i893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. " 243 



It is one of the greatest misfortunes to entomb and obscure these 

 plain facts in an array of would-be scientific expressions, which are 

 nothing more than the outcome of the guesswork of each individual 

 author. 



If there is any logic in this attempt at a nomenclature, why do 

 not Messrs. Hyatt, Beecher, Buckman, Bather, and its other advo- 

 cates complete its definition in general terms ? Why do they not 

 show how to correlate the growth-stages, for example, of a brachiopod 

 with those of a mollusc, and these, again, with those of a mammal ? 

 How do they determine which period in the life of a snail is scientifi- 

 cally equivalent to one of a crab ? If no reasoned answer to these 

 questions can be given, then, assuredly, the time has not yet arrived 

 for applying technical terms to the various periods of the life-cycle. 



In certain quarters, indeed. Biology seems to have reached a 

 phase equivalent to that in which the originators of the Geological 

 Society of London found the " Theory of the Earth " in 1807. That 

 Society was established to combat the spirit of the day, "to multi- 

 ply and record observations, and patiently to await the result " ; and 

 it was at first their favourite maxim " that the time was not yet come 

 for a general system of geology, but that all must be content for 

 many years to be exclusively engaged in furnishing materials for 

 future generalisations." The older Societies dealing with Biology in 

 Europe are wise enough still to withhold their patronage from any 

 such reckless developments of " Auxology " and " Bioplastology " as 

 we find in some magazines and transactions elsewhere ; and the 

 sooner the false appearance of this " whited sepulchre " — this 

 clothing of pure hypothesis in a garment of precise terminology — 

 is demolished, the more conducive will it be to sound progress. 



Lake Superior. 



An important geological memoir bearing upon the question of 

 the local instability of the earth's crust has been issued by the Survey 

 of Minnesota, U.S.A.^ The evidence of changes of level on oceanic 

 coast-lines is, of course, easily enough observed ; but nearly every- 

 where inland very little progress has hitherto been made in detecting 

 such movements. When, however, the area is large enough, recent 

 unequal changes of level can usually be discovered by the stud\' of the 

 topography, such as the nature of stream-erosion, the distribution of 

 sediment, and the deformation of the abandoned shore-lines of lakes. 

 It is from this point of view that Professor Lawson has studied 

 the old beaches to the north of Lake Superior. 



It is now generally recognised that streams are very sensitive 

 to any change in the slope of their trenches or of any portion of them. 



1 A. C. Lawson, " Sketch of the Coastal Topography of the north side of Lake 

 Superior, with special reference to the Abandoned Strands of Lake Warren (the 

 greatest of the late Quaternary Lakes of North America)," Geol. (~ Nat. Hist. Siiiv. 

 Minnesota, zotJi An)iiial Report, year 1891 (1893), pp. 181-2S9, with illustrations. 



R 2 



