upon the whole, arranged in a linear manner in the thin thread-
like loops; in fact the longitudinal splitting of these loops
appears to me to be almost a proof of the existence of such an
arrangement, for without this supposition the process would
cease to have any meaning’’ (pp. 359-360).
His general view of the origin of variation is thus given by
him: ‘‘It is well known that this process [sexual or amphi-
gonic reproduction] consists in the coalescence of two distinct
germ-cells, or perhaps only of their nuclei. These germ-cells
contain the germ-substance, the germ-plasm, and this again,
owing to its specific molecular structure, is the bearer of the
hereditary tendencies of the organism from which the germ-
cell has been derived. Thus in amphigonic reproduction two
groups of hereditary tendencies are as it were combined. I
regard this combination as the cause of hereditary individual
characters, and I believe that the production of such characters
is the true significance of amphigonic reproduction. The
object of this process is to create those individual differences
which form the material out of which natural selection
produces new species’’ (p. 272). ‘‘ I do not know what meaning
can be attributed to sexual reproduction other than the creation
of hereditary individual characters to form the material upon
which natural selection may work’’ (p. 281). ‘‘The most
important duty of sexual reproduction is to preserve and
continually call forth individual variability, the foundation
upon which the transformation of species is built’’ (p. 373).
‘Sexual reproduction is to be explained as an arrangement
which ensures an ever-varying supply of individual differ-
ences ’”’ (p. 384).
Weismann’s classification of cells into somatic and reproduc-
tive is fundamental to his whole philosophy. On this point he
says: ‘The first multicellular organism was probably a clus-
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 39
ter of similar cells, but these units soon lost their original
homogeneity. As the result of mere relative position, some of
the cells were especially fitted to: provide for the nutrition of
the colony, while others undertook the work of reproduction.
Hence: the single group would come to be divided into two
groups of cells, which may be called somatic and reproductive—
the cells of the body as opposed to those which aré concerned
with reproduction (p. 27)... As the complexity of the
metazoan body increased, the two groups of cells became more
sharply separated from each other. Very soon the somatic
cells surpassed the reproductive in number, and during the in-
crease they became more and more broken up by the principle
of the division of labor into sharply separated systems of tis-.
sues. As these changes took place the power of reproducing
large parts of the organism was lost, while the power of repro-
ducing the whole individual ‘became concentrated in the repro-
ductive cells alone’’ (p. 28). His theory further assumes that
the germ-cells contain two kinds of plasm, which he calls re-
spectively the ovogenetic and the somatogentc, 1. e., the first
capable only of producing germ-cells, the latter capable only
of producing somatic cells. These exist together in the fertil-
ized ovum, and if allowed to remain there would go on repro-
ducing themselves in something like equal numbers. But the
body consisting almost entirely of somatic cells, it is evident
that such a multiplication of germ-cells would be only a hin-
drance to development. ‘This, he claims, explains the myste-
rious phenomena so long observed by embryologists and called
the removal of polar bodies. ‘The polar body first removed is
nothing more nor less than the ovogenetic nucleo-plasm, which
is now in the way, and whose removal is necessary to the
formation of theembryo. ‘Thisis the work alone of the somatic
cells, and these, consisting as they do of the germ-plasms of an
40 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
indefinite series of ancestors, and containing representatives of
every part of the parent organism, proceed to reproduce a new
creature on the hereditary type of the parents with the modifi-
cations due to the commingling of many ancestral types.
Without dwelling longer upon these ultimate processes
which constitute the premises of Weismann’s argument, I will
now proceed to state his conclusion. It is simply that he is
utterly unable to see how the somatic cells of an adult indi-
vidual can react upon or in any way affect its reproductive
cells. If it cannot, the transmission through either parent to
its offspring of any peculiarity acquired since the embryo of the
parent began to form is impossible. Firmly believing in the
truth of his theory he stoutly insists that no such thing can
take place. Of course it needs to be clearly understood what
he means by acquired characters, and here, it is claimed lies
the chief point in dispute between the Neo-Darwinians and the
Neo-Lamarckians. ‘The former contend that the latter class as
acquired characters those which are simply due to natural
selection. It will therefore be profitable: to dwell a moment
upon this point. :
‘*’T’he tendencies of heredity ’’, says Weismann, ‘‘ of which
the germ-plasm is the bearer, depend upon this very molecular
structure, and hence only those characters can be transmitted
through successive generations which have been previously in-
herited, viz., those characters which were potentially contained
in the structure of the germ-plasm. It also follows that those
other characters which have been acquired by the influence of
special external conditions, during the lifetime of the parent,
cannot be transmitted at all’’ (p. 267). ‘‘Itis only by suppos-
ing that these changes arose from molecular alterations in the
reproductive cell that we can understand how the reproductive
cells of the next generation can originate the same changes in
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 4]
the cells which are developed from them ; and it is impossi-
ble to imagine any way in which the transmission of changes
produced by the direct action of external forces upon the somatic
cells, can be brought about... To this class of phenomena
"of course belong chose acts of will which call forth the func-
tional activity of certain groups of cells’’ (p. 80). Only those
new characters can be called ‘ acquired’ which owe their origin
to external influences, and the term ‘acquired’ must be denied
to those which wholly depend upon the mysterious relationship
between the different hereditary tendencies which meet in the
fertilized ovum. These latter are not ‘ acquired ’ but inherited,
although the ancestors did not possess them as such, but only,
as it were, the elements of which they are composed ? (p. 252).
‘‘If acquired characters are brought forward in connexion
with the question of the transformation of species, the term
‘acquired ’ must only be applied to those characters which do
not arise from within the organism, but which arise as the re-
action of the organism under some external stimulus, most
commonly as the consequence of the increased or diminished
use of an organ or part’’ (p. 322).
That such characters cannot be inherited he asserts with the
strongest emphasis and frequent iteration. His treatment of
this point often borders on the dogmatic, as a few extracts will
show.
‘‘Tt has never been proved’’ he says, ‘‘ that acquired char-
acters are transmitted, and it has never been demonstrated,
that, without the aid of such transmission, the evolution of the .
organic world becomes unintelligible. The inheritance of ac-
quired characters has never been proved, either by means of
direct observation or by experiment’’ (p. 81). ‘‘ No single
fact is known that really proves that acquired characters can
be transmitted’’ (p. 267). ‘‘If acquired characters cannot be
42 \ BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
transmitted the Lamarckian theory completely collapses, and
we must entirely abandon the principle on which alone Lamarck
sought to explain the transformation of species,—a principle
of which the application has been greatly restricted by Darwin
in the discovery of natural selection, but which was still toa
large extent retained by him. Even the apparently powerful
factors in transformation—the use and disuse of organs, the re-
sults of practice or neglect—cannot now be regarded as pos-
sessing any direct transforming influence upon a species, and
the same is true of all the other direct influences, such as nutri-
tion, light, moisture, and that combination of different influences
which we call climate. All these, with use and disuse, may
perhaps produce great effects upon the body (soma) of the in-
dividual, but cannot produce any effect in the transformation
of the species, simply because they can never reach the germ-
cells from which the succeeding generation arises’’ (pp. 387-
388). And much more in the same strain.
Weismann fully admits the influence of the environment
upon the individual in producing marked changes. He also
| fully admits the facts of adaptation to environment and the
transformation of species and development of organic beings.
But he insists that natural selection is competent to explain all
this, that it takes place through the selection of such accidental
variations in the germ as prove advantageous, or, as he puts it,
the selection from among an infinite number of ancestral germ-
_ plasms in the fertilized ovum of such as will produce an indi-
vidual most in harmony with its environment, leaving all others
in the latent state. This, as we have seen, is pure Galtonism.
But this incapacity for the inheritance of acquired characters
is confined to metazoans or multicellular organisms—organisms
' whose reproductive and somatic cells are differentiated. It
does not apply to protozoans or unicellular organisms. ‘These
PP ee re ee eo eT
ti a Se eta
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 43
are greatly influenced by the environment, and, consisting en-
tirely as it were of reproductive cells, naturally transmit their
variations to their descendants directly. Only thus can vari- °
ability be perpetuated, and whatever is true of them is true
of all germ-cells. ‘‘ The origin of hereditary individual vari-
be
ability,’’ says Weismann, ‘‘cannot indeed be found in the
higher orgatiisms—the Metazoa and Metaphyta; but is to be
sought for in the lowest—the unicellular organisms. In these
latter the distinction between body-cell and germ-cell does not
exist. Such organisms are reproduced by division, and if,
therefore, any one of them becomes changed in the course of
its life by some external influence, and thus receives an indi-
vidual character, the method of reproduction ensures that the
acquired peculiarity will be transmitted to its descendants’’
(pp. 277-278).
It is here that comes in his fundamental doctrine of the con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm. If not the germ-cells, at least the
germ-plasm of either parent passes intact to the offspring. It
is perpetual, or as he calls it, immortal. It gives to the new
being its special character, but receives nothing from it. It
remains in the offspring until it in turn becomes a parent, and
again passes to the third generation without ever having ceaséd
to live. Every living being on the globe to-day contains in
its germ-plasm something that has never ceased to live since
the original life-breath was breathed into organic nature.
Through all the ancestral types of the phyletic chain it has
persisted, passing from parent to offspring through the trans-_
forming series, so that in the loins of the highest types of man
there is something which was still living in the lowest primor-
dial worm and even in the bathybian ooze of those primeval
waters which in the earliest Cambrian .times succeeded the
formation of the original crust of the globe.
”
44 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Upon this series of brilliant speculations and startling asser-
tions, including much that it has been impossible for me to
bring forward, has been founded the school of Neo-Darwinism.
In Germany they attracted comparatively little attention, in
France none, but in England they have become almost a shib-
boleth in the mouths of a large class of leading biologists.
It unfortunately requires something more than mere truth to
arouse enthusiasm in many minds, and however much it may
be disclaimed, it cannot probably be justly denied that the
peculiar position of prominence and honor which this theory
gives to the doctrine of natural selection, conceived and elab-
orated by Englishmen, had much to do with its especial charm
for English ears. It isnot to be supposed that Weismann de-
liberately bid for applause from England, but he could clearly
see the tendency of his doctrines to exalt natural selection.
