538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



swer? Or suppose we accept the doctrine of evolution and natural 

 selection does that, when we come right down to the facts as re- 

 vealed in tliese 15,000 forms of fishes and all other organic forms, 

 solve all the difficulties for us, or enable us to solve them ? Does 

 evolution alone enable us to account for the wonderful diversity of 

 form, to say nothing of the scarcely less wonderful diversity of size, 

 among these numerous vertebrates especially when we remember 

 that thousands of the most diverse forms have alwavs been under 

 essentially the same physical conditions ? 



Is there any rational explanation that we can yet give of such a 

 form and structure as those exhibited in the torpedo (Fig. 4), in tlie 

 sawfish and the hammer-head shark (Fig. 7), the chimsera (Fig. 9), the 

 remora (Fig. 25), or the lamprey (Fig. 31) ? 



Is it not true that we have much yet to learn before we can give 

 a satisfactory exjjlanation of the wonderfully diverse forms in the 

 animal kingdom, or even in a single group like that of fishes ? 



THE OBSERYATOKIES OF ITALY.' 



By Peofessoe G. EAYET. 



IN the course of my journey in Italy, I visited successively the ob- 

 servatories of Palermo, Naples, Rome (that of the Roman College 

 as well as that of the Capitol), Florence, Bologna, Moclena, Padua, 

 Milan, and Turin, remaining some time at each. There are thus no 

 less than ten observatories in Italy, three times as many as in France; 

 and from the proceedings of the Congress of Astronomers at Palermo ^ 

 it appears that it is the intention of the Government to maintain all 

 of them, each one being devoted, however, to a diflferent branch, so 

 as to fulfill the various needs of astronomical science, now become so 

 complex. 



Of these observatories, only that of Naples has a considerable 

 number of assistants, and in no one is the work done under rigid 

 regulations; each astronomer devotes himself, according to his predi- 

 lections, to a special subject ; emulation and the desire to make a name 

 in science produce a continuity of effort the result of which has in 



' Prof. Rayot, of Marseilles, has recently been deputed, by the Minister of Pubhc In- 

 struction of France, to visit the various observatories of Italy, and to report upon them. 

 His report is published in the Archives dcs Alissions Scientifiques, S serie, tome iii., p. 

 529. As this work is not generally accessible, and as almost nothing is known in this 

 country of the important steps now taking in Italy, it is believed that the following 

 abridgment and translation of this report will be of value. EniTOR. 



"^ &e Appendix to vol. iv. of the "Memoirs of the Society of Italian Speclroscopists," 

 p. 37, ct seq. 



