HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i39 



there is among them no bone or tooth of hippopotamus 

 or rhinoceros, though these animals are known, from 

 discoveries made at Brentford, Crayford, and other 

 localities in the Thames Valley, to have been in post- 

 glacial times the companions of the Thames Valley 

 Mammoths. 



"Conodonts," etc. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Natural History Society of Glasgow, Mr. John 

 Young, F.G.S., exhibited a" series of conodont re- 

 mains and sponge spicules from the Silurian and 

 Devonian limestone strata of England, forwarded by 

 Mr. John Smith, Kilwinning. Mr. Young stated 

 that at a former meeting Mr. Smith had sent for 

 exhibition an interesting series of conodonts and 

 various forms of sponge spicules, which he had found 

 in the limestone strata around Dairy, Ayrshire. Since 

 that time he had visited several districts in England, 

 and had been successful in discovering the remains 

 of conodonts in some of the weathered shales and 

 limestones of the localities he had visited, these not 

 having been formerly noted as occurring either in 

 the Silurian or Devonian formations of England. 

 Very little is yet known of the nature of the organisms 

 that have yielded these conodont remains, which 

 consist of small teeth, joints, &c, of many different 

 forms, one party referring them to the jaws of Anne- 

 lids, another to that of Myxinoid fishes, to the 

 lingual armature of certain forms of Molluscs or the 

 maxillipeds of Crustacea. As new localities are 

 turning up where these interesting though obscure 

 forms are being found, it is to be hoped that more 

 light will soon be thrown upon the true nature of the 

 organisms to which they formerly belonged. 



History of Mineral Veins. — Mr. John Arthur 

 Phillips, F.G.S., in a paper on this important subject, 

 read before the Geological Society, described the 

 phenomena of the deposition of minerals from the 

 water and steam of hot springs, as illustrated in the 

 Californian region, referring especially to a great 

 "sulphur bank" in Lake county, to the steamboat 

 springs in the State of Nevada, and to the great 

 Comstock lode. He noticed the formation of de- 

 posits of silica, both amorphous and crystalline, en- 

 closing other minerals, especially cinnabar and gold, 

 and in some cases forming true mineral veins. The 

 crystalline silica tormed contains liquid-cavities, and 

 exhibits the usual characteristics of ordinary quartz. 

 In the great Comstock lode, which is worked for 

 gold and silver, the mines have now reached a con- 

 siderable depth, some as much as 2660 feet. The 

 water in these mines was always at a high tempera- 

 ture, but now in the deepest mines it issues at a 

 temperature of 157 Fahr. It is estimated that at 

 least 4,200,000 tons of water are now annually 

 pumped from the workings ; and the author dis- 

 cussed the probable source of this heat, which he 

 was inclined to regard as a last trace of volcanic 

 activity. 



Ancient Prawns. — Mr. Robert Etheridge, jun., 

 F.G.S., has announced the discovery in the Lower 

 Carboniferous bed of the south of Scotland, of a 

 long-tailed decayed crustacean, or prawn, which he 

 has very properly named after Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 AnthrapalcEmon Woodwardi. Another species of 

 AnthrapaLcmon was named Alacconochii, after its 

 discoverer. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Intelligence in Man and Animals. — " Idea" 

 hopes to see a more intelligible distinction shown 

 between instinct and reason, though by the context he 

 evidently appreciates that there is a difference, and 

 compares instinct in animals with impulse in man. By 

 instinct I understand that intelligence with which 

 animals are endowed, which causes them to act in a uni- 

 form manner without experience. Thus, for example, 

 the beaver, the ant, "and the bee, build their homes on a 

 regular, and, so to speak, systematic plan, without, as 

 far as can be learned, being taught by their progenitors. 

 They have also an innate dread of their enemies, 

 which appears to exist independently of experience. 

 The origin of reason, as has been pointed out by 

 Mr. P. Q. Keegan, is the subject of dispute by different 

 schools of metaphysicians, which will apparently 

 always be the case. We all, however, possess the 

 faculty in some degree, and its practical workings are 

 therefore pretty well understood. Even if it be 

 granted that animals reason to a limited extent, the 

 question arises, Is there no difference between man's 

 reasoning power and that of the lower animals ? The 

 arguments of those who maintain that the intelligence 

 of animals differs from that of man only in degree, are 

 summed up in an assertion Darwin makes in " The 

 Descent of Man : ' ' " Since animals possess the same 

 senses, it follows they must possess the same funda- 

 mental intuitions as man." That man derives all his 

 ideas from the senses has been disputed by so many 

 writers of great capacity, that it would argue some 

 presumption to consider it an axiom. As the concise 

 proposition cannot be proved, it may, however, be 

 true, and, if so, it follows, if Mr. Darwin's argument 

 is sound, that all animals, without exception, which 

 possess the same senses as man, are possessed of the 

 fundamental intuitions. Why, then, does he draw a 

 distinction between instinct and reason ? and between 

 conscious and unconscious intelligence ? for proof of 

 which see my letter of March, with quotation ; and 

 why, moreover, does he draw a distinction between 

 the primates and the lower animals ? The accounts of 

 the actions of ants, as described in the " Origin of 

 Species," and more recently by Sir John Lubbock, 

 are more extraordinary than those of an ape. The 

 brain of the ant is said to be large in proportion to its 

 body, but it is infinitesimally small when compared 

 with that of the ape. With regard to the anecdotes 

 of animals in Mr. Darwin's work, and those which 

 have lately been discussed in " Nature," we arrive 

 with certainty at one conclusion, viz., that more than 

 one explanation may be given of them. Those who 

 argue that the intelligences of man and animals differ 

 only in degree, have to prove, not only that animals 

 agree in some parts of their mental powers with man, 

 but in all ; and here the distinction drawn by Mr. 

 Henslow in "Nature," February 27, has to be ex- 

 plained between man's abstract reasoning powers 

 and the reasoning of animals from objects present to 

 the senses, which, it appears to me, has not been 

 controverted. Here is one difficulty. Then with 