He does not allude to this in any of his earlier essays, nor
until he had begun to observe the effect his writings were pro-
ducing in England. In the preface to his nfth essay, dated
Nov. 22, 1885, however, he says: ‘‘ The transmission or non-
transmission of acquired characters must be of the highest im-
portance for a theory of heredity, and therefore for the true
appreciation of the causes which lead to the transformation of
species. Any one who believes, as I do, that acquired charac-
ters are not transmitted, will be compelled to assume that the
process of natural selection has had a far larger share in the
transformation of species than has been as yet accorded to it ;
for if such characters are not transmitted the modifying in-
fluence of external circumstances in many cases remains re-
stricted to the individual, and cannot have any part in produc-
ing transformation’’ (pp. 252-253). And in the last essay of
this series, originally delivered in September, 1888, he further
remarks: ‘‘ But if the transmission of acquired characters is
ee ee ee nee
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 45
truly impossible our theory of evolution must undergo material ©
changes. We must completely abandon the Lamarckian prin-
ciple, while the principle of Darwin and Wallace, viz., natural
selection, will gain an immensely increased importance’’ (p.
423).
A CRITIQUE OF WEISMANN.
I have now, as I believe, fairly if not fully stated, chiefly in
the language of its founder, the Neo-Darwinian theory, and
before passing to consider what has been said on the other side,
and the position of the Neo-Lamarckians in general, I would
like to pause a moment in order to offer a few reflections of my
own upon Weismann’s teachings. I am emboldened to do this
the more not only because I have not seen the exact point of
view from which they especially strike me touched upon by
others in the voluminous discussion which has grown out of
them, but also because what I shall say will be based entirely
upon his own statement of the facts, and therefore the objec-
tion that, not being an embryologist, I am not competent to
weigh the considerations from that side (which I would freely
admit), cannot properly be raised.
The question is whether, accepting the continuity of the
germ-plasm, accepting the nature which he ascribes to the fer-
tilized ovum with its multitudes of ancestral plasms out of
which selections are made, accepting his explanation of the
meaning of the first and second polar bodies, accepting his
differentiation into reproductive and somatic cells, and all the
other details which he brings forward, many of which are, of
course, only hypotheses, there do not still remain grounds on
which to base a theory of the transmission of certain kinds of
acquired characters, and especially those of a strictly functional
nature. In fact, the question seems to me rather to be whether
46 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
° .
his line of argument carried to its extreme logical conclusion
would not preclude the possibility of any variation whatever
even inthe germ-plasms themselves. It is not sufficient to say
that all variation is due to the varied character of multitudin-
ous germ-plasms in the fertilized ovum, brought there from
many often remote ancestors possessing very different charac-
ters. This is a petitio principit, since it assumes these differ-
ences in those ancestors, and the primary question must be
answered ; whence these ancestral differences? How does he
account for any differences at all?
‘We have already seen that Weismann restricts his denial
to multicellular organisms and admits as a necessary part of
his theory, that unicellular organisms are easily affected by
the nature of their surroundings and activities, and that the
changes thus produced are directly transmitted. ‘‘If for in-
stance,’’ he says, ‘‘a protozoan, by constantly struggling
against the mechanical influence of currents in water, were to
gain a somewhat denser and more resistent protoplasm, or were
to acquire the power of adhering more strongly than the other
individuals of its species, the peculiarity in question would be
directly continued on into. its two descendants, for the latter
are at first nothing more than the two halves of the former.
It therefore follows that every modification which appears in
_the course of its life, every individual character, however it
may have arisen, must necessarily be directly transmitted to
the two offspring of a unicellular organism (p. 278).... ~We
are thus driven to the conclusion that the ultimate origin of
hereditary individual differences lies in the direct action of ex-
ternal influences upon the organism’’ (p. 279). But he even
goes further and asserts that there is no other way by which
the germ can be affected. ‘‘I have never doubted”’ he says,
‘‘about the transmission of changes which depend upon an
5 alt ee Ss
SS a eee pl ee
Ss
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 47
alteration in the germ-plasm of the reproductive cells, for have
always asserted that these changes, and these alone must be
transmitted (p. 410)... In what other way could the trans-
formation of species be produced, if changes in the germ-plasm
cannot be transmitted? And how could the germ-plasm be
changed except by the operation of external influences, using
the words in their widest sense?’’ (p. 411).
Now if, as he insists, external influences cannot possibly af-
_ fect the germs of metazoans, and if, as he here maintains, it is
external influence alone that can influence any germs, it must
follow that the only variation that could have taken place in
the germ-plasms of the highest animals are those which oc-
curred in the protozoan stage of their development. ,
This is clearly a veductio ad absurdum, derived entirely from
his own statements, some of them among his latest utterances.
The difficulty is to see why he should adhere so tenaciously to
the idea that the germ-cells cannot be influenced by functional
changes in the organism containing them. ‘The mere fact that
they are lodged within the body of an animal does not affect
the question unless it can be shown that they are so-lodged that
no change is possible in the nature of their immediate surround-
ings. To assume this is gratuitous and contrary to what would
be naturally supposed. In reading certain passagesin his own
book one is strongly tempted to doubt whether he believes it
himself. Forexample, he saysin one place speaking of hered-
itary variations: ‘‘I believe however that they can be referred
to the various external influences to which the germ is exposed
before the commencement of embryonic development. Hence
we nay fairly attribute to the adult organism influences which
determine the phyletic development of its descendants. For
the germ-cells are contained in the organism, and the external
influences which affect them are intimately connected with the
see BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
_ state of the organism in which they lie hid... It iseven pos-
sible that the effects of these influences may be more special-
ized ; that is to say, that they may act only upon certain parts
of the germ-cells ’’ (pp. 103-104). But he seems to see a great
difference between this and the transmission of characters ac-
quired in certain special organs to the same organs of the off-
spring. This would probably be clear only to an embryologist.
One of the most suggestive thoughts in his whole philosophy is
that of the total dissimilarity between the germ and the devel-
oped organism which is to result from it. He maintains with.
every semblance of truth that there can be nothing in common
between them except the fact that the molecular structure of
the germ is such that if allowed to develop it will produce a
being similar to the one from which itsprung. This principle
seems to be peculiarly applicable to the subtle influences which
effect heredity, and without appealing to anything occult or
abandoning the strictly casual and mechanical theory of hered-
ity, it may be submitted whether we know enough about it as
yet to assert that influences affecting the parental organism,
even any of its organs, may not react specifically and in kind
upon the germ and set up molecular tendencies in the same
direction. This may be said quite independently of any at-
tempt to explain precisely how it can do so, as the theory of
pangenesis claims to do.
If the germ-plasms vary within the body of either parent be-
fore they are brought together that variation must be due to
influences acting upon them in the animal body. All this
Weismann admits, but he denies that the changes which he
admits to take place in the individual as the result of changes
in the environment and subsequent changes in the habits and
activities of the creature can be regarded as among the causes
which produce changes in the germ-plasm. Is this logical or
ae eae ee ee eS ee eee ee
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 49 -
even reasonable? If not due to such changes to what causes
are they due? Without pretending to explain how such a thing
could happen, I claim that the indications are that it does hap-
pen. ‘To say without proof that it cannot happen adds nothing
to the argument. We have an antecedent and we have a con-
sequent. Botharefacts. There isno possibility in the present
state of our knowledge of either proving or disproving the casual
connection between these facts. Variation takes place in the
direction of adaption to changed conditions and activities. So
far the inference is confirmed by athird fact. If the inference
had not been challenged in the interest of another principle
this would be regarded as proof. I do not agree with Weis-
mann that the burden of proof rests on those who draw this
natural inference. It rests on him and the Neo-Darwinians to
show that the assumed cause is not acause. This they have
thus far failed to do. ;
You will understand that I am speaking of variations which
take place in the germ-cells and sperm-cells of parental organ-
isms before they blend in the fertilized ovum. Most of Weis-
mann’s argument is directed to show that the fertilized ovum
itself cannot be affected by any transforming influence acting
upon the mother during the growth of the embryo. This may
be true but itis unimportant. The time required to develop
the embryo is too short for the environment to produce any
material change however strongly the tendency might be at ~
the time in the direction of such change. It is chiefly the un-
combined sexual elements which are admitted by all to be un-
dergoing specific transformation. ‘Ihe Neo-Darwinians deny
that this is due to admittedly parallel transformations going on
in the individual, the result of external and internal influences
upon the developed body ; the Neo-Lamarckians consider the
latter as in great part the cause of the former, while admitting
50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
that other variations are taking place due to unknown causes
and that these are seized upon by natural selection to the
advantage of the species.
The difficulty, on Weismann’s theory, of accounting for any
variation at all above the protozoans still confronts us. If ex-
ternal influences can only act on unicellular organisms in such
a way as to be transmitted, it must follow that so soon as the |
multicellular stage is reached a rigid fixity must result. One
of these lower metazoans may undergo important modifications
during its lifetime, but its offspring are always set back to pre-
cisely the same place where the parent was when it set out.
All these functionally produced changes are, according to him,
utterly lost because they cannot react upon the germ-plasm.
