loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vants, women benefit most by the attention of good ones ; and I have 

 no doubt that there are in England women enough — generous, warm- 

 hearted, thoughtful women — to found such an institution ; women 

 enough, from the very highest lady in the land, down to the poorest 

 mother of a family, waited on by a nameless little maid-of-all-work 

 from St. Luke's, to stretch out a helping hand to their sisters in serv- 

 ice, and give them what every woman has a right to, the means of 

 improving their social standing. 



One word more : Kitchen College must be no charity. To make it 

 a success, it must be as much a national institution as the University 

 of Oxford ; its degrees, certificates, and prizes must be worked for, 

 fought for, and won, by the most deserving, not as an "imperfect 

 favor, but a 2:)erfect right," — Nineteenth Century. 



WHAT AMERICAT^ ZOOLOGISTS IIAYE DO]N"E fOU 



EVOLUTION.* 



By rEOFKSsoE EDWAED S. MOUSE. 



n. 



~I TNDER geographical variation many interesting facts have been 

 ^ added since Professor Baii-d, Dr. Allen, and Mr. Ridgway pub- 

 lished their capital discoveries calling attention to the variations ob- 

 served in birds and mammals coincident with their latitudinal range. 

 William Bartram, grand-nephew of the famous botanist John Bartram, 

 alludes to the effect of climate in modifying species. In speaking of 

 birds he says, " The different soil and situation of the country may 

 have contributed in some measure in forming and establishing the 

 difference in size and qualities betwixt them." 



Dr. J. A. Allen | shows marked geographical variation among 

 North American mammals in respect to size. He shows that — "1. The 

 maximum physical development of the individual is attained when 

 the conditions of environment are most favorable to the life of the 

 species. 2. The largest species of a group (genus, sub-family, or 

 family, as the case may be) are found when the group to which they 

 severally belong reaches its highest development, or when it has what 

 may be termed its center of distribution. 3. The most typical or 

 most generalized representatives of a group are found also near the 

 center of distribution, outlying forms being generally more or less 

 aberrant or specialized." In the study of the eggs of birds of the 

 same species. North and South, Dr. Allen shows that in the South the 



* Address of the retiring President of the American Assoeiation for the Advancement 

 of Science, delivered at the New York meeting, August 10, 1887. 



t " Bulletin of the United States Geological Survev of the Territories." 



