X NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 



great part originating in human excreta, and gaining admission 

 into the animal body through food, drink, and breath. To pre- 

 vent the vivification of these germs in the living body, both in 

 medicine and surgery, carbolic acid is the best substance yet dis- 

 covered. 



The recent deep-sea dredgings between Florida and Cuba have 

 revealed new and unexpected forms of life in the ocean depths, 

 proving the existence of a large and varied fauna at a depth 

 between 400 and 700 fathoms. 



The theory of Darwin, of the origin of so-called species by 

 "natural selection," seems to be steadily gaining ground among 

 zoologists. The apparently insurmountable difficulty of hybridism 

 no longer stands in the way. Admitting that, as a rule, widely 

 diverging types, or what are styled " species," are infertile with 

 each other, we know that, as we descend in the animal scale, the 

 crossing of many so-called species under certain conditions actually 

 increases fertility ; and the only escape from making this admis- 

 sion in many cases is by reasoning in a circle, and calling species 

 varieties because they are fertile. 



Says a writer in the *' Quarterly Journal of Science," for July, 

 1868, "As we consider the terms 'variety,' 'species,' 'genus,' 

 etc., to have been introduced into natural history by man for the 

 guidance of his own limited intellect, and to have no actual 

 existence in nature, we are unable to find any rational objection 

 to the broad principle laid down by the author and his predeces- 

 sors holding similar views, that all new forms of life are and have 

 been modified descendants of pre-existing ones. Nor have we 

 ever been able to see any other rational mode of accounting for 

 the progression of nature. . . We conceive that at least suffi- 

 cient valid evidence has now been laid before the scientific world 

 to justify the acceptance, pure and simj^le, of the law of descent 

 by modification, from the operation of which law there is no 

 reason whatever to exclude man ; and all unbiassed thinkers will 

 now expect from the opponents of that theory that they will desist 

 from attacking the new and rational doctrine with absurd theolofr- 

 ical denunciations, or with quibbles concerning the precise nature 

 of the zoological term ' species ; ' but that they will put forward a 

 clear defence of some definite doctrine of their own ; will explain 

 with ordinary clearness how they believe new types really have 

 been introduced ; and will supj^ort their defence by well-estab- 

 lished scientific data." 



" The facts arc strongly in favor of the formation of new spc- 