Where is the room for the action of natural selection? He has
not dwelt upon this point, but he would probably say, though
contrary to statements above quoted, that the germ-plasms are
constantly undergoing spontaneous variation and that natural
selection works on these. We would then be brought back to
where we were a moment ago, with the question still before
us, how spontaneous variations differ from functional ones (for
he would not maintain that they were wholly uncaused effects),
and why it is not logical and rational to assume that functional
changes are impressed upon the germ-cells in: ways which,
though unknown to us, are no more unknown than is the cause
of spontaneous variations. ‘This seems to be far more reason-
able than the far-fetched, and, as it seems to me, childish view
recently expressed by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, that the envi-
ronment does indeed influence the germ-cells but only by
kaleidoscopically shaking up their contents, thus causing what
are called ‘‘sports’’ in the progeny, and that natural selection
seizes upon these, thereby securing advantageous transfor-
mations.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. Hi
NEO-DARWINISM.*
We will next briefly pass in review the extraordinary dis-
‘cussion which has followed chiefly from the publication of
Weismann’s essays. As already remarked, they produced very
little influence upon the German mind, and most German in-
vestigators who noticed them at all, either saw little in them,
or else attacked them with greater or less violence. It is
almost exclusively in England that they have found favor, and
here a veritable school of biologists has sprung into existence
prepared to defend even the most extreme of Weismann’s
theories. It is due to-the German investigator to say that,
with the exception of the slight tendency above pointed out to
dogmatize on the subject of the non-transmissibility of acquired
characters, his essays are dignified and courteous and often
evince an almost Darwinian modesty with regard to his own
theories. Far different was the case with most of his English
disciples. What he states as probable they assert as forever
settled, and his working hypotheses become for them the funda-
mental truths of science. His papers were translated and re-
viewed, usually in an aggressive manner before any one had
ventured to criticise them. Being usually beyond the reach of
any but the embryological specialist all except ardent disciples
reserved their judgment and declined to enter the field. At
first there was an attempt to make it appear that Weismann’s
_ views reflected only those of Darwin himself and that all out-
side of them consisted in deviations and wanderings from his.
doctrines. It was sought to stamp them with the name of
* The expression Neo-Darwinian was first used, so far as I am aware,
by Dr. G. J. Romanes in a letter to Mature for Aug. 30, 1888 (Vol.
XXVIII, p. 413), and occurs frequently in subsequent discussions. The
substantive form Meo-Darwinism was a natural outgrowth from it.
52 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
‘pure Darwinism,’’* and the reader was frequently informed
what Darwin really intended to say in certain passages which
could not otherwise be made to harmonize with the new doc-
trine, and even in some still more refractory passages we are
told what we would have said ‘‘if it had occurred to him.” +
In default of any real opponent the Duke of Argyll, with his
strong theological bias, his medieval spirit of logomachy, and
his total lack of scientifle ideas, was called out and set up as a
sort of man of straw to be repeatedly demolished. But like
the shadows in the valley of Walhalla, he emerged each time
unscathed and renewed the deathless struggle. His presence
in the arena had the further advantage for the new school of
affording them an opportunity to point to him as a sample of
the opponents of Weismann.
Against all this a few protests were raised from time to time
and after the appearance of the English edition of the essays
a few able and critical analyses were made. But the general
character of the discussion as it has gone on in the columns of
Nature and in the British magazines is such as I have de-
scribed. The only other prominent or frequent contributor in
answer to the disciples of Weismann is Dr. G. J. Romanes,
and he has been more especially concerned with defending his
priority to the idea which he has elaborated under the name
of Physiological Selection, and to the discussion of certain
phases of the law of panmzxia which he claims to have dis-
covered. It would, however, be unjust to deny that the dis-
cussion has been of value to science, since, had it done no
more than to attract wide attention to so momentous a question
it could not have been without its uses.
*Nature, Vol. XXXVIII, Aug. 16, 1888, p. 364; Aug. 23, 1888, p. 388 ;
Vol. XL, pp. 567, 619.
} See Nature, Vol. XLI, March 27, 1890, pp. 487, 488.
eee ae ae se
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 53
NEO-LAMARCKISM.*
Let us inquire what has really been done from first to last
toward the demonstration, or scientific establishment of the law
of transmission of functionally acquired characters and the
preservation through heredity of the modifications produced
by changes in the environment. It will not be necessary to
go back to Lamarck as his presentation of the subject has been
sufficiently dwelt upon. But I cannot agree with some recent
writers that Lamarck was defending a totally different prin-
ciple from that which is being defended to-day. It is true that
Neo-Lamarckians recognize natural selection as an equally,
and in some respects far more potent law, although, as has
been justly insisted upon, it does not explain the cause of the
variations of which it makes use. The Lamarckian principle
does this, so far as it goes, and affords a true mechanical, that
is, scientific explanation of the origin of species.
After Darwin himself, whose methods were always those of
the true naturalist, unquestionably the most successful defender
of this view is Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose methods are always
those of the true philosopher. A man of such originality would
be incapable of approaching the subject from the same stand-
point as any of his predecessors, and we find him evolving this
law from his great general scheme of mechanical cosmology,
in which it appears as one of the equilibrating forces of the
organic world. It is his law of ‘‘ direct equilibration,” natural
selection forming a second law of ‘‘indirect equilibration.”
* Prof. A. S. Packard is believed to be the first to use the term /Veo-
Lamarckian. This he did in the introduction to the Standard Natural
History (Vol. I, Boston, p. iii) in 1885, and on page iv he adopts the sub-
stantive form Neo-Lamarckianism. As the word Lamarckism had
already been long in use the shorter form (Veo-Lamarckism should be
preferred.
54 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Through the operation of these two principles the phenomena
of adaptation are explained. Adaptation is placed by him in
what seems to be a new light, as the tendency of the organism
to respond through modification of form and structure to an
ever-changing environment. The introduction of this form of
words by Mr. Spencer has been of the utmost value to science
in affording it a clear and precise terminology for the most
important of all phenomena. Lamarck floundered about in
straining after such a terminology. As I have shown he gen-
erally used the word circumstances for Spencer’s environment,
but in many cases he employed the word medium (wez/zez)
and he occasionally approached the Spencerian expression so
nearly as to speak of the environing medium (w2lzeu environ-
nant).* His idea was undoubtedly the same, but he lacked
both the literary training and the philosophic power to present
it in its best light.
Mr. Spencer showed that the general proposition that the
organism must be permanently, constantly, and profoundly
influenced by the environment is one that cannot be logically
escaped. It is not a mere a priovt deduction, but rests upon
all the facts and phenomena of the organic world which he
marshaled in a most masterly manner in its support. But
the Neo-Darwinians who deny this because it conflicts with
their new hypothesis, never cease to demand facts. Haeckel’s
reply to this was eminently just, that this new hypothesis is
itself wholly unsupported by facts, in the sense in which they
use the term. It isan inference from the study of embryology, |
and an opposite inference is as legitimate as the one they
draw. ‘The truth is that the real phenomena of heredity are
too recondite for direct observation. We are dealing with the
* Philosophie Zoologique, Vol. TL, pp. 5, 304.
*
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 55
ultimate units of organic being and are compelled to judge of
their actions by the general results. But Mr. Spencer went
further than any one had done before him and brought together
an immense array of the most convincing facts upon his side
of the question. , Although he wrote before the new hypothesis
had been proposed he seems to have fairly anticipated it, and
one is surprised to find the objections of the Neo-Darwinians
clearly stated and squarely met. It would be needless to re-
peat his arguments here, even if there were time, but I may
call attention especially to that which relates to the origin
of those correlated structures which are necessary to render
effective the modifications which natural selection or sexual
selection has produced. He shows that unless these are due
to inherited functional variations a series of violent assump-
tions must be made which put one’s credulity to the severest
test—not a pre-established harmony, but a multitude of pre-
established harmonies, all of which must co-operate with
unerring exactness. Under the hypothesis of the hereditary
preservation of the functionally produced modifications neces-
sary to secure these correlations the explanation is perfectly
simple and rational. This argument, so far as I know, has
never been answered, nor has any attempt been made to
answer it.
Early in the discussion of Weismann’s theory and three
years before the appearance of the English edition of his
essays, Mr. Spencer. seems to have foreseen their probable effect
in England, and he turned aside from his systematic labors to
_ reargue this question in the light of fresh facts and evidence.
This he did in two articles in the Nineteenth Century for April
and May 1886, which are characterized by an unfailing vigor
of treatment and all the philosophic power which he is wont to
display in the discussion of biological questions. I would
56 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
especially commend the second of these articles as an alto-
gether fresh presentation of the case, replete with facts from
the lowest forms of organized life. Many of these taken from
the vegetable kingdom come home to me with great force, and
it seems difficult to see how another interpretation can be put
upon them.
Prof. Karl Semper published in 1881 as one of the Interna-
tional Scientific series his Natural Conditions of Existence as
they-effect Animal Life, in which he supports the same class
of views by many observations from his own profound studies.
Prof. Sidney H. Vines in his Lectures on the Physiology of
Plants (1886) offered some direct and telling strictures upon
Weismann’s teachings (Chap. XXIII), and after the English
edition of the essays appeared he repeated these and answered
categorically a large number of points in a communication to |
Nature.* Professor Weismann replied to this review, defend-
ing himself satisfactorily at some points, but was compelled to
recede from several of his most important positions.
Mr. Patrick Geddes advanced in the Encyclopedia Britan-
nica (Art. Variation and Selection) a somewhat novel theory
of variation in plants, substantially in the same line, but prob-
ably with some vulnerable points, and Professor Henslow’s
recent work on the Origin of floral structures, seeks to show
that ‘‘ the responsive actions of the protoplasm in consequence
of the irritations set up by weights, pressures, thrusts, ten-
sions, etc., of insect visitors,’ have played the principal role
in determining the forms of irregular flowers. In much of all
this there is a tendency to extremism, and harm is often done
by neglecting to recognize the action of natural selection where
it is clearly present, but there always remains a residuum of
facts which cannot be explained by that hypothesis.
* Vol. XL, Oct. 24, 1889, p. 621.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 57
Among those Germans who have so ably and systematically
opposed the views of Weismann should doubtless first be men-
tioned Dr. G. H. Theodor Eimer. The work * in which he
has most effectively undertaken this has been translated into
English by Mr. J. T. Cunningham,t+ who is one of those who
early took part in the discussion. The title of this work as
well as the heads of some of the chapters (such as: ‘‘ the in-
_ fluence of adaptation in the formation of species,’’ ‘‘ mental
faculties as acquired and inherited characters,’ ‘‘evolution of
the living world as the result of function,’’ etc.) shows how
directly Eimer antagonizes Weismann, and one of the leading
merits of the book is the great number of new illustrations that
it contains in support of his position.
Perhaps I should not pass over, in this imperfect survey, the
able and very temperate paper of Mr. J. Arthur Thompson, tf
who, of all the writers here noted, comes the nearest to having
anticipated the point of view of my own criticisms. The bibli-
ography of the general subject which this writer gives at the
end of his paper will enable any one who desires to pursue it
further to supplement this brief enumeration to any extent,
and also to take a retrospective view into its history and
progress. 2
It would be easy to select from these and other works any
required number of illustrations of the transmission of acquired
characters, but there would not probably be one that Weis-
mann would not find means of explaining away. He has
*Die Entstehung der Arten auf Grund von Vererbung erworbener
Eigenschaften nach den Gesetzen organischer Wachsens, Jena, 1888.
