290 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 
Prof. Edgeworth David may therefore be congratulated on 
having finally proved conclusively the truth of Darwin’s brilliant 
theory. It may be objected that it is too soon to shout, as the 
cores have not yet been subjected to microscopic examination, and 
that one boring is not sufficient. But neither objection is worth 
much. Coral-reef rock is of very varying composition; the coral 
grows in hummocks separated by more or less narrow spaces, which 
are filled up by coral sand, broken shells, foraminifera, &e. Micro- 
scopic examination of fragments of limestone broken from coral reefs. 
sometimes shows no trace of coral. Coral, moreover, is more readily 
decomposed than shell sand or foraminiferal limestones. Hence it 
will not be surprising if most of the slices cut from the deep core 
shew no trace of coral structure. But that will not prove that they 
are not to be regarded as reef rock. Nevertheless it is to be hoped 
that some parts of the limestone from the bottom of the core will be 
sufficiently well preserved to show the nature of its formation. 
To the objection that one boring is not sufficient to prove a 
theory proposed for so many islands, it is only necessary to point 
out that Darwin himself insisted that his theory was not universal. 
He never intended it to apply to the coral reefs of the West Indies, 
the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. What the Funafuti boring has 
proved is that the subsidence method is possible; and if one island 
in the Ellice Archipelago is sinking, it is probable that the other 
islands in that group are also doing so. No doubt some cases will 
be found in the Pacific of coral islands formed on banks left by 
denuded volcanoes. But the arguments which Darwin used to show 
the improbability of many of the atolls having been formed in this. 
way are still valid ; and they are strengthened by the demonstration. 
in the only atoll yet tested, that the basis is a block of subsided 
reef limestone. 
There is some zoological evidence in support of a former migra- 
tion of land animals across the area now occupied by the coral sea ; 
and naturalists are now at liberty to explain their distribution by 
the former existence of land in that area. 
The persistence with which the Australian naturalists have 
persevered in their attempt to settle this controversy, and the skill 
with which Prof. Edgeworth David has overcome the mechanical 
difficulties, are worthy of the highest praise. 
THE TEMPERATURES OF REPTILES, MONOTREMES, AND 
MARSUPIALS 
SEVERAL other interesting contributions have reached us this month 
from the Antipodes, and among the most valuable may be noted an 
account of some new experiments on the body-temperature of verte- 
