300 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



in agreement with several of Eimer's conclusions — the inheritance of 

 acquired characters and the small influence of natural selection in 

 the origin of species. His trenchant criticisms of the statements 

 and reasonings by which Eimer supported his conclusions are there- 

 fore all the more weighty. 



The Origin of Diatomaceous Earths in New Jersey 



The lacustrine sedimentary deposits of Weequahick Lake, Newark, 

 New Jersey, have been long considered as fresh water deposits of 

 diatomacea?. Professor Arthur M. Edwards has been recently 

 studying these deposits as represented in the valley of the river 

 Passaic, and in the clay there, which is three feet thick, has found 

 a mixture of marine and fresh water diatoms. He also finds 

 numerous kettle-holes and deposits of a peaty matter all of which 

 contain the diatomaceous earth. From this he concludes " that the 

 whole country in North America, and most likely in Europe also, 

 was covered by a fresh-water sea, derived from the melting ice at 

 the period when icebergs made their appearance, and that the 

 temperature of this sea was 0° C. (32° F.), because that is the 

 temperature most congenial to the bacillarias ; and the diatoma- 

 ceous clays described above were laid down as fresh-water deposits 

 from this sea during the iceberg period." The paper forms pp. 

 103-107 of a Society which is apparently ashamed of its name, for 

 that nowhere appears on the excerpt. 



The Persistence of Specific Forms 



In the above paper is a remark that all the forms noted are of the 

 same kind as are found in various parts of the world ; while in a 

 brief note by the same author, and published so long ago as March 

 1897 in the American Monthly Microscopical Journal, we read 

 with reference to some " Tuscarora " soundings : " The same forms 

 are to be found in the Neocene of California whenever it has been 

 examined, from Crescent City in Del Norte county on the north 

 to a spot about forty miles south of the southern limit in Southern 

 California, that is to say into Mexico. They are the same in the 

 infusorial earth of the Atlantic Coast of North America, and like- 

 wise in South America when it has been detected at Payta and 

 Mejillones in Peru. In North. America it is known as Miocene 

 territory and is seen at Atlantic City in New Jersey, at Richmond 

 in Virginia, at various points in Maryland, as at Nottingham, and 

 at Tampa Bay in Florida. It is likewise known at Oran in Africa, 

 at Moron in Spain, at Mors in Denmark, at Catanisetta in Sicily, at 

 Simbirsk in Russia, and at Senz Peter in Hungary. Besides, it is 

 known at Netanai in Japan and Oainaru in New Zealand." 



"And what does this bring us to? We have to compare the 