+ Organic Evolution as the Result of the Inheritance of Acquired Char-
acters, London, 18go. .
{ The History and Theory of Heredity. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh,
Vol. XVI, 1888—’89, pp. 91-116. (Read Jan. 21, 1889).
58 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
taken up a number of such in his essays, stated them with
sufficient fairness, and then proceeded to show that they are —
also capable of another interpretation. In some cases this is
doubtless true, but in most cases his explanations seem strained
and unnatural. In many they amount to an admission that
the quality transmitted was functionally acquired and that the
changed environment has actually influenced the germ. But
he always insists that this does not constitute an acquired
character. I do not see why it does not. For example, he
says: ‘‘It is difficult to say whether the changed climate may
not have first changed the germ, and if this were the case the
accumulation of effects through the action of heredity would
present no difficulty’’ (p. 98). I cannot see why this is not
conceding the whole issue. Of course all modifications must
first affect the germ, otherwise there could be no hereditary
transmission. ‘The only question is: Can the climate or the
environment impress changes upon the germ? If yes, the
Neo-Iamarckian asks no more. All that he contends for is
conceded.
The quotation just made is from one of his earlier essays
and he has objected to its being urged against him on the
ground that it does not represent his latest conclusions. But
what has he to say to the following from his eighth and last
. essay originally delivered in September, 1888 ?
‘‘Tt is therefore possible to imagine that the modifying effects
of external influences upon the germ-plasm may be gradual
and may increase in the course of generations, so that visible
changes in the body (soma) are not produced until the effects
have reached a certain intensity ’’ (p. 433).
It matters nothing to the Neo-Lamarckian whether the effects
of external influences become visible in the first or the hun-
dredth generation. The Whole question is: Are they the
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 59
cause of the modifications that actually take place? Weis-
mann’s English followers deny this and say that such modifi-
cations are due to the selection of accidental variations in the
germ, and so in all cases. If the term ‘‘acquired’’ is to be.
any further refined away, then discussion is useless, for it is
not a mere dispute about a word that interests us, but the
fundamental question whether external conditions do or do not
permanently and progressively influence the development of
organic beings. |
THE AMERICAN ‘‘SCHOOL.’’
Probably the strongest arguments that have been brought
forward upon the affirmative side of this question are those
derived from paleontology, and singularly enough, hitherto, so
far as I am aware, this view of the question has been presented,
with the single exception of Kowalevsky, entirely by Ameri-
cans. This work was not done under the stimulus of Weis-
mann’s writings, because most of it was already accomplished
before his essays appeared. |
As far back as 1866 Prof. Alpheus Hyatt read a paper ‘‘ On ~
the Parallelism between the different stages of life in the
Individual and those of the entire Group of the Molluscan.
order Tetrabranchiata,’’* in which were foreshadowed the
views more definitely expressed in 1880 in his papers ‘‘ Upon
the Effects of Gravity on the forms of shells and animals,”’ +
and ‘‘The Genesis of the Tertiary Species of Planorbis at .
Steinheim.’’{ In these papers Professor Hyatt showed the
moulding influence of what in this case happened to be an
* Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, p. 193. (Read Feb. 21, 1866).
T Proc. A. A. A. S., 1880, p. 527.
tMem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Fiftieth Anniversary, 1880. Second
Memoir.
60 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
environment growing gradually less and less favorable, but not
the less adapted to display in a very clear light some of the
most important laws of transformation.
In 1877 Mr. John A. Ryder read a paper ‘‘On the laws of
digital reduction,’’* showing the obvious adaptations to the
changing environment which had taken place in vertebrates.
in this respect, and a year later he pursued the same line of
argument for modifications of the teeth.t
Mr. Ryder has for many years past been engaged in embry-
ological researches, but there is no evidence that they have
led him to abandon the views expressed in these earlier papers
in favor of those of Weismann. On the contrary, several,
comparatively recent papers of his{ consist in great part of
_ direct attacks upon Weismann’s teachings and criticisms of his
embryological theories.
Professor Cope commenced publishing on this subject at
about the same time and has continued to study the vertebrate
fauna of America without interruption to the present time.
It appeared to him from the first that paleontology affords
proof of the causes of variation, as revealed in the wonder-
fully complete transition series that are found in the teeth,
toes, and various parts of the skeleton of extinct animals,
adapting them to a changing environment and higher struc-
tural perfection. The study of living animals cannot, in the
nature of things afford any such series of forms, and the evi-
* American Naturalist, Vol. XI, October, 1877, pp. 603-607.
}On the mechanical genesis of tooth forms, by John A: Ryder.
Proc. Nat. Sci. Phil., Vol. XXX, 1878, p. 45; Vol. XXXI, 1879, p. 47.
t The Origin of Sex through Cumulative Integration and the Relation
of Sexuality to the Genesis of Species. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol.
XXVIII, May 29, 1890, pp. 109-159.
A Physiological Hypothesis of Heredity and Variation. Am. Nat.,
Vol. XXIV, January, 1890, pp. 85-92.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 61
dence from paleontology is particularly striking in this respect.
A volume of Professor Cope’s memoirs was published in 1887
under the title of ‘‘ The Origin of the Fittest,’’ by which title
he aimed to express the idea of the cause or origin of modifi-
cations that have taken place, as distinguished from Darwin’s
explanation of the laws of transformation based on the assump-
tion of such modifications taken as simple facts of observa-
tion. Both methods are scientific, but the former carries us
one step nearer to the true origin of things.
More recently Prof. H. F, Osborn of Princeton College has
taken up this line of argument and presented it in several
memoirs in which he has attempted a direct answer to Weis-
mann’s charge that no facts have been furnished in support of
the transmission of acquired characters. * |
In the latest of these papers, that read before the Society of
Naturalists in Boston December 31, 1890, not yet published,
but of which an advance copy was kindly sent me by him, he
has stated the whole problem with a judicial fairness which all
must admire, and with a keenness of analysis which places
him in the front rank of modern biological thinkers. |
Perhaps the most important contribution which he has made
to the subject is that in which he shows that ‘‘the main trend
of variation is determined not by the transmission of the full
adaptive modifications themselves, as Lamarck supposed, but
of the disposition to adaptive atrophy or hypertrophy at cer-
tain points.’’
This principle goes farther than any other that has been
brought forward to differentiate Neo-Lamarckism from Iam-
* Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, Vol. XX XVIII, 1889 (Toronto), pp. 273-276.
British Association Report, 1889 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), p. 621;
Nature, Vol. XLI, Jan. 9, 1890, p. 227. ;
American Naturalist, Vol. XXIII, July, 1889, pp. 561-566.
62 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
arckism proper, while at the same time it is an effective
answer toa large part of the argument directed against the
transmission of functionally acquired characters.
Professor Osborn has probably made the most of the argu-
ment from paleontology, and it must be left to the candid
judgment of scientific men to say whether the case is made
out. It is of course always possible to say that the initial
variations which inaugurated each new adaptation were
merely accidental and were seized upon by natural selection,
and it is to a large extent a question of faith in the universal
efficacy of that theory ; or rather a question in candid minds
of the relative reasonableness of that view and of the view
which ascribes a considerable part of this initial variation to
functionally produced modifications transmitted by heredity.
It would be unjust to this Society to omit in an enumera-
tion, however imperfect, of the American defenders of the
transmissibility of acquired modifications, your former presi-
dent Prof. W. H. Dall, whose protracted studies in inverte-
. brate paleontology, conchology, and especially the molluscan
life of the deep sea have led him to a full accord with other
American workers as regards questions of this class. In his
presidential addresses, not to speak of earlier papers, he has
emphasized the molding influence of the environment upon
the plastic organisms with which he is most familiar, and
during the past year he has contributed to the Society one
paper* dealing directly with the Neo-Darwinian claims, in
which the case is as clearly presented as it has been by any
other writer, and in many respects in an entirely new light.
For myself, I cannot claim to have made any direct contri-
bution to this specific subject. I have been deeply interested
*On Dynamic Influences in Evolution, by W. H. Dall. Proc. Biol.
Soc. Wash., Vol. VI, pp. I-Io.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. : 63
in the development of plant life and have from time to time
within the past fifteen years presented this theme from every
point of view that I have been able to see it. I recognize the
law of natural selection as probably the most potent of all or-
ganic laws, but I have never doubted that a great. part of the
variations upon which its action depends are due to reactions
of the organism upon the environment, and after reading Weis-
man’s essays and every scrap of discussion that I have been
able to find arising from them, I am still so dull as to remain
unconvinced that such modifications are incapable of hered-
itary transmission. To say that the environment may and
must influence the germ, but that it can only influence it in
a hap-hazard way analogous to that in which a jar affects.
the figures of a kaleidoscope, is to my mind a begging of the
question, and I prefer to assume that there is a causal con-
nection between the nature of the influence on the germ and
the alterations that result, especially as the latter are admit-
ted to be in harmony with the former.
If I have succeeded in showing in one of my papers before
this Society* that considerable variation is constantly taking
place irrespective of any advantage to the species, this much
at least has been withdrawn from the domain of natural
selection, and if these changes are not produced by that law
there seems no escape from the conclusion that they are caused
by some unknown external influences.
In the foregoing review of the work that has been done
toward the scientific demonstration of the transmissibility of
functionally acquired characters I do not pretend to have
given the arguments themselves. I have only pointed out the
fact that they have been presented, by whom, from what
*Fortuitous Variation as illustrated by the genus Eupatorium. Ab-
stract in Nature (London) Vol. XLI, July 25, 1889, p. 310.
64 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
branch of science, and under what circumstances, and I must
leave it to each of you, if sufficiently interested, to study them
for yourselves from the original sources.
APPLICATION TO THE HUMAN RACE.
