THE I '1! OGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



569 



less continuously in action throughout 

 the world as a whole. Their opera- 

 tions, in fact, arc essentia] to I lie ex- 

 istence of a land surface, for in their 

 absence all rocks projecting above the 

 sea would be worn away, and the globe 

 would become enveloped in one con- 

 tinuous ocean. Notwithstanding these 

 facts, and though they have been the 

 object of prolonged study, no theory as 

 to the cause of the movements has 

 commanded universal acceptance. While 

 some hold that the shrinking of the 

 globe by cooling and tlie efforts of the 

 crust to adapt itself to the shrinking 

 interior are the prime causes, others 

 maintain that the scale on which fold- 

 ing and overthrusting in the crust 

 have taken place is out of all propor- 

 tion to the shrinking that can be at- 

 tributed to such a cause. During the 

 meeting the collections of fossils and 

 rocks in the new Sedgwick Museum, ad- 

 joining the hall in which the section's 

 proceedings took place, were open and 

 largely visited by members. 



Questions of heredity and experi- 

 mental breeding were prominent in the 

 proceedings of Section D as w T ell as in 

 the president's address. Exhibits were 

 included, thus Miss Saunders showed 

 a selection of stocks; Mr. Bateson, 

 fowls and sweet peas; Mr. Darbishire, 

 mice; Mr. Hurst, rabbits; Mr. Staples- 

 Browne, pigeons; Mr. Doncaster, the 

 Aleraxas moth; Mr. Locke, maize; 

 and Mr. Biffers, wheat. Professor 

 H. F. Osborn gave a lantern lecture 

 on the evolution of the horse, and 

 Professor J. C. Ewart and Professor 

 W. Kidgeway described their investi- 

 gations on the same subject. Pro- 

 fessor Ewart's Celtic ponies, to which 

 allusion was made, were on view in the 

 court adjoining the Sedgwick Museum 

 of Geology. Professor E. B. Poulton, 

 of Oxford, delivered an address on the 

 mimetic resemblance of Diptera for 

 Hymenoptera, and Professor Gary N. 

 Calkins, of Columbia University, one 

 on the germ of smallpox. Other sub- 

 jects having medical as well as strictly 

 zoological interest were accounts of 



miner's worm and cancer research. 

 Professor ('. S. Minot, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, read papers on regeneration, 

 telegony and the Harvard embryolog- 

 ical collection. 



Before the Geographical Section 

 there were several popular illustrated 

 lectures, one on the work of the Scot- 

 tish Antarctic Expedition, by Mr. W. 

 S. Bruce, its leader; one by Mr. Silva 

 White, on the unity of the Nile Valley, 

 and one by Dr. Tempest Anderson, on 

 the Lipari Islands and their Volcanoes. 



The next section in the alphabetical 

 order. Economic and Social Science, 

 also contained a good many popular 

 addresses and papers. The topic for 

 special discussion was the housing of 

 the poor by municipalities, but free 

 trade and protection were naturally 

 prominent in view of the present 

 national interests. 



The sections for engineering and 

 physiology were the most technical in 

 the character of their discussions. In 

 the latter Sir John Burdon-Sanderson 

 opened an important discussion on 

 oxidation and functional activity, or 

 the relation between oxygen and the 

 chemical processes of animal and plant 

 life. Experimental psychology was in- 

 cluded under physiology. In botany 

 Professor H. Marshall Ward and Pro- 

 fessor Jakob Eriksson, of Stockholm 

 discussed recent work on the biology of 

 the fungi, especially the uredineae, and 

 Dr. F. F. Blackman gave an account of 

 his experimental researches on the as- 

 similation and respiration of plants. 

 In a paper of general interest Lord 

 Avebury discussed the forms of stems 

 of plants, showing that they antici- 

 pated engineering work in the econom- 

 ical use of the strength of materials. 



The establishment of a Section of 

 Education has added considerably to 

 the popular interest of the meetings. 

 Among the subjects under discussion 

 were school leaving certificates; the 

 national and local provisions for the 

 training of teachers, and manual in- 

 struction in schools. Discussions took 

 place on the reports of committees; one 



