138 The Scottish Naturalist. 



lectured on Microscopic Fungi, selecting certain types, the life-histories 

 of which he described to illustrate the methods of classification employed in 

 the group, and the chief defects of these methods ; and he also pointed out 

 briefly the methods employed for lessening or preventing injuries caused by 

 Fungi to economic produce. 

 February nt/i, Mr. R. J. Harvey Gibson, M.A., sent a paper on the 



Relationship of Palaeontology to Biology, which was read by 



Prof. D'Arcy Thompson. The author discussed the relation of Palaeontology 

 with the kindred subjects, and emphatically supported its claim to be grouped 

 with the biological rather than with the geological sciences. He showed that, 

 while in the outset Palaeontological formed almost the whole of geological 

 knowledge, it came gradually to form a subordinate part of the province of 

 the geologist, and the time was now come when it might be wholly taken 

 away and studied together with the science of living organisms. The need 

 of using the facts of Palaeontology in classification and in the study of distribu- 

 tion was fully shown. As regards classification, the author argued that the 

 hypothesis of evolution gave the only true idea of a natural classification in 

 the shape of a pedigree or family tree. In the matter of distribution the 

 geological record allowed us to connect the animal distribution of at least the 

 Tertiary period with that of the present time. Certain new devices for repre- 

 senting a scheme of classification, notably the transparent solid of Professor 

 Haddon nnd an actual tree of wires devised by the author, were described. 

 He in conclusion, urged the need of biologists approaching their subject with 

 broad views and wide knowledge of their subject rather than as specialists 

 devoted to the exclusive study of a narrow group. 



February 2$t/i, Mr. J. T. Cunningham, of the Scottish Marine Station, 

 Granton, read a lecture on Marine Zoolog"y. After some introductory 

 remarks on the importance to all of a knowledge of Zoology and of the laws 

 that regulate animal life the lecturer entered upon the more special side of his 

 subject ; and went on to review the present state of our knowledge of Marine 

 Zoology from a purely intellectual standpoint, how it had reached its present 

 state, and what were the prominent questions that would occupy the attention 

 of zoologists in the immediate future. The belief that the ocean at a depth 

 below 300 fathoms was destitute of living beings, and the somewhat later 

 belief that deep sea dredgings would disclose palaeozoic and mesozoic forms no 

 longer existing in shallower seas, have been proved erroneous, and the hoped- 

 for aid in bridging many gaps in the pedigrees of animals in this way has been 

 disappointed. 



But though the results of the " Challenger " expedition and of other like 

 expeditions have not fulfilled, in this direction, the hopes entertained 

 for a time by their more sanguine advocates, the additions to what 

 was previously known in the fields of embryology and comparative anatomy 

 have been very great and have cast much light on the mutual relation- 

 ships of the various groups of animals. Reference was made to the theory 

 supported by Dr. Dohrn that the ancestors of Verterbrata were 

 worm-like creatures that crawled on what corresponded to the dorsal surface of 

 Verterbrates. Mr. Cunningham thereafter went on to speak of the study of 

 Marine Zoology as affecting the fisheries of the country. He stated that 