The wide-spread agitation of a problem of this nature,
however technical or recondite it may be, lying as it does on
the very ocean bed of science, cannot help sooner or later
making itself felt at the surface and producing its normal
influence upon the great practical questions of the moral and
social world. And the nature of this influence, fortunately
for us, is some indication of the truth or falsity of the views
defended. Just as the mathematician knows, when his cal-
culations lead him to just and rational results that his
assumption was a true one, and when they lead to a series
of negations and absurdities, that it was a false one, so we
may expect that if the assumption of the non-transmissibility
of acquired characters is a sound one the practical conclusions —
that flow from it bearing upon the affairs of life will harmo-
nize with the best thought on the development of the human
. race ; and conversely, if its application to practical life con-
flicts with such best thought and with the facts of history and
of social progress we are justified in the inference that it is an
unwarranted assumption. What do we find ?
The highly artificial character of ‘what we call civilization
is a fact which I have for many years sought to enforce by a
variety of illustrations. That nothing like it could ever result
from the natural flow of the forces that have combined to pro-
duce it is too obvious to require explanation, and that human
advancement in general is exclusively the result of the exer-
cise of man’s intellectual power in the artificial direction of
the raw forces of nature into channels of human advantage,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 65
is a proposition which only needs to be understood to be uni-
versally admitted. The tendency of the scientific mind to
apply to social phenomena the canons that prevail in the non-
intelligent world, is at least as ancient as the French physio-
crats, Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Malthus, and it has been
strengthened since Darwin by the writings of some of the
ablest social philosophers. It rests on the seductive idea that
what nature does must be well done, and that nature’s methods .
must be the best methods for man to adopt. I have hitherto
designated this kind of philosophy as a sort of nature-worship,
and shown that the entire fabric of reasoning crumbles away
at the first touch of critical analysis. But it is a fascinating
habit of thought and difficult to dislodge from a certain type
of mind.
Now on examining the practical applications which the Neo-
Darwinians make of their underlying conception, I find them
to be strikingly in line with those last described. If nothing
that the individual gains by the most heroic or the most assid-
uous effort can by any possibility be handed on to posterity,
the incentive to effort is in great part removed. If all the
labor bestowed upon the youth of the race to secure a perfect
physical and intellectual development dies with the individual
to whom it is imparted why this labor? If, as Mr. Galton puts
it, nurture is nothing and nature is everything, why not aban-
don nurture and leave the race wholly to nature? In fact the
whole burden of the Neo-Darwinian song is : Cease to educate,
it is mere temporizing with the deeper and unchangeable
forces of nature. And we are thrown back upon the theories
of Rousseau, who would abandon the race entirely to the feral
influences of nature.
The great men who talk this way, trained in the methods
of the university, their minds stored with the fundamental,
66 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
comprehensive, and organized materials for thinking and
working which modern methods of education could alone
have given them, use these materials, and take advantage
of this training to spin out a subtle thread of reasoning
which results in condemning the only means by which
they were enabled to comprehend questions of this nature.
Professor Weismann could never have prosecuted those pro-
longed investigations which have given him such a grasp of
the intricate problem of heredity had he not been trained in
the rigid methods of the German universities. Nay, those
rigid methods themselves have been the product of a series of
generations of such training, transmitted in small increments
and diffused in increasing effectiveness to the whole German
people. It has not been brought about by natural selection
which only selects such ancestral germ-plasms as increase the
certainty of reproduction. Such habits of mind could have
no such tendency. ‘They secure no advantage in the struggle
for existence. And the fact that out of the barbaric German
hordes of the Middle Ages there has been developed the great
modern race of German specialists is one of the most convinc-
ing proofs of the transmission of acquired characters, as well
as of the far-reaching value to the future development of the
race of such an educational system as that which Germany
has had for the last two or three centuries.
It was said of Mr. Darwin that he was himself a good illus-
tration of the law of atavism which he formulated since his
habit of mind lay latent in his father and came to him from his
grandfather Erasmus. Similarly it might be said that Professor
Weismann is as good an example as need be asked of the trans-
mission of acquired characters and of the hereditary embodiment
of that wide-spread German characteristic which has been the
increasing product of the German educational system and of
German institutions.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 67
Mr. Herbert Spencer has followed out this same line of rea-
soning as applied to the great development of the musical faculty
in Germany, and shown that the Haydns, Mozarts, Beetho-
vens, the Liszts, Rubensteins, and Wagners, have formed, as
it were, the several peaks of a great hereditary musical uplift
in the German nation. ‘The same is true of Italy, not only in
music, but-especially in sculpture, and we have there, so to
speak, a race of sculptors. Those who, without any patriotic
bias, compared the Italian and American pieces at the Cen-
tennial Exhibition could not help being impressed with this.
There could be seen the most exquisite pieces of statuary, in
which not only features of rare perfection and beauty, but
every form of drapery were represented in marble with a true-
ness to life that almost deceived the looker on. And to such
pieces were attached, not one or two celebrated names, but a
great number of names of artists unknown to the public out-
side of those who make sculpture a special study. Contrast-
ing these perfect productions with the lifeless ones that repre-
sented the highest reaches of American sculpture, even those
produced by Americans who had spent many years at Rome
and worked in an atmosphere of Italian sculpture, I was im-
pressed with the little that a single generation can accomplish
in such things, and with the fact that in Italy we have a race
of born sculptors who inherit their deftness from ancestors as
remote as Michel Angelo. : ,
Weismann has not ignored the arguments from this side, but
his attempts to meet them are among the weakest of all his
reasonings. Here aresome samples of them: ‘‘ The children,”
he says, ‘‘of accomplished pianists do not inherit the art of —
playing the piano; they have to learn it in the same laborious
manner as that by which their parents acquired it; they do
not inherit anything except that which their parents also pos-
68 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
sessed when children, viz., manual dexterity and a good ear’”’
(p. 269). ‘‘The pianist . .. may by practice develop the
muscles of his fingers so as to ensure the highest dexterity and
power; but such an effort would be entirely transient, for it
depends upon a modification of local nutrition which would
be unable to cause any change in the molecular structure of
the germ-cells, and could not therefore produce any effect
upon the offspring’’ (p. 278). If this were true nothing is
more certain than that the talent for piano execution could be
no higher in the ten thousandth generation than that attained
during the first, and that the curve representing the progress
of music, sculpture, the talent for special scientific research,
or. any other form of genius, would be an irregular line with
absolute average horizontality instead of what we know it to
be in every case, an irregular, but progressively ascending
curve marking a great forward movement.
It is universally conceded that the evidence for the trans-
mission of acquired mental qualities is much stronger than for
those of any other class, chiefly because they are entirely with-
drawn from the action of natural selection, not tending in the
least to the survival of the fittest. It has therefore been -nec-.
essary for Weismann to deny their transmission at all. This
is so palpably contrary to the facts of human history that few
have been willing to follow him to this length. It is well
known that Mr. Wallace has always excepted the human race
from the action of natural selection, but in so doing he has
seen fit to abandon the scientific method entirely, and in his
last work he makes a complete break in the continuity of
development with the advent of the higher psychic facul-
ties, calling in an independent spiritual attribute to account
for this class of phenomena. Prof. E. Ray Lankester, the
foremost of Neo-Darwinians, in reviewing this work of Mr.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 69
Wallace* makes the following remarks on this point: ‘‘ Mr.
Wallace’s contention that the mathematical and artistic fac-
ulties of man have not been developed under the law of
natural selection must in large part be conceded... . their
sudden and rapid development to a very much higher level in
civilized communities cannot be traced to the struggle between
man and man. It does not however follow that, because
natural selection will not account for these extraordinary
developments of the human brain, therefore we must have
recourse to the assumption of supernatural. agencies. Mr.
Wallace seems so much convinced of the capability of the
priticiple of natural selection, that when it breaks down as an
explanation he loses faith in all natural cause, and has recourse
to a metaphysical assumption.’’ But Prof. Ray Lankester,
estopped by his consistent defense of Weismann’s views, is
obliged to ignore the obvious explanation that the intense
exercise of these faculties, impressing itself profoundly upon
the plastic brain substance and reacting upon the germs of
posterity has been transmitted to descendants through centu-
ries of developing civilization, and he has recourse to his
doctrine of ‘‘sports’’ and to Gulick’s law of ‘‘ divergent
evolution’’ which is nearly the same as what I have called
‘‘fortuitous variation.’’
But we need not confine ourselves exclusively to the mental
qualities. A favorite illustration of the efficacy of selection is
the progress which has been secured in the fleetness and other
desired qualities in horses, and Mr. Wallace, in the Fortnightly
Review for September 1890, has instituted a contrast between
what would result in this direction from a system of intelligent
breeding and one of mere feeding and exercise. His illustra- |
tion is thoroughly unfair, even ridiculous, since he does not
* Nature, Vol. XL, Oct. 10, 1889, pp. 569-570.
‘70 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
attempt to transmit the acquired superiority but allows it to be
diluted and lost by promiscuous breeding with stock that has
not been subjected to any training. Asa matter of fact train-
ing enters largely into the development of superior breeds of
horses, and great care is taken that educated strains be bred
together. And breeders as a rule would ridicule the idea that
all their training goes for nothing, and that it is only accidental
variations that can be bred into the new race of horses.
But let us take another case in which natural selection is
wholly excluded. It is well known that a steady and uniform
progress has been going on for a century or more in all forms
of gymnastic skill and feats of bodily suppleness by men con-
stantly in training for the purpose, which is comparable to that
which has taken place in the trotting power of horses. Every
year new wonders are brought before the public and the feats
of the previous year are exceeded by some fresh virtuoso. “This
is accomplished, I am told, by lifelong training of the children
of acrobats and of their children, thus producing, as it were, a
little race of acrobats. What care is taken to prevent the loss
of much of this through marriage outside of the trained stock,
I do not know, but certain it is that great progress in physical
development has taken place and is taking place, and there is
no doubt whatever that it is largely due to the transmission of
the qualities directly acquired by training.
