J"'y'l Correspondence. 47 



REPTILES OF FLINDERS ISLAND. 



To the Editor of the Victorian Naturalist. 

 Sir, — In the June number of the Victorian Naturalist Mr, 

 F. R. Zietz, of the South Austrahan Museum, discusses the 

 distribution of the four species he records, and says of Tiliqua 

 nigrolutea that it has been " previously recorded from South 

 AustraHa and Tasmania." If he means southern Austraha 

 he is correct, for it is well known in Victoria, and passes up for 

 some distance into New South Wales. The record was made 

 by M'Coy, Lucas and Frost, and Lucas and Le Souef. As 

 there are some peculiar relationships between the faunas of 

 Kangaroo Island and the islands of Bass Strait, the record as 

 given by Mr. Zietz needs amplifying, or it may give rise to a 

 mistaken idea. 



Exact records made by a competent zoologist like Mr. Zietz 

 are, I need hardly say, of value, and we welcome his appear- 

 ance in our journal, and will look for many more notes from 

 him — I am, &c., T. S. HALL. 



University, 21/6/14. . 



G. W. SLEEPER'S ANTICIPATION OF DARWINISM. 



To the Editor of the Victorian Naturalist. 

 Sir, — In the Victorian Naturalist of March last (page 193) there 

 appeared a reference, which I made at the February meeting of 

 the Field Naturalists' Club, to the presidential address liy Professor 

 Poulton to the members of the Linnean Society of London, in which 

 he dealt with the discovery of a pamphlet, dated 1849, containing 

 alleged lectures by George W. Sleeper, of Boston, and containing 

 ideas which, if the pamphlet proved to be genuine, anticipated 

 Darwinism in many respects. The print was subjected to much 

 close scrutiny, and both Dr. A. Russel Wallace, who sent it to 

 the Linnean Society, and Professor Poulton, with other experts 

 in typography and paper manufacture, &c., appeared to think 

 that it was genuine. In his search for biographical details. 

 Professor Poulton had established communication with Sleeper's 

 son, and in concluding he promised a further reference to this 

 remarkable publication after he had made fuller inquiries. 



According to the Times of 29th May, 1914 (weekly edition) 

 just to hand, the matter has again formed the subject of the 

 presidential address. It seems that inquiries made during the 

 interval have resulted in evidence that has caused Professor 

 Poulton at the last annual meeting to express his disbelief in its 

 authenticity. He said : — 



" The evidence now brought forward would prol)ably lead the scientific and 

 literary world to an undisputed conclusion — that the work was a fraud .... 

 that Sleeper probably quite honestly believed that the vague ideas that occurred 

 to him were of momentous importance in the history of science, and that when he 

 had put the results of his reading in his own words he was announcing original 



