276 ANNUAL KECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTKY. 



communication to the Academy of Science, Moquin-Tandon 

 remarks that in the month of March last he obtained a 

 gravid female frog, which he kept carefully away from any 

 male; that in July the female laid a certain number of eggs, 

 which certainly had not been impregnated in any way. He 

 found, however, that in a number of these, although not in 

 all, the early phases at least of segmentation occurred. He 

 observed that, according to the usual progress, first the 

 two large meridian circles of the Ggg^ then the equatorial 

 circles, were filled by the appearance of the Faltenkrayiz ^ 

 but, from the development of the fourth meridian circle, 

 sometimes even before, the breaking up assumed a very 

 remarkable degree of irregularity, the vitelline spheres be- 

 ing multiplied without order, and without, possibly, a rec- 

 ognition of the furrows to which they owed their origin. 

 They were of unequal size, as shown both in the lower and 

 in the upper hemisphere. This phenomenon also occurred 

 more rajoidly than the fertilized development at the same 

 temperature. Soon, however, this phenomenon ceased, the 

 spheres of segmentation separated, and the entire mass went 

 into a state of decomposition. The death period of the eggs 

 took place at difierent intervals in difierent cases. 6 J?, 

 August 30, 409. 



cope's theory of evolution. 



Professor Cope has restated during the past year his 

 theory of evolution, with some emendations suggested by 

 Haeckel. While Darwin, he says, has been the prominent 

 advocate of the theory of evolution, it was first presented to 

 the scientific world in a rational form by Lamarck at the 

 beginning of the present century. Owing to the adverse 

 influence of Cuvier, the doctrine lay dormant for half a 

 century, and Darwin resuscitated it, making important ad- 

 ditions at the same time. Thus Lamarck found the varia- 

 tions of species to be the primary evidence of evolution by 

 descent. Darwin enunciated the law of " natural selection " 

 as a result of the struggle for existence, in accordance with 

 which "the fittest" only survive. This law, now generally 

 accepted, is Darwin's principal contribution to the doctrine. 

 It, however, has a secondary position in relation to the 

 origin of variation, which Lamarck saw, but did not account 