In fact, Mr. Galton’s conclusions, notwithstanding his doubts
about the transmission of acquired talents, are not only not
opposed to that view but in great part confirmatory of it. He
is led by a carefully conducted series of inquiries and investi-
gations to believe that genius is in the main hereditary ; that
the exceptionally talented and highly endowed are descended
from talented and highly endowed parents, etc. But this only
throws the question back one generation farther, and it remains
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 71
to be shown that such talent and endowment in their ancestors
was not the result of education, personal effort, or some other
form of acquirement and not of mere accident. |
But the great debate on heridity seems destined to secure
still other and more far-reaching advantages. Not only has it
assured us that we may hand our good works down to posterity
through the law of the transmissibility of acquired qualities,
but it may and should teach us that the all-powerful law of se-
lection is also an instrument in the hands of intelligence for the
working out of ‘human destiny. It is the right and the duty
of an energetic and virile race of men to seize upon every great |
principle that can be made subservient to its true advancement,
and undeterred by any false ideas of its sanctity or inviola-
bility, ‘fearlessly to apply it. Natural selection is the chief
agent in the transformation of species and the evolution of life.
Artificial selection has given to man the most that he possesses
of value in the organic products of the earth. May not men
and women be selected as well as sheep and horses? From the
great stirp of humanity with all its multiplied ancestral plasms
—some very poor, some mediocre, some merely indifferent, a
goodly number ranging from middling to fair, only a compara-
tive few very good, with an occasional crystal of the first water
—from all this, why may we not learn to select on some broad
and comprehensive plan with a view to a general building up
and rounding out of the race of human beings? At least we
should by a rigid selection stamp out of the future all the
wholly unworthy elements. Public sentiment should be created
in this direction, and when the day comes that society shall be as
profoundly shocked at the crime of perpetuating the least taint
of hereditary disease, irisanity, or other serious defect as it now
is at the comparatively harmless ‘crime of insect, the way to prac-
tical and successful stirpiculture will have already been found.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
‘A.
Acquired characters; 506s i Phe fied
Acquired characters, Alphonse DeCan-
dolle on the transmission of ..... .xix
Address, eleventh presidential ...... xii
Affinities of the North American squirrels,
etc., remarks on the
American school of Neo-Lamarckians. . . 59
Anatomy of Hesperornis, a point in the . xiv
Apple disease caused by Gymnosporan-
QUUMEIMACIODUS. IS. SAR oa) eS vi
Atgyll Duke O80 Bi a Pe 52
Arrow weed and jumping bean, the Mex-
RCM ore ee en yal one We, Bie xvi
Attificial-selection, 520i ee a’ 20
Aspects, the winter, of the Mohave Desert
PONE ss eG OTL eR pes xviii
Aster, a new, from Southern California . xiii
B.
Bacillus. hog cholera, production of im-
munity in guinea pigs with sterilized
GQUITULES: OP sr er kes See tare xv
Bacteria, some illustrations of ferments
and fermentation among ........ vii
Bacteria, on speciesamong ........ xi
Bacteriological progress in the prevention
and cure of disease, remarks on recent . xv
Baker, A. B., election of 0/00 2. he Sess xi
Baker Frank—An undescribed muscle
from the infraclavicular region of man .v
Notes:on dwatte iis aie ste ake cts xvi
Banks, Nathan, election of.........: ix
Barrows, W. B.—Cuckoo stomachs and
their contents* oo 3c-Ar es TA eee Xvii
BOOT J WENN 99 5 oko mee esse ee xvi
Bean, T. H.—Notes on some fishes from
BvitiSte- COM ite ore ers as eke sens vi
_ The death of salmon after spawning. . . x
Fishes of Great South Bay ....... xiii
Kennerly’s salinon 6g eR, XV
Some fishes new to New England
waters
Florida
Bibliography of Economic Entomology,
authorship Of: the os. ay ager Sim ix
PAGE
Biology in the public schools, the place of viii
Birds, captive, foot disease of. ....... x
Birds, distribution of, on the Pribylov
Tale satie hah. ash S es tao tee Ree xvi
Birds, fossil, a collection of, from the
Equus beds of Oregon ...... Reta
Bison latifrons, specimen of, from Peace
Greek, Rloriga oo reiaew ede een xiii
Boring mollusks ....... PAG be Ric 8,9
Bone beds in Florida, age of the Peace
Creeks a Se ee pate pend xiv
Botanical Division of the Department of |
Agriculture, notes on the recent field
work-of the 0.456 4s Foe eS eee
Boyle, C.’B:; election ‘of 638 6-2 oe Kote xiv
Bread-fruit tree, a fossil, from the Sierras
OF California: Sesscta ek charac tae xix
British Columbia, notes on some fishes
PORE AS ee a ee ee vi
Browi-Séquardia ies foe Settee 23
Cc.
Cambrian, Lower, a new genus and spe-
cies of ostracod crustacean from .... v
Carboniferous Flora, upland, peculiar
fOrMs AN eee a ae ges . . xviii
Challenger expedition, Haeckel’s Radio-
lariaofthe ..... PEs eo ee ee xviii
Charactefs, acquired oo) o00 sae 3,75 21
Characters, acquired, Alphonse DeCan-
dolle on the transmission of ...... xix
Characters, transmission of, defined .-. . .3
Chick, embryo of, with two protoverte-
RIOR es ss dae ica, rales an Od pa xiv
Chipmunks, North American, remarks
on afinities OF ss Sn ee ee xix
CincwCISIO tag ea ka, eae ee ea
Classification of the apodal fishes. .... xv
Classification of the 7etraodontoidea . . . xvii
COcctdiunt PiZeminumM UC Ei eee ss xviii
Color of flowers in attracting insects. . . xiv
Color of human hair, changein ...... vi
Color of plumage of birds, changein .. . vi
Colors of fishes ..... bis tet BANE lee vii
Colord Of ARMECES oi pose. Bice: este Liebiase eae vii
Columellar plaits, development of, in
GeatvOpOds ooo is ee es ea ameter at 9
CACTI EEO sie ON Beg atecsecet cert a IW Re es Gel kek lii
74 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
PAGE PAGE
Committees for 1891, announcement Dewey, LAL election of oS ee XV
OF areas Soils wae sy he xii-xiii | Dicentra cucullaria, vegetative propaga-
Conscious effort, relations of ........ 3 Cnt Obes: Faia Sage eee es i
DORC er ae ee oe ae ah 60,61 | Dichromatism,remarkson........ xix
Coulterella, anew genus of Composite ix.) ‘Directequilibration 8.5: oe: 24. 53
COME CL aes as ee et ee oy iii Discovery of cretaceous mammals, review
Coville, F. V.—The new arrangement of et ee Rega nec wits
genera in the Herbarium of the De- | Discovery of vertebrate life in Lower
partment of Agriculture ........ Vv | Silurian (Ordovician) strata... 2... xiii
Fruiting of the Ginkgo at the Depart- | Discoveries, recent, of Potomac fossil
ment of Agriculture: 455 0.4 ok x | plantsnear Washington ........ xix
Food plants of the Indians of the Death | Disease, foot, of captive birds grea ie She
Walley TegiOn. oo ie 6 ae Sigs xvii | Disease, recent bacteriological soins
A review of Kuntze’s Revisio Generum in prevention and cureof ....... xv
Plantarum (©... Ge hie wee es xix | Diseases, plant, recent progress iu the
Cretaceous mammals, review of the dis- study 0 oe ae eee xvi
COMET. OF i Go a ee ale a Rees 5 xiii | Distribution of animal and vegetable life xiv
Crustacean, ostracod, new genus and Distribution of certain mammals, birds
species of, from Lower Cambrian ....v and plants on the Pribylov Islands. . . xvi
Cuckoo, Asiatic, occurrence of the, on the Distribution of fishes by underground
PribylovIslands ... ..... . xi water coUTheSs 6 0-O te a . xvi
Cuckoo stomachs and their contents xvii | Distribution of species, geographical,
Cunningham, J.T... ........... 57 some early views of 65 yh viii
Curtice, Cooper.—The moultings of the Drawings, original. of the fur seal and
cattle tick (/vodes bovis)... .. ¥ Steliet“s sed Cow: 6270 5-21Ge et e s vii
A preliminary study of ticks in the Du Hols, Raymond? 6. se ee 25
United States ...... + SL} Dewarfe, motes on! oS ee i Ee Se xvi
Some little known worms in cattle . - xiii | Dynamic evolutionists ........... 2
Practical value ofinvestigating parasites Dynamic influences in evolution, Dall on vi, 1
of livestock... 2.1... .---. XV | Dynamic variations limited ....... 4,5
RAVI os AE ee OR ee ERs 19 ‘
CHAO OLE On ha ix
Cypress knees, what are oo ek xiv E.
D. Echinococcus in SWINE eee Es xviii
Echinorhynchus gigas, development of . xvii
DRI ei a She ee oe 6s.) deon, J. KR. election of 2 Fa viii
Dall, W. H.—On dynamic influences in Effort, conscious, relationsof. ..... #3
ap 1) a 18 ey | RO ae arene aes meee Le narra Leg rece vi,1 | Egleston, N. H.—The temperature of
Original drawings of the fur seal and ATCO oe iin eh ee ae eee ee ee Xvii
Steller's sea Cow rs OS es a) et BOG ON ys kes oe ee ae cee 57
Paleontological notes from the north- Hiection of ‘Ofiters 2 oe ae xii
WESUCOHSE. i Gos x | Embryoofchick withtwo protovertebre . xiv
On the topography of Biovida with Entomology, economic, authorship of
reference to its bearing oun fossil Hibliography Of 2 See Ay».
