590.6 259 



The Zoological Congress 



THE fourth meetiDg of the International Zoological Congress was 

 held at Cambridge between the 22nd and 27th of August, 

 under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock. The attendance was 

 more than twice as great as at any previous meeting, and the whole 

 Congress must be regarded as an unqualified success. 



The plan of work comprised a discussion on some problem of 

 ceneral zoological interest in the morning, a series of sectional meet- 

 iii"s for the consideration of more technical matters in the afternoon, 

 with garden-party or reception in the evening. 



The proceedings opened on Monday evening with a reception 

 by the Mayor of Cambridge to the members of the two Congresses 

 of Zoology and Physiology, both of which were sitting during the 

 same week. On Tuesday morning Sir John Lubbock began the 

 work of the Congress by delivering his Presidential Address. Follow- 

 in- the precedents set by the previous Presidents, Milne Edwards, 

 Kapnist and Jentink, Sir John Lubbock confined his address to a 

 welcome to the members, some interesting remarks on the great field 

 of work still open to zoologists, and reference to the flourishing 

 school of zoology which has its seat at Cambridge. The general 

 report of the Congress was read by the treasurer, and Dr van Hoek 

 announced some reforms in the postal charges for natural history 

 specimens that were to he granted. Zoological nomenclature was 

 brought up in reference to a report of a committee on that eternal 

 question: hut, to the general relief, any discussion was cleverly 

 shelved until the next Congress. 



The two principal meetings of the Congress were held on Wednes- 

 day and Thursday morning. At the former, Professor Delages and 

 Mr Minchin opened a discussion on the "Position of Sponges in the 

 Animal Kingdom." The fight soon resolved itself into a long-range 

 skirmish between the old men and the young. Delages and Minchin 

 both, held that the inversion id' the embryonic layers in the sponge 

 precludes the reference of that group to the Coelenterata, though 

 whether it is to be ranked as a separate -roup, or as directly descended 

 from the Choanoflagellata seemed less certain. Haeckel and Schulze 

 both clung to the Coelenterate theory. Vossmaer declined to ex- 

 press an opinion, and Saville Kent reaffirmed his belief in the 



