274 



2P* April 1887. — Mr. P. G ed de s read a paper »On the Nature 

 and Cavises of Variation in Plants and Animals.« The fact of organic 

 evolution is no longer denied, but its physiological factors have not yet 

 been adequately analyzed. Even those who regard natural selection as 

 at once the most important and the only ascertained factor of the pro- 

 cess admit that such an explanation being from the external standpoint, 



— the adaptation of the organism to survive the shocks of the environment 



— stands in need of a complementary explanation which shall lay bare 

 the internal mechanism of the process, i. e. not merely account for the sur- 

 vival, but explain the origin of variations. The relative importance of the 

 external and internal explanations will moreover vary greatly in proportion 

 as variations are found to be »spontaneous«, i. e, in some given direc- 

 tion continuously. Avoiding any mere postulation of an »inherent progres- 

 sive tendency« common to both pre- and post- Darwinian writers , the 

 definite analysis of the problem starts with that conception of pro- 

 toplasm which is the ultimate result of morphological and physiologi- 

 cal analysis, viz : — to interpret all phenomena of form and function of 

 cells, tissues, organs and individuals alike in terms of its constructive and 

 destructive (»anabolic and katabolic«) changes. While the external or envi- 

 ronmental explanation of evolution starts with the empirical study of the 

 effect of human selection upon the variations of animals and plants under 

 domestication, the internal or organismal one as naturally commences with 

 the fundamental rhythm of variation in the lowest organism in nature. It 

 also investigates the nature of the simple reproductive variation upon which the 

 origin of species as well as individuals must depend, before attempting that 

 of individual variation. The interpretation of all the phenomena of male 

 and female sex as the outcome of katabolic and anabolic preponderance is 

 shown largely to supersede the current one of sexual selection, and in some 

 cases at least that of natural selection; e. g. the specially important one 

 of the origin of such polymorphic communities as those of ants and bees. 

 In such cases natural selection acts not as the cause of organic evolution, 

 but as the check or limitation of it, and acquires importance rather as de- 

 termining the extinction than the origin of species. The process of corre- 

 lation, especially that between individuation and reproduction is mooted by 

 the author, and its application to the origin and modification of flowers etc. 

 outlined. A discussion is given of the embryologial and pathological factors 

 of internal evolution, with an application of the whole argument to the con- 

 struction of genealogical tree of plants and animals. — A report was read 

 »On the Gephyreans of the Mergui Archipelago«, by Prof. Emil S el enka of 

 Erlangen ; this communication dealing chiefly with a technical description of 

 the species, a few being new. — J. Muri e. 



3. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



23'*^ February, 1887. — The following papers were read: — 1) Bota- 

 nical. — 2) Miscellanea Entomologica No. III. Revision of the Australian 

 Scaritidae. By William Macleay, F.L.S., &c. This paper deals only with 

 one section of the Scaritidae, those with more or less straight and blunt 

 pointed maxillae, though the numbers are given of the other section, and one 

 new gemis described. Several species of the first section (the Sub-family 