MAOIs ee eae oe ee wa, Parviromment «300 oh See ee aa ae 54
Age of the Peace Creek bone beds in | Environment, its relation to the organism . 2
PIOPMIA ee re ee lee aie xiv Environment, selection limited by dynam-
Darwin -Chiatés: a eee
12, 13, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 31, 45, 53, 61, 65, 66
Darwin, Erasmus. . 13, 19, 66
WDarwitlisit “ser eed See 12, 19
Date palms, recent introduction of . . . .xv
DeCandolle, Alphonse, on the transmis-
sion of acquired characters... .. . xix
De Mailer oo as Pe shy tae oe 13
Dentition of Desmognathus,noteson.. . xvi
Desmognathus, notes on dentition of. . . xvi
ICSOR pa oe ee eg cen eae, 6,9
Houibbrmation direct 2 es oe 24, 53
Hauilibration, indrect 20.28 Skt Seas
Equus beds of Oregon, collection of fossil
birds tia ee xiv
Evermann, B. W., electionof ...... Xvii
Evolution, on dynamic influences in OVA
Evolution, relation of life history of
micro-orgaitisms tO oS ww es viii
Eyolutionists,; dynamic .3:).5. 2) as 2
Pa
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 75
F, ° PAGE
PAGE Germ-plasm, continuity of the ...... 35
Fauna and flora of Gulf States, evidences Gill, T. N.— Characteristics of the Halo-
of Sonora Ovigitl OFs 3 ei ew eS vi. SOuUrON. BeNOR a eer ee ta eee ix
Faunaland floral divisions proposed for | he super family Cyclopteroidea. . . . . ix
North America, historical review of . .vii Classification of the Apodal fishes . Xv
Faunas, fossil, bearing of topography of Classification of the 7etraodontotdea . xvii
pho) a te SRR eb pear am at Lice hue are ete xi Ginkgo, fruiting of the, at the Depart-
Ferments and fermentation among Bac- | * ent.of Agricultare -. 624 Gt x
ferid illustrations of 52% o rs. a vii Glands, poison, of Lathrodectus ...... x
Ferns, fruiting, from the Laramie group xviii | Goethe . 2.2 eee erates PDS ont Ce et 13
Figgins, J. D., election of... ... . . . xviii | Goode, G. Brown—Colors of fishes . . . . vii
POY 1A. AMEHOSIOE ES Pas is SG aos xviii Graptolites, American’: fo5000.46 oO aA vii
Fishes, apodal, classification of. .... . xv | Grass: yerus,'a news (fae Oe ee viii
Fishes from British Columbia, notes on | Guinea pigs, production of immunity in,
GTN 5s eh ee erg EPC eg lg a Ohne vi | _—-with sterilized cultures of hog cholera
Hidhes, colots Gf 3.5 os WH te e ee ee ee r aa xv
Fishes, distribution of, by underground | Gegiek eS Soa ROS ee eee ae 69
WEtEr COMMER Sh ee ak xvi | Gurley, R. R.—American graptolites . . . vii
Fishes of Great South Bay ........ xiii | Gymnosporangitum macropus ....... vi
Fishes, Halosauroid, characteristics of . .ix
Fishes new to New England waters. . . xvii H. :
Flora, American Triassic ......... ix} Haeckel, Brust orcs ee ee 13, 28, 54
Flora of Gulf States, evidences of Sonoran Haeckel’s Radiolaria of the Challenger
pegs as Sao MEY Pang Cr eh Sara eee gE me vi CROPESION seo G4 Seat aE a ee xviii
Flora, upland Carboniferous, some pecu- Hair, human, change of colorof. ..... vi
RiP MrT So Bek a cae ea eat tad xviii | Hallock, Chas.—Distribution of fishes by
Florida, topography of, with reference to . underground water courses. ...... xvi
its bearing on fossilfaunas ....... xi | Hasbrouck, E. M.—Monograph of the
Flowers, color and odor of, in attracting Carolina Patrakeet 3.)5. Se xv
WMISECTA i ee Dae eat g cuae e xiv Remarks on Dichromatism ...... xix
Flowers that*bloomin winter ...... ne S| SRO SOS, os 6 See a eae Bes pee ane 56
Fortuitous variation ...... 22,63 Herbarium of the Department of Agricul-
Fossil birds, a collection of, from Equus ture, arrangement of generainthe. ...v
HeEGs-OF CERO eo et ee ciao xiv. | Hetedity, theories of 34-6 8h ae 25
Fossil bread-fruit tree from the Sierras. . xix | Hesperornis, a point in the anatomy of. . xiv
Fossil plants, Potomac, recent discoveries BTR GK ao eee ae es gag . 25
of, near Washington .6./50.60° 5 Sask xix | Hoatzins, exhibition of young ...... xiii
Fruits, cultivated, in the mountains of Holm, Theodor—Vegetative propagation
North Carolina PIRES Ors ARTE aR Pa ee ix of Dicentra cucullarta ©... 44:26 0 3s >
PRROMIS osc, aaa gee Ga uate. gl x | Holzinger, J. M., electionof. ...... .xi
Fur of mammals, chengel in fone ofthe. .vi | Holzinger, J. M —Incentives to natural
Ristory-etndy 6 Se Oe ee eee xvi
G. Hopkins, C. L.—Notes on the animal life
Galloway, B. T.—Observations on an above the snow line on Mt. Shasta . vi
apple disease caused by the fungus Huxley 55.8 a 5 Ne ees .19
Gymnosporangium macropus ..... why. Hyatt, Alpneus:.. 0.0546 ayes ce ea 59
Recent progress in the study of inc
SIBPASES. Fehr . xvi ; I.
Galton, Francis 25, 29, 30, 32, 33, 65, 70 | Immunity in guinea pigs, production of, |
Gastropods, development of columellar with sterilized cultures of hog cholera
IR POV 7s che gl as ee eS Oo. Dacia are ae ek ee RO ee XV
Geddes “Patrien iis a ee age 56 | Incentives to natural history study xvi
CORTES fs. ae ie at Ge} oe aire 26 | Indians of the Death Valley region, food
Genera, arrangement of, in the Herba- | 2 planta of COs 523 as hoes a xe xvii
rium of the Department of Agriculture .v _ Indirect equilibration ..........-. 53
Geographical distribution of species, some | Insects, colors Of 2 6. oa ee es vii
CUTTY WIE WS OL ora orn a eras te Denne viii | Intelligence, selection limited by ..... 6
Geofitog; St: Files os Gs Sia ay 13. Ixodes bovis, moultings GE ee NT v
4
76 BIOLOGICAL
2
PAGE
James, J. F.—Variation with special refer-
ence to certain Paleozoic genera .. . vii
Organisms in St. Peter’s sandstone x ae
Fucoids and other problematic organ-
Se ee a ee a yah ganas x
Joint Commission, delegatesto...... xii
K.
Knees, cypress, whatare......... xiv
Knowlton, F. H.—What are cypress
TET GOS SO a ae Van kn ate oe xiv
Fruiting ferns from the Laramie
PUG er oe de panne ante ep ete xviii
A fossil bread-fruit tree from the Sierras
OFA TOSIIG etc sy teateas oe eras tk xix
MOWGICVSEY (oe oo eee te 8 ce 59
Kuntze’s Revisio Generum Plantarum,
reviewof........- aR tg EE xix
o
Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine
de Monet: Chevalier deo. 582 SA
12,13, 4516, 19, 21, 53,61
Paar Ck iS sos ee 12, 14, 18, 23, 53, 54
Lankester, E. Ray I, 10, 25, 50, 68, 69
Laramie group, fruiting ferns from. . . xviii
Lathrodectus, poison glands of
Lava beds and cafions of Snake River,
eae Ta et sate
Idaho, life in SOOO Serine AC x
LPEPUS SAGROETSES el ocgss a ee iy ay es xi
Life, animal, above snow line on Mt.
Shasta. noes On the... 7) 5 oo. ie a. vi
Life, animal and vegetable, distribution
Oia oe eh hae PRA e age ee aoe xiv
Life, vertibiate: discovery of, in Lower
SUMO SERIE Ce ee ae es xiii
Lophiomys FURBOIST Ee a goer ibs se viii
Lucas, F. A.—A foot disease of captive
TOTO og ARR ee Aa er eeere roe x
The wing of Melopidius:. 2 xi
Exhibition of young Hoatzins .... . xiii
Specimen of Bison latifrons from Peace
RACE, PIRI Gs ge ok og eae xiii
A point in the anatomy of Hesperornis . xiv
Remarks on a new tortoise from the
Galapagos Islands
SOCIETY
OF WASHINGTON.
M.
PAGE
MS SG eee ees 13
AC eg er ae as ee ee 65
Mammals, cretaceous, review of discovery
of
hte ee ee ee a be eee Oe xiii
Mammals, distribution of, on Pribylov
AMO oS a hie ey AO ee xvi
Mammals, North American, new species
We es ee a ae ert este at as viii
Man, acquired mental qualities of . os 64
Man, an undescribed muscle from the
infraclavicular region of . 2... 0... Vv
Mann, B. P.—Authorship of the bibli-
ography of economic entomology. . . . ix
Marmots, North American, remarks on
Aingited OF eS xix
Marx, George — Investigations of the
poison glands of Lathrodectus ..... x
The structure and construction of the
gyeometric'spider web. ee, xviii
Masius, A. G. election: OF 2.2 i xvii
Meeting, eleventh annual, 1891... . . '. xii
Meeting, eleventh anniversary... . xii
Merriam, C. Hart—Evidences of Soncren
origin of the flora and fauna of the
Gull States ses oa a vi
Historical review of the faunal and
floral divisions that have been pro-
posed for North America ...... : vii
Exhibition of new species of North
American mammals o-oo oe. viii
Life.in the lava beds and cafions of
Snake river, Idaho,in October. .... x
A new rabbit from the Snake Plains of
Idaho—Lepus tdahoensts..... xi
Distribution of animal and weeetuble
MO Se ME ie ee ae ee xiv
Remarks on the affinities of the North
American squirrels, chipmunks,
_ spermophiles, prairie dogs and mar-
MOS ea ee ee xix
MMetoprdius, witig of 000 i as xi
Micro-organisms, life history of, with rela-
otto evolution” 6°05 soe es viii
Mohave desert region, winter aspects of xviii
MOMNSES (DOTS Ne Se a 8,9
Monet, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de. . 14
Moore, V. A.—Production of immunity in
guinea pigs with sterilized cultures of
hog cholera bacillus...) 2... xv
Echinococcus inswine ........ xviii
Morsell, W. F., election of . . -. Swe
Muscle, an undescribed, from the infra-
clavicular region of man .......... v
Muskrat, tech Of he a xi
Mililatigns: eect of yoo a on 7,8
Mutilations, transmissibility of . .... . 23
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 77
PAGE PAGE
N. Peace Creek bone beds in Florida, age of xiv
; Pelecypods, development of hinge in. . . 8,9
Natural selection yeaah Moe iS gs ee Es + +20 | Perigenesis of the plastidule........ 29
Neo-Darwinism Fe eet ee eet xii, 11, 51 Piller 8 hehe ee ae as
Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarckism : xii, 11 Phylloxera, new noteson ......... af
Neo-Lamarckism. ......... xl, 11,53 | Physiologicalselection....°>...... 52
Nomenclature, notes on Wed PRE lag 1: | Physiological units <6. Ao 26
North America, historical review of Plant diseases, recent progress in the
faunal and floral divisions proposed for . vii study bf ee a ee xvi
Notes ‘on nomenclature £5 2.06 +) <1 ss xi Plants, distribution of, on the Pribylov
Notes on the genus Phylloxera, new wat Iilends 6 ee Se ee ee evi
Notes. om "paramites a ae xvii, xviii Plants, food, of the indians: of the Death
Notes, paleontological, from the north- Valley région «2 io ee ee cogs
pricy shew ECE) Stel pes a Re a * | Plants, Potomac fossil, recent discoveries
Nurture vs. Mature le cs 33 OFS eae oe ee iy
Plants, some Florida oo 32st ees xv
O Plastidule, perigenesisofthe ....... 29
: Possibility of variation not equal in every
Odor of flowers in attracting insects . xiv Shiga ea ee eT 5
OMe for egG Sea cies SE sedi | OMOe, Madar Be soe aie is. see
Orban, Alexis, election of ......... = Prairie dogs, remarks on the affinities of xix
Ordovician strata, discovery of vertebrate Prentiss, D. W.~Change in the color of
Silesia ice ane pice te xiii | ‘ Auman hair; change in the color of
Organisms in St. Peter’s sandstone ix plumage of birds, and in the fur of 4
Organisms, problematic .......... x gs apo mt eo Lie R de wah a:
Origin of variation ............ 1,4 Pribylov Islands, the distribution of cer-
Oshoed Ho OO he See 2; 61. 62 tain mammals, birds and plants on the xvi
Osborn, H. F.—Review of the discovery Pribylov Islands, the occurrence of the.
of cretaceous mammals. ....... xiii Asiatic cuckoo on the eee Io, ie ae ae
Propagation, vegetative, of Dzrcentra
CMEUTATEE SP ce ee) ae Bs
P.
Packard, 416.6 16 ss582's Sa arg ely ae 53 | R.
Paleontological notes from the northwest
NRG ee Boe etary sete rae Ng ia oe bid A ge x | Rabbit, a new, from Snake Plains, Idaho,
Paleopathology, noteson ........ SVii. | Lepus sdaROenses Fhe Oe ae ine xi
Paleozoic genera, variationin....... vii | Radiolario, Haeckel’s, of the Challenger
Palmer, T. S.—Some early views of the | CXPCUMION: 5.4 )o50 hs Seka ca eas xviii
geographical distribution of species . viii | Relations of conscious effort ........ 3
The winter aspects of the Mohave Des- Review, historical, of faunal and floral
CLE TERION ee eee See N xvili | divisions proposed for North America . vii
Palmer, Wm.—vThe occurrence of the | Revisio Generum Plantarum, review of
Asiatic cuckoo on the Pribylov ba Ne oi 5t Saas as acre ed REIN xix
TONGS, oo ee re ee te oe xi | Reyburn, Robert.—The life history of
The distribution of certain mammals, | micro-organisrs with its relation to
birds and plants on the Pribylov | the theory-of evolution. ........ viii
Fes Ses a Pag Coa SVE} RACATEG 3 ee os Ol SF lew le eee 65
The fate of the fur sek in Amexican | Richardson, C. W., electionof ....... vii
WANED A ae ais ee xvii Riley, C. V. —Colors Of insects... Shek wet
Palms, date, recent introduction of. ...xv | New notes on the genus Phylloxera . xi
POUNGEMCHE 3 Fe ete pie Soke yn Sea 26 The Mexican arrow weed and jumping
PaAnmiRbR: 65085 ei NSS ekg ee | DOGS ka a aia eee ead xvi
Parasites, noteson......... Rvil, xvili | Romaness Gin 34 sae a ot IO, 51, 52
Parasites of live stock, practical value of Roome, E., election of ... -i 2... , v
Ipivestivatinn ss feo ace PPh age xv | Rose, J. N.—Coulterella, a new genus of
Parrakeet, Carolina, monograph of. ...xv | Composite ......... bes ote ak ix
‘
78 BIOLOGICAL
PAGE
Rousseau Ss Sree Sr gts ea ee eh 65
ReVOCTS JON es ee ee ee ee 60
Ss.
Salmon, death of, afterspawning ..... x
Galena, Mmenneriy’s.. 3-5. 3 eee ek a XV
Sandstone, St. Peter’s, organismsin. . . .ix
SchontanG, Seiunat fois. Gao ws ye he es 34
Schools, public, place of biologyin. . .
Sea cow, Steller’s, original drawings of. . vii
Seal, fur, fate of, in American waters . . xvii
Seal, fur, original drawingsof ...... vii
Seaman, W. H.—The place of biology in
the piiblic schools. 5 viii
Selection limited by dynamics of environ-
IGWB 0 i OS ea aes 6,9
Selection limited by intelligence ...... 6
Semper: Kael ey arg a sere es 56
Sexual SGlCCHOn | se eae ge 21
Shasta, Mount, notes on the animal life
above the snowlineon.......... vi
Shipley; SArtnut eo ee eh 34
Shufeldt, R. W.—A collection of fossil
birds from the Equus beds of Oregon xiv
Notes on paleopathology
Silurian strata, discovery of vertebrate
life in Lower os. ies Pa ieee xiii
Smith, Adam
Smith, Theobald.—Some illustrations of
ferments and fermentations among
bacteria
On species among bacteria
Remarks on recent bacteriological pro-
gress in the prevention and cure of
-CISCASE 2 ele Refers ees oes xv
Snake River, Idaho, life in the lava beds
PI CATIONS OF oo a ee ees x
Snell, Merwin M., electionof ....... x
Species amony bactena =. 250 2) ioe xi
- Spencer, Herbert .. . . . 24, 26, 53, 54, 55, 67
Spermophiles, North American, remarks
om the-afiieitics of.) 32 2 os. bis xix
Spider web, geometric, structure and con-
Strueuign we Se ee ee ee Xviii
Squirrels, North American, remarks on
The oi niies of. a ee ee xix
Stanton, I~ W., election Of <6 re Aaa Vv
Stedman, J. M., election of ot Vi. 8 x
Stedman, J. M.—Embryo of a chick with
ny tweed protevertehee 6.05.55 xiv
Stites CW, election of 1.6. 6 38 ors xvii
Stiles, C. W.—Notes on Parasites—the de-
velopment of Echinorhynchus gigas . xvii
‘Notes on Parasites —Coccidium bigemt-
num and Filarta gasterostet . . XVvili
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
PAGE
Sty cc ea. Reise Neue ane Se ene 31
SHICPIOUILUTE 5 ee as ea oe 7k
Stomachs, cuckoo, and their contents. . xvii
Stomell C.F electida Of 4 ee vi
Sudworth, G. B —Notes on nomenclature. xi
Color and odor of flowers in attracting
ANSECtS Se ae a ee ue ee xiv
Swine, Echinococcus in... 672 36 ks. Xvili
Swingte,W. T 5 election Of 05.0... ss BE
ao i
Taylor, Wi: A. lection Of or Aes xiv
‘Teeth of the muskrat. 2 6 ss ss ee xi
Temperature of trees oo. 66 8 xvii
Test, F.C. election Of. Ss ee. xi
Test, F. C., notes on the dentition of
DIOSHIOOROLTRRS 9 eg Xvi
Tetraodontotdea, classification of the xvii
Thompson, JeATMuUL ese ee 57
Tick. cattle, moultings of 7. 8 ee Vv
Ticks, a preliminary study of, in the
Asited Sigtes: 5) es es Pi xi
Todd, W. E. C., election of . 5.2... xviii.
Tortoise, a new, from the Galapagos
Peles se oe pegs ee ye xvi
Transmission of acquired characters,
Alphonse de Candolleon........ xix
Transmission of characters defined ... .3
Tree, fossil bread-fruit, from the Sierras . xix
Trees, temperature of
EPQVITARUS Oe eS Ce ieee ney es 13
Tropics, three daysinthe. .... ay at
True, F. W., exhibition of specimen of
EL OPRIOMEYS TERAHS IE SON viii
The teeth of the niuskrat : 46. xi
Wis
Van Deman, H. EK., cultivated fruits in
the mountains of North Carolina .. .ix
The recent introduction of date palms . xv
Variation: opis OF 2. 2 eS oe 1,4
Variation, possibility of, not equal in
every. direciion: 204 ea oe ea 5
Variation, with especial reference to
Paleozoic ‘genera 16 eS, vii
Variations, dynamic, limited ...... 4,5
Vasey, George, a new grass genus . viii
Notes on the recent field work of the
botanical division of the Department
oF Apiculivte 2a a a xvi
Véestiges of creation 50s 34s ee es 13
Wines, Sidney Ty og See se ae 56
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 79
PAGE PAGE
Ww. Three daysinthetropics....... xviii
Walcott, C. D.,a new genus and species
of ostracod crustacean from the Lower
Commtriane fn a re 8 v
Discovery of vertebrate life in Lower
Silurian (Ordovician) strata pop
Wallace, Alfred Russel . . 13, 18, 25, 45, 68, 69
Ward, Lester F., presidential address,
Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarck-
ism i xii, II
Flowers that bloom in the winter time. . v
te a aes Re Se ea i deg Lon eon
American Tridesic Gore og Se Ss ix
Somie-Hiotida plants (5.8 es, XV
Haeckel’s radiolaria of the Challenger
Pee pedlOn oo ee eee: Xviii
; Worms in cattle, some little vio Ser as
Recent discoveries of Potomac fossil
plants near Washington ......, . xix
Alphonse de Candolle on the transmis-
sion of acquired characters. ..... xix
Web, geometric spider, structure and
construction of 20.6 ioe xviii
| Weismann, August 25, 29, 30
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 43,.44, 45, 46, 48, 49
50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 57. 59, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67, 69
| Weismann hypothesis ..... Peele eam
| White, David, some peculiar forms in an
@ 2/09 2 Aas a age bo eee
upland Carboniferous flora... . . xviii
Wing of Melopidius 3). 2k 5 2 Gk tae xi
xiii
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